The women cried openly, Ursula choking out, “She was everything.Our sister.Our heart.”
Willow clutched at her chest, her body shaking as she wailed, “We can’t lose her again!Not like this!”
Jacob’s voice cracked as he stepped forward.“And what of us, brothers?”
Liam, his arms shaking with rage, shouted, “What of us losing you?We just got you back.We’ve finally lived again as brothers—and now you’d throw that away?You think we can watch you die, too, and survive it?”
Isaac’s eyes, dark and ancient, snapped to them.The look he gave—hard, raw, and older than both their lifetimes—cut them off.His voice was low, but the weight of it silenced the roof.“If this were Willow lying here, would you do any less?Would you let her walk into the dark alone?”
Jacob’s lips trembled.Liam’s fists clenched, but the fight left them.They bowed their heads, their grief swallowing their anger.The only answer was silence—and their tears.
Isaac turned his gaze skyward, his fury rising anew.He raged at the heavens, his voice a snarl.“Is this what you wanted, Moon Goddess?”he bellowed.“We sacrificed everything.Gave everything!Centuries of loyalty, of pain, of sacrifice—and this is how you repay us?”
Nolan’s roar joined his, thick with fury.“You took her from us!After everything—we gave our lives, our souls, and you still take her away!”His curses filled the rooftop, echoing across the city, raw grief turned into rage.
The witches wept around them, their hands clutching each other for strength.Ursula’s sobs tore through the air.Willow’s hands shook as she rocked back and forth, whispering prayers through her tears.Isaac’s heart felt like it had been carved from his chest, every beat a reminder of what was gone.
This is it,he thought numbly.This is the end of us.
Then Willow gasped, her voice sharp.“Your tattoos—look!”
Isaac blinked through tears and glanced down.The handfasting tattoos Ursula had inked onto their left forearms burned bright, golden light streaming from them like fire under the skin.Nolan swore, staring at his own.The glow was growing stronger.
A voice filled Isaac’s mind—not the cruel silence he expected, but the steady, sorrowful tone of the Moon Goddess herself.“Complete the handfasting.Bind yourselves fully to her.The bond is not yet broken.”
“Handfasting?”Nolan rasped, eyes wild.“How the fuck do we do that?She’s dead.”
“Her spirit lingers,”the Goddess answered.“Complete the circle.Call her back.Blood and love brought her to the Stone—let love and bond return her to you.”
Isaac looked at Nolan, and Nolan looked back.No hesitation.They moved as one.“We have to complete the handfasting,” Isaac snapped.“We need something to tie the three of us together.”
Brielle tore the belt from her robe and thrust it toward them, her hands shaking.“Here, use this.Do it.Now.”
They placed their left hands against Saffron’s left.Her skin was cold, but the tattoos on their flesh seared hot, demanding connection.Nolan tied the belt around their wrists, binding them together in the ancient pattern—over once, under twice, around thrice, the knot pulling snug with each pass.
Ursula’s voice rose in chant, the old words spilling into rhyme.
“By cord and by heart, by fire and by flame,
By bond unbroken, we speak her name.
In circle made, no soul shall part,
Three made one, one made heart.”
Isaac felt heat begin to rise between their joined hands, a thrum that built with each word, searing through his skin as though the Goddess herself stoked a forge within him.
“By blood and by vow, by night and by day,
By every promise we will not betray.
Through shadow and sorrow, our spirits stay,
Bound as one, we cannot fray.”
Nolan’s voice broke, pleading into the air, tears streaking down his face.“Come back to us, kitten.Please, for the love of all that we are—come back.”
“By soul and by star, by heart and by breath,
