When I reached the dining room, I regarded the ring on my fingerthe ring I had brought back from our dream world.

It was worthless. No more valuable than the dream I had taken it from.

"Still want to do the ritual?" Eve asked. "I haven't heard from Merry yet. Maybe we should wait?"

"Oh, we're doing the ritual alright, Merry or no. I'm bringing Shane's a.s.s here. I have my item, so let's go."

"What is it?" Ruth Anne asked as I approached the outer circle where his cowboy hat and a crumpled ap.r.o.n were already arranged.

I held up the scroll but did not unfurl it, then placed it in the ring. "Certificate of restaurant ownership," I lied, though the twinkling lights flickered as if to give me away. "Let's do this."

Eve took my white candle and lit two more, placing one near each object. Shane's hat looked strange in this lighting, darker and misshapen. The ap.r.o.n was also covered in soot. The only thing that remained clean and whole were his wedding vows.

"Maggie, do you remember the spell?" Eve asked, taking her place in the outer ring.

Ruth Anne and I did likewise, s.p.a.cing ourselves evenly within the circle. I nodded. Spells were delicate things. One wrong word, one changed syllable, or errant nuance and things could go awry. It was important to keep a neutral state of mind when doing spell work, and to clear your head before each incantation.

I tried to empty my brain but the image of Shane and his "wife" kept creeping in. The candle flame nearest me rose higher with every tainted thought.

"Sorry," I muttered. "I need a moment."

I cleared my throat, focused on the center of the circle, and recited the spell in an non-fluctuating tone.

Three rings bind And three rings summon.

Spirits of the Nether Plane, Bring forth souls That we once loved And then return them back again.

Oh, fire, water, earth and wind, We call to you, appease us now Let us look upon the spirit Of he who can't be with us now.

As the invocation concluded, all three candle flames rose high into the air, extending themselves upwards into thin columns of smoke.

The world fell awaythe walls, the floor, the furnishingsand it seemed we were standing in empty s.p.a.ce with nothing beneath our feet. It was vast and endless and I would have marveled had I had more time.

Just as quickly, the world reformed. The walls were raised, the flooring restored, and the flames returned to normal, flickering in unison, like the steady beat of a heart.

I rubbed my ring. "Shane Doler, I summon you forth!"

I lowered my gaze to the innermost circle, where his form should appear.

Nothing happened.

"Try again, Mags," Ruth Anne said.

I nodded, repeating the spell, emphasizing the line: bring forth souls that we once loved.

A mist emerged, filling the entire inner circle.

We choked and turned our heads. When it cleared, an opaque image appeared in its place, like a movie being played without a screen or a backdrop.

Shane's white pickup materialized. I concentrated and the image deepened. Soon I could make out details: the mud-splattered windshield, the tire rims, the license plate. And finally, the faces of the two pa.s.sengersShane and Irene.

"Whoa!" Ruth Anne took a half step back, caught herself, and quickly pulled her foot back inside the ring.

We observed the truck now in motion, racing down a mountainous road. There was a deep canyon along one side with nothing more than an inadequate guardrail between the vehicle and the abyss.

"Slow down!" Irene ordered Shane, her face white with terror. He paid no attention. His focus was purely on the road ahead of him, his hands tightly gripping the wheel. "Shane, you're going to get us killed!"

I sensed his foot hit the gas as the truck hit a tight curve. The landscape whizzed bya steep cliff on one side, a gaping chasm on the other. The road narrowed but Shane would not remove his foot from the accelerator.

"No!" she commanded.

Silently, I joined with her in willing him to stop. But he heard neither of us. Or if he did, he refused to listen.

Irene covered her face.

There was the heart-stopping grind of metal on metal... and then nothing more.

The scene dissolved.

I held the sides of my head, fighting nausea. The twinkle lights around us had flickered out, leaving only candlelight. "Was that real?"

"I don't know," Ruth Anne admitted.

"Do you think Shane is...?" I couldn't get the words out.

Eve lifted a finger, pointing towards the center of the inner circle. "Guys..."

A black hole had formed in the floor, small and dark, tunneling inwards and spreading outwards. It was both awe-inspiring and vertigo-inducing. We looked at each other, afraid and uncertain.

"We're safe here, as long as we don't move," I a.s.sured them, though I wasn't sure myself. In all our research we had never encountered something like this. The black void filled the entire inner circle, then pa.s.sed over the chalk line into the second tier.

Ruth Anne's arms warbled out to the side as she fought to keep balance while Eve stood her ground. We looked together into the black precipice that continued expanding. It wavered, not quite reaching Shane's belongings. The candles continued to burn even as the floor appeared to drop around them.

The darkness oozed forward, coiling around the ap.r.o.n as if tasting it. It moved on to the scroll, and again fell back. It then probed out towards the cowboy hat, folding its dark tendrils across it. In an instant, the hat was sucked into the nothingness.

I gasped as the hole collapsed upon itself, disappearing. A horrible truth struck me. "That wasn't Shane's hat! That was Armand's!"

A door then appeareda thin rectangular portal with a crystal k.n.o.b. The one I had seen while trapped in the Netherworld.

I covered my mouth to stifle my scream.

The door grew taller and thinner, the top of its frame nearly touching the ceiling. It spun three times and came to a stop, facing me. Creaking open, a blistering light emanated from the flames beyond.

"Stay inside the chalk!" Ruth Anne ordered us. "Do not step out, no matter what!"

A hot gust burst forth from the door and the smell of sulfur became almost unbearable. We covered our noses, fighting to retain our balance.

The door then pushed fully open, allowing me an un.o.bstructed view inside.

There before me, wearing a sideways grin and his cowboy hat, was my father, Armand.

"Maggie, you've come at last."

He reached out to me, his hand elongating beyond the boundaries of the door. In his other hand, he held the silver scales.

"Is that a human heart?" Eve yelled, panicked at the sight of his offering. "He's the devil, Maggie! We have to close the circle."

"No!" I startled myself with the ferocity of my objection, but I wouldn't break away from Armand's gaze. After weeks of seeing him in my dreams, here he was, standing only a few feet from me. My father.

He extended his reach further, his hand stopping just before the middle circle. He looked down at the chalk glyphs and frowned. Then, looking back up at me, he beckoned with his fingers for me to cross over instead.

"They kept you from me, Maggie. I wanted to be there for you. That is what the globes were meant to teach you. That is what Sasha bound The Council from telling you."

I looked to my sisters again. Eve's hands were held in prayer position and her eyes were closed. She mumbled words under her breath, presumably a protection spell. Ruth Anne, unable to leave the circle, stretched an arm towards the spell book, which was resting out of reach on a chair. Neither seemed to notice that Armand was speaking to me.

"You're evil," I said, my knees shaking.

"No. I'm human, like you. Or at least I was before Sasha..." He lowered the hand holding the scale and it disappeared, replaced by a red rose. "Daughter, come to me. We'll fight the dark together. We will be safe here."

"Daddy." He was righthe wasn't evil. He only got involved with Larinda and demons after Mother had turned him out of her heart.

I knew all too well what it was like to be rejected.

I stepped a leg over the chalk line, compelled by his soft voice and green eyes that matched my own. But I was halted by the barrier of arcane symbols drawn throughout the middle ring.

"Daddy, help," I implored him. I reached out, my fingers nearly touching his.

"No, Mags!" Ruth Anne screamed. "It's a trick!"

Armand's eyes flickered but he did not break my gaze. "Please, come. We've been apart too long."

Ruth Anne sidestepped towards me. "Maggie, I knew him, remember? He was banished from Dark Root for a reason. Please, trust me."

I struggled uncertainly, looking between my father and Ruth Anne.

Eve lit the sage stick on the nearest candle and bent forward, waving the pungent smoke. "Leave us, you trickster!" she ordered. "And take the curse you put on my sister with you!"

Armand glowered at her. Once he looked away, his spell on me was broken. His eyes flashed in anger, then dropped. He knew it, too.

Eve continued to wave the sage smoke towards the Netherworld portal. The door began to shrink, closing as it went. Before it shut completely, I saw the ankh dangling around my father's neck. I also saw his eyesthey were filled with regret.

We were blasted by one final wave of heat before the image blinked out.

One by one, the candles all snuffed.

We stood in darkness, not daring to breathe, not daring to move. At last, the smell of sulfur faded away.

I stumbled out of the circle as Eve quickly gathered up the items - minus the hat - and Ruth Anne relit the candles.

"We shouldn't have tried summoning," Eve accused, her voice still shaking as she pulled open the window blinds. "That's what got Armand into trouble in the first place."

"You were all for it," I reminded her. "And we were trying to summon Shane, not Armand."

"You know what they say about good intentions," Ruth Anne said. "G.o.ds, I hope we didn't open a portal we can't fully close."

I wrapped my arms across my chest, sensing the vibrations of the cafe. "Something tells me this gateway has been here a very long time." Then, remembering a snow globe vision, I added, "I think Uncle Joe may have put it up forty years ago to help hide his lover from the draft."

"And now any old riffraff can use it. Lovely," Eve said.

"When Shane comes back, we'll seal it."

Eve and Ruth Anne quickly looked at me. We were all brought back to the frightening image of him and Irene driving along the mountainous road at breakneck speed.

I put the vision out of my head and took the certificate from Eve, stuffing it into my tote. We hurriedly erased the three chalk circles and symbols with our shoes, covering it all with soot.

"We'll keep this to ourselves until we know something more." I held up my little finger. When we were young and had secrets, we sealed it with a pinky sweara child's form of magicbut one that worked.

We raised our pinkies and touched them together, forming a pyramid.

"I don't think I'll ever sleep again," I said.

Ruth Anne placed a hand on my shoulder. "They were images, Mags. It doesn't mean any of it was real."

Eve nodded. "That demon father of ours probably conjured that truck scene up to scare you."

"It worked." I braced myself against Ruth Anne, fearing I might fall otherwise. I placed my hand on my belly, feeling the full weight of my pregnancy. "Let's close this circle and get out of here."

As we gathered our things, I wondered if I would have joined Armand had my sisters not stopped me. I felt a connection with him I had never felt with Mother. There was so much of him in me. I couldn't help but speculate if I might still end up like him, even protected by family here in Dark Root.

Of course, I didn't know what finally became of him. I'd only viewed half the globes. Maybe I'd only seen the better part of him?

I'd learn the whole truth soon enough as I'd be seeing him again in my dreams.

For now, all I wanted to concentrate on was Shane. Was it a trick as Eve had guessed, or had the scene of him plunging over the side of the cliff been real?

The ring remained on my hand. I had to believe that meant that he was still out there, and was coming back to me.

Faith, as Ruth Anne said. It was all I had to go on.

We stepped outside. The moon was high and several stars helped light the night. The streetlights worked, but only some of them, as if at half-mast to observe the closing of Dip Stix.

Two bright headlights momentarily blinded us as we crossed the street back to Mother's shop. Michael's van pulled up and Merry's sedan was close behind.

"Maggie!" Merry got out of her car, not bothering to shut off the engine. "I've been trying to call you." Her cheeks were flushed as she ran towards us.

"What's wrong?" I asked, looking from her to Michael.

She grabbed me by the shoulders, then wrapped her arms around me tightly. "Maggie, they found Shane's truck..."