The Healer

The ability to see spirits in their kind passes from mother to daughter. But along with it comes a terrible curse: the fortune-teller is not destined to be happy. Evdokiya faced this far too early. At seven, she was sent to be trained by an old wise woman. At sixteen—she nearly died in the deep wilderness of the forest. She said goodbye to both her fiancé and her mentor; she accepted a power that leaves no room for happiness.

For a brief time, Evdokiya did feel the joy of motherhood, but the village demanded that she give up her adopted son, branding him—"a devil’s seed." Evdokiya’s decision awakened something that had been asleep for more than a hundred years.