Then Kuri smelled it, and it was like she slammed into an invisible wall. The scent of blood washed over her, horrible. Kuri stopped and closed her eyes. Maybe if she stayed very still and didn't open them she could convince myself that this was all just a bad dream, that she would wake up in a few hours.

Kuri felt an arm go around her, and still she didn't move.

"She needs you, Kuri." Mana's voice was shaking only a little. Kuri opened her eyes then and stared at him. He was already crying.

"I don't think I can do this."

Mana's grip on her shoulders tightened. "Yes, you can. You have to."

"Sister!" Reiko sobbed.

Without another thought, Kuri wrenched herself from Mana's arm and ran to her other sister. She was on her knees clutching the blood-soaked towel to her chest. She coughed and gagged again, and more blood sprayed from her mouth and nose.

"Get me more towels!" Kuri snapped to Mana, who was sitting white-faced and silent beside Reiko. Then she crouched in front of Reiko. "It's going to be okay. I promise. It's going to be okay."

Reiko was crying, and her tears were tinged red. She shook her head. "It's not. It can't be. I'm dying." Her voice was weak and gurgled as she tried to speak through the blood hemorrhaging in her lungs and throat.

"I'm staying with you. I won't let you be alone," Kuri said.

Reiko grasped Kuri's hand and she was shocked by how cold hers was. "I'm scared, Sis."

"I know, I'm scared, too. But we'll get through this together. I promise."

Mana handed me a pile of towels. Kuri took the blood-soaked towel from Reiko's hands, then she started wiping her face and mouth with a clean one, but she started coughing again and Kuri couldn't keep up. There was just too much blood. And now Reiko was shaking so hard that she couldn't hold a towel herself. With a cry, Kuri pulled her onto her lap and wrapped her arms around her, and like she was a child again, Kuri began rocking her, telling her over and over that it would be all right, that she wouldn't leave her.

"Kuri, this might help." Kuri forgotten that there were other people there, so Mana's voice surprised her. Kuri looked up to see that he was holding the relit green candle that represented earth. Then somehow, in the midst of my fear and despair, her instinct kicked in and she suddenly felt very calm.

"Come down here, Mana. Hold the candle close to her."

Mana dropped to her knees, and oblivious to the growing pool of blood that surrounded us and soaked us, he pressed close to Reiko, holding the candle in front of her face. Kuri drew strength from Mana's presence.

"Reiko, open your eyes, honey," Kuri said softly.

With a nasty, gurgling breath, Reiko's eyelids fluttered open. The whites of her eyes were totally red and more pink tears leaked down her colorless cheeks, but her eyes caught on the candle, and they held.

"I call the element earth to us now." Kuri's voice strengthened and got louder as she spoke. "And I ask that earth be with this very special priestess, Reiko Hikawa, who has been so newly gifted with an affinity for the element. Earth is our home—our provider—and earth is where we will all someday return. Tonight I ask that earth hold and comfort Reiko, and make her journey home a peaceful one."

With a rush of fragrant air we were suddenly enveloped in the scents and sounds of an orchard. Kuri smelled apples and hay, and heard birds chirping and bees buzzing.

Reiko's reddened lips tilted up. Her eyes never left the green candle, but she whispered, "I'm not scared anymore, Sis."

Then Kuri heard the front door burst open and Grams was there crouched beside me. She started to move Mana s out of the way and take Reiko from my arms.

Kuri voice blasted the room with its power, and she saw even Grams jerk back with surprise. "No! We stay with her. She needs her element and she needs us."

"Very well," Grams said. "It's very nearly over anyway. Help me get her to drink this so that her passing will be painless."

Kuri was going to take the vial filled with milky liquid from her when Reiko spoke with surprising clearness. "I don't need it. Since earth came there hasn't been any pain."

"Of course there hasn't been, child." Grams touched Reiko's blood-smeared cheek and Kuri felt her body relax and stop trembling completely. Then the High Priestess looked up. "Help Kuri lift her onto the stretcher. Keep them together. Let's get her to the shrine." Grams told her.

I nodded. Strong hands gripped Reiko and , and in moments Kuri was placed on the stretcher with Reiko still in her arms. With Mana next to her, they were carried swiftly out into the night. Later, Kuri remembered so many weird things about the short trip from the forest into the shrine—how it was snowing heavily, but that it seemed none of the flakes touched us. And it seemed abnormally quiet, as if the earth were holding itself still because it was already mourning. Kuri kept whispering to Reiko, telling her that everything was okay, and that there was nothing to be scared of. Kuri remember her leaning forward and vomiting blood over the side of the stretcher and how the scarlet drops looked against the clean white of the new-fallen snow.

Then they were inside the infirmary, and lifted off the stretcher onto a bed. Grams gestured for her friends to move close to them. Damien crawled up beside Reiko. He was still holding the lit green candle, and he lifted it so that if she opened her eyes again, Reiko would see it. Kuri drew a deep breath. The air around them was still filled with apple blossoms and birdsong.

Then Reiko opened her eyes. She blinked a couple times, looking confused, then she looked up at me and smiled.

With obvious effort, Reiko opened her eyes again and looked around at Mana. "Stick with Kuri. Keep her safe."

"Don't worry," Mana whispered through his tears.

"Good," Reiko said. Then she closed her eyes. "Sis, I think I'm gonna sleep for a while now, 'kay?"

"Okay, honey," Kuri said.

Her eyelids lifted once more and she looked up at Kuri. "Will you stay with me?"

Kuri hugged her closer. "I'm not going anywhere. You just rest. We'll all be right here with you."

"'Kay ..." she said softly.

Reiko shut her eyes. She took a few more gurgling breaths.

Then Kuri felt her go completely limp in her arms and she didn't breathe again. Her lips opened just a little, as if she was smiling. Blood trickled from her mouth, her eyes, nose, and ears, but Kuri couldn't smell it. All she could smell were the scents of the earth. Then, with an enormous rush of meadow-filled wind, the green candle went out, and Kuri's sister died.