Page 35 of A Wolfe in the Woods

He looked at me then, “I’m not asking you to. I know how to get across…but you’ll have to trust me.”

I squinted at him. “Says the machete wielder.”

That made him grin, and it softened the sharp edge in his voice. “Come here,” he said, stepping closer to the edge of the divide.

I hesitated. But then muttered, “Fine.”

Calmly, he said, “I need you to hang onto me.”

“What?”

He turned, lowering slightly. He took off his backpack, moving it to his front instead. “Your arms. Loop ’em around my shoulders. Hook them under the straps of the backpack here.”

“You want me to…ride you across?”

There was a dirty joke in there somewhere, but I had enough visions of me falling off his back into the dark depths below to care.

“It’s not that far,” he said, hiding the twitch of his amusement. “There’s a root system over here I can grab onto.”

I looked at him, unbelieving, but didn’t say anything.

“Trust me,” he coaxed.

I stepped forward, unsure.

He crouched a little more, bracing himself. “Arms around. Tight.”

Reluctantly, I looped my arms over his shoulders, intertwining them with the straps of his backpack at his front. My chest pressed against his back, breath catching slightly as the intense warmth of his body radiated through his shirt against my chest.

“Ready?” he asked, his voice gravelly.

“Almost—”

Before I could finish the word, he surged upward.

“Ahh—!” I yelped, clutching him tighter as the ground dropped away beneath us.

He had grabbed hold of a thick, gnarled root protruding from the eroded soil of an upper tree and hoisted us both in one fluid motion…like it was nothing. Like gravity didn’t exist.

I felt myself lift like a child on a carnival ride or a dream where the floor fell out from under you and you forgot to scream.

Only I didn’t forget. I was too stunned to even breathe.

We landed lightly on the far side, his boots planting with a sure, solid thud. He didn’t sway. Didn’t even grunt.

And I…was still clinging to him, helplessly.

“You can let go now,” he said, his voice quiet.

I didn’t move at first. Then slowly, awkwardly, I slid back to the ground, my legs shaky and unsteady.

“That was…” I began.

“A shortcut,” he finished, adjusting his backpack, swinging it back over his shoulders, like nothing unusual had just happened.

No one wasthatstrong. A weird chill ran through me. For half a second, I wondered?—

No. That was ridiculous. I was shaken up. Running on adrenaline. Imagining things.