The gunfire lasted less than five minutes.

It felt like an hour.

Bullets tore through the walls of the Blackwater cabin.

Glass shattered.

Wood splintered.

The horses screamed somewhere beyond the smoke.

Nora crouched behind the stone foundation with Silas beside her.

Her mother’s hand was pressed against her shoulder.

“Don’t move,” Silas whispered.

Nora looked at him.

“I’m not afraid.”

“I know.”

Another shot struck the wall above them.

Silas glanced toward the window.

Then toward Nora.

“We need to get out the back.”

Her mother shook her head.

“There is no back.”

Silas looked at her.

“What?”

“The mine tunnel.”

Nora turned.

“There is a tunnel beneath the cabin?”

Her mother nodded.

“It connects to the old drainage shaft.”

Silas’s expression hardened.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I never thought they’d find us here.”

Nora almost laughed.

“They always find us.”

Her mother looked at her.

“I know.”

Silas pushed himself against the wall.

“I’ll cover you.”

Nora caught his sleeve.

“No.”

He looked down.

“You said you wanted me to trust you.”

“I do.”

“Then trust me when I tell you I can help.”

For a moment, Silas said nothing.

Then he nodded.

“All right.”

That one word meant more to Nora than any promise.

He wasn’t protecting her by keeping her behind him.

He was trusting her to stand beside him.

They moved.

Silas fired through the broken window.

Nora grabbed the lantern.

Her mother opened a trapdoor beneath the kitchen floor.

A dark staircase disappeared underground.

“Go.”

Nora descended first.

Silas followed.

Her mother came last.

The moment they reached the tunnel, Silas pulled the trapdoor shut.

The gunfire above became distant.

They walked through darkness.

The tunnel was narrow.

Water ran along the stone floor.

After several minutes, Nora stopped.

“Wait.”

Silas turned.

“What?”

She pointed.

A light.

Far ahead.

Someone was holding a lantern.

Her mother’s face went pale.

“No.”

Silas raised his rifle.

The light moved closer.

One step.

Then another.

A man’s silhouette appeared at the end of the tunnel.

Silas lifted the rifle.

“Stop.”

The man stopped.

He was old.

His beard was streaked with gray.

His coat was torn.

There was a scar above his right eye.

He slowly raised both hands.

“Silas Ash.”

Silas’s expression changed.

Nora had never seen him look so shocked.

The stranger smiled faintly.

“You grew up.”

Silas couldn’t speak.

Nora looked at her mother.

“Who is he?”

Her mother was crying.

“Nora…”

The stranger stepped forward.

“Hello, little one.”

Nora froze.

Nobody had called her that since she was seven.

Her father had.

She looked at the man’s face.

The shape of his eyes.

The crooked line of his mouth.

The faint scar beside his eyebrow.

Something inside her broke.

“No.”

The man stopped.

Nora shook her head.

“No.”

Silas lowered his rifle.

The stranger looked at him.

“I told you I would come back.”

Silas whispered,

“Daniel.”

Nora’s knees nearly gave out.

Her father.

Standing alive in front of her.

For fifteen years, she had mourned a grave that had never existed.

She stared at him.

“Are you real?”

The man’s eyes filled with tears.

“I wish I could say I wasn’t.”

Nora slapped him.

The sound echoed through the tunnel.

Nobody moved.

Her father touched his cheek.

Nora was crying now.

“You let me believe you were dead.”

“I know.”

“You let me grow up thinking you abandoned me.”

“I know.”

“You let me think my mother was dead.”

His eyes moved toward the woman beside her.

“I had no choice.”

Nora shook her head.

“Everyone says that.”

Her father looked at her.

“And sometimes it’s true.”

“No.”

Her voice broke.

“Sometimes people are just afraid to make the choice that hurts less.”

He lowered his eyes.

She stepped closer.

“Why?”

He took a breath.

“Because the men who wanted the land weren’t trying to kill me.”

Nora frowned.

“They were trying to get something from me.”

“What?”

He looked at Silas.

“Your father’s family.”

Silas stiffened.

“My father?”

Daniel nodded.

“They knew Elias Mercer had betrayed us.”

“But you said he was working for the mining company.”

“He was.”

Daniel’s voice became bitter.

“But the company was only the surface.”

Nora felt a chill.

“What was underneath?”

Daniel looked at her.

“A network of men who had been buying land through forged claims for decades.”

Silas’s jaw tightened.

“And my father found them.”

“Yes.”

“Then why was he killed?”

Daniel hesitated.

“Because he refused to become one of them.”

Silas looked away.

For the first time, Nora saw pain in his face that had nothing to do with himself.

Daniel continued.

“Your father helped me escape.”

Silas looked at him.

“You were supposed to be dead.”

“So were you.”

Silence.

Then Daniel reached inside his coat.

He removed a small leather pouch.

He handed it to Nora.

Inside was a silver pendant.

Nora recognized it immediately.

Her mother had worn the matching piece when Nora was a child.

“You kept this?”

Daniel nodded.

“I kept everything.”

Nora closed her fingers around it.

“Why come back now?”

Daniel looked toward the tunnel entrance.

“Because they found me.”

A distant sound echoed through the darkness.

Horse hooves.

Then voices.

Silas raised his rifle again.

“How many?”

Daniel shook his head.

“Enough.”

Nora looked at him.

“Who are they?”

Daniel’s expression darkened.

“The men who have been waiting fifteen years for me to die.”

He turned toward the tunnel.

“And now they know you are alive.”

Nora swallowed.

“Then what do we do?”

Daniel looked at his daughter.

For the first time, he smiled.

“We stop running.”

Above them, another explosion shook the cabin.

Dust fell from the ceiling.

Silas looked at Nora.

Nora looked back.

She had spent half her life searching for the truth.

Now the truth had found her.

And it had brought an army with it.