Mag-log in"That bend caved in three years ago. Half of it's gone now. The bend's too tight for a full-size rig now. The road's barely two meters wide."Silas's voice came through the receiver, wind roaring on his end, rattling a sheet-metal door.Darcy's heart dropped. "A big truck can't get through?"Two meters and change. Heavy trucks had wide chassis and long bodies. There was no way to swing one through a bend like that. Force it, and you'd send the truck straight over the cliff.No big trucks meant only the small dump trucks, and small loads at that. One truck after another, each making the climb again. But noon the day after tomorrow was the smelter's final deadline. Small trucks were slow and carried little. Double the fuel and double the wear, and this run was guaranteed to lose money. Worse, it was snowing hard, and that half-collapsed old mountain road was probably sheeted with black ice. One wrong move and it was truck and driver both gone.But sh
Asher's coat hung open around her. She could smell fir and gunpowder on the wool, and feel the heat of him even with the table edge cold against her back. His fingers hovered over the bandage at her wrist. They were still shaking.Darcy stood circled in his arms, her back against the cold edge of the wooden table.She didn't shrink back, and she didn't drop her eyes from his."It was pitch-black down there. If they'd seen what happened to my hand, they wouldn't be paying people t
The moment the door clicked shut, the smell of blood and antiseptic was sealed inside the ward.Rowan's back had taken twenty-eight stitches. He'd lost too much blood. By the time Darcy reached the door, his eyes had already closed. His breathing was light and slow, his whole body sunk into the covers, too weak to move a finger. The doctor had said that as long as he didn't spike a fever tonight, he was out of danger for good.Darcy stood in the corridor, cold wind seeping through the window seams, making her shiver.Watching Rowan lying in that bed, she hadn't felt it. Now that the weight on her heart had eased an inch, every bone in her body started screaming.The old injury in her righ
Darcy lay flat on the edge of the broken iron plate, her whole face flushed red.Rowan was far heavier than she could lift, and his blood-soaked coat dragged against the broken grating. Her arms felt like they were about to pull out of their sockets. Her knees were jammed hard against the broken, rusted angle iron, her pant legs torn open, raw flesh grinding against cold metal.The hopper hanging below them was more than ten meters deep, its sloping steel walls giving off a cold, dark gleam. Around them, the broken grating creaked with every shift of weight. The sound tightened her stomach with every creak.If she kept pulling like this, the whole suspended plate would tip and take her down with it."Don't pull so hard. The plate's going to give!" Rowan hung in midair, his feet finding no purchase, his right leg jammed in the twisted bars, blood running down his pant leg."Darcy. Listen to me. There's airflow along the wall. This walkway connects t
The two truckloads of flour and cured meat from the old estate had all been stacked in the storehouse, and the workers were clustered around the stove, tearing into hot bread.Darcy stood at the dispatch room table, studying the coal transport route map by the light of a kerosene lamp.Asher stood behind her, coat hanging open, one hand on the back of her neck, rubbing slowly. His whole body radiated heat."Once the long-term contract with the smelter is signed, Mine Seven can move two hundred tons a day." Darcy tapped the rail junction on the map. "On the West River rail line, two days to the smelter."Asher glanced down at the map. "Every checkpoint along that route is Kingston now. The
Gunfire crackled on and off from the projector. The only other sound in the room was the occasional sharp pop from the firewood.Asher's big hand slid up under the hem of Darcy's sweater, kneading slow circles into her lower back. His head was down, his chin rubbing against the top of her head, his rough stubble scuffing her knit hat askew. His whole weight pressed down on her, heavy and comfortable, a low rumble of contentment in his chest.Darcy, softened by the heat of his body, was just about to close her eyes when the phone on the coffee table buzzed like a summons, rattling across the wood.She stirred, about to brace herself up off the sofa, but the fingers Asher had splayed across her lower back clamped down hard, pinning her back against his







