Page 76 of Raelia

Despite their predicament, the corner of his mouth quirked in amusement. “That depends on what you think I’m thinking, or not thinking.”

“I think you know what I think you’re thinking—just like I think you know what I hope you’re not thinking.”

His smile widened and everyone stared at them.

“I’d like to know what you’reboththinking, because I’m sure lost,” Jordan said, subtly raising his eyebrows at Alex and flicking a speculative glance between her and Kaiden.

She felt her face heat up under his perceptive gaze, but Kaiden saved her from her discomfort when he jumped in with his explanation.

“I think we have to tie Jordan’s rope to my arrow and shoot it into the rock over on the other side of the crevasse,” he said. “Then we use it to make our way across.”

“Just like that?” Pipsqueak said, throwing her hands on her hips. “Why didn’t you say it would be so simple?”

“Hey, it’s not his fault we’re stuck in this situation,” Alex defended. Normally she liked Pipsqueak, but her attitude wasn’t helping the situation.

Pipsqueak turned to glare at Alex as if the entire assignment was her fault, but before either of them could say anything more, they were interrupted.

“I don’t see why we can’t just fly across,” Skyla said loftily.

Everyone turned to look at the blond girl who was holding her mirror in front of her face and reapplying her lip gloss.

No one seemed to know how to respond to her peculiar statement, but Jordan tentatively tried to speak up without upsetting her delicate disposition.

“Um, Skyla, how exactly would we fly across?”

She snorted and snapped her makeup case closed. “We’d make wings, obviously.”

Alex fought off the irrational urge to laugh. When it appeared that no one else knew what to say, she diplomatically said, “That’s a great idea, Skyla. But since Kaiden came up with a solution first, it’s only fair that we try his way before giving any other ideas a go. If his arrow doesn’t work, then we’ll be sure to discuss your plan.”

Alex couldn’t believe she’d actually just agreed to try Kaiden’s suicidal proposal, but compared to making wings, it almost sounded like a sane strategy.

Onlyalmost.

“I guess that’s fair,” Skyla begrudgingly agreed. “But I still think my idea is better.”

Alex chose to let the conversation end there, and she turned to find Kaiden watching her with amusement.

“What?”

He flashed her a humour-filled grin but shook his head. “Nothing.”

“How are we going to do this?” Tom asked, indicating to the arrow in Kaiden’s hand. “Obviously you shoot it over there and hope it’ll hold us, but what’s going to keep the rope on this side?”

He had a valid point. But Hunter had already provided the solution.

“We tie it to Hunter’s arrow,” Alex answered, pointing to the shaft embedded in the boulder where Declan found the note. It was made of the same metallic substance as the weapon Kaiden held—looped end and all—and Alex had no doubt that it was intended for this purpose.

“Let’s do this,” Declan said, giving Kaiden an encouraging clap on the back.

Jordan handed the rope over to Kaiden who knotted it securely around the loop at the end of the embedded arrow. After tugging against it to make sure it held, he unwound the remainder of the coiled rope and tied the other end to the arrow in his hands.

As a group, they walked to the edge of the crevasse.

“Shoot straight, Kaid,” Declan said, as Kaiden strung the bow and pulled it tight.

Pausing for barely a second to aim, Kaiden released the arrow, and it pierced firmly into the rock wall on the other side of the fissure. It was a perfect shot, with the arrow sticking out close to the top of the crevasse—just enough for the rock to not crumble under their weight, but not too far that they wouldn’t be able to pull themselves up.

Perfect shot or not, butterflies began to trample around Alex’s stomach at the idea of crossing the ravine.

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