Redemption Read Online Free

aspects of the Chavín culture, and he thought he’d found a recipe of sorts for the ritual mix of hallucinogenic drugs the priests had used in their ceremonies. He hoped she’d be able to identify a plant from a cracked carving. She hated to be the one to have to tell him he was nuts. “The stone was damaged in the landslide. But even the part that’s still intact…”
    “Sophie. I just need you to try and read it.”
    “There’s nothing to read, Ethan,” Sean said, exasperated. “Sometimes a picture of a bird is just a picture of a bird. It’s art. If she could actually read it and prove that there’s a code there she wouldn’t be here now.”
    Ethan gave her a sympathetic look and Sophie shook her head. No point in getting into it here and now. Not again. She knew it was a fringe theory but it wasn’t crazy. Some people like her thought the carvings the Chavín had left behind were ritualistic and symbolic, purposefully difficult to interpret so that they could be read only by the priests. Some people like Sean thought there was nothing more to them than decoration. Her theory and the subject of her thesis was that the carvings represented a highly visual, representational and interconnected form of written record. She believed the entire history of the Chavín was encoded in their art and that she was getting very close to breaking that code, or at least a portion of it.
    She didn’t plan to reveal that to Sean though. He was the one waiting for a break that would get his name recognized in the right circles and get him the publishing credit that would buy him tenure at a big school. Sophie liked fieldwork. She felt alive for the first time in years and she didn’t want to go home. She hadn’t realized until she left how pale and suffocating her life had become. There was nothing there for her anymore.
    She spared Sean a brief quelling glare and reached across the table to squeeze Ethan’s hand. “There’s too much missing. I’m not a botanist but I don’t think it’s what you’re looking for anyway. Even if it was, it’s not something to mess around with. You get it wrong, it could kill you.”
    “You get it right, it could kill you,” Mia said in a rare sympathetic tone. “It’s not like there’s an ER we could run you to if you OD.”
    Ethan pulled his hand away, blue eyes widening. “Wait a minute. You think I would try it on myself?”
    Sophie glanced at Mia for help but Mia only sighed and started poking at the food left on her plate. Someone had seen Ethan grinding herbs in an old-fashioned pestle. Everyone knew what he was up to. In a small camp that kind of info spread easily.
    She met his incredulous gaze. “Just be careful,” she told him and turned back to her meal.
    Ethan and Sean started bickering again but Sophie let her attention wander. Winning the fellowship would allow her to continue her field research. She knew she was getting close. All she needed was a little more time. She could see the pattern, but proving the connection was just beyond her reach. A few more pieces, maybe those new carvings exposed in the tunnel collapse, maybe something churned up by the landslide. Just one little chunk of rock could be the key to unlocking it all.

Chapter Two
    Adriano dropped Sophie off with her friends and managed to choke down enough food not to make anyone suspicious. Then he slipped away from the camp and climbed to the higher elevations to run. Earlier than he would have liked, but he needed to run and he needed to be back when Sophie was ready to return to her work. If he planned to spend half his night watching her frown over the ruins and keep his hands to himself, then he needed the physical release a good hard run in his jaguar form would give him.
    He planned to give her at least an hour to finish her work before he put his hands on her. Time to try a new tactic. Clearly, staring at her and willing her to welcome him to her bed was not working. He wasn’t