When I open my eyes, there is a foreign feeling that has washed over me. Calm. I can’t remember the last time I’ve slept so peacefully. It’s been ages since I’ve felt so rested and restored, and despite there being a looming threat out there, I can’t deny I’ve gotten the best sleep I’ve had in years. No elixirs or pills necessary. Just this quiet little apartment in North Carolina with Willow.
I carry this peace with me as I look around Willow’s apartment. A burnt orange sunrise filters through the blinds and I hear birds chirping in the distance. Footsteps thud above me, and I assume it’s those neighbors Willow mentioned the first time I heard the steps. I don’t know what time it is, but it feels early, and I groan as I roll over, only to find Willow not in the bed next to me.
I sit up rapidly, retrieving the Blackwater gun from the nightstand and climbing off the bed. Where the hell is she? Did someone take her? No, that can’t be. I’d have heard it. Unless Decius got through somehow…
I march through the apartment, my pulse pounding in my ears as I reach the balcony door and snatch it open. I peer out at the sea of cars in the parking lot, the buildings ahead and skyscrapers in the distance.
Where is she? I should go outside and check. If Decius got to her while I was wasting time sleeping, I’ll hate myself. I should’ve known better. Resting has never gotten me anywhere.
As all these racing thoughts cross my mind, a door creaks on the hinges and I spin around, pointing my gun toward the noise. But it’s only Willow. She walks through the front door with a brown paper bag in one hand and a tray of drinks in the other.
Spotting me on the balcony, she starts to smile—that is until she sees the gun pointed at her. “Whoa! Caz? Is everything okay?”
“Love of Vakeeli, Willow. Where were you?” I lower the gun and step inside, allowing my body to sag against the nearest wall as a breath escapes me. “You can’t do that to me.”
She places all the items on the table while looking at me from head to toe. “Did you think something happened to me?” she asks.
“As a matter of fact, I did.”
“I’m sorry, Caz. You have no reason to worry though.” She gestures toward the bed. “Did you not see the note I left on the nightstand?”
I swing my gaze toward the nightstand, and there is indeed a square sheet of paper on top of it. I glance at her before walking over to pick it up.
Left to get some breakfast.
Be right back. Love you!
-Willow
“I didn’t see it.” I swallow, my face and ears growing hot now. This is so fucking embarrassing. Me, about to lose my shit over her absence. Vakeeli’s sakes, I need to get it together.
As if sensing my embarrassment, Willow slips out of her jacket and meets up to me. She takes the gun out of my hand, places it on the nearest surface, then drapes her arms over my shoulders.
“I’m sorry,” I murmur. “I overreacted.”
“It’s okay. We’re fine for now, Caz,” she says, smiling. “We’re safe.”
“I suppose I’m having a hard time believing that. No one is ever really safe, no matter how much they wish to be.”
“For now, we are. And it’s funny you say that. It’s almost exactly what you said the night before I got sucked into Vakeeli.” I meet her eyes, and the brown of her irises shimmer in the rising sunlight. Look at her, so damn beautiful. What would I have done if I did lose her?
“You can’t just leave like that,” I say. “I don’t want to sound like a desperate jackoff, but you just can’t, okay? I would prefer to have eyes on you at all times.”
“Okay, okay. I’m sorry.” She pulls away, her forehead wrinkling. “You were just sleeping so peacefully. I didn’t want to wake you.”
“I don’t care about sleep. Take me with you next time if you have to. Please, Willow. I don’t beg, but this matters to me. You matter to me. I cannot lose you.”
“Okay, I will.” She leans back, avoiding my eyes, but I catch her before she can walk away and collect her face in my hands.
“I’m sorry to get upset,” I murmur. “Don’t be angry with me. I just…I’m terrified at the idea of losing you.”
“I know. That same idea terrifies me too.” She presses one side of her cheek deeper into my palm. “I understand, and I won’t do it again.”
“Do you really? Because I feel like I’m coming off as an overbearing ass and you’re getting sick of my shit,” I laugh.
She laughs too, pressing her chest to mine. “You are an overbearing ass. Lucky for you, I understand why.”
I press a kiss to her lips, then peer over her shoulder at the brown paper bag on the table. “Is that another burger?”
“No.” She grins, pulling away. “It’s a breakfast bagel from one of my favorite restaurants. You’ll like it just as much as the burger.”
She unloads everything, setting it up on the table as I sit. When she bites into her so-called bagel, I do the same. The flavors burst in my mouth—spicy, savory, eggy.
“Mmm. What’s in this?” I ask.
“Eggs, sausage, and cheese,” she answers.
“Mmm.” I finish off the bagel, then pick up my drink to sip. “Sweet tea?”
She nods and puts on a coy smile.
“Thank you, Willow. It’s delicious.”
“Of course.” She takes another bite, chews, and assesses me with her eyes. “So, I was thinking you could check in with your family through Cerberus.”
My mind has been so preoccupied that I hadn’t thought of my wolf Cerberus. “That’s a good idea. How do I do that?”
She places her bagel down. “Just think of him. Try to imagine being him…doing what he does. That’s how I got through to Silvera. Maybe you can get a message to your family through him to let them know you’re safe for now.”
“Okay, sure.” I finish off the bagel. “I can give it a try. Would be nice to see how they’re holding up.”
Just as I pick up my tea to sip, there’s a knock at the door. I cut my eyes to the door a fleeting moment before focusing on Willow again.
“Don’t worry. It’s Faye. She sent me a text thirty minutes ago saying she was on the way.” She dusts off her hands. “Apparently she found something so important it couldn’t wait.”
Willow checks the peephole to confirm, then swings the door open. Faye enters the apartment wearing a tan trench coat and green boots with white polka dots. Never in all my years of living have I seen boots like them—all bright and plastic-looking. How the hell are those things even comfortable?
Faye removes the strap of the leather purse from her shoulder, placing it on the nearest surface before sauntering to the middle of the room with her hands midair.
“You will not believe what I discovered,” she announces.
I refrain from rolling my eyes. I haven’t known her long, but I can tell she loves the dramatics.
“Well tell us. What is it? What’d you find?” Willow asks.
“So last night I was doing some digging about bonds and everything. It got frustrating because there’s really not much out there on Tethers, universal bonds, or what have you, so I thought, why not expand the search? Instead of looking up information on this rare bond you two have, why not search for things like universal traveling or portal hopping, like you two have done. Well, let me tell you, there were way more results. I went down a rabbit hole about it. Deep, deep, deep down,” she says, eyes rounding. “Eventually, I found a blog created by this guy who swears his fiancée was sucked into a portal and taken to another dimension right in front of him. Apparently, they were hiking, and he says he saw her get sucked into something and disappear.”
“Are you serious?” asks Willow, face serious.
“Yes. He claims she legit vanished out of thin air.”
“Well, she couldn’t have just vanished. People on Earth don’t have those abilities, do they?” I ask.
“No, they don’t,” Willow says. “At least, not that I’m aware of.” She turns to Faye. “Who is this guy? Where does he live?”
“Here.” Faye whips out her own cellphone thing and carries it to Willow, swiping a finger on the screen a few times before showing it to her. “His name is Phil Patterson and, funny enough, he only lives a few hours away in Virginia. He made a career of gaming on Twitch and was about to get married, but his whole life changed after his fiancée disappeared. He has so many videos talking about it. Here, watch this one.”
Willow takes the cellphone from Faye, and I get up to stand behind her and watch it too. On the screen is a video of a brown-skinned man looking right back at us. I’m not sure what kind of sorcery this is, but I’m certain it correlates to all those videos and photos Willow showed me of random people on her phone last night. I still can’t wrap my mind around any of that internet stuff, but whatever.
“It’s been a whole month and Marney is still missing,” Phil Patterson says through a sigh. “I’m sorry, y’all, but this’ll probably be my last video for a while. I gotta find out what happened to my fiancée, and with any new findings, I’ll keep you posted on my website blog. Everybody blaming me when I had nothing to do with it. I loved her with everything in me, and I know what I saw. Police are try’na call me crazy, think I’m losing my mind, or that I done developed some kind of post traumatic stuff. She disappeared though, and that’s fact. She walked right into something and didn’t come back, and I’m gonna find out what it was. Peace, fam. I’ll be back when I have some answers.”
“Was this really his last video?” Willow asks, handing the phone back to Faye.
“Unfortunately. It’s the last one he ever uploaded, but he did write a blog post about something else he discovered shortly after it,” Faye informs her. “His post talks about how he reached out to a woman who knew about universal pulls and portals. He kept calling her a witch, but she didn’t like to be referred to as that. Apparently, this woman said she could bring his fiancée back to him—that she knew many things about the multiverse and portals and could even connect with other people from them. But in order for her to do that for him, he had to pay a shit ton of money.” Faye pauses, tucking the phone into the back pocket of her pants. “Unfortunately, that’s the last blog post he ever wrote. And now…well, here’s where my research takes a nosedive.”
Willow sighs, as if knowing what Faye will tell her is bad.
“What happened?” I ask, and Faye’s bright eyes shift to mine.
“He’s in a psychiatric facility in Virginia.”
“Of course, he is,” Willow mutters, throwing her head back in defeat. “The guy we need to ask questions about portals and other universes is locked in a psych ward. Great.”
“I looked up the place,” Faye says. “It’s Virginia Coast Psychiatric Detention. They do allow visitors every day, from two to five p.m. I know it sounds crazy, Willow, but if we can get to him, ask him who the woman was that was going to help him with the other universes, maybe there’s a way this woman can help you through this Tether. Or at least find a way for Caz to return safely and for the threats to be erased.”
“That’s damn near impossible,” I interject. “I’m positive an unknown woman from Earth won’t be able to assist us with our Tether. Not with ease. The Tether—Cold Tethers especially—are sacred. They’re impossible to manipulate unless one holds the power of the Tether too.”
“That may be true, but at this point, it’s the only lead.” Faye shifts on her feet, looking between us.
“So, we start with this Phil person,” Willow murmurs.
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “So let me get this straight. We’re putting our faith and the fate of our Tether into the hands of a man in a loony bin and an unknown woman who is most likely a con artist?”
Willow and Faye look between each other. “Well, when you put it that way…” Faye huffs a laugh and starts to bite her thumbnail.
“I know it sounds crazy, Caz, but we have to try something.” Willow steps toward me, her eyes sparkling with hope. “If we don’t at least check in about it, how will we know?”
I shake my head, and though I want to look away, I’m having a hard time doing so. Those damn eyes. “Perhaps there’s a way to reach the other Regals. Surely, they’re much stronger than Decius. And last I heard, they’re in hiding as well, blending in, just like Decius was.”
“Who are the other Regals?” Willow asks.
“Legend has it that Selah had two sisters who eventually stepped down to become Mythics after Selah created the Tethered. Their names were Hassha and Korah. There are rumors they’re still alive and blending in with the commoners. They have great power, and they know many things. It would be easier to signal to them and see if they can help with defeating Decius…if this con artist woman can even give us a link to them.”
“We’ll try.” Willow raises her chin. “We have to. We can’t let Decius win.”
“You’re right. And at this rate, I’ll do anything to kill him.”
“Jesus,” Faye whispers. “Is this normal for you? Just saying you’re going to kill someone?”
“What’s wrong with it?” I counter.
“We don’t exactly go around saying we’re going to kill people around here. At least, not literally,” Faye declares.
“Well, I mean it literally. I will kill him.”
“Okay.” Faye blows an exasperated breath then reaches for Willow’s hand, squeezing it. “Willow, can we talk? Alone?”
She looks from me to Faye, hesitant.
Willow swings her eyes to me as Faye marches to the door. “I’ll be right back.”
