Once I made it a few feet down from the window I had climbed out of, it became clear that the house was not just built on top of a cliff—it was actually carved into the cliff. While it made for a pretty amazing design aspect, it meant that I still needed to climb past another window before I would reach the relative safety of the unused rock below. Hopefully that room didn’t have any occupants who would spot me escaping, but to be safe, I decided to climb around the window rather than directly past it.

Carefully, I picked my way down from the room I had been in. Each move required so much more thought than when I usually climbed, firstly because I hadn’t had a good angle to map out a path in my mind before beginning and secondly because I was going down rather than up, which was surprisingly hard. Despite the amount of time I had invested in rock climbing to assist in my Fox jobs, I had never tried climbing down before. I had always rappelled.

Right as I made the mental note to practice reverse–rock climbing, if that was the correct terminology for it, the tiny ledge my toes were on crumbled beneath me. With my weight in my legs, rather than in my arms like it usually would have been, my body slammed hard into the cliff face. My fingers barely gripped back on in enough time to catch me.

Thank fuck for superstrength. I panted heavily, my heart galloping at the near miss. Taking a second to carefully choose a new foot hold, I forced myself to still and take some breaths. The last thing I needed was sweaty hands.

Come on, Kit. Move it! They will notice you missing soon!

Chewing my lip hard enough to make it bleed, I continued my descent with jelly-like legs. When my toes felt the top of the window frame for the next room down, I inched my way across until I was parallel to it, then began easing my way down again.

I held my breath as I moved ever so slowly, carefully, praying that I couldn’t be seen from the inside. From where I was, pasted to the exterior of this incredible structure, all I could see was the edge of an impressive-looking bookcase.

A premature sigh of relief gusted out of my lungs as I reached the bottom of the window frame, within feet of the raw cliff face which led to the sandy desert floor and hopefully freedom. No sooner had the air passed through my lips than the loud bang of a window slamming open made my already shaking body jolt in fright, and my fingers slipped from their precarious hold on the rock.

For a split second, all I grasped was air. My eyes scrunched tight, I held my breath and braced myself for impact. All I could do was hope that my body really would repair itself eventually. Oh fuck, this is going to hurt.

After what must have only been a fraction of a second, but felt like an hour, a tight band of steel wrapped around my wrist and almost yanked my shoulder clean out of its socket as my fall was halted abruptly. A strangled squeak puffed out of me, and I looked down at the rocky ground way below my dangling feet. Why wasn't I flattened down there like a raspberry pancake?

Looking up to see what had saved my bacon, I suddenly wished I had fallen to my maybe-death instead. Gripping my wrist tightly with one huge hand, Vali was halfway out of the window and looking furious.

Crap.

“What the fuck do you think you're doing?” he snarled from behind clenched teeth, the tendons of his neck standing out like steel rods and his arm muscles bulging and straining.

“Um, is now really the best time to chat?” I squeaked, my voice tight with fear. My breathing had dissolved into short, shallow gasps that were leaving me light-headed, and I dreaded to think what would happen if I passed out and became dead weight. At least awake I could help pull myself back up once I got a grip.

I started reaching for the wall again with my free hand, but my trembling fingers kept slipping from the rock, and I couldn't get a clean hold.

“What are you doing?” Vali hissed, his grip on my wrist slipping just the tiniest bit and making me squeak again.

“I am trying to get a grip to take some weight off, but my fingers aren't working,” I muttered, and he made an angry noise as I tried again.

“Stop it! You're swinging around and making this harder. Just… stay still so I can pull you up,” he commanded, and I watched as he braced his free arm against the inside of the window frame. He had changed into a thin black T-shirt since I had last seen him on the plane, and as he heaved me up by the wrist, I could see the muscles of his shoulders and arms rippling like he was in a weightlifting competition. I guess he was, of sorts.

When he had pulled me up enough to be within reach of the more solid window frame, I grabbed on with my shaking, free hand and dug my toes into the rock below, quickly shimmying my body through the opening and collapsing onto the carpet.

For a long moment, I lay there panting, trying to regain a little composure and waiting for the trembling in my limbs to subside. Holy shit, that was close.

“I ask again, what the fuck were you doing?” Vali's rumbling voice demanded from far too close to my ear. I turned my face from where I had landed face-first on the floor and found him on his back beside me, where he had probably fallen when I had tumbled through the window.

I took a couple of slow, calming breaths before responding. “I think it’s obvious I was attempting to escape. Until some ogre opened a window right beside my head and scared the piss out of me and made me lose my grip.” My lingering breathlessness took the impact out of my statement, but by the angry narrowing of his eyes, I think it still hit the intended mark.

“Excuse me?” he seethed. “I wouldn't have needed to open the fucking window if you hadn't been climbing down the outside of my house like some sort of psychotic monkey. What the hell were you thinking? You could have died!” A fact I was all too aware of. Even though I had a suspicion I wouldn't have actually died, it still would have been excruciatingly painful.

“How the hell did you know I was out there anyway? And react fast enough to catch me right as I lost my grip?” I challenged him back, my fear morphing into anger.

“I don't know!” he shouted, shutting me right up. We both stared at one another, our faces only inches apart. His eyes showed a mix of shock and confusion, and I had no doubt mine were a mirror image.

“I don't know how I knew,” he continued, quieter this time. “I just… did. I can't explain it.” His face closed down, back into the furious scowl as he opened his mouth to most likely yell again.

“Oh, get off your high horse.” I rolled my eyes, stopping his lecture before it began. “As if you wouldn't have done the same in my situation.”

He narrowed his eyes at me, his mouth locked in a tight line, then climbed to his feet and held out a gentlemanly hand to help me up.

“You don't even know what situation you're in, dragă,” he muttered as I pushed his hand aside and stood on shaking legs unassisted.

“I know I would rather risk climbing down the side of a building than become a sex slave to some megalomaniac murderer like you.” I folded my arms across my chest and tilted my chin up stubbornly but was totally unprepared for his reaction. Was he seriously laughing right now?

The more he laughed, the hotter my anger boiled until I couldn't stand it any more.

“What is so goddamn funny?” I yelled, my fingers curled into tight fists under my arms in an attempt to rein in the fury.

He made no attempt to answer me, simply turning his back and walking away from me towards the door, his shoulders shaking with chuckles. My control and sensibility must not have been rescued along with me because the next thing I knew, I had picked up a book from the small table near me and hurled it at his head.

The book hit with a solid thunk, and I froze. Did I seriously just throw a book at the unstable murderer? All too late, I saw the unmistakable shape of his lethal firearm tucked into the back of his distressed jeans, and I cursed my lack of common sense.

“Did you just…” He turned slowly, glaring at the book on the floor, then at me. “Did you seriously just throw a book at my head?”

My eyes darted around the room; frantically searching for a way out but finding none, I went with denial. “Ummmm, no? Maybe it fell?” Who knows, maybe he will believe me?

“What are you, fucking twelve? Who throws books?” he yelled, picking up the offending item and brushing it off. “Jesus woman, have a little respect for the written word!”

Before we could fully engage in what was turning out to be the weirdest argument I had had in a long time, loud voices from outside the room interrupted us.

“Shit,” Vali swore, hurrying back over past me and yanking the window shut again. “Just, whatever you do, don't be yourself.”