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  She’d been telling herself that since Gina had first gone to the doctor complaining that she was tired all the time and the least little brush against anything caused huge purple bruises to form on her skin. Elaina continued telling herself the same hopeful, positive things even after the diagnosis of cancer. Through each course of treatment she’d maintained a positive attitude, both for herself and her little sister, certain that this new method or course of drugs would be the answer—would be the cure. Even when chemo, radiation, and the bone marrow transplant all failed, Elaina had stayed positive.

  There’s still a chance, she had told herself. There has to be a chance—has to be help somewhere. And so, after every kind of human medicine had failed, she had gone to ask for help from the priestesses in the Sacred Grove aboard the Mother Ship. She wasn’t a believer in the Kindred Goddess but she was respectful of all religions. Also, working in the HKR building, she’d heard some amazing stories about miracles the Goddess had supposedly performed.

  But while the priestess she’d spoken too—an older woman named Nirobe—had been kind, she hadn’t been able to give Elaina any hope. Her words had been quiet counsel about accepting the will of the Goddess, which was sometimes beyond mortal comprehension. Elaina had left the Sacred Grove feeling like her last hope had been shattered.

  It was almost more than she could bear.

  “Hey…” Her sister’s soft voice cut through the swirl of dismal thoughts in Elaina’s head and she looked up to see that Gina was looking at her.

  “Hey yourself,” she said gently, trying to smile. “You’re looking better today. How are you feeling?”

  “Like crap.” Gina laughed and the laugh turned into a cough.

  “Here.” Reaching for the covered cup with a straw sticking out on the little rolling table by the bed, Elaina helped her take a sip of water.

  “How’s Jake?” Gina’s voice was paper-thin when she finally swallowed the water and could talk again.

  Elaina bit her lip. Jake was Gina’s son—only thirteen years old and terribly angry that his mother was sick. Since Gina’s diagnosis he’d been getting into all kinds of trouble—lashing out in every direction in helpless rage that Gina was being taken from him.

  A former straight A student, he was failing most of his classes and he’d been picked up by the police twice—once for drug possession and once when he and a friend tried to break into a car. Luckily his step father, Gina’s husband, was a good lawyer and had been able to get him off with only community service both times. But the stress of Jake’s teenaged angst and all-consuming grief and rage was beginning to tell on their once solid relationship. Recently, there had been some talk about sending Jake back to his biological father who lived in Oregon.

  Elaina had argued strenuously about that with Gina’s husband, Gary.

  “But if he goes now, he won’t be able to see Gina before…before…” She’d waved a hand helplessly, unable to say the words aloud.

  “Just say it—before she dies.” Gary had sighed harshly and ran a hand through his hair. “I know it, Elaina, I know but he doesn’t go to see her anyway. I’ve tried and tried to persuade him but he hasn’t been to see her in three months now. What good does it do to have him hang around Tampa getting into trouble while she’s slipping away if he won’t even go see her?”

  Elaina knew he was right, but she also thought Jake might change his mind or find his way through the rage that was consuming him. He seemed to blame his mother for getting sick in the first place—as though she could help it in some way—as though she had chosen to get terminally ill and leave him. It wasn’t a rational reaction but then, there was no rational reaction to such intense grief and pain.

  Elaina hoped maybe Jake would somehow get through his rage and misery and decide to visit Gina before the end. But if he made that decision when he was on the other end of the country in Oregon, it might be too late for him to get back to Tampa. If he—

  “Elaina? I said, how’s Jake?” Gina’s thin, whispery voice cut into her contemplation.

  “He’s fine,” Elaina lied as well as she could. “He’s…keeping busy. Some kind of science project, I think. Probably come to see you once he aces it—you know how involved he gets in his projects.” She smiled and pressed her sister’s hand gently. “You’ll be seeing him soon anyway, once you get out of here.”

  In the past Gina had smiled and played along with her, adding to the pleasant fiction that she was going to get better and go back to her family soon. But this time she shook her head.

  “You don’t have to lie to me, Laney.” There was a dreadful sorrow in her face—a look in her gold and green flecked brown eyes, so like Elaina’s own—that said she couldn’t pretend anymore. That she didn’t have the strength.

  “What are you talking about?” Elaina protested, not willing to give up the lie. “You’ll be out of here soon. Dr. Edwards said another round of chemo—”

  “No—no more chemo.” Gina shook her head. “I can’t take anymore, Laney—I can’t. I’m so tired and I hurt all the time. I think if I could just get…just get Jake to forgive me for leaving him I’d be ready to go.”

  “He doesn’t understand,” Elaina said earnestly, pressing her sister’s hand. “He’s so young…so angry. He misses you, Gina. He…” She choked, trying not to cry. “He just wants his mom. I’m sure he’ll come to see you soon.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure too.” But Gina’s voice was cold and flat.

  “Don’t let it get you down.” Elaina tried to keep her voice light though her eyes were stinging. “Listen, I know it doesn’t seem like it now but things are going to turn around. They are.”

  “I don’t think so.” Gina closed her eyes again. “I’m tired, Laney. I need to rest.”

  “All right. You go on and rest. I—” Suddenly Elaina got a strange tingling sensation in her temples. It was almost like the beginnings of a headache but it didn’t hurt. “Um…” She frowned, losing her train of thought as the tingling got stronger. What was going on?

  Suddenly a voice sounded right inside her head.

  “Elaina? Elaina of Earth…it is I, Nirobe, priestess of the Sacred Grove.”

  “What?” Elaina muttered under her breath. She got up and moved to the other side of the hospital room, not wanting to scare her sister. “What is this? Am I going crazy?”

  “Do not be concerned for your sanity, my dear. I am bespeaking you by means of a think-me—a device which allows us to communicate mind-to-mind.”

  “Oh right—sorry.” Elaina had heard of such devices, but she had also heard that married Kindred were able to speak telepathically without them. Apparently it was a bond they formed when they mated. She couldn’t imagine having someone in her head all the time though—just talking to the priestess mentally was weird enough.

  “You can simply think to me, my dear—I will be able to hear you,” Nirobe said. “You came to me earlier asking for help for your beloved sibling who is ill, did you not?”

  “Yes! Yes, I did!” Elaina couldn’t keep the hope and excitement out of her mental voice. “Did you find something that could help her? Oh please tell me you did!”

  “I have not found anything, my child, but it is possible you might.”

  “What?” Elaina felt her heart sinking back down to her toes. “What does that even mean?”

  “Come to the Sacred Grove on the Mother Ship just after Last Meal today and I will explain,” Nirobe promised mysteriously. “Will you come?”

  “That’s around eight o’clock, right? Yes. Yes, of course—anything I can do to help my sister…” Elaina stared at the sunken form on the bed, her cheeks gray, her narrow chest rising and falling so faintly Elaina could barely make it out. “Anything,” she vowed. “I’ll do anything at all to help her.”

  “You may be required to live up to that vow my dear,” the priestess murmured in her head. “I will see you after Last Meal then.”

  “Thank you!” Elaina said aloud, but she sensed th