"It's impossible, even for you," Aiden said.

Jack glared at him. "Don't be absurd. Necromancy has been an art form for as long as death has walked this planet."

"She's been gone a long time."

Jack's attention returned to me. He shook his head and grinned. "He knows in his head how it really is, but he can't truly understand. You've felt it all along though, haven't you? When you sat on the floor with her body in your arms and her blood in your hands, you know you could do it."

I was crying again. Had I ever stopped?

"I promise, Mama. I promise, but please don't die." Sobs so forceful they threatened to crack my ribs wrenched out of my little body. "Don't leave me, Mama."

But the blood no longer gushed out in rhythmic waves. She was gone.

I looked around at the vast amounts of blood, rivers of blood, lakes of blood, a drowning red tide of it soaking through my clothes and wetting my skin with sticky warmth.

"You were just a little girl then. You were scared, and no one could blame you for that. Our father made you witness to a terrible, abominable thing, but deep down, behind your fear, didn't you know you could bring her back?"

Not for anything in the world could I look away from his black eyes. "Yes. I always knew, but the price—"

"No price is too high to have your heart's desire. If what you want is to bring Mom back, let's bring her back." He pulled me against his chest and I luxuriated in being held by him. In my big brother's arms, nothing bad could get to me.

"Let's do it." When I peeked at Aiden he wore the expression of a man lost in awe and I understood that he no longer merely loved me. Now, he worshipped the ground I walked on.

The three of us left the bar together, passing no one on the way out. The streets were deserted, but in the distance I heard the hiss of tires on wet pavement. "How many people are in this town now?" I asked, certain most of the two thousand residents who'd been around when I was young had died or moved away since then.

"A few hundred," Jack said. "Just enough to keep the story interesting. If you get too many players on the scene at once, everything gets muddled. It's hard for people to follow." He held the door for me and I lowered myself into the passenger's side of Aiden's rental car.

Who had I encountered since I'd come to town? "The Summerfield men all stayed."

"The Summerfield men wouldn't leave this town if they saw a nuclear bomb descending on it."

"Myrtle?"

He slapped the steering wheel. "Good ol' Myrtle. All her dreams came true. She finally got to be a part of the cool gang in town and now she's a star as well. Not bad for a girl who made a living out of getting pregnant and extorting money from the fathers."

"That's not how she told it."

"Yeah, well," he chuckled. "Myrtle's got a reputation to uphold."

Trying to force the next words out was like trying to swallow razor blades. "What about Mindy?" I'd trusted her. I'd been so wrong, but then again, she was on Jack's side, right?

"Oh, Mindy," Jack looked genuinely sad. "She never saw the big picture."

How in the world can anyone see the big picture? I wondered. Trying to make sense of the small pieces was hard enough.

For some reason, I'd thought we'd go to my father's farm, but I realized Jack was retracing our steps to the cemetery, and a grim calm fell on me like a smothering blanket. It was as if I was once again sinking in the river and I had a choice to make. I could let the cold water take me away, or I could fight against a quiet exit from this painful existence. I looked at my grinning, black-eyed brother and knew he had no doubt I'd stay by his side now that I understood what was happening.

Turning, I met Aiden's eye. From the back seat, he nodded assurance. The joy and excitement radiated out of him and made the hairs on my arms stand up. At my side, he'd have more than he ever dreamed of.

A dozen cars were lined up behind my Audi. Jack parked Aiden's rental at the edge of the group and we all clambered out to join the people milling in front of the dark sanctuary. They grinned at us and pressed their hands together in front of their hearts and bounced on their toes like parade goers about to witness a fantastic spectacle. Myrtle's gathered her children around her like a mother hen. Old Mr. Summerfield nodded at me—the friendliest gesture I'd ever seen from him. Alma James beamed with joy.

Jack spread his arms wide and spoke. "Friends, words fail when I try—"

The sound of an unmuffled rumbling beast of an engine interrupted his speech.

Curious muttering rippled through the crowd and they all craned their necks to see who was coming to join them, but I would have known that sound anywhere. I'd heard it every day for years.

Fury replaced the easy happiness that had been on Jack's features. A deep crimson blush rose upward from his collar. From his pocket, he produced an old-fashioned revolver. "He has no place in this." He took a single step in the direction of the truck, but I latched onto his coat and held him back.

"I want to talk to him."

"That's not a good idea, Jess. All your life he's filled your mind with lies."

When I pulled on his coat, he staggered as if I were much stronger than him. "I want to talk to him," I said again, and my brother gave a little bow of his head. The shuffling of the crowd as they backed away from us had the soft susurration of animals scurrying through dry undergrowth.

My father didn't bother pulling off the path. He killed the engine, casting silence over the graveyard. His door screeched in protest when he pushed it open. His boots smacked solidly against the concrete, and he stood facing me, a small, bent old man.

"You killed my mother." They were the words I'd wanted to hurl at him for decades, but they didn't fly from my mouth. Rather, they stumbled forward, limp and impotent, inadequate by far to express the monstrosity of his action.

"Everything I ever did, I did for you."

"You beat me with a belt for my own good? It hurt you more than it hurt me? Is that what you want me to believe?" I took a step toward him and he matched my movement, so a mere fifteen feet separated us.

He had the good grace to look ashamed. His gaze moved down to the toes of his old, battered boots and back up to me again. "I didn't know how else to do it. Look at them, girl. I didn't want that for you."

No part of me wanted to turn my back on him to look at the group gathered. None of them would dare move against me, of that I was sure. I couldn't say the same about my mother's killer. There was no need, though, for me to look at them. I knew what I'd see. Their cold, black eyes would be fixed on me. No humanity remained in that group of worshipful followers.

"I was so happy when you got out. For the first time since I found out that your mo—" He choked on the word and gave a little shake of his head as if trying to clear it. "I wanted better for you and your brother. I took you to that church. I thought it would help but then—"

"Then Hobbs turned out to be the very thing you feared."

"He wasn't, always. I'm certain of that. Someone got to him."

It made sense to me. "Someone made him a better offer."

"Better than the eternal salvation of his soul?"

I shrugged. "Eternity is a hard concept for a person to wrap their mind around."

Jack approached and stood at my side. "You should be proud, Dad. You always wanted Hobbs to baptize Jess into the fold, and that's just what he did."

Alma James shuffled forward, The wind whipped her flower-print polyester dress around her stockinged legs. "He was brave and selfless, and you burned his church down." She cackled like the old crone she was and the sound drew a ripple of laughter from the onlookers. Her voice changed to the same many-toned chant-like speech Mindy had the night before. "Too late, though, Kellerman. You tried to kill him, but all you managed was to burn up his wasted old shell. And you were cowardly about it, too. Didn't even have the guts to face a little old lady."

"Little old ladies don't frighten me, Legion, but I was not prepared at that moment to fight the minions of Hell."

"And you are prepared to do so, now?" the voices asked.

My father ignored Alma and took two more steps toward me. I moved closer, as well, like a magnet, irresistibly pulled forward. Only ten feet apart, now. Ten feet and a whole universe.

"You've always been the strongest one in our family, the smartest, the most pure. Don't let this evil take you. You can still fight them." Tears pooled in his rheumy old eyes. "You went so far, all on your own. You accomplished more than anyone else from this portal to hell ever has, and you did it with no help from any of us or the gods we worship. Leave now and live your own life, Jessica. I beg you. Be free."

Jack stayed behind me, but spoke on my behalf. "She's never been free. We both grew up with the blood of royalty in our veins. That is the responsibility we were born with. You gave us additional chains to carry, you sick, abusive bastard.

My father held his hands out as if in supplication. "I did—"

"The best you knew. Yes, so you say."

I held up my hand to silence Jack.

Dad stuffed his hands in his coat pockets and stood there, hunched against the cold, or against his grief and misery, or perhaps simply crushed under the weight of a lifetime of helplessness. "I hope you'll forgive me, Jessica. I hope you'll come to understand that everything I did, I did to protect you."

"Stop him!" A chorus of reptilian voices cried out behind me, but too late. Already, he had the gun out of his pocket. He pointed it at Jack and the blast ripped through the air.

I spun in time to see my brother fall to the ground, so I had no idea where the second shot was aimed. One second I stood watching and the next I was sprawled on the cold, wet pavement with my brother cradled in my arms. I pressed my right hand to the center of the spreading redness on the front of his coat. My tears splashed onto his face. He had no final words for me before his eyes rolled upward and the blood flowing out under my fingers slowed to a trickle. I lifted my trembling hand and stared at the slick mess, and I hated my father for what he'd taken from me.

You can bring them back.

The same myriad cold voices I'd heard from the townspeople seemed to be speaking inside my mind.

First, you have to stop him. You know what he means to do. It's what you would do if you were in his place.

I lowered Jack to the ground and pushed myself to my feet. My gaze fell upon Mindy, standing over Aiden's body. Her brows arched downward over her black eyes and her chin quivered. "All I ever wanted was to leave this town."

"I know," I told her. "Me, too. But there's only one way out."