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"Steph!"

"Stop!"

Stephanie jerked, as if she had just awakened So…

A noise

Voices

She wasn’t sure as shouting, or why

She didn’t even knohat she had been doing, but it suddenly see at her, calling her name

She blinked furiously, and she was terrified, because she didn’t knohat she was doing, or where she was going

And she suddenly found herself on an outcropping surrounding a cliff There was barely rooetting where she was

"Stephanie, careful! Stay where you are"

Grant’s voice She blinked, oddly thinking that it was Grant who had gotten her here She felt a surge of anger against hi!" Another voice, fe, but the ground fog had risen Through it, to her right, she could see Grant hugging the cliff side,his way to her

She sed and turned Clay Barton was co from the other direction She tried to look behind her

There was a sheer drop

Fingers touched her They were cold as ice She had a vision again, bones rising fro her with an icy blast She nearly screamed

"Steph, it’s me--don’t jerk away!"

Grant had reached her He sounded angry, but as if he were trying to control the emotion in his voice

"Take my hand--ith me"

She balked

"Steph!"

She sed hard, recentdown upon her This couldn’t be Grant’s fault She hadn’t been with hi for hiotten here?

"I’m on your other side, Stephanie" It was Clay

"Careful! All of you!" Liz called froround isn’t solid," Grant warned They were inching his way Bit by bit And he was right She could feel the earth cruht foot slipped She started to slide down A screa her back up Grant staggered backward against the cliff, crushing her to hiive Clay a hand--there was no footing re where she had stood With Grant’s hand, Clay ainst hers as he passed her, putting her between the two of the fro… we’re alain," Grant said

She nodded He was right In another minute, they were on a trail Two minutes after that, they were on a broad plateau that slopped gently doard, back toward the area of the dig

That hen Grant let loose

Swinging her around before hi his every muscle, he very nearly barked out his words "What the hell were you doing?"

She didn’t know herself She was shaking and afraid, and therefore, defensive And once again, it was slipping into the corner of her mind that it was soainst a sheer drop? What the hell did you think--that I’d beco behind Stephanie

"You, daet the fuck out of it!" Grant all but roared

"Grant!" Stephanie exploded, stunned

Liz had run up to meet them by then She was obviously upset "Please, all of you, stop! Let’s not say things we don’t et violent, huh? Please?"

"Violent?" Stephanie should have kept silent, but she was still stunned by Grant’s display of wrath, and his absolute rudeness and hostility toward Clay, who had risked his life for her as well!

"Actually, Liz, I wouldn’t blame Clay if he slammed my very old acquaintance Mr Peterson fro at Grant

"No one is decking anyone," Liz said, a prayer that it would be so in her tone "Grant, please! You’re scared because Stephanie could have been killed You don’t understand… it was like pea soup out here for a fewaround like idiots Please, all of you! Stop, think, cool down I aht, and Stephanie knew it, and she didn’t want Grant slugging Clay, or Clay slugging Grant

She lifted a hand "I’m sorry Truly sorry I feel like an idiot I don’t kno I got where I was, except… Liz is right There was just… a fog A , I don’t know But I’m sorry Really, really sorry, Grant And both of you--you did save my life Or, at the very least, you saved me from a broken neck and crushed bones So I thank you both Liz, can we get back to the car now, please?"

"Yes, yes, let’s get back to the car" She slipped an arlance over her head at Clay She sounded aggravated herself as she added, "We should never, never have stayed here after dark"

Neither Grant nor Clay said anything as they followed Liz and Stephanie back, so she assu to cream the other

They all reached Grant’s rental car in stony silence and reclaimed the seats they’d taken for the ride in

No one spoke Grant revved the car, and they began the drive back

Stephanie looked out theand shivered<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>