When sleep finally took me that night, my body had been completely and thoroughly exhausted.

After our first bout on the king sized bed, Nolan carried me to the ensuite bathroom. We soaked in a bath of lavender scented bubbles for roughly ten minutes before our frenzied want got the better of us. Water covered the tiled floor by the time we'd finished the second round...

The night continued in that way– our two bodies twined together, making up for the time that we'd wasted apart. Just as I began to worry that my body might not be able to take any more, Nolan suggested that we get some rest and resume the following morning. I agreed, and my mate pulled me to his side, his arms wrapped around my frame like he was worried that I might slip away in the night.

Nolan started snoring almost as soon as his head landed on the pillow, but I took a few more moments to bask in the sensation of my mate's warm body beneath mine. To cement the memory of that night in my mind forever...

I awoke with a start, yanked from a tantalizingly wonderful dream and plunged into the darkness of our bedroom once more. There was no light streaming through the windows, and I squinted at the clock on Nolan's nightstand. It read 3:07 AM.

I groaned to myself, internally cursing my own body for forcing me awake at such an ungodly hour, and glanced at Nolan. His lips were cracked open, but, otherwise, it looked like he hadn't stirred since we'd gone to bed hours ago. I grabbed the edge of the bedsheet, pulling it up to properly cover my mate's bare chest once more.

With a small smile, I shifted in bed, preparing to snuggle into his side once more, but, before I could, a strange, phantom breeze swept across the bed. My chestnut curls rustled in the wind, and every hair on my arms stood erect.

My gaze snapped to the windows, but the glass panels were closed, and there was no way in hell that the air conditioning vent from across the room had caused the gust of air. I stilled, evaluating the darkness that cloaked the room. There was no one. Nothing visible, at least.

I forced myself to take a breath, and my eyes shifted to Nolan's sleeping form once more. For a moment, I considered waking him and asking him to check the house for anything suspicious. But, for all I knew, this was just my mind playing tricks on me. I shouldn't wake up my mate for no reason, and yet, I knew that I wouldn't be able to fall back asleep if I didn't quickly check the rest of the cottage.

I slipped out of bed, careful not to wake Nolan, and snagged a thin quilt that had been crumpled at the foot of the bed sometime during our escapades that evening. I wrapped the blanket around my bare shoulders and padded toward the door.

I silently turned the doorknob and slipped into the living room, where I ensured that the front door remained locked and every window closed. When I'd sufficiently checked the entire cottage for anything out of place, I released a long breath. Tension dissipated from my muscles, and I turned to head back to the bedroom. Before I could take a step toward the door, however, the shimmering, translucent form appeared to descend upon the room.

I staggered backward, nearly dropping the quilt that covered my naked body as my back collided with the side of a sofa. I opened my mouth to shout for Nolan, but the shape continued to pour into the room, like liquid smoke that whirled into a confined space. Finally, I realized that the tendrils of smoke were taking the form of a human– a woman.

I blinked, taking in the old woman that now smiled in front of me. Just like Sophia's ghost, the elder was just barely translucent now that she'd taken her full shape. She had short, coiled black curls that spiraled away from her scalp. Despite her age, evident by the wrinkles lining her cocoa skin, the woman's dark brown eyes were full of life.

"W-who are y-you?" I whispered, my jaw tight.

The woman smiled and replied in a voice like warm honey, "Your friend sent me. Said you were looking for a way to end the hybrids?"

My lips parted. "Sophia?"

"Such a sweet girl," the elder hummed. "I figured she would have told you that I'd be stopping by?"

"N-no, she didn't." I swallowed, glancing toward the closed bedroom door that Nolan slept behind. "Sorry, but who are you?"

"Child," she clucked. "I'm the answer to your prayers."

"You're able to stop the hybrids?" I gasped, my voice rising an octave. I clutched the quilt tighter around myself.

Another chuckle rattled in the old woman's chest. "Not quite. I can't do much good in this form." She gestured toward her translucent body. "But I possess the knowledge that you require. My name is Caliste, First Witch of the Gemini Coven."

Realization struck me like a semi-truck. This woman, Caliste, bore uncanny resemblance to Angelina and Zephora. They possessed the same, almond-shaped brown eyes. The same sharp cheekbones... The Gemini Coven leaders were descendents of the spirit that now stood before me. "Y-you're related to Angelina, aren't you?"

"My great granddaughter," Caliste confirmed, her words filled with affection for the young witch that I'd befriended. "I never had the chance to meet the girl, but I have sensed that she has inherited my gifts."

I nodded, my fingers clutching at the quilt around my shoulders. "She's very talented. She even resurrected me from the dead."

Caliste frowned at that, her brown eyes hardening. It was the look of a disappointed mother. "Yes, I know. She shouldn't have been tangling with dark magic. Then again, without the dark magic, I wouldn't be able to speak to you like this, and I wouldn't be able to tell you what I know about the hybrids."

My heartbeat quickened. "What do you know? And how do you know it?"

"I told you. I'm the First Gemini witch," she explained, gesturing toward herself with both hands. But a certain amount of sadness fell across Caliste's features, and her chest expanded as she took a deep breath. "I am the witch who created the hybrids."

My blood turned to ice, even as I wondered if I had heard the old woman correctly. She created the hybrids? She was the person to blame for all of the death and destruction that the hybrids had caused? And now, she was standing in my living room. I began to step backward again, my rear bumping into the couch behind me.

Caliste clasped her hands together. "Please, listen to my story before you judge my actions... I will be the first to admit that I performed magic selfishly when I was alive. Conjuring spells and casting hexes for whoever could pay the price."

I frowned, leaning back to rest against the edge of the sofa as Caliste continued. "One day, a vampire approached me, handed me a rather large sum of money, and asked for a spell. He brought forth a young woman, a werewolf. They claimed to be in love and wanted to spend an eternity with one another."

A sour taste entered my mouth at the thought of such an unlikely match. I couldn't imagine a union between a vampire and a werewolf. Our kind were sworn enemies, which explained why vampires kept to the cities and werewolves remained in the forests and mountains and plains...

"The vampire said that he'd tried to turn his werewolf lover into the undead on several occasions, but her supernatural healing interfered with his venom. She could not make the transition." Caliste shut her eyes, undoubtedly reimagining the day in her mind as she spoke. "The female werewolf asked if I could conjure a spell that would allow her to transition into a vampire, so I obliged."

I frowned. "You didn't pause to consider the consequences?"

"I thought my spell would only affect the female werewolf. I didn't realize..." Caliste shook her head. "The spell was successful, it seemed. The female werewolf received her lover's venom and achieved immortal life. They left, and I thought I would never see them again. Days later, the male vampire returned. He claimed my spell had gone wrong and told me that his mate had gone crazy. Her bloodlust was uncontrollable, and she couldn't be subdued. He blamed me and broke my neck for it."

I flinched. The vampire killed her before she had the chance to make things right. Caliste sighed. "That was nearly 75 years ago. For three-quarters of a century, I've been forced to watch the hybrid plague spread across the land from the afterlife. You see, my spell interrupted the fabric of natural life. It opened a loophole that allows every werewolf to transform into a hybrid-vampire, whereas before it was impossible and unnatural."

Her words washed over me, and I slowly began to understand. Caliste's spell had fundamentally changed the laws that governed natural life. And now...

I nodded, my fingers balling into fists as realization dawned on me. "We need to perform a spell that closes your loophole and restores that natural order."

"Exactly," Caliste murmured. "It is my understanding that, by reversing my original spell, werewolves will once again become physically unable to transform into a vampire. That will apply to the current hybrids as well. Their werewolf genes will begin to internally fight against the vampire venom in their bodies..."

The air guttered out of my lungs. "You mean... The hybrids will turn into werewolves again?"

Hesitation clouded Caliste's eyes, but she nodded. "Theoretically, yes. But the internal damage might be too much for their bodies to handle, as well. It might kill them all."

I swallowed the lump in my throat, pulling the quilt tighter around my shoulders once more. "They would be better off dead than slaughtering every pack on the continent."

Caliste nodded, her coiled black curls bouncing with the movement as if she were truly standing in the room beside me. She took a step closer to me and reached out to place her old, wrinkled hand on my shoulder. I felt nothing. "For 75 years, I have been unable to communicate with my descendants to reverse this travesty. You, Charlotte, are the key that links our worlds now. Because of you, I can finally end this."

Her words sent a chill down my spine, and memories of the crazy warlock, Adriano, danced in my mind. It felt like a lifetime ago that he first told me of the prophecy. Your role in this war is key to the survival of many.

At the time, I thought he was mistaken. I thought he was crazy. I simply couldn't comprehend how a werewolf that is unable to shift could possibly save anyone's life. But now, standing across from the spirit of the First Gemini witch, I understood. My destiny was never to lead the werewolf packs into a glorious battle– a war to end all wars. No.

My destiny was to sacrifice myself for the Alpha and pack that I had grown to love. My destiny was to die and leave a portion of myself in the afterlife. To serve as the gateway between the worlds for this sole moment.

I took a deep breath, shifting the quilt so that I could hold it shut with one hand, and reached out to place my hand over Caliste's. My fingers passed through hers, but we shared a smile anyway. "Tell me the spell, Caliste. Tell me the spell so that we can finally end this."