A Temptation of Angels Read Free Page A

the only way out, for the crashing of the house grew around her until she was certain the roof itself was falling. The heat and smoke was still overwhelming, and she was surprised every moment when the stairwell did not cave in on her completely.
    Time lost all meaning in the blackness floating above, below, and around the staircase. She focused only on the next step, pushing aside the feeling that she was descending into hell itself. To a place where there was no comfort, no safety. A place where she would be alone, if she were to survive at all.
    Then, all at once, a smooth expanse of floor stretched in front of her. She stepped onto it, relieved to find a stone wallto one side and a tunnel heading in the other direction. Whoever had made her escape route had made certain there would be no doubt which way she should go.
    She had not noticed a decrease in the smoke and heat on her way down the stairs, but as she made her way through the tunnel, her head began to clear. The air was cold and damp. She sucked it greedily into her lungs while trying to blink the soot away from her eyes. For a time, she walked into the dark without a thought as to where she was going, relieved simply to be away from the smoke of the house.
    It was only when she fell against the stone wall that she realized her exhaustion. It was a sudden, bone-deep fatigue that settled not only into her body but also into her consciousness. Her very will to go on. The pendant’s green light flickered in the darkness, and she stood straighter, worrying suddenly about being stuck in the tunnel with no light. It had never occurred to her that the light of the pendant might be limited, and she pushed off against the wall, continuing down the tunnel with as much speed as she could muster in her weakened state.
    She almost ran into the wall before seeing it.
    The tunnel ended abruptly, and she felt a surge of claustrophobic panic in the moments before she noticed the rough-hewn door set into the wall. Even with the pendant’s diminished light, she could see the simple iron handle, but tugging on it did no good. The door was locked.
    Her legs buckled, and she slid to the ground, back against the cold stone of the wall. The light dimmed further and she clasped her hand more tightly around it, willing it to stay lit. As she tugged on the pendant, it was the chain, cool against her neck that reminded her of the key.
    Forcing herself to stand, she reached inside her nightdress, pulling out the key her mother had used to open the hiding place in her wall. The key Helen had used to lock the door behind her.
    However dim the remaining light of the pendant, it was enough to light the keyhole. She pushed the key into it and turned, feeling a bolt disengage from somewhere inside the door. Letting the key drop back against the bodice of her nightdress, she reached for the handle, then hesitated, wondering what was on the other side.
    But she knew that she had no choice. She had to open the door and step through it. The only thing that awaited her at the other end of the tunnel was the surely burned ruins of her childhood home and the men who hunted her. She turned the handle and pushed.

THREE
     
    S he was well past surprise when the door swung wide, revealing another staircase. This one wound upward, a faint light coming from somewhere above. She allowed the pendant to fall back against her chest, relieved to have a free hand as she ascended the stairs. She didn’t stop climbing until the stairs abruptly ended, opening directly onto a rain-wet street, weak yellow light seeping from a streetlamp near the curb.
    Daring a look back, she took note of the wall through which she had emerged. The door was gone, the brick wall at the bottom of the staircase unbroken. She blinked a couple of times to be certain and in the end could only add the disappearing door to the catalog of unexplainable things that had happened this night.
    Turning her attention to the street, she glanced left