Page 23 of Branches of the Willow

“Well, truth be told, I’m not sure if it will kill you or not. Serena was a witch. You are not. There could be different effects.”

“No! You promised me!” Zach screamed at her, looking far more unhinged than I’d ever seen him.

“I’m fairly certain that she will be here, alive, for you in the morning Zach. My promise is in-tact, mostly. And I don’t need you dead, my dear. You are the last. I simply need you broken. It will hurt her worse to watch the last of her line limp and crawl along as a shell of what her line once was.” Sophia turned her attention to Zach. “You need to go. The full moon is almost upon us, and I won’t have you getting excited and shifting in here while I’m trying to cast this spell.”

“I don’t trust you.” Zach stated simply, refusing to budge from the room.

“Well, the feeling is mutual. Now, get out before I force you. I promise that you won’t like where you end up if I have to do that.”

“She better still be functional when I get back.” Zach huffed as he slid out the door, and slammed it shut behind him.

“If he only knew…” Sophia began. “His greatest power is in getting the right people on his side. Beyond that, I think even you as a shell will be too much for him.” Sophia laughed at her own words and continued preparing whatever it was she had been working on. I just looked up at the window. The sky was dark, but I didn’t see any hint of the moon yet. That meant I still had a little time. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do with it though. I still felt weak and dehydrated beyond reason.

I tried clearing my throat, only to have the dry grating feeling send me into a fit of horrendous coughs that further inflamed everything. “That would be the sleeping powder I use on you. It causes a bad case of dry mouth. With repeated use, well…” She seemed thoughtful for a moment. “I’m not sure what the long-term effects will be.” She shrugged and continued measuring the herbs she had out. “The plus side is, you won’t really want to talk to anyone when I’m done anyway.”

I didn’t bother responding as Sophia busied herself with the preparations for my big night. I closed my eyes and sat with my back as far away from Sophia as I could get inside my cage. I knew it wouldn’t do any good. She could make me cooperate, even if it were only by drugging me again, and doing whatever she needed. I sat back, watching as the moon ticked ever closer to its apex. Soon, it would be fully visible in the window, and I knew that signaled my doom. Not just my doom, but Mikael’s now that he was linked to me. I missed him.

There was a huge part of me that wanted nothing more than to be in his arms again, but the fact that I ever was, now meant danger for him. Anger welled up in me and sat there stagnant. I had no power to draw from. Whatever Sophia had been doing to knock me out, had also sapped me of my power right along with any physical strength I usually possessed. I couldn’t even feel my wolf inside. That realization sent me into a panic. My wolf was gone. How could that be? I closed my eyes and focused, digging deeper into myself than I had ever gone before. Finally, somewhere deep down in the center of me, I found her curled in a protective ball around something. I would have bet money that she was protecting my bond with Mikael. Maybe, she was our last line of defense. I didn’t know. I was snapped out of my internal exploration by Sophia’s excited voice.

“The moon is high, let us begin.” She snatched up a nasty little bubbly mix from the countertop and moved closer to my cage. Behind her, the door opened slightly, and for a moment, I thought I would be rescued, until I saw it was Zach slinking back in. He stuck to the shadows and Sophia didn’t seem to notice him lurking there.

“… by the light of the moon, my will be done…”

Sophia was still chanting, but I was tuning her out now, watching as Zach crept along the shadows keeping a watchful eye on the witch as he went.

“…bond, unbound… my will be done!” Sophia’s voice grew infinitely louder, and maybe a bit shriller than it usually was. I took my eyes off Zach and focused on the witch for a moment. Frustration oozed from her. Something wasn’t going as planned. “The bond of light shall be shadow bound, eternally wrapped, and never again found. By the light of the moon, my will be done.” She took a step back, looked up at the window, down at her concoction, and back at me.

The longer she looked at me, the further it seemed she reached into the very essence of my being. I briefly wondered what she could be looking for. I had no clue and honestly, if it distracted her from completing whatever she was doing while the moon was high, then I didn’t care.

“Impossible!” She declared as she took one more step forward. “I know, for a fact, that he stayed away during your cycle, but it’s the only reason…” her voice trailed off then. In a fit of rage, Sophia opened the cage door and snatched me up by my hair. She dragged me from the cage that way, and a few tendrils of hair gave away under the stress as she did. I had a second to ponder whether I’d end up bald for a while or not, but then my weakened muscles refused to aid my legs in supporting the rest of my body, as I was yanked further away from the cage.

Before she could do any harm, Zach was there, knocking Sophia halfway across the room with the blow he landed on the side of her face. He grabbed for me, snatching me up by the back of my neck. I tried to shift, to reach my wolf, but she wasn’t responding to me. She was still curled into a protective ball somewhere in my middle. I tried to claw at Zach, but my arms felt like jelly. I may not have been unconscious, but something Sophia had done to me was still working against my system. I was completely weak and helpless.

“I will have you!” Zach’s rough voice was right there in my ear as he pushed me up against the stone wall. The side of my face scraped against the abrasive material as he did. My heart started thundering in my chest as I heard the metallic sound of his zipper being pulled down.

I looked to my left, and right there, near the edge of Sophia’s table was an athame, her witch’s dagger. Zach was apparently lost in the moment, and decided to bend me over the table, since it was right there. As he slid my body to the left, I covered the athame with my hand, grabbing hold of the handle as he tried to pull my pants down. “Don’t fight it Jess. She broke your bond, you’re my bitch now. I felt it. You can’t even shift anymore!” Zach’s laughter rang through the stone room, echoing back at me from every corner. Tears spilled free as I waited. I would only get one shot, and heaven help me, I needed him closer to me to make it count.

He pulled my pants down, pushing them to my knees with his foot, and then he leaned over me, just far enough that I was able to take that athame and stab it up into his neck as he was trying to whisper something into my ear. His words died out as he gurgled on his own blood. The acrid smell of burnt flesh made me want to hurl, but I held it together. The athame must have had a silver blade. Not only did it do the initial damage from the stabbing, but it was burning everywhere it touched and ensuring the wound would not close without the aid of magical help.

It took a second or two, that actually felt like an eternity, before Zach fell to his knees, pants around his ankles, athame protruding from his neck, and sightless eyes staring off into oblivion before I could move away. I reached down to pull my own pants back up, and about the time I got them back around my waist, a flicker of movement caught my eye. Sophia was up, and she was coming for me with an actual knife in her hands. I had nowhere to go. There was a work bench on my side, and a wall to my back by the time I swung around to face her. At least, unlike Zach, I’d die with my pants up. Funny how that’s the sort of thing that goes through a person’s mind in their last moments.

Time slowed, Sophia was two steps away when the air in the room shimmered and popped. A body formed out of the disturbed air, and suddenly Serena was there slamming a fist through her sister’s chest and ripping her heart out as she pulled back. Her hand and arm were covered in a thick, syrupy goo that started running in deep reddish rivulets to the stone floor. That was it for me. My body reached a limit that I had never endured before and it would go no further. My stomach pitched and rolled, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t just my stomach, but me that tumbled to the side as my muscles refused to cooperate as the slight adrenaline rush from stabbing Zach finally gave way. I found no purchase on my way down when I tried to grab hold of something to stabilize myself. Instead, I fell over, landing on Zach’s still form. It didn’t matter if I was still in danger. I was done. My body was too tired to keep going. As the darkness consumed me this time, I went willingly.

11

Home

“Jessica,youneedtowake up now.” I heard the feminine voice calling to me, but it took a while to peel my eyelids open. Everything was still so dry and scratchy. “I need you to wake up so I can get some water in you, you’re very dehydrated, sweetheart.”

“Where…” My voice was still too scratchy to use, but I finally got a look around. I was in my bed. I was home. “How?” I managed to scratch out.

“I brought you here. I thought it would be an easier transition than dropping you off in the middle of the pack lands to face a million questions your voice isn’t capable of answering right now.” Serena’s crystal blue eyes stared back at me. “I would have come sooner, but I couldn’t convince that fool family of yours that I was there to help. I’m so sorry, Jessica.”

“Mikael?” Panic framed the name as it whispered past my lips, trailed almost immediately by a hoarse cough.

“He’s fine.”

“But…” I tried in vain to clear my throat. “Can’t shift.” Understanding swept over Serena’s features then.

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