On Edge

By Raelyn Drake

Trevor and Micah set out on what they think will be a fun day of rock climbing and hiking. But after Micah takes a bad fall, injuring himself in the process, the trip is off to a bad start. Things take another turn for the worse when Trevor gets bitten by a snake. The friends know they need to act fast...before their adventure turns deadly.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Jan 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781541547353

Raelyn Drake

Raelyn Drake enjoys chai tea, tai chi, and coming up with more than two items for lists. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with her husband and rescue corgi mix, Sheriff.

Book preview

For every one of my wonderful grandparents

CHAPTER ONE

TREVOR

It’s got to be around here somewhere, Trevor Reyes said. He brushed a strand of hair out of his eyes as he bent down to look under a rock overhang.

His friend Micah Lam stood up from where he was searching in the bushes nearby. Then where is it, Trev? We’ve looked everywhere down here, Micah said, gesturing to the surrounding bushes and rocks and the canyon walls that towered above them on both sides.

Micah and Trevor had gotten to the state park early for a day of geocaching and rock climbing. They’d spent the cool hours of the morning hiking a couple of miles through the surrounding desert to reach Gold Shadow Canyon. They’d used the GPS on Micah’s phone to search for the small boxes that previous hikers had hidden around the park. The treasure hunt aspect of trying to locate the boxes was half the fun, but it was also cool to see what items people had left. With geocaching, you could take any of the loot you found in the box, but you had to leave behind something of your own so that it was a fair trade.

The climb in through the north end of the canyon had been easy but had taken several hours. The stunning rock formations and cave pools had totally been worth it, and they had found four of the five geocaches they had hunted for.

There was still no sign of the fifth, but Trevor was reluctant to give up looking for it.

Remember the one we almost missed last month? he said. It was a hollowed-out brick that you had to pull out of the wall. Or that one we found on vacation last year that looked like a seashell? Some people are really good at hiding these things.

Yeah, I guess, Micah said, but the other four we found this morning were all just normal geocache boxes, nothing fancy. He checked the geocache app on his phone. According to the spot marked on the map, it should be right around here. The comments all say that no one has seen this cache for months. Someone probably stole it.

You’re probably right, Trevor said with a sigh. "And I am excited to try that climbing route."

Micah checked his watch. We should be good on time. It’s eleven now. I just need to make it back before my parents get home so I can change out of my climbing gear and back into school clothes. Otherwise they’ll figure out pretty quick that I wasn’t at school today.

Trevor laughed. Dude, you’re the one who convinced me to skip class in the first place.

Doesn’t mean my parents are cool with it, Micah said. And you’re the one who was stressed out about today’s chemistry quiz, or I wouldn’t have suggested this outing.

Fair enough, Trevor chuckled, grabbing his backpack.

C’mon, Micah said as he walked backward toward the canyon wall, the climbing route is over this way.

I’m coming, I’m coming, Trevor said. Then he noticed an odd-shaped rock near his foot that seemed out of place. On the off-chance that it might be concealing the missing geocache, he kicked it over—

Trevor jumped back with a startled shout as something darted out from under the rock. Half a second later, he realized that it was just a tiny lizard.

Micah was practically doubled over, laughing at Trevor’s overreaction to the small desert animal. And once Trevor got over his initial scare, he couldn’t help but join in.

* * *

Trevor busied himself with the final safety checks before they started their climb. Micah would go up the cliff first, securing the rope as he climbed. Trevor would be below, standing at the bottom of the canyon holding the other end of the climbing rope. The rope was fed through a metal braking device, so that if Micah fell, Trevor could stop him from falling all the way down.

Meanwhile, Micah adjusted his helmet and made sure his harness was correctly attached to the rope. He began his climb, and for the first couple minutes they were both quiet.

Suddenly Micah cleared his throat. Once we get home, he said with what sounded like forced casualness, I think I’m going to ask Peyton to the homecoming dance.

Trevor looked up at Micah with an amused half smile, wondering what had brought about this sudden confession. For real?

Or is that a terrible idea? Micah asked. Do you think she’ll say yes? Am I kidding myself?

Trevor snorted. You and Peyton have been in love since freshman year. It’s about time one of you made a move.

He