Undercut

The key stays warm. The door stays shut.

Ivy Sturgill has kept the No. 6 mine from being sealed. She still hasn't brought Russ Tackett home.

Now the road up the mountain has fallen away, the fog is reaching the houses, and an old miner has entrusted her with the key to the lamp house. His instructions are simple: daylight, witnesses, and the truth.

Getting there will be harder.

The company still intends to close the mine. The county has spent sixty years learning what not to say. And Ivy's search for a missing man is tangled with the history of a vanished house—and the woman whose name she has promised to find.

The creatures Ivy loves are keeping watch. But she can no longer assume they agree on what it means to keep her safe. One remembers her forgiveness for a night she hasn't lived through. Another would stop her at the gate again, even if she begged him to let go.

Ivy wants their hands beside hers when she turns the key.

She needs to know they'll let her open the door.

Undercut is Book Three of The Reclamation, an adult Gothic Appalachian why-choose romance with nonhuman love interests, buried secrets, and a continuing story. Begin with Overburden, followed by Firedamp.