“You need more power. I don’t know how to help you. The WCU is gone.”
With a roar, the blue flames glow so bright, I can’t see a thing. The air swirls around us. Gently at first, then faster and faster until my cheeks sting. How is this possible? It’s likeI’mhere. Not just her.
Tears prick at my eyes. I have to close them to slits before the book comes back into focus. Those aremyhands. Solid and shaking.
I turn the page, pressing my fingers to the edges of the parchment so the wind doesn’t blow the entire grimoire to bits. The ink flows, each letter coming faster than the last.
Refuse the call and your life ends here.
Stop the search and your soul will sheer.
Threads from the past can bind or break.
The future is only what you make.
When all is lost will come a choice.
Love…
I canfeelthe grimoire resisting. It doesn’t want to finish the last line. But why?
“Tell me the rest!”I beg. Ink wells up, drowning the words until the entire page is pitch black.
Pain—as sharp as an ice pick—drives into my skull. I grab my head in both hands. My scream echoes off the walls.
I only stop when my lungs have nothing left to give. The flames are dying. Every second is darker than the last. My chest tightens. It’s hard to breathe. I’m dizzy.
My knees hit the rough stone. I’m too weak to get up. I could die here. No one would ever find me.
Maybe it’s better this way.
The magic of the Blade would die with me. AURA would never get their hands on it. On me.
From somewhere far away, I hear Gabriel calling my name. He’s desperate.
“Please, Willow. Open your eyes for me. You cannot leave this world. Not yet.”
I want to live. I want to see him again. My whisper’s panic is a physical weight. “Let…me…go,” I beg. “Or we both die.”
My consciousness snaps back to my body in a single heartbeat. The bottom drops out of my stomach. I roll onto my side and retch. I’m so cold. I can’t feel my hands. Or…anything at all.
Gabriel
In Sinclair’s guest suite, I cradle Willow against my chest. She has not stirred in over an hour. I can still sense her, thank fuck. She is not in the void. If they had found a way to send her there again, I do not know what I would have done.
Or, perhaps I do. I would have hunted them. Mercilessly.
Her eyelids flutter. I drag my thumb along her cheek, watching for any signs of distress.
“Come back to me,deliciae.”
She blinks up at me, her blue eyes unfocused. “Gabriel? Where…are we?”
“I brought you to Sinclair’s. His penthouse is protected by more wards than the Bureau could ever hope for. He and Zoe are still coordinating with Lieutenant Eve.”
Willow snuggles closer with a sigh. I ache to know why she passed out. But in this moment, her comfort with me—her trust—is all that matters.
“Do you believe in fate?” she asks, her voice heavy and thick with exhaustion.
