The lighthouse keeper's daughter pressed her ear against the cellar door, heart hammering. Three knocks. Pause. Two knocks. The signal she'd been waiting for all winter.
He came back.
Sarah's fingers trembled as she lifted the heavy wooden bar. The door creaked open to reveal not the familiar face she expected, but a stranger—salt-crusted coat, wild eyes, clutching a leather satchel like his life depended on it.
"Where's Thomas?" she whispered.
The man's voice was barely audible above the storm. "Thomas sent me. Said to give you this." He thrust the satchel forward. "Said you'd know what to do."
Sarah's blood turned to ice. Thomas would never send a stranger. Never trust anyone else with their secret. Unless...
"What happened to him?"
The stranger glanced over his shoulder at the churning sea. "They found the cave, miss. Found everything." His grip tightened on the satchel. "Thomas said to tell you the tide turns at midnight. Said you'd understand."
Lightning illuminated his face, and Sarah saw the truth in his desperate eyes. Whatever was in that satchel, people had died for it. And now they'd come for her.
The lighthouse beam swept across the water, revealing dark shapes moving between the waves. Not driftwood.
Boats.
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