26 Chapter 26

On his head. For a breathless second, a second where Cass's heart vaulted up her ribcage and thudded against her teeth, she swore that was where Pearl was going to land the trowel. With a smack. If she did they were finished. Completely. Utterly. As it was Cass's breath screamed like a rusty gate hinge and the hole wasn't even half dug. Not in million years could she make it big enough for two.

"I said ... "

As the trowel thudded against the ground, Cass's throat dried to match the frost-laced earth she'd labored to crack. A fall into the black, half dug hole, swimming there beneath her, would be a welcome release, from everything. Him most of all. Especially now Pearl flew wailing along what Cass always thought of as Brother Kentigern's path, as if the devil was not only here, on the very boundary of the herb garden, but right behind her.