Her body language is subtle, but her men’s isn’t as they move as one toward her. Their formation has Verlet and Seismet moving and aligning themselves with us. They watch, and so do we as the energy in the air changes. Pressure builds in the distance between us and them.
Willow straightens as her attention snaps fully back to Thayla, and there’s a resolve there now that’s both unsettling and…settling at the same time.
“I thought I could keep this simple. Say what I was supposed to say, do what I was supposed to, and help you move forward without weighing you down with more questions that you don’t have answers to.”
Her eyes flick briefly to the space around us, to my brothers, then me. Her gaze holds mine long enough that I hold my breath, then she focuses back on Thayla.
“I’ve tried over the years not to dwell on the what-ifs, but that’s easier said than done. I can’t help but ask, if someone had just given me answers when I asked, what could I have prevented? It’s a dangerous slope to go down. Listening to you, I remembered what it cost me to be left in the dark for so long.”
She takes a deep breath, leaning into Corentin as he wraps his hand around her bicep. She holds Thayla’s gaze, unblinking.
“And I won’t let that happen to you.”
Thayla
4
“Ultima unum.”
My head whips toward V as he flies to my shoulder. I have no clue what in the realm that means, yet unease coils low in my stomach all the same. The warning behind his tone is unignorable.
Willow’s gaze snaps to him, sharp and assessing, before returning to me just as quickly. Her piercing silver eyes hold me in place, freezing everything around us.
“Willow, you must watch your words. You know the universal rules. You can’t—”
“The rules can kiss my ass.”
Her words drift through the meadow, calm and devastating all at once. Power rolls off her in a tangible wave, brushing over my skin and lifting the hairs at the nape of my neck.
“I can and will do what I believe is right. That’s my role. The universal responsibility placed on me. I will not stand by and let her and her men continue to go through hell blindly.”
“Willow,”V pleads.
My shoulders tense as she focuses on him, and apprehension flares hot in my chest. I don’t like being dismissed from a conversation that is very clearly about what my Valtrue and I are allowed to know.
V flaps his wings and glides the few feet over back to Seismet, leaving my side without giving me any answers or reassurances. Once he’s settled, he bows his head.
“Very well.”
The ground shifts beneath me. My feet stumble forward without my consent as a vine slips away from my waist. A blast of air tears loose strands of hair from my bun, whipping them across my face before everything stills again.
I suck in a breath that doesn’t fill my lungs. Nothing looks different, but I’m no longer tucked into Kyzen’s side.
“I’ve put an air bubble around the two of us.No onecan hear us but ourselves. V is warning your men of that now,” Willow says.
“Why?” I ask, turning in a slow circle.
The guys’ glares flick between me, V, and the Vito men in a restless loop.
“Because Amick has a thousand questions I won’t answer. Riven is torn between wanting peace and wanting chaos. Kyzen is already preparing to speed up time so he can know what comes next.” Her gaze softens as it casts behind me. “And Creed…is struggling.”
I swallow hard.
I know he is. I’ve felt it since before we went to the Abandon. It stings that she sees it so clearly.
“What just happened between V and me may have felt tense, but I’m not angry with him, and he isn’t upset with me. We simply don’t agree on how to handle this.”
“Yeah,” I mutter. “I noticed.”
