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“We could use Eva’s magic to assist us,” I said.

Eva grinned at me. “You are my favorite.”

Joanie rolled her eyes. “I thought I was your favorite for not making you wear the fancy pants clothes that Nurse insisted on.”

Angie wrinkled her nose. “I can’t believe that you forced us to have a governess, this isn’t Victorian England.”

Viv grumbled something about the younger girls needing stricter companions but didn’t ask them to leave, which I was thankful for.

“Let’s do this!” I winked at the girls and held out a hand for Eva to grasp. We didn’t know yet if Angie would have any magic in her, but she was our sister and that counted enough for me.

I whispered the words to the spell and felt the dimension that we were in shift slightly, allowing for our bodies to leave the current existence and fly through space and time to where Joanie’s parents were being held captive.

The spell was working perfectly, and everything seemed to be going according to plan. The usual feeling of being tossed and turned settled over me. Viv looked green and I worried that she would once again hurl at our feet.

A jarring movement caught me off guard as we landed inside what could only be described as a suburban family home. Not that I knew much about suburbia.

“Where are we?” Angie whispered.

“Home,” Joanie answered in a choked voice. The color had been stripped from her cheeks as she looked at the couch where two individuals sat unearthly still.

“Are they...” Eva’s voice trailed off in horror.

“Maybe, but not for long,” I answered, disengaging my hands and walking over to where what I could only assume were the bodies of Clark and Jenny Spark.

Joanie sank to her knees in anguish, the sound coming from her throat unlike anything I had ever heard before. It was tortured and terrible. I didn’t think before reaching out to touch the two dead bodies. They looked fresh enough and I figured that it was worth a shot.

The longer a body went without a soul the harder it was for the soul to find it again. I knew how to guide the spirits back. I had done it with Viv and Joanie and several others besides. I felt their cold skin and their memories began to race over me. It was something that happened so quickly that I often couldn’t remember after I had raised someone from the dead.

“What is she doing?” one of the little girl’s asked. But I ignored her and kept searching with my mind. I needed to contact Jenny and Clark, make them understand that Joanie still needed them.

Suddenly I felt their presence near me, they were willing to return, anxious even. I pulled them back to their bodies and felt the heat begin to blossom inside of the cold skin I was clutching.

Ever so slowly I eased back and waited for them to awaken. Two sets of eyes popped open and a gasp of air filling lungs that had gone far too long without filled with room.

Jenny raised a shaking hand to her chest. “So, it’s true?”