Ursula laughed.“Well, be that as it may, you are the one projecting your thoughts.You can control it, with a little practice.The more you step into our world, the more powerful you will become, but you will need to control all aspects of your power.”
“What powers will I have?”Willow asked, swinging her legs over the side of the bed.“Will I be able to move things with nothing more than the power of my mind?Teleport myself to another country?Oh, what about conjuring fire!That would be so cool.Do I have to wiggle my nose, or do I get a wand or something?”
Ursula was already shaking her head.“Samantha and Harry have a lot to answer for.Great entertainment, but not really relevant in the real world.No, for some of the spells and potions you will work with, there might be a need to move or combine elements, but no wands and absolutely no nose wiggling.No idea how she did that anyway.”
A sudden thought had Willow’s previous excitement about potential powers evaporating beneath a wave of uncertainty.“Is it these powers that are making me feel the way I do about Liam and Jacob?”She asked the question in a low voice, but the way both men seemed to turn predator-still made her feel like she’d screamed it.
Ursula frowned at her.“What the hell are you talking about?”
Willow swallowed hard, pushing up to press her back against the headboard, steadfastly refusing to look toward Liam and Jacob.“It’s not normal,” she all but whispered.
Ursula crossed her arms over her chest, cocking her hip—the very clear picture of a pissed-off female.“Firstly, there is a whole shit ton of stuff that happens in this world that is not normal and secondly, who is it that decides what is normal and what is not?Shifters, magic, witches, all of that exists, Willow and you cannot unsee any of it.”
Willow took a slow deep breath.“I know that.I was talking about these feelings I have for—” she cast a quick glance at Liam and Jacob “—they are not normal.How can I trust in something that happened so fast and without me really giving any kind of consent?This is wrong.”
Liam moved slightly and Willow hunched in on herself a little further.“Willow,” he asked in a low tone, but there was no missing the hurt that ran through it.“What you feel for Jacob and me, it can’t be wrong.It is what the Fates have blessed us with.”
“Blessed?”Willow practically snarled.“How can this be a blessing, Liam?I can feel it in my skin that time is running out, that you and Jacob will turn back into the tattoos on my stomach and leave me all alone.To leave me here facing Marcus, or Matthew, or whoever the hell he actually is, all on my own.Just like I was in that damned interrogation room.”She practically leaped from the bed as her skin began to feel too tight.“This doesn’t feel like a blessing, Liam, it feels exactly like what it is: a fucking curse.Where some crazed lunatic decided two hundred years ago that he wanted me and it seems like right about now, it would be the best thing for all of us if I simply let that happen.Then you and Jacob would finally be free and not have to live some kind of fucked-up half life.I think that would be best for you, Liam.”She glanced at Jacob, her heart aching at the devastation on his face.“And for you too, Jacob and God help me, I am starting to think that it might just be best for me.”
It was at that moment that she knew she had gone too far, but it was too late.Jacob and Liam seemed to shimmer in front of her, then a steady stream of black smoke flew across the room and right into her.She felt it almost like a physical blow when they landed against her stomach and she knew the beautiful tattoo was back in place.Liam and Jacob were a part of her once more.She pressed one hand to her stomach and the other to her mouth as she desperately wished she could take back her words.
“I never took you for a coward.”Ursula’s voice was flat and when Willow turned to look at the woman, she flinched at the cold anger she saw on her face.“And I certainly had no idea you were capable of such vicious cruelty.”
Willow inhaled sharply, dropping her hand.“Cruelty?How is it that I am the bad guy in all of this to you?”
Ursula moved quickly to stand almost toe-to-toe with Willow.“How about for just a moment you put yourself in their shoes, huh?They loved you two hundred years ago.They faced down a murderer, went into a situation that had absolutely no hope of winning, but they did so to get to you.To save you.You are their mate, they are yours.If I were in your position, with the hope and chance of having something so fucking special for myself, I would be doing everything I could to protect it.But what do you do?You throw it all back in their face and tell them it would be better for all of you if you surrendered to that evil son of a bitch and to hell with the rest of humanity!”
Willow startled.“What the hell does that mean?”
The color drained from Ursula’s face, and she stepped back.It frightened Willow to see fear flicker in her eyes.“Nothing, forget I said that.Forget I said anything.”She hurried out of the room but paused at the door.“If you decide that you are going to go to that man, let me know before you go.I can remove the tether that connects Liam and Jacob to you.”
“They’ll be free?”Her voice shook.Could it be that easy?
Ursula shook her head.“No.They will be dead.But better dead than living with the knowledge that their chosen mate had turned from them.”
Ursula left the room, and Willow threw herself back onto the bed with a sob, her heart breaking, her mind in complete turmoil.Never before had she had a better understanding of the saying, damned if you do and damned if you don’t.She turned onto her side, facing away from the door and wrapped her arms around her stomach.It was all just too damn much.
She felt the bed move in an all-too-familiar way and then Hugo was pressing himself against her face.With another sob, she wrapped her arms around her pet—something he very rarely allowed her to do—pressed her face against his tiny furry body and cried until the welcoming darkness of sleep claimed her.
****
Jacob listened quietlyas his mate cried herself to sleep, her entire body shaking with the force of her emotions.He felt like crying too, would have welcomed the almost healing release of it all, but that was not a luxury afforded to one who was locked in this void—this endless, suffocating nothingness tethered to the real world only by the fragile strand of her magic.It was cold here, colder than death and yet every so often he thought he could hear the faint echo of Willow’s heartbeat pulsing through the darkness, a rhythm that kept him sane.
He knew Liam was listening too, equally still, equally silent.Neither of them wanted to speak, to risk letting Willow know they could hear her tears, knowing it would only deepen her pain.That, neither of them could bear.So, they waited, helpless, aching.It felt like years, though Jacob knew it had only been perhaps thirty minutes, before her trembling body stilled and sleep finally claimed her.Restless sleep, if the uneven hitch of her breath and the occasional shake of her shoulders were anything to go by.
“Do you think she meant what she said?”Liam’s voice came softly, almost reluctant, as though afraid to give the thought form.Jacob didn’t need to ask what he meant.He had been circling the same fear since Willow’s words had shattered them both.
“I don’t know,”Jacob admitted, keeping his tone just as low.“Maybe in the heat of the moment she believed it.Maybe right now she still does.But later?Who knows.”He hesitated, then added,“What worries me more is what Ursula said about humanity.Could this curse reach further than just us?”
He felt Liam’s sharp flicker of surprise through the bond, then the weight of him considering the idea.“With the amount of power Matthew seems to have in this time, I wouldn’t rule it out.He always wanted more than just Libby.He wanted power over everything.”
“Something must have happened in that moment,”Jacob pressed, jaw tight.“Do you remember him cursing us?Any words, any mark?”
Liam huffed,“Not really, brother.If you recall, I was the one who fell first.I didn’t exactly have time to write anything down.”
Jacob winced.The memory still burned.“I remember.You stepped in front of me when Matthew’s man raised his blade.You died for me.”
Silence fell again, heavy with ghosts.Then Jacob growled, unable to hold it back.“This is wrong.All of it.That woman—our woman—is ours in this life, in the next, in every thread the Fates have ever woven.They don’t make mistakes.She’s ours and we are meant to protect her.We always knew she was more than just a mate—she was important to something greater than us.So why the hell aren’t they helping us now?”
