by Teresa Roman
Maria shook her head. “No. Willow liked being a witch. I could see it in her eyes.”
“Perhaps she isn’t as fond of werewolves.” I thought back to the night when she’d broken my curse, the night when I’d shifted in front of her for the first time and attacked Peter. I remembered the fear in her eyes. “What if I scared her off?”
“Willow is not some silly damsel in distress. She is a lot stronger and braver than you give her credit for.”
“I turned into a wolf as she lay bleeding on the floor. She watched while I tore Peter’s throat out with my teeth,” I said. “Willow must’ve decided it was all too much for her. I can hardly blame her.”
“If you want to turn around and run back home, then I won’t stop you, but I’m going to keep looking for Willow,” Maria said with her hands planted firmly on her hips. “Because finding her was never just about the two of you. Perhaps your pain has made you forget that.”
Maria’s words were like a slap in the face.
“I never said I was going back home.”
“So the search continues?”
“Of course it does.”
I turned my back to Maria and headed toward the car. She followed and put her hand on my shoulder. “Have you thought about what you’ll say when you come face-to-face with her?”
“I’ll tell her that the police have been asking questions. That someone claiming to be Peter’s mother contacted them about his disappearance. That even with Peter gone, she might not be as safe as she thinks she is. And then I’ll tell her about Grace,” I said, running a hand through my hair. “After that, I won’t bother her again. I’ll return with my brothers to Sarabia. Without Willow, there’s no reason for me to stay here.”
“So you’re not going to tell her how you feel?”
I shook my head. “It’s over between us. I see that now. I’m not going to force myself on someone who doesn’t want me. I’m not that sort of man.”
Maria sighed. “Perhaps the youngest brother, Riley, knows something.”
“Right. Where does he live again?”
“Somewhere on Long Island.”
I doubted Willow would be there. She’d anticipated that I’d come looking for her and was a step ahead. Surely she’d know Riley’s house would be next on my list, but I had no better idea of where to search for her next. I checked my phone.
“It’s over a six-hour drive.”
“Then we’d better get going.” Maria opened the passenger-side door of the car and got in. I sighed. More hours on the road wasn’t something to look forward to, but what other choice did I have?
Chapter 16
Willow
Grace pulled into Delilah’s driveway and promptly announced that she was tired and wanted to go straight to her hotel. I was tempted to ask her to come inside for at least a few minutes, but I had a strong feeling she’d say no. Maybe that was for the best. After a good night’s sleep hopefully the tension between us would be gone.
It wasn’t even that late yet, but for some reason, I was also really tired. Once inside, I crawled into bed and fell fast asleep. Sometime during the night, I turned over in bed and found myself in Nicolai’s arms. I wasn’t frightened nor did I question how he happened to be here. At the sight of him, relief washed over me. Now that he was beside me, my misery would finally end. I kissed him, and he kissed me back.
“Is it really you?” I whispered.
“You needed me, so I came.”
How did he know? “I’m glad you’re here.”
“I always will be, for as long as you want me to be.”
I stared into his eyes. “Make love to me.”
A smile spread across his face. “Gladly.”
I closed my eyes and reached for him, but all I felt was air. My eyes flicked open. Nicolai was still with me, but he was fading. I reached out for him again, frantic, but still I felt nothing, and then he vanished. I sat bolt upright in bed. When my heart finally slowed, I realized I’d been dreaming. I tried to hold in my tears, but the harder I tried, the more furiously they fell, until I gave up trying and just sat in bed sobbing.
When I ran out of tears, I lay back down, but no matter how hard I tried, I could not fall asleep again. I couldn’t stop wondering if my dream had meant something. Was Nicolai in danger? Or had something already happened to him? The thought left me sick to my stomach.
In the morning, I scrambled out of bed to look for Delilah, hoping she might have some answers for me. I found her in the kitchen.
“What is it?” Delilah asked as I walked up to her. I wasn’t usually up so early. Or maybe she’d noticed the circles that had to be under my eyes after a mostly sleepless night.
I told her about my dream. “What do you think it means?”
“That you still love Nicolai very much.”
I didn’t need a dream to tell me that. “Are you sure that’s it?”
“I am,” Delilah said. “Because the same thing happened to me.”
“What do you mean?”
“With Lisa it was practically love at first sight.” Delilah leaned against the kitchen counter. “For a long time, I knew I was … different. In high school, when all the other girls gushed about which boys they had crushes on, I never quite understood the feelings they described. Until I met Lisa. But being gay—I had a hard time accepting it. So even though it killed me to do it, I pushed Lisa away.” Delilah paused to take a sip of her coffee. “I could never quite get her out of my head, though. Especially at night. I dreamt about her all the time.”
“So what did you do?”
“I decided to give us a chance. I had no other choice really. Lisa and I were meant to be together. You can’t just turn your back on that sort of thing. And maybe you shouldn’t either. That’s what that dream was telling you. You’re clearly miserable without him.”
“This thing with Nicolai,” I said. “It’s different.”
“Perhaps.” Delilah took my hand. “Listen, I understand why you think a relationship between you and Nicolai would never work. The romantic in me would like to think you’re wrong, but I get that you have to do what you think is right. Still, I think you owe it to yourself to explain to Nicolai why you left.”
“I left him a note.”
“A note that said next to nothing,” Delilah replied. “You should tell him the real reason that you broke up with him.”
I shook my head. “I can’t. Because I know what he’ll do. He’ll tell me he doesn’t care what his family thinks, and then he’ll find a way to convince me that I’m wrong. But I know I’m not. It’s better this way, trust me.”
“You’re as stubborn as your mother was.” Delilah lifted her gaze to meet mine. “I suppose you know what this means?”
I shook my head.
“That you’ll just have to get used to those dreams.”
“Not if you cast the broken heart spell on me.”
Delilah frowned. “I already told you I can’t. Magic isn’t meant to fix everything, Willow. There are some problems we must figure out how to take care of on our own.”
I was gearing up to beg once more when the doorbell rang.
“I’ll go see who it is.” Delilah headed toward the entryway. After she opened the door, I heard Grace’s voice. She wasn’t typically a morning person, so I hadn’t expected her so early.
“You’re not dressed yet,” Grace said when she saw me.
“Why don’t I brew another pot of coffee while Willow gets ready?” Delilah said.
“It’ll only take me a few minutes,” I said.
Delilah pulled a chair out for Grace, and I darted out of the kitchen and then up the stairs to the attic.
I’d just finished brushing my hair back into a ponytail when I heard a soft tap on the door. “Willow, are you in there?” Grace asked.
How had she managed to sneak past my aunt? I couldn’t let her into the room. She’d have way too many questions. She knocked again. The sound of her knuckles tapping the door w
as followed by another noise—pages rustling. I turned my head. One of my aunt’s spell books had opened, its pages flipping on their own. I walked over to the book to find that it had remained open on a page that read “Compulsion Spell.”
“For when you need to compel a person into a specific action. The laws of witchcraft apply—first do no harm.”
Maria had taught me about the do-no-harm concept in witchcraft. Spells were not intended to be used to hurt others or for selfish reasons. Magic came with rules and laws. Break one of them and it somehow threw things out of balance. That was probably why things went so haywire the other night when I’d tried to cast the broken heart spell on myself.
Redirecting Grace didn’t seem like something that would break any rules, so I walked over to the door and cracked it open.
“Go back to the kitchen,” I told her. I sounded like a Jedi in those old Star Wars movies my dad watched all the time. “There’s no reason for you to be here.”
Grace nodded and repeated, “There’s no reason for me to be here.” She turned around and headed back down the steps.
I breathed a sigh of relief, closed the door, and pressed my back against it. It was just a simple spell, but casting it had taken the wind out of my sails. For a moment, I longed for the way my life had been before Maria had unbound my powers. I shook my head. There was no turning back. That part of my life was over.
I needed to figure out what was next for me, but now wasn’t the time to decide. I’d have to save that question for later since Delilah and Grace were both downstairs waiting for me.
The smell of coffee hit me as soon as I walked into the kitchen. That, along with the aroma of eggs and bacon frying, made my stomach rumble. I joined Delilah and Grace, who’d already started eating.
“Do the two of you have any plans for the day?” Delilah asked.
“Why don’t we go to the mall?” Grace said. “Beaver Falls is the worst for shopping, and I need some new clothes.”
I also needed more clothes. Half of what I owned was still at Nicolai’s. “Sure, that sounds like fun.”
I’d hoped that getting out of the house to do something productive would get my mind off Nicolai, but it didn’t work out that way. We’d barely stepped foot in the mall and already half of me wanted to go back to Delilah’s, crawl into bed, and wait for the dream I’d had the night before to return, but the other half of me knew that when I woke, I’d miss him more than I already did. Though thoughts of Nicolai weighed heavily on my mind, thankfully Grace didn’t seem to notice how distracted I was. At least, not until we sat down for lunch.
“Aren’t you hungry?” Grace asked.
I stared at the rice bowl I’d ordered for a moment before lifting my head to look at Grace. “No, not really.”
“You’re still mooning over Nicolai, aren’t you?”
“I’m not mooning over him.”
She folded her arms across her chest. “Are you ever going to tell me what happened between the two of you?”
“Technically, nothing really happened.” My mind flashed back to the morning Frederic visited me in the hospital. His words still stung. “It’s just that I realized it wouldn’t work out between us no matter how much I wanted it to. And I couldn’t stick around Beaver Falls knowing that.”
“Why won’t it work out? Because he’s a prince?”
I nodded.
“Well, prince or not, he’s not the only fish in the sea. You do realize that, don’t you?”
I hated that expression. “I fell for him, hard. No matter what I do, I can’t get him out of my head.”
“That’s what alcohol is for,” Grace replied. “I say we go out again tonight so you can drown your sorrow in some drinks.”
I frowned, surprised by her response. “I don’t know—"
“Not to change the subject, but I really want to know what happened to Peter. I know you said yesterday that you didn’t want to talk about him, but I swear if you tell me, I won’t mention his name again.”
Just the sound of his name made my stomach turn. “Why does it matter to you so much? And what makes you think I know what happened to him?”
Grace’s expression hardened for a moment. “I still can’t believe you dumped him to be with Nicolai.”
“You wouldn’t say that if you knew Peter the way I did.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Peter was bad news. I wish I’d never met him.”
Anger flashed in Grace’s eyes. She grabbed my hand and squeezed it hard. “Did you do something to him?”
I pulled my hand away. “What the hell is wrong with you? Of course I didn’t do anything to him. What makes you think I did?”
“If the police come to Ithaca to ask you questions about Peter, what will you tell them?”
“That we broke up weeks ago, and I haven’t seen him or spoken to him since then.”
“Is that really true?”
“What’s with you? Why are you interrogating me?”
Grace’s expression softened. “I’m just trying to help you, that’s all. You’ll need to have your story straight, just in case.”
“I have nothing to hide. It’s like I said, I don’t know where Peter is.”
Technically, that was true. Nicolai had killed him, but I didn’t know what happened after. I’d wanted to ask Nicolai when I was in the hospital, but Grace had been there, and that wasn’t a conversation we could have in front of her.
“Willow, you know you can tell me anything, right?”
“Yes, of course I do.”
“But you’re not. You’re keeping things from me. I thought we were supposed to be best friends.”
I didn’t want to rehash this conversation, but for some reason Grace wasn’t ready to let it go. “You’re wrong. I’ve pretty much told you everything. Peter and I broke up. I haven’t heard from him since. Then Nicolai and I got together, but that turned out to be a mistake so I decided to put the past behind me and leave Beaver Falls. There’s nothing more to the story.”
“You’re forgetting the part about winding up in the hospital. You never told me what happened.”
The words were right there, on the tip of my tongue. I was dying to tell Grace the truth, or at least some of it. I wanted her to know that Peter had shown up at the castle and had tried to kill Nicolai. That if I hadn’t jumped in front of Nicolai, he’d be dead now. Nicolai had no other choice but to kill Peter. If Grace knew the truth, perhaps she wouldn’t be so quick to jump to Peter’s defense. But telling her the truth came with risks. Grace was good at keeping secrets, but one slip of her tongue could land me in deep trouble. Perhaps the right thing to do was alter her memories. How could I do that to my best friend, though? “Because I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Will you ever tell me what happened?”
“Yes. Just not right now.”
“Fine.” Grace leaned back in her chair. “I can be patient.”
“Does that mean we can talk about something else?” I asked, hopeful that Grace would take the hint and change the subject, because Nicolai and Peter were the last two people in the world I felt like discussing.
Chapter 17
Nicolai
Seven long hours later, Maria and I arrived in Westbury, Long Island. It was after midnight, so we had no other choice but to check into a hotel for the rest of the night. In the morning, I left a note under Maria’s door and went to Riley’s house on my own. It was just after six. Probably too early, but I rang his doorbell anyway, no longer caring about things like time.
He answered the door still in his pajamas. “Nicolai? What the hell are you doing here?”
His surprise seemed genuine. Had his brothers not told him I was looking for his sister? I got straight to the point. “Is Willow here?” After so much time on the road, I had no more patience left.
“No. What makes you think she would be?”
“Have you heard from her, then?”
“Woah, dude.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “You need to back up with all the questions and tell me what the hell is going on. Did something happen to my sister?”
“That’s why I’m here.” I decided to take a different approach this time. “She left Beaver Falls a few days ago without a word. I’ve tried calling and texting, but she never replies. I’m really worried about her.”
“Did you call the police?”
“No. The police in Beaver Falls are useless.”
“You got a point,” Riley muttered. “What about my brothers? Have you got ahold of either of them?”
“Yes. But they both claim they don’t know where Willow is.” I narrowed my eyes at Riley. “Your brothers haven’t told you I was searching for Willow?”
He shook his head. “I haven’t talked to them since Dad’s funeral.”
Maybe Finn didn’t think I’d drive all the way out to Long Island. Or maybe he hadn’t wanted to worry his youngest brother by telling him Willow was missing, since she wasn’t truly missing. At least one of Willow’s brothers knew exactly where she was, and my money was on Finn.
“Finn knows where she is,” I said. “I’m sure of it. Perhaps you can call and ask him and then let me know what he says.”
Riley frowned. “Why can’t you call him yourself?”
“Who is he more likely to tell the truth to? His brother or me?”
“You’ve already asked him, haven’t you?” Riley took my silence as confirmation. “Well, if Finn knows where Willow is and won’t tell you, then I’m sure he’s got a perfectly good reason.”
“Riley, please. I’m begging you. I need to find Willow.”
“I can’t help you.”
I took a deep breath. Losing my temper would get me nowhere. “Please, if you hear from Willow, can you tell her all I want is to talk?”
Riley nodded. “I get it, dude. I really do. A few weeks ago, me and my girl broke up, and I felt so damn lost. Thankfully, she took me back. I’m sure Willow will do the same. You know how women are. Sometimes they just need a little time to cool off.”
