“How much time has passed since we’ve been here?” he finally asked her. “I mean in my world. I remember you said time passes differently here.”
She frowned, looking up from her contemplation of a particularly dark rose, as scarlet as blood. “I’m not sure. Why?”
He resisted the urge to touch her and smiled gently. “Because I’ve got to go back to your land, the land of the Brights. I’ve got a killer to catch, remember?”
The look she gave him told him that she had, in fact, managed to forget. This saddened him more than he could express.
As she rearranged her expression back to one of bland vagueness, he reflected that the woman standing before him was nothing like the Willow he’d come to know and care for.
Maybe there was a good reason why this was so.
“Willow.” He cleared his throat, smiling slightly to lessen the sting. “Are you all right?”
She gave him a quizzical look. “Of course. Are you?”
“You seem different. I’ve got to ask. Are you under some kind of spell?”
“What?” She recoiled, blinking rapidly. “No. A spell? Why would you say such a thing?”
She’d barely finished speaking when the blankness crept back into her expression. He swore he could see it take over her eyes, much like a storm sweeping across a previously cloudless sky.
Curling his hands into fists to keep from touching her, he sighed. “Because you’ve been acting differently, completely unlike the Willow I’d begun to know.”
Her face was expressionless as she replied, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Again, the toneless voice. Unable to take anymore, he grabbed her shoulders and pulled her close. Expression unchanged, she allowed this.
“Willow, where are you?” he said, choking as he searched her face. When she didn’t react, he cupped her face with one hand and brushed his lips across her mouth.
Still she didn’t react.
So he deepened the kiss, forcing open her lips with his tongue and kissing her deeply, devouring her sweetness.
Finally, she melted against him, kissing him back, making desire sing in his veins. He felt their souls join—surely she had to feel this, too—and he knew he had his Willow back. He only hoped he could keep her.
Finally, he stepped back, breathing heavily. “Willow?” he asked, praying she wouldn’t disappear inside herself again.
Intense astonishment raced across her face, as she stiffened in shock. “What just happened?” she asked faintly. “Where am I?”
Still holding her as close as he dared, he stroked her hair as he explained. When he finished, her shoulders sagged and she gave a sheepish smile.
“I’ve felt like I’ve been living a dream,” she admitted. “I’m not sure if I should be angry or worried. Who did this to me?”
“Your father?” he guessed. “Probably out of some misguided attempt to keep you here, with him.”
She sighed. “You’re probably right. It’s been hard on him, not being able to contact me. But to do this? That’s wrong on so many levels.”
“I’m not sure it would accomplish anything to speak with him about it.”
“Oh, I don’t know.” She rubbed the back of her neck. “He needs to understand he can’t go around doing things like this.”
“You were acting like a ghost,” he told her, more relieved than he’d care to admit, even to himself.
She buried her face against his throat. He held her, his heart thumping in his chest, so hard it almost hurt. How could he even think of going on without this woman, when she was his best friend?
At the thought, the wolf part of him snarled. More than that, he realized. His heart, his...mate?
No. He felt like he’d taken a blow in the gut. That wasn’t possible. Straightening, he gently moved her away. Not his mate. He had no right even to think such a thing, no right to claim anyone as his mate. Not until he completed his quest and figured out whether or not he was well along the winding path to insanity. Here, he thought, the magic might be affecting him, much like a drug. Taking off the rough edges and keeping everything on an even keel.
While he liked this, he wasn’t sure what would happen when he returned home. Would he be better or worse?
“Still battling yourself, I see,” she said wryly, her lips curving at the corners, making him want to kiss her again.
“Sorry,” he told her, meaning it. “I’ll eventually figure everything out. But first, I’ve got to find this killer.”
She nodded, her gaze becoming slightly remote, making him worry until