“We’ll get you out,” she said. “I’m sorry, the forcing went wrong.”
No shit.
“It was the first time I ever tried it,” she continued. “I guess it could have been worse.”
“For who?” Kal croaked.
Dark wings unfurled against the sky, blotting out the moon. She thought it was a Sinn and resigned herself to death yet again. Then she saw the gold-green eyes of the angel.
“There’s an old mine in the hillside,” he said. “Maybe we can find some digging tools there.”
The cypher nodded. “You stay with her.”
She returned a few minutes later with a pick. She didn’t waste time talking, just started hacking away at the hard-packed earth. The pressure eased around Kal’s shoulders, then her chest. She gulped in a full breath, dizzy with relief.
The pick rose and fell in a steady rhythm. When her right hand came free, Kal flexed her fingers, wincing at the pins and needles. The angel took a turn digging, and soon they were hauling her out of the hole, covered in red dirt.
“Nothing’s broken?” the cypher asked anxiously. “I really am sorry I lost you. But the White Foxes were about to force you someplace else, and trust me, this is still the better option.”
Kal hadn’t known that. She suppressed a shudder. “I believe you. And I’m okay. Just stiff.”
Now that she was free of her earthen tomb, Kal took a more serious look around. She realized with a sinking heart that she was back where the whole awful thing had started—Clear Creek Mine.
“What are your names?” she asked. “I don’t even know who you are.”
“Cathrynne Rowan,” the cypher said with a smile.
Kal had been a bit afraid of her, but she had an honest face. Her eyes were kind, not dead like Ash and Kane.
“Gavriel Morningstar,” the angel said. “From Kirith.”
Morningstar . . . Kal froze. Everyone knew that name. He was the Light-Bringer. “You’re an archangel,” she stammered.
Not even seraphim came to Pota Pras except to conduct the census. She never thought she’d speak to an angel, let alone the son of Valoriel himself. Funny, she thought with bitterness, how everyone suddenly has such a great interest in me.
“I believe the ley brought us here for a reason.” Gavriel Morningstar fixed her with an intent gaze that made it impossible to look away. “Show us where you found the kaldurite. Once the source becomes public, you’ll lose your value to the witches. Levi will stop hunting you. You’ll be free to live your life.”
All that was probably true, though she took the “free to live your life” part with a good dose of cynicism.
“And if I say no?”
“We won’t coerce you,” Cathrynne said quickly. “I promise.”
“But we can’t just let you go,” Gavriel added. “It’s too dangerous. I will take you to my sister, Suriel. She can protect you for now.”
That option did not appeal to Kal at all. She believed they meant well—certainly more than the others hunting her. But she instinctively distrusted anyone who wasn’t human. Which now apparently included Levi, the one person she’d thought was on her side. The betrayal still hurt.
Kal sighed. “And if I say yes?”
“Then you’ll take us to the exact place you found the stones,” he said. “Once that’s confirmed, you can do as you like.”
A sandy-haired figure appeared behind the archangel, lounging against a boulder with his ankles crossed.
“Take the deal,” Durian advised. “But don’t be stupid. Get more stones while you’re down there. Then lose these two in the tunnels.”
Kal pretended to think it over. “I am sick and tired of running,” she said to Gavriel with the right note of reluctance. “And maybe you’re right about the ley bringing us here, because the source is in there.” She pointed to the abandoned entrance of Clear Creek Mine.
Cathrynne Rowan drew a deep breath. “How far down is it?”
