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I make my voice as soothing as I can. “What is it? What happened?”
She doesn’t speak for several moments. Finally, she looks back up at me. “I saw…I had a vision.”
I rub my hands up and down along her forearms, trying to comfort her. “What did you see?”
“Usually to use my seer skills, I have to perform a spell,” she says slowly. “I’ve never been pulled into one without trying…”
I wait, trying to be patient. It’s clearly hard for her to talk about what she just saw.
“I saw the past and future both,” she whispers. “I saw Kára. Like I did down in my cellar. You two loved each other.” Tears glitter in her eyes.
“Yes,” I say softly. “We did. Very much.”
“I also saw the future.” Another shudder wracks Astrid’s body. “I saw… us. Battling Darkness and Light.”
She falls silent for so long that it seems she’s too traumatized to speak about it. A cold rush of apprehension sweeps though my veins.
“I saw…” Astrid reaches up and cups my jaw in the palm of her hand. “I saw your death.”
Stillness moves over me.
“We’ll—we’ll change it,” she stammers. “The future is never written in stone. Any slight change can alter what happens.”
I lift her free hand and wind my fingers through hers. “I’ve lived a very long time. I do not fear death.”
Astrid’s breath catches in her chest. “You can’t leave me. I’ve been through that before.” She looks down, her chin falling to her chest. “Promise you won’t,” she whispers.
I lift her chin with my finger. Her hazel eyes glisten with even more tears as she meets my gaze. “I’ve promised to keep you and Lilli from harm’s way. I can’t also promise that I won’t have to make a sacrifice to ensure your safety. But of course I’ll do my best.”
She shivers, placing her hand over my heart. “Then lie to me, Erik.”
I open my mouth to try and appease her, but I can’t do it. So, I kiss her instead.
My hand slides into Astrid’s soft curls, and my lips say the things that I can’t. My tongue twists against hers, and she fists her hand in my shirt and pulls me into her. Her legs wrap around my waist, and she drinks me in desperately. I can taste the salt of her tears.
When I pull back, she lets out a sound that’s half-sigh, half-moan, and it’s all I can do not to bend her back on the table. But the sooner we get the dagger, the sooner we can end this. An ending which I sincerely hope doesn’t result in my death. Not now that I’ve found Astrid. After a thousand years of longing for my fated mate.
“We should get going. Can you transport us to the coven’s meeting hall?” I ask softly.
She nods, wiping away the last of her tears. “It’s been years, but I can still picture it quite clearly.”
“Good. In that case, I’ll follow your lead.”
Astrid slides off the table and takes my hand. Her dark eyes meet mine, and her magic wraps around us. I slide my hand behind her back for good measure, and she steps in close to my chest. Our faces are just inches apart, so close I can feel the warmth of her breath on my cheek.
“Let’s go steal a dagger,” she says.
There’s a pulse of power, and we vanish from the cave. We reappear next to a huge lake. The surface is frozen over, and the shoreline is fringed with thick forest covered in snow and icicles like everything else. It’s late afternoon now, and the sun is setting behind the mountains in the distance, casting the only warm hue in a landscape of blues and grays. Several spots of light shine ahead, marking a building hidden in the trees.
Astrid gestures for me to follow, and we begin to trudge through the snow along the shoreline. I reach out with my shifter senses, feeling for life forces, specifically those that are magical. I can sense forest creatures as well, birds and rabbits and foxes, but I ignore those, looking for blazes of power which would indicate a witch. I pick up two witches inside the building. This should be easy.
“You were right,” I say. “Only two witches.”
Astrid nods. “When we reach the meeting hall, you knock on the front door, and I’ll hit them with a sleeping spell through the window around the side.”
The building comes into view. It looks like a giant ski chalet, constructed of thick, dark timbers of wood with a sharply pointed rooftop. Ornate lattice trims the eves. Two big lanterns hang in front, framing a large wooden door carved with runes. The earth around the building is banked up on the sides.
Astrid creeps around to the window. I continue to the door, pausing a moment beneath the flickering light of the lanterns. Behind me, an icy wind blows across the lake and rustles the icicles in the trees overhead. I extend a fist and knock, three times, the sound echoing through the forest.
