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Spooning another bit of cereal into her mouth, Willow gestured at the picture on the table, the one from the professor’s ID, showing him with a goofy grin half hidden in his beard and thick black glasses. “Hey…why do you guys have a photo of Phillip Danvers?”

Fey’s heart skipped a beat at the same time that Lilith hissed.

“You know who this is?” Fey asked, pointing at the photo.

Her voice came out with more intensity than she’d intended, and Willow froze, the spoon hanging from her mouth.

“It’s okay, you’re not in trouble, Willow,” Joy soothed, walking over to put a comforting hand on Willow’s shoulder. “Right, Fey?” she added, pointedly shooting a glare toward Fey.

“No, sorry—you’re not in any trouble, sister. I just…” Fey took a deep, calming breath. Her thoughts rattled loudly in her skull. “I need to know how you know this man, Willow. It’s important, okay?”

Willow nodded slowly, swallowing her mouthful of cereal.

“Do you know how we can get in contact with him?” Joy asked, gently.

“Well,” Willow sighed. “See, that’s going to be a problem.”

Fey’s hands clenched at her sides. “Why is that a problem, Willow?”

Willow smiled sadly. “Because Phillip Danvers was my first assignation as a Queen’s Blade. He’s dead, Fey. Very, very dead.”

Chapter 18

WILLOW

“Um, excuse me?”

Sean looked up, blinking. A Witch stood in front of him, in a short flowy sundress, clutching a stack of books to her chest and chewing at her bottom lip.

“Uh… hey, yeah.” He shuffled some of the books on his lap nervously. “What’s up?”

She was breathtaking. Almost literally, as Sean found it hard to draw a proper breath while looking at her. Her curly brown hair surrounded her adorably round face like a halo and the way the top of her dress clung to her curves…

Sean swallowed audibly.

“I just moved here from the fifth octant,” the girl was saying to him. “And I’m supposed to meet with my advisor, Professor…” She struggled with the books and papers she clutched against her chest, jostling and bouncing her breasts as she searched for a scrap of paper. “Ah! Here it is—Professor Danvers. Do you know where his office is?”

Sean’s face fell. “Uh, yeah, I do, but I’m so sorry to tell you this—Professor Danvers went missing a few days ago. No one’s seen him, and no one knows where he is.”

“Disappeared?” A blonde woman appeared at the girl’s side, frowning. She was equally beautiful, though a few years older, and wearing significantly more clothing. “It wasn’t anything… dangerous, was it?”

She sounded so concerned, so scared, that Sean found himself jumping to reassure her.

“Oh, no, no, I’m sure it’s nothing dangerous,” he insisted. “The city is safe, honest—and nothing bad happens on campus. There’s nothing to be worried about.”

“See?” The brown-skinned angel in front of him beamed. “I told you it was safe here.” She juggled with the books in her arms once more, holding out her entire arm to offer him her hand. “I’m Willow,” she said, smiling. “And this is my sister.”

Sean blinked, standing to shake her hand, and looking between the two of them. The white-skinned blonde woman certainly didn’t look like she could be her sister. But he knew enough about Witches to know they had a strange sense of family. Didn’t members of the same coven sometimes call each other sister?

“I’m Sean,” he introduced himself.

“So,” Willow asked in a loud stage whisper. “What did happen to him, then?”

Sean shrugged. “No one knows, yet. But I don’t think he’s originally from the city, so he probably just went home and didn’t bother to tell anyone. He has a husband, I think, in one of the inner octants, so he probably just had a family emergency and had to take off with no notice, you know?”

That was the gossip, at least, after Professor Danvers failed to show up to his last few classes.

“And you’re sure it’s safe here?” the blonde pressured, frowning. She put a protective hand on her sister’s arm.