14. Willow
Willow
I wake with a pounding headache and the gnawing sensation that something is horribly wrong. From what I can discern, I'm lying in bed, though I’m unable to open my eyes. Whenever I try, my body refuses to listen.
A dull pain pulses through me, but beneath it a pleasant warmth builds in my skin, easing most of the discomfort. Healing magic.
Again, I try to open my eyes, but nothing happens. I reach for my locket out of instinct, but my arm refuses to budge. My legs are frozen, too, but not by the same tiredness holding my eyelids shut.
I’m tied up.
As soon as the realization hits, the panic floods in. My heart slams against my ribs, and I yank against the restraints, but none of it does anything except send a fresh wave of pain shooting up both arms.
“Shh. It’s okay, my heart. You must be still.”
I recognize Dravik's deep voice, the weight of his massive palm on my shoulder, and the panic bleeds out of me as I relax back into the furs.
“That’s a good girl. Stay just like that for me, okay? We’re almost done healing you.”
Healing me from what, though? What happened?
A few minutes pass, and the warmth in my body fades. Somehow, I manage to crack open my eyes, but my vision is blurred, and I can’t make out any of my mates’ faces. I blink heavily as Dravik helps me into a sitting position, the room slowly coming into focus.
Rhune is at my side, Nyx at the other. Exhaustion is plain on both their faces, showing in the hollowness under their eyes, their gaunt cheeks, and their slackened shoulders. Below all of that, though, is pure relief.
“My Willow.” Rhune leans in close, his hand hovering by my face like he’s afraid he’ll break me if he touches me. I give him a shaky smile, closing the distance between us. As soon as his palm connects with my cheek, he lets out a massive sigh of relief, his eyes shuttering with bliss.
Nyx wraps his arms around me from behind, pressing his face deep into my lower back. I’m not entirely sure, but I think tears are leaking from his eyes.
Dravik settles at the edge of the pile, wrapping his massive orange wings around the three of us. The bond hums with bliss, and a few cracks spread through the wall, allowing me to access a small portion of the other side. It is better than nothing, though.
I press my face into whatever part of Rhune I can reach, losing myself in the pleasure flowing through the bond. Nobody says anything for a long moment. Nobody has to.
We sit like that for a long while, until my joints ache and my legs go numb. When they finally pull back, no one moves away—they all sit around me, their hands lingering on me like they’re terrified to let go.
It’s then that I remember I’m still tied up.
“What happened to me?” I ask. “Why am I…?” I raise my wrists, gesturing to the restraints.
“You don’t remember?” Nyx asks.
“Remember what?”
My mates share a look, and dread hardens in my stomach. “What am I supposed to remember?”
“Last night… you went down to that room with the pit.”
I don’t like the way he looks at me as he says it. Like he’s… scared of me. “I did?”
“You did.” Nyx’s jaw sets. “We found you standing at the edge of the pit, staring down at it in a trance. The roots…” He shudders. “They were climbing all over you. But you didn’t seem to mind. It’s like you wanted it to happen.”
“Oh my God,” I whisper. “I… I don’t remember any of that.”
“I was worried you might not,” Dravik says. “You were not yourself.”
I shiver, leaning further into my mate's hold for comfort. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?” They share another look, and my heart sinks. “Oh God. I’m so sorry.”
“You have nothing to apologize for, my heart,” Dravik soothes. “It was not you who did it. It was that thing.”
“The serafyn.” I close my eyes tight, as if that will block out the horror. “She… she took over my body and my mind again.”
Dravik nods, his mouth pressing into a thin line. “If Cin had not shown up when he did, we do not know what horrors would have occurred.”
That makes me pause. “Cin was there?”
“Yes.” Rhune nods excitedly. “He scared the roots away! We don’t know how, but he did. It was amazing!”
For some reason, Rhune’s words cause my stomach to twist with nausea. He… he controlled the roots? How?
There’s a low hiss in the depths of my mind—mean, and angry, and terrifying. Horrible parasite, the voice spits. We almost succeeded. If only it had stayed away a few more moments…
My pulse races. Spoon? I ask. What… What did we almost do last night?
Spoon sighs, seeming irritated with my question. We almost completed our mission.
As in…?
You know what. Its voice is low and deadly. I told you the first time I awoke.
I swallow hard. If what the voice is telling me is true, then… last night, I almost ended the whole fucking world. I think I’m going to be sick.
Thank God Cin showed up when he did.
The entity in my head roars, and I clap my hands over my ears. How can you be happy? It ruined EVERYTHING.
Rhune and Nyx stare at me, their expressions twisted with worry. “Willow? Are you okay?”
I don’t answer. I can’t. I’m still reeling from the pure rage in the entity’s voice. For some reason, it hates Cin. I just don’t understand why.
Then it hits me. All at once, slamming into me with the force of a freight train.
Cin… the being that controls his body. Is it… he is being possessed by the Welwig?
The voice doesn’t answer, but it doesn’t need to. It’s the only thing that makes sense. The only thing that explains what’s been happening.
“Oh my God.” I bring a shaking hand to my mouth. “Oh my God…”
“Willow? What’s wrong?” Rhune demands. “What’s happening?”
It’s too much, all at once. My vision darkens at the edges, the shadows eating up my sight with every frantic heartbeat.
I open my mouth to speak, but nothing comes out. And then everything goes black.
When I wake up, I'm no longer tied up.
I crack my eyes open slowly, finding my mates are crowded around me, wearing differing levels of concern on their handsome faces.
Rhune is at my side, clutching my hand tightly in his.
Nyx has his hand covering my heart, and it looks like he’s about to burst into tears.
Dravik is the farthest from me, crouched at the top of the bed and watching over me. And Cin… is nowhere to be seen.
All of my mates' familiars have reappeared—minus Noox—and they stand a few feet away from me, looking like they’d like nothing more than to rush the bed and crush me with snuggles. For some reason, though, they stay back.
Then I notice the others.
Dagny stands near the foot of the bed, her six mates filling the space behind her. None of them say a word. They just remain there staring at me with a mix of curiosity and fear. I pull the blanket a little higher across my lap, feeling much too exposed with all these eyes on me.
"What's going on?" I ask. “Why is everyone here?”
Dagny takes a step forward, fixing her face into a neutral expression. “We need to have a talk, Willow.”
“About?”
She sighs, taking a seat at the edge of the bed. “Your mates explained what’s been happening to you. About the serafyn inhabiting your body.”
Everything I was going to say dies in my throat. “They did?”
She nods solemnly. “They were worried about your well-being, and rightly so. I wish they had come to us sooner with the information, but there’s nothing to be done about it now.”
Rhune’s face crumples with shame. Meanwhile, Nyx and Dravik hold firm. “We did not know how much to trust you with,” Nyx explains. “We did not know how you would react.”
“Still,” Dagny grumbles. “I wish you would have told us.”
“Why?” I ask. “Can you help me?” My heart pounds as I wait for her answer.
She pauses, choosing her next words carefully. “I… do not know. Until this day, we all believed serafyns to be a myth. But…” She looks at her mates. “If the stories are true, then we must do something. Otherwise, the world will end.”
Nobody moves. Nobody speaks. All of us are frozen to the spot, terrified by the truth in Dagny’s words.
“I think I might have an idea,” I say.
Every eye in the room turns to me at once.
“What’s your idea, Willow?” Dagny asks, her voice unusually soft.
I twist my fingers in the fur, a wave of self-consciousness flowing over me, curving my shoulders inward. “Well, from what I can gather, Cin is… I think he’s being possessed by a Welwig. Specifically, the Welwig. The one that made this world.”
“What?” Fenryr scoffs. “That is impossible.”
“Everything about this world seems impossible to me, yet it’s real.” I hold my chin up high. “I don’t understand what’s so shocking about what I said.”
“It just… it is not how things work.”
Dagny gazes at her mate. “I don’t know, Fenryr… We didn’t think Slaine could be resurrected, yet he was. Partially, at least. This world works in ways even we don’t understand. I think Willow has a point.”
“Not to mention she has direct access to the serafyn,” Malice points out. “If anyone can piece things together, it would be the one person with the information none of us has.”
Dagny considers this for a moment before her attention settles back on me. “Please. Go on.”
“Well…” I clear my throat. “The serafyn told me this world is sick. Dying. What if, somehow, we healed it? Like, how you guys heal a cut or broken bone.”
“We only have so much power.” Dagny shakes her head. “Even all of us combined… it wouldn’t be enough to heal whatever is wrong with the world.”
“You don’t. But Cin and I do.”
Dagny raises her brow. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that we both have access to these all-powerful entities. Somehow, if we could tap into that power, maybe we could do something.”
“How would we do that?”
My mind flashes with images of the upside-down Welwig from my dream. The visions… They've been showing me the truth all along. I just never understood before now. The massive room, the glowing red roots. The sickness in the air.
The serafyn must have accidentally projected those images into my mind. It didn’t mean to, but it showed me the core of The Far Place. The area where it all began.
“We have to go to the core.”