Cold air breathed from the darkness.
Nathan lit a lantern.
“Morgan stays behind me.”
I started to object.
He looked at me.
“Please.”
That stopped me.
We entered.
The tunnel descended through black stone sparkling faintly with copper.
Water dripped.
Our footsteps echoed.
At the second level, we found crates.
Dozens.
Ore.
Victor had indeed been mining secretly.
At the third level, the tunnel divided.
I unfolded Samuel’s paper.
The survey numbers corresponded to markings carved into old support beams.
We followed them.
Then I heard it.
Tap.
Everyone stopped.
Tap.
Tap.
Three faint knocks from beyond a wall.
Nathan raised a hand.
We listened.
Nothing.
Then—
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
I ran forward.
“Morgan!”
I ignored him.
The tunnel ended at a collapsed section reinforced with newer timber.
Jonah inspected it.
“This isn’t a collapse.”
Nathan touched one beam.
“No.”
His voice became cold.
“Someone built this.”
A wall.
Not to keep the mine from falling.
To keep something behind it.
Jonah swung his hammer.
Once.
Wood cracked.
Again.
The beam split.
Men pulled boards away.
A smell came through.
Sweat.
Disease.
Human waste.
Nathan lifted the lantern.
Behind the barrier was a chamber.
Three men lay on the ground.
One did not move.
One raised an arm against the light.
The third was sitting against the wall.
Bearded.
Thin.
Hair hanging over his eyes.
My legs stopped working.
The lantern shook in Nathan’s hand.
The man lifted his face.
Even starved nearly beyond recognition, I knew the shape of his mouth.
The scar beneath his eyebrow.
The eyes that had looked at me across breakfast tables for six years.
My heart seemed to tear itself open.
He whispered one word.
“Morgan?”
I screamed.
Not from fear.
From something too enormous to name.
I fell beside him.
My hands touched his face.
Warm.
Alive.
Impossible.
“Samuel?”
He began crying.
So did I.
I struck his chest.
“You’re dead!”
“I know.”
“You’re dead!”
“Morgan—”
“I buried you!”
He pulled me against him.
And for several minutes, the mine disappeared.
Victor Caldwell disappeared.
The town disappeared.
Everything in the world vanished except the sound of Samuel Hale breathing against my shoulder.
My husband was alive.
Samuel had never reached the ravine.
Sheriff Rusk had stopped him outside Copper Ridge.
Rusk knew about the auction.
He took Samuel to Victor.
Victor demanded the deed.
Samuel refused.
Victor had him beaten.
Still he refused.
Then Samuel lied.
He said he had mailed the deed to federal authorities.
Victor panicked.
He needed time.
So Rusk killed a drifter, burned the body, placed Samuel’s wedding ring on it, and pushed the wagon into the ravine.
I pulled away from Samuel.
“Your ring.”
Samuel’s eyes filled with shame.
“They took it.”
Nathan crouched.
“Why keep you alive?”
Samuel laughed weakly.
“Because Victor realized I hadn’t mailed the deed.”
Nathan went still.
Samuel looked at me.
“I gave it to you.”
I stared.
“No.”
“The night I repaired your dress.”
My hand flew to the torn hem.
