The blue light from the lantern had long ago burned out. We lay together in the dark holding each other tight. My head resting on his chest. Listening to his heartbeat was so incredibly soothing. I just laid there enjoying the moment, wanting so desperately to forget everything else that was going on around us. I imagined what it would have been like if we had met at a different time and a different place.

What if we meet not as healer and death dealer, but just as two people that bumped into each other one day on the street. I allowed myself to daydream this alternative reality where we came together, fell in love, and had a normal life. One day married, one day having children of our own. One day living in that converted barn that Luke's cousin Pagan built for us. For a moment I just allowed myself to drift and float around in this impossible glorious daydream. But that's all I allowed myself, one moment of silly what ifs.

If my family was still alive there was no way in any circumstance Luke being a death dealer would have been okay with my family or my clan. A relationship between a healer and death dealer would have been forbidden. I was no longer a healer. I was something else entirely different now, morphing into possibly something monstrous, on this road to completing the last ritual. Once I went through with the third ritual and gained the dark magic, I would be one of the dark mages, a death dealer, a person feared by everyone. This was my reality and the weight of all of it settled back onto my shoulders.

Those men had come after us. It was the second time they found us. They were determined to do what? Capture us? Kill us? When Luke faced them last night, I was so certain they would kill him. But he had somehow fought them and survived.

"Luke, how did you get away?" I asked.

He was silent for a long moment and then he said, "I wouldn't have survived if not for your mother."

"My mother?" I gasped in disbelief.

"Her spirit came to me, and she helped me. When they had me overpowered your mother's voice suddenly shouted out your name and then a brilliant blast of white light exploded around me, a light so strong it pushed back the banshees attacking me. It was a distraction that allowed me to slip away." His arms tightened around me. "Without her help, I'd never have escaped. Your mother must have had extremely powerful magic when she was living."

"She is...she was one of the strongest healers my clan had ever seen," I whispered. My mother's spirit was still out there, reeling in despair over the deaths of my father and my brother. When I finally found the men responsible for my family's death and killed them, would that bring her the peace she needed to cross over to the other side?

His hands began stroking my hair. "When I was looking for you, there was something that drew me to that well, but it wasn't your mother's spirit..."

"Sarah," I whispered into the dark. "The girl murdered at the lake, she was in the well with me. But there was something else..." I shuddered at the memory. "Something down there with me. It tried to drown me. Sarah saved me."

He pulled me closer. "You're safe now."

He didn't seem surprised by what I said. Was it normal to have fucked up evil spirit things inside wells? This new world I was now a part of was terrifying. "Where do we go now?" I whispered into the darkness. Macaven's men were out there. We couldn't go back to Pagan's house.

"We'll find somewhere safe to stay," he said.

"And your sister?" Darla had been taken three days ago, and the dark moon was only two days away. We were running out of time. If they were saving her for a sacrifice, we had to act soon.

Luke sighed. "I haven't given up hope." We lay there in silence for a long while and then he softly said, "Close your eyes. See if you can get some sleep. It'll be light soon."

What else could we do but wait for dawn? Hopefully, some brilliant idea that would help us locate Darla. I closed my eyes and focused on the warmth of Luke's body pressed against mine.

***

A whisper disturbed the small peace that sleep had granted me—a whisper that washed into my dreams and took them over.

"There is something you need to see." Unconsciously I recognized the spirit's voice—Sarah. She saved my life in the well and earned my trust. I relaxed, following where she led, and found myself in a moonlit forest.

A loud crack sent me sprawling to the ground. Not a gunshot. A tree branch snapping? Another crack, this time closer. I pushed myself out of the dirt and ran. Ignoring the branches tearing at my face and hair, I kept running. My chest burned, my heart pounded in my ears, but I pushed on.

Just when I thought I couldn't go a moment longer, the dark waves of the lake glittered in the moonlight. I'd made it. There were cabins nearby—cabins with people in them who might help me.

Finding help was my only thought. I started to run faster but then tripped and fell. I scrambled up, but it was too late, people now surrounded me on all sides.

How many were there? A dozen? How had they found me? A flashlight switched on and pointed straight in my face. I raised a hand to shield my eyes, and rough hands grabbed me. Before I could protest, a body pinned me to the ground. I opened my mouth to scream, but they stuffed something into it.

The light turned away, and someone crouched down next to me. A face appeared inches from mine. A small, dark man with cruel eyes came close, his foul breath washing over me.

I tried to scoot away, but I couldn't move. The heavy weight on top of me made it hard to breathe.

The small man whispered, "Now, now, no screaming. We wouldn't want to wake anyone. They might ruin all our fun." He stroked my cheek, and I recoiled as far as I could. "Don't worry. It will all be over soon. No use fighting and making it harder on yourself."

The man stood up and turned toward whoever was holding the flashlight. As he turned, I saw the silhouette of a long, thick rope. He gestured with the rope toward the dark lake. "Let's get her ready."

When he turned back, the light bathed him full in the face. Insanity blazed from his eyes. Terror filled me, and I began fighting desperately to escape.

He jerked me to my feet, forcing my arms behind my back and binding my hands together. The rope dug into my flesh.

I struggled, and as I did, someone hit me on the side of the head. Dizzy, I slumped forward, half conscious. I was barely aware when they tied my legs together. A slap in the face brought me back, and I blinked to see the water's edge nearing.

They dragged me closer. From behind me, a man said, "It's your lucky day. Not everyone gets the chance to be tested."

They pulled me upright by the rope and one man held me by my feet, the other by my shoulders. They swung me back and forth and then flung me through the air. The moment before I slammed into the water, someone from the shoreline yelled, "Welcome to judgment day."

I sank. I struggled to get free, but the rope bound me too tightly and my clothes weighed me down. I felt myself sinking farther into the cold, dark water. The desire to scream, to open my mouth and shout, was strong, but I held my breath. I kicked desperately, chafed my wrists until they burned trying to escape the thick rope. I began to panic. There was no one to save me. No one to come to my rescue.

I was going to die.

I couldn't hold my breath any longer. I opened my mouth and choked on the black water as it poured down my throat. I was drowning. I frantically looked out into the murky darkness. Nothing but blackness stared back at me.

I'm dying! I tried to scream, but there was only silence.

I came back to myself. I gasped, my mind racing, and looked around. I was in a dark place. In a void. There was movement in front of me and then sound.

"I can help you find her." A voice filtered through the dark.

"Sarah?" I asked. Wait, I know where I am... I was in that place—that dark corner of oblivion I'd inhabited when Wanda had taken over my body.

Sarah voice was suddenly full of pain and torment. "They killed me. This is what they did to me."

It was Sarah's death I had just witnessed in my vision, my dream. She'd been chased, captured, tied up, and then thrown into the lake by a group of madmen. They drowned her.

Her voice whispered, "But before they hunted me down, they took me somewhere. Held me prisoner. She is there...his sister...I'll show you where to find her."

Images flashed through my mind.

I was Sarah again.

I stood in front of a big house. No, not a house, a hotel. I could just make out water sparkling in the moonlight a long way below. We weren't far from the lake; we were on the mountain above it. My hands were bound behind my back, and I'd been forced to my knees in the gravel. Hands grabbed me and dragged me up the driveway. I couldn't scream past the gag in my mouth.

I looked around for help in desperation. Lights blazed from within the hotel. Loud noises came from the open front door. Around it, a group of people mingled, dressed in long, dark cloaks. The people turned in unison, quieting as they watched the men drag me.

No one stepped forward to help.

No one protested.

They just stood there, watching in silence.

The crowd parted as I was tossed onto the front steps. They pulled me to my feet, shoved me through the front door, and then to a doorway that led down into darkness. I tottered on the top step before someone pushed me, and down I went. I tumbled down the stairs and bounced off the stone wall, wrenching my shoulder. I didn't stop until, finally, with a loud thud, I hit hard against the ground below.

I lay there, stunned. The pain from my shoulder shot through me. I heard the sound of heavy steps on stone as my captors followed me down, laughing harshly. I moaned and struggled to rise, but before I could make it to my feet, rough hands pulled me up and dragged me down another hallway. They shoved me through a set of large wooden doors that slammed loudly behind me.

The room was dark. I slumped to the ground, trying to catch my breath through the white-hot pain in my shoulder. I took one deep breath before I sensed another presence. My eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, and I made out forms huddled nearby.

"This is where they took me, held me prisoner before they let me loose and hunted me like an animal," Sarah voice whispered in the darkness. "This is where his sister lays and others they hold captive. Bound and gagged on the dirt floor like I was. This is where she will stay until they decide to hunt her."

With a rush of color and sound, I felt my perspective changing again. I was no longer in the basement, but back underwater, trapped in the dark liquid of the well, drowning all over again.

"They killed me. They will kill her. You must hurry..." Sarah's voice wailed.

The cold surrounded me, my lungs seized, and my body sank farther down.

There was a rush of light and a pain so strong it made me gasp. Air rushed into my lungs as strong arms pulled me from the water—no, from my dream.

Soft light streamed in through the weathered boards of the old barn.

Luke leaned over me, his face hovering just above mine.

"Colina." He caressed my face.

"Wha—?" My throat burned. I tried again. "What happened?"

"You were choking. I tried to wake you, but I couldn't. You were struggling like you couldn't breathe."

I was drowning.

I sat up.

"Take it slow." He wrapped an arm around me.

"It was Sarah. She came to me. She showed me what happened to her. I was her...I became her..." My words came out stilted, "I died."

"You relived her death?"

"I did. Men chased her down and threw her in the lake."

His hand reached for mine. "Did you see the men? Did you see or hear anything that would help us identify them? Help us track them down?"

"Luke, I saw everything. Macaven, he killed Sarah. She showed me where they took her. I know where he is holding your sister."