“You live here?” Ethan asked before he could stop himself. The man let out a breathless laugh. “Yeah,” he said. “Something like that.” Hanging upside down in a hidden pocket of the mountain, framed by a waterfall and sunlight, he looked less like a threat now—and more like someone who had been alone for a very long time.
And suddenly, the house in the cliff made a lot more sense. Ethan steadied the vine while Nora worked the knot loose. It took a few careful seconds, but the tension finally gave. The man dropped the last short distance and landed hard on his backside with a surprised grunt.