4. Willow
Willow
I feel like I got hit by a bus.
I struggle to open my eyes, and shock pulses through my veins as I take in the sparkling blue ceiling.
Its faint shimmer reminds me of the ice rock in my mates’ tunnel home, but this ice is darker and practically hums with wild magic.
I don’t like it. Not only is it unfamiliar, it feels…
wrong. Like my skin is crawling with ants.
A shudder works through me, and I slowly rise into a sitting position, cringing as my body protests with the slight movement.
Make that two buses.
Blinking away the fog of sleep, I take in my new surroundings.
The room is surprisingly nice. I’m lying in an actual bed with a carved bedframe and a nightstand, equipped with a “lamp” powered by a strange glowing rock instead of a light bulb.
Now that I’m lucid, I realize I’m lying on a handmade pillow, too.
I wiggle my toes, then pull the fur covers aside and see that someone has put socks on my feet. And they’re really comfy and warm.
Where am I…?
Pain lances through my temples, and I reach up to clutch my head, biting my lip to hold back the scream that wants to be released. Images flash through my mind, but they don’t linger long enough for me to see clearly, and I can’t make sense of them or what they might mean.
What the hell happened to me?
I try to remember how I got here, but I have no memories past Dagny and her six mates showing up.
Although there was that voice…
The harder I try to recall the memory, the further it slips from my grasp. The only thing I can see clearly is that glowing ring of silver around her irises. Then the voice said something; there was pain, and then… nothing. Everything is black.
Panic races through me, and my eyes sweep the room, searching. It’s only now I realized there’s no comforting warmth at my back and no reassuring palm on my thigh. My mates are nowhere to be found.
Oh God… are they alive? Did something happen to them?
I try to get out of bed, but my legs are like jelly, and I fall to the ground in a heap. The mate bond flares to life before I can call for them, its tendrils stretching from my chest, frantic and searching.
Rhune. Nyx. Where are you?
I don't know if they can hear me, and I’m not sure if this is even how it works. But a beat later, two pairs of footsteps pound the ground, the sound growing louder as my mates rush toward me.
The door bursts open, and I watch from the floor as Rhune’s eyes scan the room, his expression crumpling with despair when he doesn’t immediately see me.
“Willow?” he practically screams, rushing toward the bed with wild, glowing eyes. “Willow, where are you?”
Rhune starts ripping the covers and pillows from the bed, tossing them behind him in a heap as he desperately searches for me. “Dear gods!” he cries. “She’s disappeared!”
Before I can say anything, Rhune crumples to the ground in a heap, his body shuddering as he attempts to calm himself. “I told you we shouldn’t have brought her! Now she’s gone! That thing took her away!”
“I’m here!” I yell—well, I try to yell—but it comes out more like a wheeze. “Other side!”
Nyx calmly walks around the bed toward my voice, stopping short when he sees me lying on the floor. “Oh, you poor, sweet thing.” He crouches and pulls me into his arms. “Did you try to get up?”
Before I can answer, Rhune’s head pops up, his eyes shining with despair. As soon as he catches sight of me, his expression lights up, and he launches himself across the bed.
“Willow!” he cries. “Willow, I thought I’d lost you!”
“That’s wildly apparent.” Nyx steps out of Rhune’s reach. “Calm yourself. You’ll hurt her.”
“I would never!” His lip juts out pathetically. “How could you say that?”
“Rhune… I say this with love, but you’re a little… unhinged right now. I worry you’ll hug her too hard and crush her.”
I almost laugh, but Nyx’s deadly serious expression has it dying in my chest. Oh my…
Rhune whines, hanging his head. “I promise I won’t…”
Nyx sighs, stepping over to the bed and passing me over to Rhune. “I’m watching you. No squishing.”
“No squishing.” He nods, happy as a clam.
As soon as I’m in his arms, though, his promise seems to fly out the window.
All of the air is squeezed from my lungs as he wraps me in a bear hug, and my eyes fly wildly toward Nyx for help, who is already in the process of extracting me from his death grip.
“I said no squishing!”
“I am not!”
“Tell that to her! Her eyes are about to pop out, you dizzy creature!”
Rhune whines, looking down at me. His eyes flash with horror, and he releases enough to let the oxygen back to my lungs. “Oh my gods, I’m so sorry, Willow!”
“It… it’s okay,” I gasp. “You’re too… too cute to be mad at.”
Rhune holds me in his arms, brushing the hair back from my eyes. “Are you sure you are okay?”
“Much better now.” I grin up at him. “Oxygen makes everything better.”
Nyx chuffs a laugh, then leans in to wrap all three of us in a hug—one that is much softer than Rhune’s, but just as loving.
He pulls away, placing a loving kiss against my forehead. I look around the room again, and my questions come flooding back.
“Where are we?” I ask. “Where are Dravik and Cin? What happened to Dagny and her mates? Are they alive? Are they hurt?”
Nyx runs his hand down my back soothingly.
“We are in Dagny’s home, and everyone is okay.
We even brought your pet Kevin with us—though I’m not sure where the furry little asshole has run off to.
Dravik and Cin are most likely still out on their hunt, but they will find us here when they are finished.
We left a note and directions back at the cave in the cliffs. ”
“Okay…” I shiver, remembering how I blacked out. “What happened… after?”
Nyx and Rhune exchange a glance. “After what?”
“After I blacked out. What happened?”
That look again. “Are you sure you do not want to get some more rest before we talk about that?” Rhune asks. “I am worried about you.”
Oh God. It must have been bad.
The blood drains from my face. “I need to know. Please. Just… just tell me.”
Nyx takes a deep breath and begins telling the story.
How I blacked out, and the entity in my body took over and tried to kill everyone.
When he gets to the part where I tried to kill Rhune, something cold and sick settles in the pit of my stomach, and I have to take several deep breaths through my nose to keep from vomiting.
“When Rhune held up your mom’s necklace, it seemed to draw you out of whatever prison the entity had you locked in.
And as soon as you were free, you fought.
You fought for your life, and for all of ours.
I do not know how, but you managed to push that thing back.
You won.” He shakes his head, amazement shining in his turquoise eyes.
“Without you, we all would have died, Willow.”
“Without me, you wouldn’t have been in danger in the first place,” I say, brokenly. I can’t believe I almost killed them all. I can’t believe that thing tried to use my body to end their lives.
I reach up, clutching the pendant hanging between my breasts like a lifeline. “I’m so sorry… I never wanted to hurt either of you… any of you…”
“You didn’t, beautiful.” Nyx leans in, pressing his lips to my forehead. “You saved us. That thing was not you. It couldn’t be more different from my wonderful mate. It is vile and twisted and evil, and you are good and pure and lovely. So very, very lovely.”
I gaze up at him, emotion building in my chest—so much of it, all at once, that it bursts from my pores and colors the air around us with warmth. Without thinking, I reach up, grab his horns, and pull him down for a kiss that says everything I can't put into words.
“Fuck.” Nyx pulls back slightly. “That was…”
“Everything.” I press my forehead against his. “You’re everything to me. You and Rhune.”
Hearing his name, Rhune whines, tilting my head toward him for a kiss of his own. I let him have it, falling into the intoxicating sensation of heat and safety that finds me every time Rhune and I embrace.
I let my anxiety fall away, and I enjoy the moment. For a while, it’s perfect. I’m complete. I’m happy.
The knock on the door breaks the spell I was under.
I pull away from Rhune just as Dagny throws open the door, wearing her glowing suit of armor and a smile that seems a little too chipper based on everything that happened recently.
“Well, hello, sunshine! Someone’s looking better—so much less like a corpse!”
“Um… thank you?” I glance at Nyx for confirmation, but he just shakes his head with a chuckle.
“You are always perfect to me, my mate. But you do have more color to your cheeks now, which is always a good sign.” He winks, and I feel a familiar rush of warmth travel up my neck to my face. “You see? A very good sign, indeed.”
Dagny walks over to the bed. She sits on the edge, taking me in with those strange silver-ringed eyes. After a while, she leans in but doesn't touch me, just looks deep in my eyes.
“How are you feeling?”
“I’m a little sore, but other than that…” I shrug. “Everything important seems to be intact, considering.”
“Yes… Things got pretty intense there for a minute.” Dagny leans back, her expression hardening as she’s lost to a memory.
Her fingers curl into fists, knuckles paling, and for a second, I think she might say something else.
Then she blinks, and whatever it was disappears behind that easy smile again.
I clear my throat. “So I heard…” I look down at my clasped hands, biting my lip hard enough to taste blood. “I’m sorry about… you know…” Trying to kill you and your mates.
Dagny waves me off with a reassuring smile. “It’s nothing. We’re all alive, and that’s what matters. Right?”
“Right.”
“Good.” She slaps her knees as she stands, then turns to face me with a wide grin.
“Now, eat some breakfast and have your lovely mates take you down to the healing baths. Once you’re feeling a bit better, I’d love to give you a tour of my home and talk a little bit.
” She gives me a conspiratorial look. “You know, just us girls.”
The weight behind her words doesn't quite match her cheery smile, but I can't tell if I'm imagining it. “That sounds great,” I say. “I’ll see you in a bit.”
“See you in a bit, Willow.”
Just before she reaches the door, something flickers across her face. It’s there and gone so fast I almost convince myself I imagined that, too. But I didn't. I’m sure of it.
Dagny is afraid. But of what? Or, maybe the better question is, of who?
I'll have to ask her when we have our talk later.