ON EDGE (Decorah Security) by Rebecca York

like a place in some far northern country where there was no grass or trees, only gray rocks. They were on a high, wide ledge overlooking a valley shrouded by mist. The ground below their feet was strewn with rubble, with patches of snow. Jagged mountains loomed in the background like giant shark’s teeth, and the sky was a leaden gray.
    Beside him, Ariel gasped and pressed against his side as she looked around at the bleak landscape.
    Frank slung his arm around her shoulder, holding her close as he took in the desolation, wondering if the two of them had made a serious mistake. “Where are we?” he asked.
    “I don’t know.”
    “You’ve never been here before?”
    “No. It looks like the end of the world.”
    He had the same thought.
    When the wind picked up, buffeting them, he rapped her more tightly in his arms, hunching over her to give her as much of his body heat as possible. The wind cut through his uniform jacket now, like icy fingers trying to rip the fabric from his body.
    He saw her cringe and followed the direction of her gaze. She was staring at blinking lights above them in the sky like a helicopter with the view of the machine blocked by clouds.
    “What is it?”
    “Perhaps the gods. They must have brought us here.”
    “Why?”
    Wordlessly she shook her head, her teeth chattering. She was barefoot and wearing a thin white gown, and she was suffering from the cold. He looked around at the bleak landscape. Some of the boulders were as tall as a two-story building. If he could get behind one to shelter them from the wind and brace his back against the vertical surface, he could lift her up and hold her in his arms.
    He tried to lead her toward a clump of rocks, but the wind began to blow from that direction, forcing them back every time they struggled forward a few feet.
    The gale grew stronger, tearing off his cap and flinging it away as it shoved them relentlessly toward the edge of the drop-off.
    In his mind, he heard a voice saying, You can save yourself. Let go of her, and flatten yourself against the rocks.
    No.
    Let her go, and save yourself, the voice repeated.
    “Fuck you,” Frank answered in an angry growl.
    “What?” she gasped.
    “They’re trying to make me give you up. But I won’t.” He wrapped his arms more tightly around Ariel, thinking that whatever happened, the most important thing was hanging on to her.
    The wind blasted them relentlessly toward the edge.
    “Can’t you stop it?” he shouted above the roaring around them.
    “I’m trying.”
    The howling around them increased so that they might have been at the center of a tornado.
    He brought his mouth to her ear, trying to make sure she heard him above the din. “Whatever happens, remember that I love you.”
    She squeezed his hand, and he knew that she had caught his words. Her arms locked around him. “I never knew what love was between a man and a woman until I met you, but I do now,” she gasped out, just as the wind grabbed the two of them, spinning them off the edge of the cliff and into space, as though they had jumped out of a plane from high above the earth.
    They spun around, the sickening sensations worse than a parachute jump because no one but a fool would chance it in these wind conditions.
    The gusts tried to tear Ariel away from him, but he closed his eyes and hung on to her as they plummeted through the freezing air. He felt his skin turn to ice so that he could no longer sense his own body, and he knew that they were both going to die. Together.
    He waited for them to crash into the valley below, unable to stop himself from picturing the shattering impact. But somehow their descent slowed. It was like a layer of warm air had materialized under their feet, wafting them to the ground.
    To Frank’s surprise, they landed on soft earth, and he raised his head. He saw tropical vegetation, dense foliage, flowers hanging on vines. It looked like they were in the jungle where he had first forced his way into