Book excerpt: Some people in Maywell, New Jersey, commute to New York. Some are working on a lab project that will change the world—if it is allowed to succeed. And some people are witches. Amanda Walker is not a witch—yet. She's an artist, looking for work—unaware that someone has a desperate need for her, a dark plan that may require Amanda to enter death itself. If she is allowed to live long enough to make the choice. Amanda's tale is far stranger than she knows. It is ancient beyond memory. In times of great change it must be relived, in all its fear and hope, its wisdom and its passion. One of those times is now.