Matt’s face was grim when Dani and Alice joined him in the living room. What tiny bit of warm she had been able to hold onto turned to ice when he told her why. She wrapped her arms around her middle, but didn’t help. Inside, with a snap so loud, she was surprised Matt and Alice didn’t hear it, Willow failed to bend. She didn’t break. Not yet. She cracked. A prelude to breaking. With no shock to cushion her against the ugly realities of circumstances.
Meggie was dead.
Steven was a drunk who wanted her dead.
Richard, who’d wanted her dead, was dead.
Spook was Dark Lord.
He wanted her dead, too—
A ripple of disquiet wound in, the sense she was missing something important…
Soon, Willow. Soon you’ll understand.
It was just a dream, she told herself, but the feeling didn’t go away. She
