She wiped her forehead on her sleeve, his arm still holding her waist for support. “You’ve done something wrong? I thought you were lecturing me again.”

“I never meant to lecture you. I’ve only ever wanted to help.”

“Why? Why have you risked so much for me? You don’t owe me anything. You don’t …”

Her baby still in his arms, uncrying, he was kissing Calliope. Gently at first and then harder, pulling her body against his, firm. And she was letting him.

If she were honest with herself, she’d wanted this since he first began speaking, on the road to Silver City.

She was crying.

He pulled away, wiped her face. “I didn’t mean to make you cry.”

She sniffled. “Hormones.”

“Mujer, I’ve loved you from the moment you aimed that gun at me, and I knew you would never shoot me.”

“That’s a little twisted, Chance.”

“It meant you were brave. And strong. And kind.” He kissed her cheeks, her nose, her forehead. She closed her eyes and he kissed her eyelids.

“I can’t.” Her voice barely a whisper.

He stepped back, but she pressed her face against his chest. This couldn’t change anything. She couldn’t give up the hope of finding her family. Of showing Andres his child. And holding Phoenix. How could she stay in Zuni with Chance? He was right. It was wrong.

He kissed her forehead again, this time with the curtness of friendship, and handed her back the corn girl. “I’ll ask my mother to set up another bed for you, somewhere cooler.”

She nodded. “Thank you.”

“And we should rebury the child.”

“It’s not a child.”

“Whatever it is. We can break some traditions, but my mother won’t stand for an unburied stillborn. They bring curses, mujer. Whether you believe or not, she does. And this is her house.”

She nodded again, and he began reburying the rock baby.

“What about the other rock?”

“I guess we could bury it too.”

“Just put it back in Mara’s truck.”

He sighed heavily, his face creased with frustration. “Fine.”

Once he’d finished patting the threshold dirt down and replacing the wooden slats, he said, “Finish healing. I don’t know how long I have, but I’ll make sure it’s enough to find you your family.”

She could not tell him how deeply she hurt, how she wanted to stay with him like the young woman in the story, who’d gone to the village with Water Jar Child and Red Water Snake; she couldn’t. The young woman had died to get there.

And if Calliope was still alive, she had to keep searching. She wouldn’t leave her family the way her father had left his. She was stronger than that.

PART THREE

PART THREE

QUANTUM UNCERTAINTY

“As you go forward in your life

You will come upon a great chasm.

Jump.