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"How did Lucifer come to access the Source directly if his father turned his back on it?" I asked, directing my focus to her.

"The devil is not the only one who knows how tousepeople, sweet Willow," Charlotte said, gazing down at the triple goddess. "Destiny speaks of three women who will change everything. Of the three women who will bring about the new order."

I exhaled, staring down at the triple goddess symbol with new understanding.

The Maiden.

The Mother.

The Crone.

"I have done my part in striking the bargain that enabled Lucifer to walk this earth alongside you. But the balancemustbe maintained," she said, her eyes gentle as I stared into the familiar purple of them.

"As above, so below," I said, sounding distant. My ears rang, warning bells going off in my head.

"The devil is no longer in Hell, and that means the time has come for someone totearGod out of Heaven," she said, the cruelty on her face so similar to the hatred I had felt when Michael told menothingI ever did would be worth forgiveness.

I'd be condemned merely for daring to touch power he didn't think I had a right to have.

I swallowed, uncertain I wanted the answer. "Me?" I asked, watching as Charlotte's soft smile broadened into a grin of pure satisfaction.

"No, Willow," she said, reaching to cross the distance between us. She rested her open palm against my stomach, her fingers curling around it meaningfully. "Her."

CHAPTER 41

WILLOW

Istumbled back from her touch, shaking my head. "I'm not pregnant," I said, pursing my lips together. The thought that all choice might have been taken from me, when I’d already decided that I could want it…someday…seemed impossible. Coming to terms with the future didn’t mean coming to terms with itnow.

"No, you're not," she said, and my lungs heaved with relief.

I wasn't ready.

No matter what decision I’d made earlier, given this warning, I wasn't sure I ever would be.

"The Maidenwillcome," Charlotte said, her voice sympathetic. "You've already decided you might want children one day. This changes nothing." Those words were spoken so in tune with the thoughts I'd already had in my reflections.

Always with me, even in my head, it seemed at times.

"Does he know?" I asked. The thought that this all came so quickly after our discussion about children didn't sit right with me, but the Source wrapped itself around me, the touch distinctly soothing as I stared at the springlike path of the Maiden.

The path my daughter would one day walk when she submitted herself and her body to the Source.

"No. Even Lucifer does not know the price the Source will ask of him," Charlotte said, taking my hand in hers.

"The price?" I asked, my confusion making my brow tense. The maze trembled around us as Charlotte directed me away from the triple goddess. Her concern was evident as she glanced back down my path. The Source's warm, soothing touch shifted into something darker, an edge of fear prickling along my skin.

"Your daughter will lead the fight one day. She will be the weapon that allows for us to right the world to what it was always meant to be," she said, pushing me toward my path.

"I'm not ready to be a mother," I said, watching as she moved toward her own path. She peered back at me, her eyes knowing.

"I know. The Source has waited for centuries. It will wait a thousand more if it must," Charlotte said, stepping into the mouth of her path. “Time has no meaning to something older than all of existence.” There was no goodbye as she disappeared from view, taking the path provided for her and her alone to escape.

I hurried down mine, racing along it, as the walls trembled beside me. It was as if the Source itself was under attack, as if someone battered at the walls and demanded entry. I didn’t want to stop to think about what could have caused it to tremble.

My lungs heaved as I dashed, determined to make my way out before whatever retaliation was building. My feet carried me as fast as they could, rounding the corner to the entrance that called to me. The area outside of it was blurred, but I sprinted toward it.

I leapt out of the maze as it collapsed around me, tossing me through the air as I landed on the ground that I never seemed to find. My arms flailed, the wind of my plummet billowing my hair out behind me.