The vision hits me like a murky tidal wave. It drowns me, the suffocating water filling my lungs, and I find it hard to breathe, to see, to do anything.
Even when I try to pull out of it, I can’t. I’m trapped in it because I am that boy with worry and fear, hiding in the hole, waiting for his mother to return. I am him as he screams for her, begging for the big man to stop torturing them. I feel his agony as he reaches for her like his life depends on it, the woman who has clearly sworn her life to protect him.
That boy is Caz, once young and so full of life, now broken and in despair. My heart aches for him.
I sit back in the seat of the car, breathing as evenly as possible as the vision passes. I blink some of my tears away, then look to my right at Juniper who has fallen asleep. The side of her head is pressed to the window. In the back row, Killian stares out the window, and Rowan drives, fully alert. Maeve is rubbing her temples with the pads of her fingers, as if fighting a headache.
I turn my head to peer out the window too. It’s still night, thank goodness, and though I was lost in the memory, I didn’t react externally. However, I am shaking. The fear and struck my adrenaline.
I turn a fraction, taking a look through the back windshield and spotting Alora’s SUV. They have Caz’s body occupying the back row. Beatrix believes it’s best that I don’t touch him now that I’m harboring his half of the Tether. She doesn’t want any trace getting back onto him for Mournwrath to work with. Still, I’m worried about him. If I saw that vision, that means he’s seeing it too. There’s no telling what Decius is doing to him right now.
I face forward again, sucking in a breath and letting it settle in my lungs before releasing it. I have to get Caz out of there. Decius has him trapped in his own mind, and he’s tormenting him with these memories. And something tells me what I just saw was only the tip of the iceberg. A sudden chill takes over me, and I clench a fist as pain ripples down my spine. I groan, squeezing my eyes shut as my body tenses in the seat.
“All right there, Willow?” Killian leans forward, eyeing me.
My eyes find his, and I nod. “I…I’m good,” I breathe.
He slides his gaze to my arms. I look with him, and a new vein has appeared on the center of my forearm and is crawling its way to my bicep.
“Do they hurt?” Killian asks. “Those marks?”
“Only when a new set forms. Feels like knives slicing my skin.”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah.”
He’s quiet a moment. The wheels of the SUV bounce lightly as we drive along a dirt road. “Oi, uh…listen.” He scratches his eyebrow. “I’m…uh…well, I didn’t mean to take my anger out on you about this whole Tether thing. I’ve been a bit of an asshole toward you ever since you dropped in Vakeeli. It’s just that this is all so new, and we’ve never faced anything like it.” He pauses. “But I see that you’re willing to do anything for Caz, so I can appreciate that. We all appreciate it,” he says, gesturing to his family.
I can’t help smiling as I ask, “Is this your way of apologizing for being said asshole?”
The right side of his mouth quirks upward. “It is, so accept it. It won’t get any better than that.”
I laugh. “Well, then, I accept. And you’re right. I’ll do anything for Caz. He doesn’t deserve to face this alone. It’s our Tether. We just have to find a way to survive it.”
“What if there is no way?” Killian scratches his eyebrow again. “I mean, what if the whole thing with him going to your world doesn’t work?”
I shrug. “We have to try. It’s worth a shot.”
“He’s gonna hate it,” he grumbles, sitting against his seat again. “All he’s ever known is Blackwater, really. It’s his home. His land. Your world will be new territory for him…and I mean that in the literal sense.”
“Yeah, well, hopefully he doesn’t have to stay in it for long. Just long enough for us to find a way out of this mess.”
“Well, we’re gonna do all we can from our end,” he says.
Silence fills the car again and I sigh. “My brother always used to say I write the script for my own life,” I murmur. “Whenever I had a bad day, he would tell me I had the power to spin it into a positive one. And this, I suppose, is our story. Mournwrath is just a speedbump. We’ll get Caz to safety first, then figure out how to get to Selah so she can defeat him. We take it one thing at a time. That’s the only way we’ll make it through this.”
“Your brother was a wise man,” Killian murmurs.
I nod, trying not to let the doubt sink its claws into me. Because that’s what Decius wants. He wants us to feel doomed, like there’s no way out of the situation we’re in. But there is always a way. He may be old, but he’s not invincible.
