Shaking her head, Ripley struggled to her knees. “I can’t control it. I couldn’t stop it. I don’t know what to do.”

“Tell me,” Mia insisted as she gave a worried glance toward the men. Her will and her wall wouldn’t hold them out much longer. No defense lasted against love. “And be quick.”

“A vision. Hit me like a fist. What was, what might be. It’s bad. It’s me.” She moaned and sank into a ball. “It hurts.”

“You know what needs to be done.”

“No.”

“You know,” Mia repeated and ruthlessly dragged her up again. “You came, you’re here, and you know what you have to do for this, for now. The rest comes when it comes.”

Her stomach pitched, cramped. “I don’t want this.”

“And still you came. To save us? Well, save yourself first. Do it. Now.”

Her breath was coming in ragged gasps, and the look she shot Mia was anything but friendly. But she held out a hand. “Well, damn it, help me up. I won’t do it on my knees.”

Nell took one hand, Mia the other. And when Ripley stood on her feet, they let her go.

“I don’t remember the words.”

“Yes, you do. Stop stalling.”

Ripley hissed out a breath. Her throat was so tight it stung, and her stomach was alive with cramps. “I call to Earth, generous and deep, in her we sow that we may reap . . .”

She felt the power rising, swayed with it. “Mia—”

“Finish.”

“Give us your charm and bring no harm. I am Earth and she is me. As I will, so mote it be.”

Power gushed into her, flooded out the pain. The ground at her feet sprang with flowers.

“And the last.” Mia gripped her hand firmly, took Nell’s. They were linked, a circle within a circle. “We are the Three. We call to Water, stream, and sea.”

“Within her great heart,” Nell continued, “life came to be.”

“With your soft rain, bring no harm, no pain.” Ripley lifted her face and joined her sisters in the last of the chant.

“We are Water, and she is we. As we will, so mote it be.”

Rain fell soft as silk and bright as silver.

“We are the Three,” Mia said again, quietly so that only Nell and Ripley could hear. Because he had no choice, Mac waited until the ritual was complete and the circle closed. The minute he could reach her he grabbed Ripley’s arms. A shock of electricity jolted through his hands, but he held on.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes. I need to—”

“Don’t pull away from me.” His voice carried an undertone of steel.

“I wouldn’t pull if you didn’t grab.”

“I beg your pardon,” he said and released her.

“Look, damn it.” She poked at his arm as he turned away. “I’m a little churned up right now. I could use a few minutes to settle down.”

“Take all the time you need. I’ve got plenty to do.”

He walked back to pick up his notebook, check his equipment.

“That was unkind of you,” Mia scolded.

“Don’t hassle me now.”

“Suit yourself. We’re going back to the house. You’re welcome, of course. Or you can go to the devil, which often suits you as well.”

She shot her nose in the air and walked off to join Mac.

“Hey.” Zack stepped to her, ran a hand through her hair, then framed her face. “Scared me.”

“Scared me, too.”

“Keeping that in mind, you might want to cut the guy some slack. I’ve seen a little of what the three of you can pull off together before. He hasn’t. Rip.” He pulled her close a moment. “You go running through fire, it shakes a man up some.”

“Yeah, okay.” Nothing, she thought, ever felt quite as solid and steady as her brother. “I’ll talk to him. Why don’t you take Nell and Mia back to the house? We’ll be along in a minute.”

“You got it.”

She gathered herself, picked up one of Mac’s scattered pencils and took it to him. “I’m sorry I snapped at you.”

“No problem.”

“Look, don’t go sulky on me. You don’t know what it’s like to . . .”

“No, I don’t,” he shot back. “And you don’t know what it’s like to just stand there, f**king stand there, when I don’t know if you’re hurt.”

“Okay, I’m sorry. I couldn’t. . .” To her horror, her voice broke, and her vision wavered with tears.

“Damn it, I told you I was churned up.”

“Okay. Whoa.” He drew her into his arms, stroked her hair. “Why don’t you just hold on here a minute?”

“Crying pisses me off.”

“I bet. Just hold on.”

She gave in, gave up and wrapped her arms around him. “I’ll get it together in a minute.”

“That’s okay, because I want to hold on, too. I thought you were . . .” He saw it again, that flash of her face that was white as bone as she leaped into a wall of golden flame. “I don’t know what I thought. I’m prepared for a lot of this kind of thing. I’ve seen magic. I believe in it. But nothing I’ve seen or imagined comes close to what the three of you did tonight.”

“I didn’t want to be here.”

“Then why were you? What scared you enough to bring you here?”

She shook her head. “I only want to tell it once. Let’s go back to Mia’s.”

He hitched his equipment bag onto his shoulder. “You were in pain. I saw that.”

“The circle wasn’t prepared for me, and I wasn’t prepared for it.”

“No, before that. Before you did your death-defying leap.”

“You see a hell of a lot, don’t you, for a guy who’s always losing his glasses.”

“They’re just for reading and close work.” He wanted to stroke, to tend, to cuddle. And was afraid if he did, they’d both fall apart. “Is there any pain now?”

“No.” She sighed. “No. I took the power, called my element, made the circle of Three. There’s no pain now.”

“But you’re not happy about it.”

Like Nell, she knew her way through the forest, through the dark. Already she could see the glimmer of light from Mia’s windows. “It brings Nell joy, and gives Mia a kind of, I don’t know, foundation. For Nell it’s an exploration, for Mia it’s like breathing.”