as he saw the pain on her face. "I'll get you to the doctor. It's going to be okay."
"No, no, no." Pressing her face into his shoulder, she struggled against both pain and terror. "Wait. Just wait."
"Not for a second." He yanked open the door, would have set her inside, but she clung like a burr.
"It's not real. It's not real. Mia said the baby would be safe. She was sure of it. This is not real." She dug down, found the power beneath the fear. "It's an illusion, to keep us away. To keep us from making the circle." She let out a long, shaky breath, and when she looked at Zack again, her skin glowed.
"It's a lie," she said. "We have to get to Mia."
She went to her cliffs first, stood with her robe, white as the moon that had yet to rise, billowing. She could feel the dark pressing, its edge ice-cold, blade-sharp.
She watched, calm, as the fog rolled in over the sea and began, foot by foot, to spread over the island. However fiercely she'd guarded her thoughts, it understood one point. Tonight was the battle for all.
"So mote it be," she murmured, and turning away, walked into the long shadows and dying light of the forest.
The fog closed around her. Cold and full of whispers. It made her want to run. She could feel it, horrid little fingers tickling along her skin. A kind of tease.
She heard the long, low howl of a wolf, and the sound was almost a laugh. Panic leaked through her shield of will as the fog crept hideously beneath the skirt of her robe. On a sound of disgust, she slapped at it, driving it back from the path, though she knew she scattered some of her carefully hoarded energy in doing so.
Her pulse raging, she walked to the clearing. To the heart, to wait for her circle. It would not be so easy, she thought, and pulled her emotions back. She imagined them, bright and dark, coalescing into one narrow beam buried in her heart. Not so easy to harm what she loved, to use that love to destroy.
She would protect. And she would win.
Nell came first, running through the woods with Zack to throw her arms around Mia. "You're all right!"
"Yes." Gently Mia drew Nell back. "What happened?"
"It tried to stop us. Mia, it's very close."
"I know." She took both of Nell's hands. Gripped tight. "You and yours won't be harmed. We need to start. The sun's nearly set."
She released Nell, opened her arms, and the candles she had set around the clearing burst into light. "It wants the dark," she said, then turned as Ripley stepped into the clearing.
"The son of a bitch thought he could scare me away." She laid down her bag of tools as Mac hauled in the first load of his equipment. "It's time we showed the bastard who he's dealing with."
"I could use a hand with some of my stuff," Mac said.
"You don't have much time," Mia told him.
"Time enough." Sam walked in, hefting one of Mac's monitors and his own carved box. Mia crossed to him, touched a fingertip to the corner of his mouth. "You're bleeding."
"Sucker punched me." He wiped at the blood with the back of his hand. "I owe him one."
"Then let's fight." Ripley reached into her bag and drew out her ritual sword. For the first time in days, Mia laughed and meant it. "You never change. This place is sacred. It is the heart. Circle within circle within circle protects all from cold and dark. Here where stood the sisters three I will meet my destiny."
As she spoke, she walked the edges of the clearing, her bare feet inches from the bubbling fog.
"Once this circle has been cast, the bond we form will ever last."
"That's not the opening for the banishing ritual," Sam said, but she ignored him and continued.
"The setting sun gives me its fire, and the moon will rise higher and higher." She picked up a jar and spread a ring of sea salt around the husbands of her sisters. "One is three and three is one, through our blood the web was spun. What is dark and wears my mark will bear it for eternity. As I will, so mote it be."
She lifted her arms and called the thunder. "Cast the next circle," she said, and looked at Sam. "I know what I'm doing."
"So do I."
Mac studied his gauges as the circle was