Page 36 of A Wolfe in the Woods

Get a grip, Blanchette.

I stared after him, heart thudding, and tried to pretend it was only because of the drop. Not at the prospect that Jonathan might not be fullyhuman.

As we walked a little further, the trees began to thin as the incline leveled, and suddenly…

We stepped out into an open breeze and bright sky. The world dropped away in front of us.

We stood at the edge of a wide bluff, giving way to a panoramic view so vast and clear, it felt dreamy. To the right, far below, I could see the twinkling lights of Everwick beginning to stir, the crooked cottages and winding lanes of the town glowing like someone had scattered fireflies. Beyond it, the rocky coast stretched out until the silhouette of the Moonbeam Point Lighthouse rose against the sea, its familiar crown of light already turning while cutting across the dusk.

The water shimmered copper and violet, reflecting the last fire of the sun as it dipped below the horizon.

“This is…” I started to say, before catching his eye almost in accusation. “You didn’t say it wasthisbeautiful.”

“Some things can’t be articulated,” Jonathan said quietly. He shrugged. “You just have to see them yourself.”

The sun dropped fast. One blink and it had kissed the edge of the sea. Another and the sky shifted. It darkened now, rose gold fading into bruised indigo. I took a few steps forward, drawn by the sight of everything laid bare before us.

I’d lived in Everwick almost my entire life, and I had never seen it like this. Like a veil had been peeled back from my eyes and I could see what the tourists saw. Beauty. Peace. A paradise.

I realized my mistake too late…

I stepped too far.

The ground crumbled at the edge, loose soil giving out beneath my feet. Suddenly there was nothing beneath me. The ground vanished.

I dropped. I had no time to scream.

Air rushed past my face—just a blur of sky, of open space—and for a terrifying second, I felt weightless.

Then a hand.

It clamped around my arm like a vise, halting my fall with a jolt so violent, it broke my breath.

I was dangling.

One foot scraping for something solid, the other swinging wildly above the drop.

I looked down…and wished I hadn’t. The cliffside fell away in a sheer drop, vanishing into a tangle of bramble and darkness far below. “Jonathan…” I choked out.

He didn’t speak, only tightened his grip on me. With a low, strained grunt, he hauled me upward, muscles coiled tight, his whole body a lever pulling mine back from the brink.

I crashed into him, gasping, my heart pounding so loud it drowned out everything else as I blinked up at him, staring in wide-eyed shock.

“Note to self,” he muttered, “add a railing. Are you okay?”

My knees wobbled. “Yes, I—I think so.”

“Soil near a cliff edge is loose. I shouldn’t have let you get so close.”

He looked at me with…was that concern in his eye?

I was in a stupefied trance, too dazed to respond properly. “Gods, I can’t believe that…I can’t believe I almost…” My voice came out flat and robotic, my mind still suspended over the cliff.

Jonathan didn’t let go. Instead, he stayed, steadying me more than he would ever know with his strong presence. Gently, his fingers found mine and he clasped my hands like he was grounding me. “Let’s move away from here,” he said before carefully guiding me to the center of the bluff.

There he crouched and opened his backpack. He laid down a large dark blanket, then dropped down onto it, flattening out the corners.

I blinked at him, still trying to play catch-up with reality when my mind was still in limbo. “You…you brought a blanket.”