“Drop? As in—out of the air? While it’s still flying?”
“Controlled descent,” Martinez says, cinching a strap around my waist. “We’re rappelling, sweetheart. And you’re with me.”
I freeze as he lifts a padded harness, guiding my arms through the loops. “I’ve never?—”
“Didn’t ask if you had,” he says, buckling the straps tight. “I’m your brake. You just hold on and let me do the work.”
“How is that supposed to make me feel better?!”
Jackson laughs from across the cabin, double-checking Bear’s rig. “He says the same thing to every recruit.”
“I’m not a recruit.”
“You are today.”
Martinez clips me to his harness. The click of the carabiner sends a jolt down my spine.
“You’ll come down with me,” he says, voice calm and steady. “Jackson’s taking Bear. Dog’s done this before.”
“He has?”
“We train for weird,” Jackson says, giving Bear’s harness a tug. The dog gives a happy bark like he’s just been promised bacon.
Martinez kneels to check our tether lines, his hands confident, methodical. He meets my eyes. “You trust me?”
I nod, because words have fled. My pulse thunders in my ears. My legs are shaking.
“Good. Just hang on.”
The pilot shouts, “Thirty seconds!”
Doors slide open, and the world fills with wind and white and the shrieking chop of rotors. Cold slaps my face like a warning.
Jackson swings out first with Bear strapped to his chest, descending into a snowy clearing like it’s just another Tuesday.
“Your turn, Willow.” Martinez steps up to the edge, our harnesses clipped together. He glances down, then at me. “Deep breath. One step. That’s all it takes.”
I squeeze my eyes shut and nod.
“Count of three. One… Two… Three.”
We step into the void.
The world falls away.
Wind whips past, bitter and biting. Martinez brakesthe descent, guiding us down. The earth rushes up to meet us, and just when I think we’ll crash, his feet hit snow with a controlled crunch.
We’re down.
I collapse into his side, legs barely holding me up.
“See? Easy,” he murmurs.
“Remind me to define that word for you later.”
He laughs, unhooking our harnesses.
Jackson’s already unclipping Bear, the dog bounding forward through the snow, tail wagging like this is all a big game.
