Page 31 of Fire Dancer
“Not necessary,” I grunted.
Five minutes of driving later, we’d thoroughly tested the suspension and started ascending to heaven, or so it seemed. The track angled upward, and all I saw was sky. More and more of it as the shrubs around us thinned out.
“Keep going… Keep going… Stop!” Pippa threw an arm across my chest when we reached the crest of the trail.
I hit the brakes, pitching us both forward.
Pippa unbuckled her seat belt and slid out of the car, casual as can be. “There’s a drop-off.”
As in, the five-hundred-foot cliff I was staring down now.
I followed her slowly, inching around the Jeep until we met at the front bumper, where we had about three feet of safe space before the cliff fell away. I kept my right hand open behind Pippa, ready to grab if she took one more step.
She didn’t, thank goodness. She just led me into the scrub until we emerged at a ledge.
“There’s another vortex over here. Hardly anyone knows about it, though.”
Over herewas up a narrow, iffy trail that would make a mountain goat pause.
Pippa charged ahead.
I glanced down the precipice on our left, wondering if she had more dragon shifter in her than she realized.
“Pippa…” I warned.
“We’re almost there.”
Famous last words?
“It’s not worth it,” I said, hanging back.
“Oh, of course it is. It’s for yourjob.”
And oh, the subtext.
I followed slowly and eventually found her in an open slot between two jutting rocks high on the hill. The drive up had been shady, but now, the late-afternoon sunlight bathed Pippa from behind, casting her shadow out over the lower slope of the mountain.
“So, there’s the Y intersection… Cathedral Rock… The road to Slide Rock…” Her finger tapped the air here and there. “The ranch is way back there…”
Theranch washerranch, a place she’d raved about as long as I’d known her. Losing it would destroy her.
She went on to indicate other points of interest, such as a spot with a hidden sinkhole — a portal to the underworld, according to some indigenous cultures. Then there was a mountainside that had burned in an alleged act of arson, and the location of the vet who checked on Roscoe and the other ranch dogs.
She must have noticed my consternation at that last one, because she thumped me on the arm. “What? It’s important. Besides, you’re a canine too.”
Yeah, but way, way, way above Roscoe’s line in the evolutionary hierarchy.
“Oh, don’t be so snooty,” Pippa chided.
There she went again, reading my mind, as fated mates and closely associated supernaturals were capable of. The question was, what category did we belong in?
She edged forward. The rock we stood on ended in a diving-board-sized ledge that stuck out into nothingness, and that was where Pippa went.
“Here it is. The vortex.” She tapped a foot.
My pulse went through the roof as I imagined the ledge collapsing. Plus, if that was a vortex, it didn’t seem like a good idea to stand right on it. What if thousands of volts of energy suddenly came jetting out?
“Um, I take it it’s not on right now?” I asked as neutrally as I could.