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“Mara!” Jacob screamed up at me. “The anchor!”

I shifted my gaze and watched as one of the three safety anchors just a few feet below me snapped, flying out of the rock face, and sent Matias flying down another several feet, causing him to lose his grip on the snout of the creature.

“Matias!” I screamed.

His body jerked as he reached the end of the line, and then yelled out as the beast flipped over and snapped its jaws onto his shoulder, dangling from Matias’s suspended body. Matias gripped at his shoulder.

Jacob yelled at me again. “It’s too heavy!”

Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod,my brain chanted as panic consumed me.

“Shoot it!” Matias screamed. “Shoot it now!

Calista aimed her gun. “I can’t! I can’t get a clear shot!”

“Mara!” Jacob yelled. “Do something!”

I gripped my pistol and aimed, trying to get a clear view of the hound. But the creature kept wriggling and writhing, all the while causing Matias’s body to swing. I couldn’t get a clean shot. There was no way I was going to hit that ugly thing! Not without potentially shooting Matias instead.

“Do it!” Matias yelled, gripping his shoulder, his face contorted in pain.

“I can’t!” I screamed back, still trying to find a shot.

Chink!

The second safety anchor came flying out of the rock, and Matias flew down several more feet. But this time, there wasn’t enough line, and the force and sheer weight of Matias’s body and the hound, yanked on the safety line that was attached to Jacob, pulling him off the cliffside and down six feet, smacking into the cliffs as he fell.

“Jacob!” I screamed.

He tumbled down further, past Matias, until his body snapped as the line went taut. Matias screamed out as the hellhoundthrashed its body, causing too much strain on the flesh and bone of Matias’s shoulder.

Blondie screamed this time. “Mara! The anchor! It’s coming out!” My heart hammered itself against my ribs as I caught sight of the last safety anchor slowly coming loose from the rock, centimeter by centimeter, slipping out of place.

“Shoot it!” Matias said in a desperate cry. “Now!”

I swallowed hard, and took aim, watching as his body moved with the force of the thrashing hound attached to him, and then seeing my brother’s limp form just past him. Jacob wasn’t moving at all. He must have hit his head in the free fall.

Oh my god…what if he’s already dead?

I felt paralyzed, my mind screaming to do something,anything! But my body was completely frozen in place. It was too much! Too much pressure. What if I shot him? What if I became responsible for Matias’s death? I couldn’t…Iwouldn’t!

“Do it now!” he screamed again just as I heard the anchor give another centimeter.

With a shuddering breath, I took aim one last time, watching as my brother and Matias dangled hundreds of feet from the ocean as the single, last safety anchor was about to break. I watched as the creature thrashed, causing Matias to writhe in pain as his flesh tore from his body. I had to try. I placed gentle pressure on the trigger, prepared to pull as the creature’s body swung to the right, just out of view, and then came swinging back as it flailed out to the left, away from Matias.

I exhaled and pulled the trigger.

65: Three, Two, One…

The shot rang out, a thunderous boom that could barely be heard over the sound of the crashing waves and the relentless shrill of the alarm that never ceased. The ringing in my ears and pounding of my heart intensified as the bullet sailed into the night and buried itself in flesh. Matias yelled out, gripping his shoulder even harder, causing my free hand to fly to my mouth as my greatest fear came to fruition.

No!

The beast yelped, releasing its hold on Matias’s shoulder. It went falling, thrashing, howling down, until its body smacked a jagged edge of rock, flipping it over before it hit another, and then finally splashed into the ocean below. My hand came to rest on my chest, pushing back against my beating heart that was threatening to break through my ribs.

“Matias! Are you okay?” I called back to him.

He shifted in his harness and then lifted his hand and gave a thumbs-up, before going limp again in a moment of totalexhaustion. I exhaled long and hard, finally releasing a breath as my lungs screamed for air. Matias was fine. I hadn’t hit him. I thought I did, but I hadn’t, and the relief I felt was so intense, so gratifying, that I almost collapsed to the ground.