Miracles were happening in Stanhope, Minnesota. Impossible cures, amazing recoveries. All due to a pool of pitch-black water that had bubbled up mysteriously from the depths of the earth. Sometimes it glowed with a beckoning light. Sometimes it reflected only glittering darkness. It always gave the gift of life ... but what would it demand in return?

Ten-year-old Allison Kent knew her parents hadn't really believed a dip in the famous pool would make her well again. They were just pretending so she wouldn't be scared. But it did work and she was better ... except for the cruel voices in her head that whispered of retribution and death. And the dangerous, uncontrollable powers she had over the world around her. Lately she was afraid that whatever lived beneath the water had healed her for an evil purpose all its own ...