MY FEET SUDDENLY moved forward of their own accord, but before I could plummet to my ambiguous death, a very real hand yanked on the back of my dress and pulled me away from the edge.

I whirled around, coming face to face with...something different. It wasn't a skeleton, but a man, with dark brown skin at his hands but black and yellow on his legs and arms and face. I couldn't quite make out his features, but I could see that he was adorned with live wild birds and vibrant green and yellow and red. The black parts of him, it seemed, were pure night.

An eagle in his white belt gave a sharp cry.

The man spoke, in a language similar to the Spanish of long ago but there were words I did not recognise. Roughly translated, he said to me, "He...waiting...for you. Go. You are...eyes...ears."

I opened my mouth to respond, but nothing, not even air, came out. My lungs protested.

"Do not...say...breakable mortal," he frowned. "Maya."

I clapped my hands over my mouth.

"Far...from air."

My eyes widened. He told me to go one more time, before it was not him who blew away to ash, but myself. The scene shifted as I disappeared, and I gasped as I suddenly fell onto the floor of a café.

I blinked, trying to reorientate myself.

The other patrons of the café looked on wearily, but ultimately treated me like a crazy woman who had had just a little bit too much tequila.

"Maya!" Lorenne exclaimed, appearing at my side. I was overwhelmed by her warm scent. "Are you all right? Should I call an ambulance?"

"What?" I frowned. "Why?"

"Your...eyes," she said carefully. "They started glowing blue-ish. That's not...normal, is it?"

I hesitated, shook my head slightly, and stood to my feet. "I'm sorry to trouble you like this, but I need to go back to the hotel. I'll explain on the way."

She didn't have much of a choice as I left money for our meal and drinks on the table and headed for the way out. I hailed down a taxi and urged Lorenne to hurry and get inside as she teetered across the pavement in short heels. She flopped down beside me, and then demanded to have some of her questions answered.

"I have...visions, sometimes," I said quietly, leaning in close so that the driver couldn't hear. "They come and go and aren't usually so...life threatening."

"What do you mean life threatening?" she squeaked, her eyes growing wide. "Should we go to the hospital after all? Did you hit your head?"

"Valdez knows about it," I quipped.

"He believed you?" she said, paling.

"This isn't something you make up," I frowned. "And I don't have a mental disorder either. It's just something that began recently. And it all has something to do with my ancestors. I just know it."

Dr. Lorenne Dench looked at me as though I was as high as I was sounding.

"Please, just give me the benefit of the doubt and listen. I don't need to see a doctor. They can't help with this. I...I need to do some investigating on my own."

Her face then softened, and she chewed on her bottom lip for a moment. My own lips parted, and I found myself wondering what it would feel like if I leaned in just a little further and tilted my head.

For the love of God, Maya!

"I'll help you," Lorenne suddenly said, pulling me away from my thoughts.

"What?"

"I want to know more about your gift," she explained. "How you can see what's underneath the ground. It's fascinating to me, and I want to give a scientific answer for what the world is calling a supernatural phenomenon. So I'll help, if you let me."

She grabbed hold of my hands earnestly and held them between us. I felt my cheeks warm.

"Okay," a weak, submissive part of me said limply.

"Great," Lorenne grinned, practically glowing, "let's get started right away."

The taxi then pulled up to the hotel.

I wondered why Lorenne looked so eager as she sifted through my books on Mayan culture.

Sure, she wanted to understand my 'gift', but I could not understand why she could possibly want to spend more time with me than was necessary. Valdez had also been puzzled at her declaration that she was going to stay up all night if she had to in order to help me search for clues as to who I might have seen in my vision.

But she had looked so determined, so committed, that neither of us could object.

Especially me —how was I supposed to concentrate with her alone in my suite with me all night?

I glanced at her now, as she poured over a book on mythology. She had changed out of her dress into some daring silk shorts and night shirt. Not that I could say anything —I had followed her example and pulled on pink cotton surfer shorts and an old t-shirt. I was still flushed out of embarrassment from her walking in on me in just my bra and underwear, but she had dismissed it with a 'we're both girls, what's the problem?'. She had changed beforehand, and even managed to wash her hair —it was damp in its bun, and her eyes were so intense behind her brown round framed reading glasses.

I could not stop staring. My traitorous eyes lingered on her faultless, milky bare skin.

"He was yellow and black, did you say?" she murmured, her eyes following the page. "With...birds?"

"He had red and green too," I added.

She jabbed at the page. "I think it might have been this one." She shimmied over to me and held the book out. I narrowed my eyes at where her finger was.

"...Tezcatlipoca," I said. She blinked at me. I laughed softly. "God of the night sky, time, and ancestral memory," I read. "Wait —that makes perfect sense!"

"What does?" she deadpanned.

"My vision took me to a dark place —like nighttime. It was outside of this world, and I when I came back, no time had passed. And ancestral memory? Come on."

"That seems too obvious," Lorenne pointed out. "Especially since you said the messages have always been rather cryptic and vague. Do you think that they would be so on the nose now?"

I paused. "Shit, you've got a point," I groaned, flopping back on the carpet. "I thought maybe they would make it easier on me now that I'm actually here."

Lorenne slowly laid down beside me. "Didn't that last skeleton say that you were...home?"

"Maybe the answers are here, in Mexico," I sighed.

Movement next to me made me turn my head. Fuck me; bad idea. She was staring at me intently, her eyes bright and focused like she could see the secrets of the universe in mine. "...You mentioned a jade snake, right?" she murmured. "I didn't see any gods of snakes."

I opened my mouth but words evaded me. And I was very aware of the effect such a lack of distance between us was having on me.

"You're awfully red," she mused. "Are you absolutely sure that you're all right?"

"I'm fine!" I blurted out, sitting bolt upright.

Lorenne blinked innocently as she then sat up as well, tucking a stray curl behind her ear. "Okay. Sorry."

"Don't apologise," I sighed, raking a hand through my hair. "You have nothing to apologise for. It's just me, freaking out because of...social anxiety."

"Oh," she suddenly looked crestfallen. "Had I known that was the reason you've been so awkward around me I wouldn't have pushed so hard about talking to you. Oh, I'm sorry, Maya."

I stiffened. Sure, social anxiety. I would tell her that it was because I found her insanely attractive, but I could not gauge how she would react.

She might be homophobic. And I didn't want to risk telling her to get lost because I couldn't look past her legs like some wild predatory male, only to ruin whatever friendship we could build here.

I offered her an uneasy smile. She made no move to leave —she stayed beside me, her leg softly touching mine. Her skin was so smooth.

"Let's talk about your gift then," Lorenne quipped, taking off her reading glasses.

"But it's past midnight," I said. "Don't you want to sleep? We've got to get to the site tomorrow."

"Only at two," she scoffed, waving her hand dismissively. "Besides. I can just fall asleep here."

No!

"Sure," I said carefully. "But you're right next door."

"Are you trying to get rid of me?" she unexpectedly asked, pouting childishly. "I thought we could bond."

Yes! Please go away!

"No, of course not," I assured her. "You can sleep here if you want. I'll sleep on the sofa, and you —"

"Maya," she cut me off. I immediately shut up. "You're thinking about it too much. We'll just share the bed."

I blinked. Like hell we will.