Page 32 of A Fractured Song

“No!” Zev called in alarm. “I can help you!”

Fighting the instinct that wanted to retreat to safer ground above, he walked down the wall toward her, grateful that the rope’s knot was holding strong. Before Marieke could say a word, he’d reached her, using his longer legs to push most of his body further from the wall while keeping his hands and the rope right against the stone.

“Can you pull yourself up far enough for me help hold your weight?” he asked, his muscles starting to strain and his head spinning from the awareness of the dizzying drop below him. But he needed to keep calm. “Then I can help walk us both up the cliff.”

“Actually—” Marieke’s reply was cut off as the rope suddenly loosened. They both jolted down far enough to make Zev’s stomach feel like it was trying to leave his body. The stake Marieke had attached the rope to must have bent over. It would surely give way soon.

“That’s it.” Zev pushed himself out from the wall as much as he could without disturbing the rope. “No more time to argue. Press yourself flat against the rock if you can.”

He walked himself down, afraid with every movement that the rope would give way. And not without reason. He’d just managed to edge himself over the top of Marieke when the rope went slack. With a shock too intense for crying out, they both fell.

About two feet.

Zev landed hard on rock, for a moment too winded to grasp what had happened. When he shook off his stupor, he realized that he was lying on a large rocky ledge, the edge of the cliff not too far above him. He also realized that Marieke was somehow encased in his arms, looking as dazed as he felt. He released her hastily—holding her that close was too much for his conflicted heart to handle. Fortunately more complex emotions were quickly overcome by his relief that they were alive.

“You really need to stop dangling off cliffs, Marieke.” He found himself holding back a smile, probably born of some combination of the joy of survival and the nearness of the person who’d occupied his thoughts relentlessly for weeks past.

Marieke gave him a disgruntled look. “I wasn’t dangling.”

“Sure looked like it,” he commented.

“I had everything under control,” she insisted.

“Didn’t look like that.” Again Zev was fighting a smile. Washe losing his mind?

“I knew this ledge was here,” Marieke told him. “That’s why I started at this point. If you actually look at your surroundings instead of panicking, you’ll see that this is a huge surface. We couldn’t have missed it if we’d tried.”

Zev cast his eyes around to see that she was right. More of his tension eased.

“Well, I’m glad you had some kind of plan,” he said. “But I still think you should stop dangling off cliffs.”

Marieke narrowed her eyes at him for a long moment before her disapproval suddenly gave way to a swift smile.

“Why, though?” she asked cheekily. “Since you always show up to pull me to safety.” She flicked his sleeve. “At least you have a shirt on this time.”

Zev had opened his mouth to give another retort, but at her last comment he choked on it, feeling the faintest hint of heat rising up his neck. Marieke turned away, but not before her slight smirk told him she knew she’d managed to regain the upper hand.

Zev shook his head at her back, his own lips tugging up into a smile in spite of himself.

“So what’s your plan from here, as you supposedly have everything under control?” he quipped.

Marieke was coiling the rope that had fallen nearby. “Well, the planwasto use songcraft to detach the rope from up there once I was down here, but it seems the stake did that for me.” She turned her head to grimace at him. “I will admit that I had more faith in that stake than I should have. It’s a relief that I can use my voice thus far, though. I couldn’t talk last time I was in the canyon, let alone sing, remember?”

Zev nodded absently, his eyes on the cliff’s edge above. “I’m glad I didn’t tie up my horse,” he commented.

Marieke slapped a hand to her mouth. “You rode here! Ofcourse you did. I was dropped by a public coach not far away and walked, so I didn’t even think about it.”

“Don’t worry,” Zev reassured her. “My mare will find her way home. She knows these roads well. I just hope the poor thing doesn’t wait a long time before heading homeward.”

Marieke considered him. “So you’re stuck with me on this venture, it seems.”

“It seems so.” They locked eyes, the silence growing until it had a tangible presence between them. A presence that tasted like the kiss they’d shared in Zev’s moment of reckless abandon. A moment he both regretted and didn’t regret at all.

He cleared his throat, breaking the standoff with a mixture of reluctance and relief. “I received your letter.”

“Evidently.” Marieke seemed faintly disappointed, but she didn’t call him out for sidestepping the tension between them. “Did you intend to come with me into the canyon, or did you ride out here to try to stop me?”

“Hm.” Zev smiled slightly. “The first…if the second failed.”

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