Elusive Hope Read Online Free PDF

Wide eyes met his. “I do not think we should go in, senhor.”
    “Stay here if you wish, but I must see what’s inside.” Turning, Hayden entered and halted beside Graves. Across a courtyard infested with weeds and vines and broken pottery, at least twenty stone obelisks rose from the ground like mummies from a mass grave. Hayden made his way to the closest one and brushed aside the vines to find an engraved collage of gnarled faces in various postures of agony. His stomach clenched. He backed away, shifting his gaze to two rectangular slabs of stone, lying prostrate upon blocks of granite. A massive fire pit rose from the center of the clearing. Scattered around it lay broken wooden idols and stained blades whose handles had long since rotted off. Beyond the clearing, a crumbling building rose from the greenery like a monster from a swamp. Columns that reminded Hayden of a plantation house held up a flat roof and formed an open air portico that faded into darkness.
    “Looks to be a temple of some sort.” Graves remarked as he tromped across the courtyard, his tone one of enthusiasm.
    Shaking his head, Hayden slowly moved toward one of the tables. In between the moss and vines, dark stains peered up at him from the light stone. His stomach convulsed. “If this is a temple, I don’t think it’s a Christian one.”
    “No.” Thiago’s tremulous voice came from just inside the gate where he stood frozen. “These are ruins of Tupi. They were cannibals.”
    Hayden’s glance returned to the fire pit, shifted to the ancient blades, then moved to the stains on the table. Bile rose in his throat. Gagging, he bent over, praying he wouldn’t vomit and embarrass himself in front of these men.
    “Cannibals?” Graves’s dark eyes flashed.
    Hayden took a deep breath and rose to his full height.
    Pulling an amulet from his pocket, Thiago crossed himself again. “I wait outside.”
    Hayden longed to go with him, but he couldn’t seem to move. Instead he stared at the ghastly scene, imagining what horrors must have occurred within its walls.
    A caw caw drew his gaze upward to a black bird with the wingspan as wide as a man was tall. The odd sight kept Hayden riveted as the beastly bird crossed the clearing and disappeared. Something about the bird, its size, the loneliness in its cry, caused air to seize in his lungs.
    Graves headed toward the temple where he plucked a torch from a holder on the wall, struck a match, and lit it. “I’m going in to explore. Join me?”
    “I’ll wait here,” Hayden said. If his father had come this way, Hayden should find some evidence in the courtyard. There was no reason to subject himself to further horrors.
    Graves gave him a taunting snort before he mounted the steps and entered the building with the exuberance of a child at Christmas.
    As disturbing as his presence was, Graves’s absence left Hayden alone with the dark foreboding he’d felt upon entering this fiendish site. He ran his sleeve over the sweat on his brow and started his search of the area, careful not to touch anything. He’d grown so accustomed to hearing the chatter of the jungle that the absence of it spiked his nerves. Perhaps that was the reason for his discomfort. He prayed that was the only reason.
    He circled one of the obelisks, cringing at the tormented faces carved into the stone and wondered if these were the faces of those who’d been killed by the Tupi. His chest tightened. He backed away. The crackling returned. Soft like the sound of waves, yet harsh as if a thousand fires were lit all around him. Hayden drew his machete and swerved around. No one was there.
    Then she appeared. Materialized out of the torrid air like a mirage in the desert. Yet unlike a mirage, she stood before him as real and vibrant as he remembered her. Mrs. Katherine Henley, hair cascading around her head in a bouquet of golden curls. Striking emerald eyes, now swimming in tears.
    Hayden rubbed his own eyes, hoping to sweep away