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CHAPTER ONE

Blackwolf Canyon, Montana, 5:34 am,

one hour before the summer solstice, June 21, 2010

THEtenaciously to the land

The high, rocky walls of the canyon seemed determined to hold to the chill of darkness; a razor-sharp wind swept down froh the scrub, its eerie sigh all that disturbed the silence

Sienna Cus shivered

There was a wildness to this place, but in these last ht pierced the bottom of the canyon, she could almost sense the land’s ancient, often bloody history

A heavy arm wrapped around her shoulders

“Here,” Jack Burden said, “let me warm you up”

Sienna forced a smile and stepped free of the expedition leader’s embrace

“I’m fine,” she said politely “Just excited About the solstice,” she added quickly, before Burden could pull his usual trick of turning whatever she said into a suggestive remark

No such luck

“I’ to do it, anyway “Lucky me Alone with you, in the dark”

They were hardly alone There were four others with theraduate students, an associate professor froirl Burden had described as his secretary From the way she looked at him, Sienna doubted if that was her real job, but that was fine with her; for theafter her

Except at certain moments

Like right now

Neverreht would be visible between the huge slabs of rock a third of the way up Blackwolf Mountain That a shaft of that light would stream down and illuminate a circle some holy o Never mind that this would be the first summer solstice in decades that outsiders had been allowed in the canyon at all, or that everything here was about to change because the land was about to be sold to a developer

All Jack Burden could think of was seducing her