Page 30 of Mountain Target

It’s stopping.

Everything’s going to be fine.

Her lips curled up in the beginning of a relieved smile—then froze as she realized the exact opposite was the case.

The jolting was worse now, the rumbling louder, as if a giant engine were tearing its way through the earth’s crust to get to them.

Stand beneath a doorway frame.

That’s the best way to survive an earthquake.

The ridiculous, unexpected thought almost—but not quite—made her laugh. She didn’t even know where it’d come from. Probably some documentary she’d watched when she was younger. Not exactly useful information, out here in the middle of the mountains. She was going to have to come up with something else.

Suddenly, she was flying through the air.

Not flying.

Falling.

Face-first to the ground.

Her fall was stopped as Beau’s strong arms gripped her from behind and steadied her against his hard body. Sheltering her.

And even though the ground was still shaking, and even though intellectually she knew he was just a man and no match for the geological phenomenon they were facing, in his arms she somehow felt safe.

Or at least less alone.

“I’ve got you,” he said, and she could feel, in the tension in his wide body, how much it was costing him to stay on his feet. “It’s going to be—“

And then the shaking became the least of their problems, as the ground beneath them cracked open and a chasm opened up in front of her, growing wider and wider. Behind her, Beau staggered, letting go of her.

And then the worst happened, as her left and right foot ended up on opposite sides of the opening chasm. Unable to keep her feet, she found herself tumbling forward into the hole, everything happening too quickly for her brain to process, and her only thought was for Jules Verne and his journey to the center of the earth.

Her knees struck the edge—hard—the blow reverberating down her shin, and the pain at least helped order her thoughts.

Her bare hands grasped at earth and rocks and moss, struggling to hold on to something—anything—as the chasm beneath her grew wider.

“Valentina!” Beau shouted, and her fear ramped up a notch because his voice was laced with fear, and if Beau was afraid, then—

“Jump!”

I’m going to fall in.

I’ll disappear.

“Jump! I swear I’ll catch you!”

But Val no longer had the purchase, and she was sliding inexorably away from him, away from—

A hand wrapped around her wrist, stopping her fall. Her body swung in space like a pendulum, the tendons of her rotator cuff screaming. Val gritted her teeth against her pain—a shattered shoulder was a small enough price to pay for her life.

And then she was falling again—no, she wasn’t falling—he was the one falling, sliding inexorably towards the dark hole beneath her, and the ground was still shaking, and she couldn’t hear anything but she could smell the cold, damp earth, and her fear. So maybe smell would be the last sense to go, before—

“Arghhhh,” he said, from between clenched teeth, as he held on to her wrist. There was no fear in his eyes, only determination, but he wasn’t immune to gravity, and his body was sliding forward, until she could see his shoulders, and then all the way to his elbow, and still his body kept sliding.

And it would be so easy for him to let go, but he wasn’t letting go, and she knew he wouldn’t let her go.

We’re going to die.