The little girl twitched suddenly.

"She's in pain—constant, excruciating pain." Luke pointed toward one of the IV bottles. "The doctors can give her morphine, but it's not enough. It doesn't dull the pain." He looked at the closed door. "Her family wants to help her move on. She could stay like this for days, weeks, but there's no hope. With our help, she'll move directly into the light. We can help her spirit pass through this life and into the next."

She was a child. He was asking me to take the life of a child. I stumbled back, my head shaking violently back and forth. "No, no, I can't do this!"

"If you close your eyes and concentrate, Colina, you can see that her spirit is on the brink." His voice was low and soothing. "You're not killing her. Her spirit is already almost to the other side. She just needs our help to get across."

"I can't..." My hands went to my face. "You want me to murder her." My cheeks were damp. I hadn't realized I was crying.

"It's not murder, it's compassion."

"But I'm doing this so I can gain power. I'm not doing this to help her. I'm doing this to avenge my family, to help you save Darla."

"Do your motives really matter? Her family has asked for our help. We're here. Does it really matter why? She needs to move on. By helping her, you're also helping yourself. Is that so wrong?"

Tears ran down my face. "I can't do this."

"Yes, you can. You're strong. Look at what you've survived. You lived when the rest of your family died. You're still here, and so is Darla. But for how long?" Anger blazed from his eyes. "How long until those men kill my sister? They killed Sarah, they murdered your mother, your father, and your brother." He unclenched his hands. The anger left his face, and he reached out to me. "We're the only ones who can help this girl and her family. They asked for our help. If we walk away, she'll continue to suffer. Her family can only sit and watch. Do you really want that?"

I didn't move.

He lowered his hands and said in a gentle voice, "Sit down." He gestured to a chair in the corner. "I'll get everything ready for the spell. You just sit down and keep breathing. Okay?"

He was talking to me as though he thought I was going to bolt out of the room at any minute. He wasn't wrong. Every cell in my body shouted at me to get out. To walk away. But instead, I sat in the chair.

I watched him move around the room. He placed five black candles at the foot of the bed.

I looked at the girl. Her name was Anna. I wondered if I'd ever be able to forgive myself for doing this. Killing, even in mercy, went against everything I believed in, against the very essence of the person I was.

Used to be a healer, a voice whispered in the corner of my mind. But I was no longer a healer. I had slowly morphed into a death dealer, and now I was about to become a killer.

Luke took a small volume bound in black leather from one of the bags and gestured for me to join him.

I didn't think I could get out of the chair. My hands were trembling so hard, I had to clench them together in front of me. It took every ounce of willpower I had to force myself to my feet. I have no choice; I have to do this. I took one step after another until I stood by Luke's side.

He pointed towards my neck. "The protection pouch. You need to take it off."

I hesitantly took off the pouch and handed it to him.

He took it, then leaned over, unzipped one of the duffel bags, and dropped it inside. I watched him pull out the small, brown paper bag the healer had given him earlier. He withdrew an orange plastic tube.

"Is that the devil's berries ointment?" I asked, my voice shaking.

He nodded, flipping it open. He leaned over me as he squeezed the tube. I watched as a thin line of white cream spread across the back of my left hand.

"Rub it in," he commanded.

I didn't move.

His voice was gentler this time. "Colina, I can't touch it. You have to rub it in."

I took a deep breath and began slowly rubbing the ointment into my skin. It felt cold and sticky against my fingers.

When I was finished, Luke handed me the book.

It vibrated slightly in my hands. He'd said books like this had power, had spells surrounding them. I looked down at the pages. They were yellowed with age. "I know some Latin, but mostly for plants. I can't read this," I said, holding it out to him.

He gently pushed the book back into my hands. "I'll help you pronounce the words."

Before I could answer, the door burst open. A woman rushed into the room, tears streaming down her face. In her hands she held a gold necklace with a tiny heart dangling from it.

"I forgot to give her this," the woman said, making her way to the bed. She fastened the necklace carefully around the girl's neck. "There. She loved my necklace. There's a picture of her inside from when she was a baby." The woman reached out and brushed the hair from Anna's face. "They said you won't cause her any pain. Promise me my baby won't be in anymore pain."

"I promise," Luke said, his voice low.

The woman's eyes were bleak. "I don't know what else we can do. The doctor gave her as much morphine as he could this time. She's unconscious, but I know she still feels the pain. Her body twitches, her face shows it." The woman's voice came out in a sob. "She's in so much pain. We just want it to stop."

She leaned over and kissed Anna on the forehead. "Goodbye, my angel. Mommy will see you again. One day I'll be with you on the other side. Wait for me in peace, my love." With those words the woman took a step away from the bed.

She started toward the door, but then stopped and turned back toward the bed, reaching out as though she wanted to move forward and embrace the girl again. But instead, she shook her head, and another sob escaped from her lips. "You promise there's no pain?" she whispered, looking at us, her eyes wide and full of...what was that emotion?

I recognized the look. I'd seen it enough times in the mirror since my family's death.

It was grief.

Luke looked over at Anna. "I promise she will have no more pain."

The woman shifted her eyes between us and then wordlessly walked out of the room. She didn't look back as the door closed behind her.

Luke turned to me. "Her mother wants us to do this. She's begging us to end Anna's pain."

He was right. A part of me wanted desperately to get up and walk out the door, but instead I stood there, ready to do whatever he told me. I couldn't find the words to answer, so I just nodded and looked down at the book.

Luke came to my side and read the first word. I repeated each one, trying to articulate them the exact way Luke did.

I focused on my pronunciation, not on what I was doing. If I stopped and thought about what was about to happen, I might not be able to continue.

Minutes passed. My body started to get hot, feverish. I felt a warmth rising up through my limbs, crawling slowly up my neck toward my face. Something's not right. I felt strange. The room suddenly seemed too bright, and the words began to blur on the page. I blinked and blinked again, trying to clear my vision, but the words began to move, sliding down the page. They inched toward the edge of the book and, ever so slowly, began to fall like a small waterfall onto the floor. Where they landed, a pool of black ink formed. It expanded as more words fell and began to quiver. Before my very eyes, the ink pool stretched and changed. It morphed into the shape of a long, thin insect, like a caterpillar.

I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. Am I hallucinating? The black caterpillar rose up onto its legs, crawled across the floor, and disappeared under the bed. I turned toward Luke. Did he see it? Was it real, and if it was, what kind of spell was this that changed words into bugs?

Luke's eyes never left the book. He repeated another word, and I tried to open my mouth and copy what he said, but nothing came out. I opened my mouth again, but my throat was suddenly incredibly dry—so dry the words couldn't escape. My throat constricted, and with the loss of breath I began to panic. My heart pounded in my chest. Fear raced through me, and pain simultaneously burst out from the center of my forehead. It spread, white hot, through my skull. It was so intense I dropped the book and fell to my knees. I instinctively cradled my head. Gray shadows edged in, and my vision blurred.

That's when I heard the laughter.

I looked up, seeking the source of the sound. Anna was standing by the bedside. No, wait, that's not her. It can't be her. I looked back at the bed. She was there, hooked up to the machines. I could hear them beeping.

The laughter again. My eye swung back to the girl standing by the bed. It was Anna, but she was strong and healthy. Her hair hung in red curls down her back. She gave me a wide smile and tried to step away from the bed but stopped. A frown crossed her face. She seemed unable to move, frozen in that one spot. That's when I noticed a glowing, silver cord between the two bodies. It ran from the center of the healthy Anna into the middle of the bed-stricken Anna.

The smiling Anna tried to move again, and as she did the silver cord flexed and stretched but then bounced back, intact.

"Colina, can you hear me?" Luke's voice came from somewhere far away.

I tried to answer, but no sound left my lips.

"You have to help her move on. Do you see the connection? The cord stretching between Anna's body and spirit, the cord of life?"

"I see it." I shouted the words, but I had no idea if he could hear me or not.

Luke's voice sounded urgent. "You have to sever that cord in order for Anna to move on. Look inside yourself, to the place where your power is hidden, burning like a banked fire waiting for you to blow it to life. Do you see the fire?

It was there, a small flame burning in the darkness of my mind.

Luke's voice whispered across the darkness. "You need to make it higher, hotter."

I concentrated on the flame inside me. It wavered slightly before sparking up and expanding. With it, my body began to burn. The fire slid up and down my limbs, and flames flickered off my skin.

"Now send it toward the cord. Focus on the connection and burn it through," Luke's voice commanded.

The flames grew hotter, and I became alive with fire. It pumped through my heart, ran through my veins, fueled my blood. On instinct I reached up and was astonished when flames shot from my fingertips.

Orange and red fire encircled the silver cord. It burned brighter and brighter until the cord was sizzling. Finally, it broke.

Anna's spirit was free.

The healthy Anna leaped away from the bed. I heard a loud shout of excitement and singing filled the room.

Without warning the world spun around, and I felt myself being dragged down against my will. I shouted in fright as something pulled me into a dark abyss. When my vision focused, I found myself standing at the mouth of a great stretch of darkness. Within it, things called out to me.

I was in that place again. Oblivion.

***