“Not if you fail. If you decide to fail—as I fear you want to—I will take him. It’s the blood that matters.”

She smiled again and looked to Florence, who said:

“Juan, we’ve never had another medium even close to your caliber. We need to protect ourselves from what’s happening to you. Mediums lose their sanity. They lose their minds! It’s happened too many times. They become unmanageable, they rebel. We understand. But what the Darkness, our ancient god, is giving us must not be interrupted by a whim or fleeting mania. Not even by your illness. We have to protect ourselves from your power. The messages cannot stop just because you decide to turn against us. The Darkness is teaching us how to conquer death. It is teaching us how to contact other ancient gods. Imagine that. You must continue summoning for us. Your wife told us that you wanted to stop, and we cannot allow that. And you know perfectly well that when something must be done for the Order, I don’t back down. I’m so terribly sorry. I’m more grateful to you than to anyone in this world. But I cannot allow you to leave us, or to exercise your power over us.”

“Do you really think I can stop summoning? That the Darkness will allow it?”

Florence cocked her head to one side and her bun almost came undone. A lock of red hair fell over her forehead.

“You could manage to stop for a time, if you wished. What we fear is that you’ll decide to end your life. You can kill yourself, and that would be your way to stop summoning. It wouldn’t be the first time a medium committed suicide.”

“I could also die in any Ceremonial.”

“I doubt it. At least I know we can revive you, and it’s a risk we must take. But if you decide to kill yourself, we’ll have nothing left. Now that your wife is trapped, I don’t think you’ll do it, I think you will go on so that you can free her. The Darkness will reveal where she is.”

“Plus,” added Mercedes, “don’t think we will ever give up and stop testing my grandson’s abilities. Maybe Rosario lied to us and maybe she didn’t, it doesn’t matter. She was ambitious and wanted to inherit the Order, and I can’t blame her for that, but I never trusted her. Gaspar could reveal himself later.”

“Gaspar is not my heir. He’s not a medium.”