I told you Nako was an Apache shaman. This map is not ordinary. It lives. The markings change depending on where we are. It sounded impossible.
Then again, after seeing those lines across her skin with my own eyes, I wasn't sure I had much room left to call anything impossible. All right, I said. Then we ride for three rocks. When do we leave? Right now.
Now. Every minute we waste gives Boon Voss one more minute to get closer. We packed quickly. food, water, weapons, blankets, and only what we could carry. I saddled two horses, one for me and one for Seiya. She had never ridden alone before, but she learned so quickly it caught me by surprise.
Within a short time, she was handling the rains like someone who had spent years in the saddle. "You ready?" I asked. "Ready?" And just like that, our journey began. We rode north beneath a desert sun that showed mercy to no living thing. For hours neither of us said much.
The only sound was the steady drum of hooves striking dry earth as miles of sand, stone, and scrub rolled past us. Not long's afternoon, Seiya finally broke the silence. Cade. Yeah. Why are you doing all this?
I didn't answer right away. For once, I wanted to give her the truth instead of whatever sounded easiest. If I'm being truthful, I don't completely understand it myself. But when I saw you sitting inside that cage, I recognized something in you. What?
Loneliness, pain, but also strength. The kind nobody had managed to take from you, no matter what they did. She watched me closely, and I thought maybe I could help. What about the treasure?" she asked. "Doesn't that matter to you.
If we find it, fine. That'll be something. But if we don't, at least you won't have had to chase it alone." A faint smile touched her lips. "You're a strange man," Cade Hollis. "How so?" "Because almost every man who has ever wanted anything from me wanted the same two things, the map and the gold." She paused.
But you seem to care about something else. I care about you. The words left my mouth before I had a chance to stop them. Seiya pulled gently on the res and brought her horse to a halt. I stopped beside her.
Sea. No one has ever said that to me before, she whispered. Not once. Well, somebody has now. I held her gaze. and I meant it.
We sat there in the middle of an endless spread of sand, stone, heat, and silence. Something shifted between us in that moment. We were no longer simply a cowboy and a woman who had once been held in a cage. We weren't just a man following a treasure trail and the woman carrying the secret that could lead him there. Something deeper was beginning to take shape between us. something neither of us had expected.
"We should keep moving," she said at last. "Yeah, we should." We rode on, but after that, the trail felt different, more dangerous, more real, and somehow more alive. I was beginning to understand that this journey was no longer just about buried gold. It was about Seiya, about me, and about whatever had begun growing quietly between us. By nightfall, we made camp beneath a sky crowded with stars.
I built a small fire, and together we made a simple supper from what little food we carried. Seiya sat close to the flames. The red light flickered across her face, softening the shadows around her eyes. Cade, what is it? If we find the treasure, what will you do with your share?