Luke got up from the table and relit the rosemary. He walked around the room, waving it back and forth again. When he was done, he put the rosemary bundle into the black bowl. He sat back down and held out his hands.

I put my hands in his, and once again he said the opening prayer. Then he lifted his fingers and put them on the planchette. "Think of your family."

I closed my eyes and brought back the memories of my family. When I opened my eyes, I slowly forced my trembling fingers back onto the pointer. I took a deep breath and nodded.

Luke asked the room, "Spirit, are you there?"

The pointer moved slowly to YES.

"Spirit, do you have a message for us?"

The candles flames flickered.

Here we go again. I braced myself. Any minute the planchette would start doing wild figure eights and crazy humming would fill the room.

The pointer moved around the board and then stopped. As it did, I noticed a light in the corner of the room. A shimmering light, fading in and out. Shadows from the candles?

"Colina." The word was but a whisper on the wind.

I sucked in a breath in shock. My voice cracked with emotion. "Mama?" I was up out of my seat and halfway across the room.

It was my mother. The outline of her body floated in the corner; I could see through her to the bookshelf on the wall.

"Mama," I whispered.

My mother's gaze focused on me. "Colina, you're alive." Her head turned from left to right. "Your father...? Your brother...?"

A tear slid down my face. I forced myself to say the words aloud, "Dead. Mama, they're both dead."

She let out a loud, anguished cry. "No. He took them. Where are they? Why can't I see them?"

"Mama, we need your help. Do you know who hurt you? Do you know how to find them?" I wanted to find the strangers who hurt my family so badly. I wanted them to pay for what they'd taken away from me. I looked at Luke. "They have Luke's sister. He needs to find her before they hurt her, like they hurt you."

"He took them from me. He took them from me," my mother sobbed in anguish.

"Mama, can you help us?" I begged.

My mother's image flickered in and out. Her sobs grew louder, and the windows shook.

Luke was beside me. He grabbed my arm. "She can't help us. She's too far gone in her grief. It's all she can focus on. She can't help us find Darla."

"But if I talk to her..."

He shook his head. "Her spirit might stay like this forever, focused on her loss. She may eventually move past it, but how long will that take? Years? Centuries?"

Centuries. My mother's spirit, forced to roam the ether sea for centuries? My stomach dropped at the thought. I took a step forward, my arms outstretched. She had to move on. I couldn't handle the thought of my mother stuck forever in the abyss of in between.

"Mama, you've got to go to the light. Mama, do you see a light?"

A crack of lightning lit up the dark sky outside. A few seconds behind it came a loud roar of thunder.

My mother looked at me, her eyes filled with sadness. "Colina..."

"Yes, Mama. I can hear you." Tears streamed down my face.

Panic filled my mother's face. "Colina!"

"Mama, I'm here. I'm right here."

My mother turned away from me, and her image flickered. When she turned back, fear blazed from her eyes. "Baby girl, listen to me, they're coming for you. They're right outside."

Another crack of lightning lit the room, and my mother's image started to disappear, but her voice rang out, "Run, baby girl. Do you hear me? Run!"

"Mama!" My hands reached for where her spirit had vanished but only caught empty air.

Luke grabbed me. "We have to go."

I didn't care about anything but seeing my mother again. "Mama," I sobbed.

"We have to get out of here!" Luke's arms circled my waist, and he dragged me from the living room. He pulled me into Pagan's bedroom and slammed the door.

I was crying. My whole body shook as tears streamed down my face.

Luke opened the bedroom window, then picked me up and carried me out and over the windowsill. He lowered me gently to the ground beside him.

I was frozen, unable to move or think. Images of my mother flashed through my mind—the gun aimed at her head, the bullet tearing into her skull, her blood bursting against the wall behind her. Those lifeless eyes staring into me as she fell to the ground.

"Mama," I whispered.

The slap came hard and fast across my cheek.

My hand came up to cradle my face. I stood stunned.

Luke pulled me hard toward him. "Colina, we have to get out of here. There are men. I saw them out the window when the lightning flashed. Three, maybe four of them, advancing on the house." He let me go and looked frantically around. "We need to get out of here. Now."

The wind blew my hair around my face. Rain fell hard from the sky. The men who'd killed my family, Macaven's men, were inside Pagan's house. The last thing I wanted to do was run. I wanted to rip out their eyes. I wanted to see them bleed, and I wanted them to die.

He pointed into the dark. "I know this area. We can go across the field. Find a place to hide."

I heard crashing and loud banging from inside the house and turned back. I had no plan in mind. I was just filled with rage. Anger I could no longer control took over.

Luke grabbed me and shoved me in the opposite direction, away from the house.

The sounds from within grew louder. I struggled against him. I didn't want to run—I wanted to stay and fight.

"What are you doing?" he grunted, trying to control me.

"Those men killed my family!"

"It's suicide to go against them now. You haven't finished the rituals. You have no power."

Somewhere through the red haze pounding in my head, Luke reached me. He was right. I didn't want to die senselessly. I wasn't even sure these were the right men. Had they even had a hand in my family's murders, or were they just Macaven's lackeys? I needed to think, to plan, to make sure I made the right people pay—which meant that right now, I needed to stay alive.

I followed him, stumbling as we hurried across uneven ground.

Glass broke behind us. I turned and watched lights crisscross through the overgrown field.

Luke's voice was low but urgent. "They're coming. We have to hurry."

More lights appeared, but these were colorful, and they moved above the ground. They floated up into the sky and swirled around. Then in a flash they streaked across the night—in our direction.

Luke let go of my hand. I stopped next to him.

He shoved me forward. "Colina, run."

"I'm not leaving you."

"Run," he demanded. "Get moving!"

He had magic. I could see spirits, talk to them, but that was all I could do. I didn't have any way to protect myself, not yet. No way could I help him in a fight.

They were coming. Luke was going to stand against them, and there was nothing I could do to help.

Lightning illuminated Luke's face for a split second, and in his eyes, I saw the same fear that was present during the first ritual.

"Run." This time he pleaded. On an impulse, I reached up, touched his cheek, and then rose onto my tiptoes to kiss him. His lips were soft against mine. I forced myself to move away. He turned to face the house. His hands clenched into fists.

I couldn't help him. I turned and looked into the darkness.

I ran.