Page 25 of Woven Souls

“Willow!” Viktor yells up the stairs.

“That man is super impatient. It’s like hewantsto go on a date with me,” she rolls her eyes. “Let’s get this over with. Hopefully, we’ll be curse-free by the end of the night.”

I take her hand and pull her out of Kwil’s grasp to lead her to the stairs. She descends the stairs in her heels with ease. As we get to the bottom, Viktor stops his pacing and looks up. The hard press of his mouth eases, and his eyebrows fly up when Willow stops just in front of him. His open appreciation of Willow doesn’t go unnoticed by anyone.

“Yeah, I can clean up pretty well, can’t I?” Willow teases.

Viktor’s eyes meet hers before he gives her a stiff nod. “You look magnificent.”

I’m pretty sure I’m mirroring Willow’s look of surprise.

“You look pretty hot yourself,” she admits, her smile seeming almost shy.

Her compliment turns his ears pink. Viktor clears his throat and takes a step back, towards the front door.

“We should get going. Theo is outside speaking to the drivers that you ordered.”

I marvel at how easily Willow navigates problems. She’s brought food, clothes, and transportation straight to our front door, and all she needed was the internet. I’ll have to learn how to use it once things settle down, if I want to be of some help to her.

The front door opens and Theo walks in. He catches sight of Willow, and his eyes widen.

“Willow, you look—”

“Great? I know.” She flashes him a smile.

Theo stares a moment longer before nodding.

It's weird seeing the Ghosts without their swords at their hips. We discussed their forgoing the large weapons to keep attention off them, but they all have their daggers hidden somewhere on their bodies. I, on the other hand, don’t have a weapon. Hopefully, a weapon won’t be needed, but I do have my horns, and I’ve learned over the past week to control the muscles in my tail. That part of me is hidden in a leg of my pants. It takes conscious effort not to let it move around.

“If you guys are ready, we should go,” Kwil mutters and moves towards the door.

Right, it’s time to meet a potentially dangerous warlock.

“Remember, Willow, we’ll be close by to keep any monsters or demons away while you and Viktor speak to Fredrick.” Theo falls in step with me as we walk out the door. “One of us will alert you if things are getting too crazy and we all need to leave.”

Willow frowns. “How will I know what to listen for?”

“I’ll know,” Viktor assures her.

“Remember this is ahumanestablishment,” Theo tells her. “Try very hard not to draw too much attention to anything that could possibly spook a human.”

Viktor rolls his eyes, and Kwil snorts.

“So, no sudden movements or breathing too loudly,” Kwil says.

Willow and I chuckle. Even Viktor’s mouth twitches in amusement. Theo gives him a pointed look before turning his attention back to Willow.

“That means spirits should remainunseen, and I don’t know if you’re aware, but your eyes glow when you use your power. If you have to use it, make sure to keep that in mind.”

Willow nods again. “Got it.”

The two cars waiting for us outside are plain, unmarked SUVs. As the five of us start to walk towards them, Willow comes to an abrupt stop.

“Willow?”

My concern causes everyone to turn around. I watch as Willow’s eyes light up and stare around us. I follow her gaze, looking up the street at the homes situated close to one another. It’s not busy. There’s a woman walking her dog a block up and a few cars driving by, but there’s nothing that appears amiss.

“There are so many of them,” Willow whispers, pulling my attention back to her.