My eyes fluttered open and then closed again. I wanted to fall back into that dark place and rest, but some part of me knew that if I lost consciousness again, I would never wake up.

I forced my eyes open and looked around.

The only light was the flicker of a small fire in a clearing nearby. I was in some kind of cave, but not the one we’d found earlier. I could hear the sound of a waterfall nearby. She’d taken me somewhere new. A cave Jordan didn’t know about.

I struggled for control of my body, but my hands were bound behind my back with some kind of rope tied so tightly it burned when I struggled against it.

A rag was stuffed into my mouth and another piece of fabric had been tied around my head. Sweat poured down my back. I searched for any sign of Nicole, but other than the fire, there was no indication that she was here.

Panic flared inside me, bubbling up through my throat like bile.

I was going to die.

Nicole held the second piece of the Sister’s fragmented power, and she was going to kill me to get it back. I would never get a chance to say goodbye to my parents or my sister. I would never be able to apologize to Jordan for yelling at him.

I breathed in through my nose and tried to clear the terror from my mind. I had to get it together. If she’d just dumped me here and left to go do something else, this was my only chance to escape.

I felt for the knot in the rope and tugged on the parts I could reach, but it didn’t budge. I twisted my wrists back and forth, hoping that the motion might loosen something just enough for me to get free, but she’d tied it too tightly. My legs were also bound at the ankles with a thick black rope, so there was no hope of running, either.

At least my mind had cleared enough for me to think straight. How long had I been out?

The sky beyond the mouth of the cave was pitch black except for the moonlight streaming through the trees. I wished I hadn’t told my mother I’d be home late. They wouldn’t even be looking for me until it was too late.

My death would be set up to look like another suicide or tragic accident. Just like Hailey’s.

Just outside the cave, a twig snapped, and I gasped. My body trembled in fear as I stared at the entrance to the cave.

Nicole came into view a few seconds later, and I scooted away from her, leaning my back hard against the cave wall. This couldn’t be the end. I wouldn’t let it.

“Oh, good. You’re awake,” she said, smiling. She set a large rock next to the fire. “I was really hoping you’d wake up for this. I would have done it earlier, but I had this dinner thing to go to with my parents, and I didn’t want to show up with blood all over my hands.”

She laughed. “Besides, it’s going to be so much more interesting to watch the fear in your eyes when I bash your head in.”

I shook my head and tried to speak, but the gag kept me from doing anything other than just making an unintelligible moaning sound.

She studied me for a moment and then shrugged. “Why not?” she asked.

She stepped over to me and loosed the fabric around my mouth. She pulled the rag free, and I coughed and sputtered. My mouth was dry and my throat burned.

“Better?” she asked.

“How could you?” I asked. “I was your friend. Nicole, I know you’re still in there. Please, you can still fight this. You don’t have to let this spirit control you.”

Nicole laughed and shook her head. “There’s nothing left of the Nicole you once knew,” she said. “I got rid of what was left of her a long time ago so that I could do what needed to be done.”

“Hailey,” I whispered.

“You really don’t remember anything about that night, do you?” she asked. She crouched down beside the fire and in its light, I could see that her eyes were black as night.

I shook my head. Behind my back, I quietly worked on the knots as best I could. I needed to keep her talking.

“What did you do to her?” I asked. “To Hailey. What really happened that night?”

“Ah, yes, the infamous night of the accident,” she said. “It’s been fun to watch you struggle to remember. I’ve had a front-row seat to the pathetic show as you tried to make sense of what happened. Two perfect little girls surely never would have been doing drugs like that.”

“Tell me, “I said. “At least give me that peace before you kill me.”

I kept working at the knots behind my back, and I scooted my feet closer to the still-burning ember. If I could just burn through the rope and weaken it, I could at least run. I wasn’t sure how far I would get with Nicole’s current strength and knowledge of where we were, but I had to at least try.

“The thing I told you about drugging your drinks at the party was true,” she said. “But it wasn’t Hailey who did it. It was me. We all met up at my house before the party. We did our nails, borrowed clothes from each other’s closets, fun girl stuff, just like it was any normal night.”

I closed my eyes, trying desperately to remember.

“I didn’t want to do it. She was my friend once, but I had to get the rest of the power back,” she said. “It needed to belong to me. All of it. Hailey didn’t want it anyway. It scared her and like a scared little child, she fought against it. I told her that if she would just let it take control, she would be able to feel beyond the fear. She would be able to feel the power that now flows through us. We could have worked together to find the other idols and free our sisters. We could have had it all, but she refused. And then, of course, she met that guy who said he could help her.”

I looked up. “Who?” I asked. My palms were clammy, and the heat of the fire made my head swim.

She rolled her eyes and shrugged. “Another one of these Natives who think they can defeat me,” she said. “Some Spiritwalker who could see the power flowing through us. He wanted to take it away. He wanted to convene some type of special council who could find a way to put my power back inside the idol. Obviously, I couldn’t let that happen, now could I?”

I gasped. He’d spoken to Hailey before she died? “Ethan?”

“See? I had a feeling you already knew parts of the truth,” she said. “As soon as his brother Jordan showed up, I knew I had to keep you apart, so I started that rumor about him, thinking you’d be smart enough to stay away from him. But you just couldn’t resist him, could you? You were getting too close to the truth, Marayah. You gave me no choice but to do this now.”

“Where is he?” I asked. “Where’s Ethan?”

A slow, deliberate smile stretched her lips.

“He’s near.” She glanced toward the darker part of the cave, and my stomach turned. Oh my God. Had he been here all along?

“Don’t worry, he’s not feeling any pain,” she said with a laugh. “He’s been dead now for nearly a year, poor guy.”

No. My heart ached for Jordan. If I didn’t get out of here, he would never know the truth. He would never be able to give his brother a proper burial. A warrior’s burial.

I struggled harder against the knots, determined to saw through my own wrists if that’s what it took.

Nicole laughed again. “You’re never getting free of those ropes,” she said. “See, unlike you, I’ve learned a few tricks along the way. Those ropes are bound by darkness, and they’re impossible to break or loosen. You’re stuck here, Marayah. And just like Hailey, you’re going to die as a warning against teen drug use and depression. I think I’ll make yours look a bit more obviously like a suicide. Poor Marayah. She just couldn’t handle life after the accident. She was so despondent about her friend’s death that she took her own life. Such a sad story.”

My heart tightened and tears spilled down my cheeks. My parents would never know the truth, and that killed me inside. But Kimi.

Oh God, Kimi would never understand. This was going to change her forever. She would blame herself for the rest of her life, thinking that she never should have covered for me and let me keep going down this path. It wasn’t her fault, but she would never know that.

“Tell me what happened the night Hailey died. I deserve to know,” I said. I needed more time to think. There had to be something I could do.

“I really did feel bad at first that I had dragged you into the whole thing, but you were too suspicious,” she said. “You wouldn’t leave Hailey’s side, and I knew that if I was going to kill her, I was going to have to kill you both. That was my biggest mistake, of course.”

My head snapped up, confused. “Why? I thought you wanted me dead.”

“Oh, I did. I do,” she said. “But letting you go with Hailey that night completely screwed up my entire plan. I was going to send you both over the bridge to your deaths, and once Hailey was dead, I would have access to the power inside of her. I thought I’d be able to pull it from her and take it all for myself. What I didn’t plan on was you stealing it from me before I had the chance.”

“Stealing it?”

She narrowed her eyes at me, venom practically dripping from her gaze. “Yes, and I would have killed you for it right then and there if it hadn’t been for Greycloud. I don’t know how he even found us so quickly, but he must have been following Hailey. Tracking her somehow.”

“The bridge,” I whispered. “I saw you on the bridge right before we crashed.”

“Yes, a neat little trick, huh?” she said. “If you had given yourself over to the darkness, you might have learned how to do some of these things, but you’re too weak, Marayah. Too small-minded to see the potential. I learned quickly, though, and one of the tricks I learned to do was to separate my body from my darkness. While my physical body still walked around the party, having a good time, my darker self was waiting on that bridge.”

I closed my eyes, seeing the dark form standing there like a shadow, commanding Hailey to crash into the railing.

“I forced her to send the car over the bridge, and you were both thrown onto the rocks below. No one ever should have survived a fall like that, but I didn’t recognize you for who you were back then. Another Spiritwalker in hiding,” she said. “Hailey had died on impact, her head smashed against the windshield, her pretty face ruined forever. But you.”

She stared at me with pure hatred.

“You survived,” she said. “And you stole the power from her before I had a chance.”

I gasped, a memory flashing through me like a bolt of lightning.

* * *

I lay against a rock, confused and hurting. Exhausted from the swim toward the banks of the river. I called for Hailey, but she didn’t answer. I managed to sit up, and I could see her there, just a few feet away, her eyes open but lifeless, blood covering her beautiful face.

Her mouth was open and something thick was leaking from it. At first, I thought it was blood, but as I crawled toward her, I realized it was black and seemed to be...moving.

My entire body screamed in pain as I tried to crawl toward her. I was pretty sure my ankle was broken. Maybe my wrist. I could only use my good hand to pull myself toward her, praying she was still alive. She wasn’t moving at all, and when I looked into her eyes, I knew the truth, even if I wasn’t ready to admit it.

I couldn’t quite remember why, but I knew I needed to move quickly. Someone was still out there, trying to hurt us.

I glanced up toward the bridge, and the dark figure stared down at us.

I needed to get to Hailey. To protect her, but the closer I got, the further away she seemed to be. Blood flowed down my cheek on the left side. My vision blurred, and I couldn’t quite grab hold of my thoughts.

All I knew was that we were both in danger.

“Hailey,” I screamed, but she wasn’t moving. The black liquid that poured from her lips pooled on the rocks, writhing like a snake.

I finally reached her, my scraped hand landing in the black that oozed from her.

“No,” someone shouted, yanking me backward.

But it was too late. Whatever had been living inside the darkness had found me. The black liquid that pooled around Hailey snaked around my body and seeped into my wound. I screamed, pain ripping through me like a sword.

The dark figure reached for my throat.

“That power is mine,” it said, holding its hand up. A dagger made of shadows and darkness formed in the figure’s grasp.

I knew that I was going to die, and I no longer had the strength to fight.

But before the figure could lower the dagger into my chest, a bright light emerged from the forest just beyond the riverbank. The darkness surrounding me dissipated into a thin mist that covered the surface of the river and floated downstream.

At first, I could have sworn I saw a bear rushing toward me, but as the light dimmed and he came closer, the figure turned into a man with hair the color of obsidian.

He glanced at Hailey, a deep sadness in his expression. He kneeled at her side and whispered a prayer.

“Don’t hurt her,” I said, still refusing to believe she could be gone.

“No one can hurt her anymore,” the man said. He reached around her neck and removed the medallion she wore on a black chain. He closed her eyes, and I began to cry.

The man placed the cool medallion in my injured hand and closed my palm around it. He kept his hand tight around my own and began to chant words I couldn’t recognize.

A glow emanated from the strange necklace, its light growing stronger with every word he spoke until it surrounded my entire body. When he had finished his chanting, the light entered me the same way the darkness had before, seeping into my wounds. But this time, instead of the chilling cold of death, I felt the warmth of love and light.

“Keep this with you, no matter what,” he said as sirens howled in the distance. “You are stronger than you know, and you are one of us. You must fight against the darkness and learn to call upon the spirits of those who came before you. I must go—”

My eyes widened as the dark figure reappeared behind him, its shadowy hand still holding the dark dagger.

“Watch out,” I shouted, but it was too late.

The figure buried the dagger into the man’s back. The light left his eyes and his lifeless body fell into the water and was carried away by the rushing river.

The figure laughed, its face so familiar and so horrible.

“Nicole?” I asked, unable to understand what was going on. I recognized my old friend, but knew that this figure was not truly her. This was something evil, but when she laughed, I could feel it deep in my own heart, as if we shared some dark secret.

The shadowy figure kneeled beside me and held the dagger to my neck.

“That power is mine,” she said.

In one swift motion, she slid her weapon across my throat. I waited for the pain to come and felt myself slipping away, but her shadowy blade turned to mist in her hand. She shook her head and attempted to conjure a second blade, but the sirens grew closer, their lights flickering across the trees that surrounded the river.

A policeman ran down the embankment, shouting for help as he shone his flashlight on the two girls left for dead on the rocks.

The shadow was gone.

* * *

I inhaled sharply as the memory flashed through my brain like a scene from a movie. I saw it all, these memories I had been desperate to recover. I finally knew the truth, and it was too late. I was going to die, anyway.

“I didn’t mean to steal the power,” I said. “I didn’t even know what it was. If I could give it back to you now, I would.”

“It’s not that simple. But you already know that, don’t you?” Nicole asked. “I need all of my power to release my other two Sisters from their stone prisons. Without the full strength of my spirit, I haven’t been able to locate their idols, but after tonight, I will find them, and the three of us will terrorize this land the way we once did so long ago. But first, you have to die, Marayah. There’s no other way.”

“I’m not going to let that happen,” I said.

She raised an eyebrow and smiled. “And how do you intend to stop me?” she asked. “We are miles from town and there are acres of dense forest surrounding us. You could scream for hours and no one would hear you. You are mine, Marayah, but you don’t have to die if you don’t want to. I’ll give you one last chance to surrender to the darkness inside you. Join me and we can work together. Refuse me and you die alone.”

I closed my eyes, the medicine woman’s words coming back to me. I needed to surrender, but not to the darkness. I needed to surrender to the light.

I stopped struggling and allowed my body to relax. I stretched my bound hands toward the floor of the cave and grasped a handful of earth, feeling its life surge through me. I listened to the world around me, my spirit becoming one with the crackling fire and the breeze that caressed my skin. I stretched further, soaring through the trees with the birds and falling, tumbling over the rocks with the waterfall.

I was one, but I was many, connected to all life. I gave thanks to the Great Creator, and my soul called upon my ancestors and the Spiritwalkers who had come before me.

I surrender to the light.

Something sparked deep inside of me, and my true self awakened for the first time.

My eyes snapped open just as Nicole approached me, the large rock held over her head, ready to strike. She reared back, but just as she lowered her weapon toward me, a bright light burst forth from the medallion around my neck.

She cried out and fell backward, the rock tumbling to the ground.

The ropes that bound my hands and ankles broke free, and I stood up, light coursing through me. Movement just beyond the mouth of the cave caught my eye, and my lips parted in surprise.

Men and women, their bodies made entirely of light, walked toward us and blocked the exit.

Nicole scrambled back against the wall of the cave, her eyes black as night and wide with fear. She shook her head violently. “No, you can’t do this to me,” she said, dark tears like oil sliding down her pale face. “I won’t let you take this darkness from me.”

Dark shadows swirled around her, and she pulled a shining dagger from her boot. She ran forward, aiming for my heart, but just before she reached me, a growl echoed throughout the cave.

The spirit of a large bear tore through the darkness and lunged at Nicole. The dagger fell into the dirt as the bear’s jaws clamped shut around her throat. She screamed as he dragged her from the cave and into the woods.

I fell to my knees as the light around me faded, and I waited for the darkness that had consumed Nicole to find its way back to me. I knew that it would.

As soon as Nicole was dead, the Sister’s spirit would seek out its other half, and I would have no choice but to welcome it in. I only hoped that when the time came, I would be strong enough to survive it.

When her screams stopped and the forest had grown silent, I felt the darkness searching for me. For the other half of its power.

The black oil entered the cave like a snake, slithering along the dirt and keeping to the shadows. I wanted to run from it, but I knew that no matter where I went, it would find me. At least this way, it couldn’t hurt anyone else.

This was my secret now. My responsibility.

When it was close enough to touch, I sent up a prayer to the light, asking for strength and guidance. And when I was ready, I leaned down and placed my hand in the black ooze.

I felt the spirit of the Sister flow through me, strong and dark and horrible, and then I lost consciousness.