Kate stopped with her hand on the cellar doors. If Corvan caught her inside his workshop, he would be furious.

But she couldn't turn away.

Ever since returning from the Fenwood hospital with no memory of how she was injured, or what had transpired since she fell up on the Castle Rocks, Kate had been drawn back to the cellar beneath Corvan’s home. Whenever she passed by the outside ramp leading down to the workshop, the star-shaped scar in the center of her palm would throb.

More than once Kate asked Corvan if she might have received the strange, seven-pointed mark from a hot piece of metal in the workshop, but he kept insisting that her injury was from being lost in the coal mine.

Pushing one of the doors open, just enough to squeeze through, Kate took a deep breath, and slipped inside.

The shaft of sunlight from behind her cut the room neatly in half and fell on the far wall and the doors of the dumbwaiter shaft that connected the cellar workshop to the kitchen above. Normally Corvan would use the small elevator to pull himself out of the cellar after securing the door from the inside with a heavy wooden bolt but this time his mother had sent him away on an errand.

As soon as Kate’s eyes adjusted to the dim light, she heading to the stone workbench. Corvan would shake the whole house whenever he was home, but she found only a few scattered tools, none of which were heavy enough to explain the deep thumps Kate and Corvan's mother were hearing upstairs. She examined each of the screwdrivers hanging on a section of peg wall but none of the tips looked anything like her burn.

Turning around, she looked past the folding card table in the center of the room to rows of shelves on the north side of the cellar. Assorted pieces of metalwork Corvan's father had created were lined up on the shelves. Maybe her hand had been burnt by one of those.

As she passed by the table, a momentary pulse warmed the scar in her hand. She stopped and checked out a miner's headlamp sitting next to an old wooden crate. As she put it down, her hand brushed the side of the box. Her palm prickled in anticipation as she caressed the worn handle of the wooden box.

An oilskin raincoat lay just inside and when Kate touched the smooth fabric, a memory came rushing back. Corvan's father had been wearing this coat when he carried her out of the mine. Was the warmth she felt in her hand a connection to the person who had died saving her life?

Slipping her hand under the folds of the coat, a rush of heat passed through the scar, up her arm and into her chest. The air around her drew close and hot. Her finger brushed something solid, a green glow pierced the thick cloth. A glow in the shape of a seven-sided star!

The cellar door banged open, and sunlight poured into the room, washing away the glow as Corvan strode toward her. The fierce look on his face backed Kate away from the table.

"What are you doing in here?" he demanded.

"Neera asked me to bring her groceries up so she can be ready for the Halloween kids." He frowned and Kate bit her lip. Corvan did not like her using his mother's first name, even though his mother asked her to use it whenever they chatted in the evenings.

The death of Corvan's father had affected all three of them but now Kate was caught between Neera's desire to only talk about her husband and Corvan's unwillingness to talk at all.

Corvan dropped the paper bag on the table, removed his sunglasses and squinted against the dim light in the cellar.

Kate pointed at the bag. "I can take those upstairs for you. Did Mrs. Barron give you any free Halloween chocolate?"

"I never asked,” he said, “I'm not a kid anymore."

Her smile faded. "I never said you were."

"And I told you before I don't let anyone in my workshop. This is my room, yours is upstairs." Corvan circled the table as if to drive her away, but Kate stepped over in front of the bank of shelves. She didn't want to leave the cellar until she could see what was under the raincoat.

Picking a bent piece of metal off a shelf, she held it up to the light from the doors. "Are these what you are banging on down here all the time?"

Corvan took the metal from her hand and stuck it back on the shelf. "Those belong to my dad. I don't work with metal. I'm a coal miner now."

Kate nodded. After the accident, the Red Creek mine helped Corvan's mom out by giving Corvan a position at the mine, assuring her that the men would look out for him. At that same time, Corvan’s mother also invited Kate to live at their house until Kate could find a place of her own. Kate hoped this might give her more time with Corvan, but instead, he decided to give up his room and move into the cellar.

"Sometimes it sounds like you're trying to dig a tunnel to China down here." Kate smiled at Corvan but only received an intense frown in return.

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"What I do down here is my own business."

"Since when did you start keeping secrets from me?" Kate glanced at the box on the table. "I thought we were friends."

"Everyone has secrets, even you."

"No, I don't. At least none that I remember.”

"How about the gifts your dad sent you? You told everyone at school that your pink pencil case was a birthday present from him, but your mom said she took you to the city when you bought it. You made up that story so everyone would think your dad is rich."

Kate stared at him. It was true. She had bought things for herself whenever she saved enough money, but it was not to prove her father was rich. She just wanted others to believe someone actually cared about her. Tears filled her eyes and she let her gaze fall to the floor.

Corvan drew close. "I'm sorry, Kate. I'm not feeling great today, and the sunlight makes my head hurt."

Kate looked into his eyes. The kindness from when she woke up in the hospital shone briefly through, but he was working hard to keep his feelings in check. Back then he sat for hours by her hospital bed holding her scarred hand, so why was he having such a hard time liking her now?

Corvan put a hand awkwardly on her shoulder. "Kate, I need to tell you . . . "

Footsteps on the ramp leading into the cellar cut him off. Corvan quickly let go of her and turned away as a long shadow fell into the room and Corvan's mother entered.

"Kalian, I need those groceries right away, and I also . . . Oh, hello, Kate. I didn't know you were down here."

Kate saw the embarrassment rise on Corvan's face. After moving into their home, Kate discovered Corvan's mother would often call him Kalian, and she told Kate the name meant 'precious one'. Corvan didn't want his mother to use that name when anyone else was around. He told his mother he was a mine worker now, not a child.

Neera picked up the grocery bag with one hand, and Kate marveled again how someone so strong and tall had ended up with a son so short.

"I forgot to tell you that I used up the last of the salt," Neera said.

Corvan shoulders sagged, and his mother smiled. "I won't send you back. I can pick some up on my way out of town, but I need to talk to you before I go."

Kate caught the urgency in her voice and watched the irritation tighten across Corvan's face. Another argument about Corvan's job at the mine was inevitable and Kate did not want to be in the same room with them when it happened. The money Corvan brought home was paying the bills, but Neera spent every shift worrying about her son's safety. Giving Corvan a sympathetic glance, Kate headed for the cellar doors.

Neera stepped into her path and held out the paper bag. "Can you put this on the table upstairs? I finished baking the bread, so feel free to help yourself."

Kate took the heavy bag and trotted up the ramp outside the cellar. Family arguments always brought the unhappiness of her childhood back. At least Corvan's mom held their family together in a difficult time and didn't just run away like Kate’s mother had.

Elbowing her way in through the back porch door, Kate slid the paper sack onto the kitchen table. The aroma of the fresh bread laid out in neat rows made her stomach rumble. Cutting herself a thick slice she took a bite.

Neera's voice rose through the open door of the dumbwaiter shaft.

"There's no future for you at the mine. You need to go back to school."

"There's no future for me at that school either, and besides, we need the money," Corvan replied, anger tinging his voice.

"Then you should find a job in Fenwood," Neera shot back.

"I won't work in the city. I hate the lights. I belong underground, just like Dad."

"I won't let you throw your life away in a coal mine!" Neera stated.

Corvan mumbled something Kate couldn't catch but Neera’s irritated voice came back clearly. "That’s the way it has to be. I told you months ago that I need to be in the city this weekend and you would have to stay at the mine. I will not let the neighbors start talking about you and Kate being out here by yourselves."

The irritation in Corvan's voice came through clearly. "There are things I need to do here this weekend. Can't you find someone else to take Kate while you are away? Why did you insist she live with us anyway?"

"You already know why just like everyone else in town. Her mother ran off with her new boyfriend just after you and Kate went missing. Nobody knows where she went, so she has no family left."

"Well, she's not part of ours."

The words cut into Kate's heart and brought fresh tears to her eyes. Going to the dumbwaiter she quietly closed the door and finished her slice of bread.

Neera’s voice slipped past the closed door.

"I hope you're still not blaming Kate for your father's death. He didn't go back only because she got hurt in the mine. The boss at the mine had been telling him to finish sealing up that shaft, but he insisted he needed to wait until you and Kate were found."

Kate winced. The nurses at the hospital told her Corvan and his father brought her in from Red Creek Mine after she was struck on her head by falling rock. That very night Corvan's father went back to seal the section of the mine in which she had been found, and the mine shaft had collapsed on him.

The cellar doors banged shut. As Corvan's mother passed the kitchen window, she was wiping tears from her eyes. Kate sprinted up the stairs and quietly shut herself inside Corvan's old bedroom.

Outside the setting sun was lighting up the ring of rocks around the top of the hill with its soft autumn glow. The Castle Rock, as she and Corvan name it, was their favorite place to play when they were younger. Now their special place lay ignored as Corvan either worked at the mine or down in the cellar.

A few times, when the cellar fell silent, Kate had seen him go out to the Castle Rock long after midnight, slowly unwinding a ball of twine he tied off to the porch below. He would head out to the western slope of the hill, counting knots in the string as he walked along.

The last time, as he wound the knotted cord back up, she could see his discouragement as he shuffled along. She rapped on the window and waved, but he only sped up and vanished into the shadows at the base of the house to finish winding in his twine. Seeing the knotted line slipping out of sight was like watching a lifeline being pulled away to leave her drowning in solitude.

A muted thump from the cellar shook the bed frame. Another series of tremors tickled the tips of her toes through the worn wooden planks. Corvan had returned to his project. Shortly before midnight his ride would arrive, and he would be leaving for the weekend and locking up the cellar.

She had to find some way to see what was under that raincoat.