The Dark Rose

By darkmagickwillow

Copyright © May 2003

Chapter 18 (Dark Moon Rising)

As Willow finished destroying the zombies below, Tara opened the window so that she could enter the room. Willow alighted on the window ledge and stepped down into the room, ducking to avoid hitting her head on the window. She immediately folded Tara into a close embrace, resting her head on Tara's shoulder and asking, "Are you okay?"

Tara buried her face in Willow's long, red hair. It smelled fresh like the wind she'd flown through, but underneath was Willow's own scent. She smelled like a distant thunderstorm, wild and powerful.

That scent with its associations of danger and beauty brought the image of Willow's flaming aura burning back into her mind. The bright wings of gossamer energies. The cloak of utter darkness shrouding her innermost self.

But Willow was keeping her promise. That she had seen, and with that reassuring thought in mind, Tara was able to relax for the first time since she'd seen the zombies downstairs. She knew that together they would somehow find a way through this night of horrors. In this instant, she was able to forget all her doubts and fears. Her angel was at rest here beside her.

Too soon she heard Dawn's voice. "I think we should get out of here," Dawn said from behind Tara. "I hear something coming up the stairs and it's probably one of them."

Willow gently disengaged from Tara. "You're right, Dawn," she said, turning to face her friend as she reluctantly focused her mind again on the problem at hand. For the first time, she looked around the small apartment, beautifully decorated and immaculately neat with the exception of the heap of furniture barring the only door. Seeing that, she wished she had been here at dinner, sparing Tara and Dawn from the terrible feeling of being trapped in here. "I think my place is safer than Tara's dorm or wherever you're-"

"Giles and Spirit are at the school," Tara interrupted, her voice a little hesitant and her eyes not quite meeting Willow's as she recalled how carefully Willow had avoided meeting with Giles. "They're trying to figure out a way to stop these things."

Willow regarded her for a long moment before nodding. "The spell is too powerful for us to break, like we did with the weather," she said.

Tara nodded gravely at Willow's words, having felt the staggering might of the emerald moon. In fact, her stomach was still queasy after feeling its corrupt magicks with her second sight.

Dawn jumped as a powerful blow shook the door. It was followed by more blows at irregular intervals as the zombies outside tried in their mindless way to break the door down.

"I'm not used to this sort of thing any more," Dawn said with an embarrassed shrug. There had been a time in her life when she had been living with her sister that zombies interrupting dinner would have been no big deal, just another night of the week though probably Tuesday. Tuesdays were particularly bad.

As the pounding on the door took on a frenzied tempo, the door began to creak alarmingly as if it was going to break at any moment. "That's our signal that it's time to leave," Willow said, glancing quickly at Dawn and Tara's faces and finding no disagreement there. "I can levitate down to the ground with both of you."

"Why not fly there?" Dawn asked, using her familiar clinical voice to suppress the fear that arose as she thought about walking to the school from here.

"It would take too much energy," Willow said, her face grim. "I think we're going to need everything I've got before this night is over." Tara's face clouded as she heard Willow's words, but Willow didn't seem to notice. "Dawn, if you put your arms round my waist, I can go out the window with you then take Tara in my arms."

Willow lowered them safely to the ground, but the living dead were already returning to the street. Their eyes burned brightly with venomous emerald light as they approached the three women with stiff, uncoordinated movements. The slow silence of the zombies' attack was unnerving. They watched with horrified fascination for a moment before Willow shook herself out of it. She pushed Tara in the direction of the school, shouting "Run!"

Tara ran a few steps before she realized that Willow wasn't following them. Her stride faltered as she turned her head to look back. Looming large on the brick wall of the narrow street, shadows of the undead staggered towards the small, lonely shadow of Willow. The sickly greenish pallor of the moon's light made them all the more horrifying.

Dawn tugged at Tara's sleeve as she slowed to match her pace. "Come on," she said urgently to Tara. As Tara began to shake her head, Dawn continued, "She knows what she's doing. She'll be fine. Trust her."

Those last words got Tara's feet moving again. She could trust Willow, trust in her love to follow her out of the darkness. She kept those words in mind as she turned back towards the school and began to run in earnest, her heart remaining behind with Willow even as her feet took her body further away with every step.

Willow's hands blazed with pure, blue fire as she faced the legion of zombies. Hearing Dawn and Tara's rapid footsteps behind her, she felt calm as she faced the oncoming horde. Magical fire lanced forward from her hands again and again, burning the animated corpses to the ground. When none remained to follow, she turned and ran after Tara and Dawn without a backwards glance.

Tara slammed hard into the doors of the library, expecting them to open, and bounced back. As Dawn and Willow caught up with her, she hammered her fist on the door, shouting for Giles and Spirit. Immediately she heard the sounds of furniture being pulled away.

Spirit cautiously poked her head out the door. On seeing Tara, she broke into a smile, relieved that her friend had made it through the night safely. "Tara, come in!" She motioned them all inside, then closed and barred the door behind them. She stayed at the doors, replacing the bookcases in front of them, while Tara, Dawn, and Willow darted into the library.

The library was dark, but Tara could see Giles sitting at their usual table surrounded by books and reading by the light of a single candle. He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, clearly feeling the strain of reading by candlelight. After replacing his glasses, he smiled wanly at Tara, but his eyes hardened as he saw Willow. "Willow," he said.

"Giles," Willow returned coolly. Her face was devoid of emotion as she regarded him, but the clenching of her hands revealed her inner tension.

Dawn had talked with Giles that afternoon before her dinner with Tara. He had warned her about Willow's darkness, telling her about the destruction of the Council of Watchers, news that neither he nor Buffy had mentioned to her. Despite that, she didn't agree with him that it was best that Tara avoid Willow, believing that Tara had returned for a reason and that reason was Willow. She hoped that the universal threat of the zombies would help bring Willow and Giles closer. "So Giles," she said. "Have you found anything about how to stop the zombies?"

He looked old and tired, his face drawn with strain, as he shook his head. "I haven't found anything about an emerald moon that animates the dead."

"Maybe you're not looking for the right thing," Willow said, looking at him as if he were an obsolete machine, ripe for replacement.

Giles gazed challengingly at her over the top of his glasses. "And what, pray tell, should I be looking for?" he asked acerbically.

"Tara and I could put up an energy barrier around the library," Willow said in a supercilious tone. "It will last well past moonset when I expect the zombies will lose their animating force." Years of experience had taught her pragmatism. The precise nature of the animating spell was less important now than finding a way to survive the zombies.

Tara watched the bickering with growing dismay. Why were Willow and Giles acting this way? Then she jumped at the sudden sound of zombies pounding at the library doors. The doors shook from the force of the thumping but remained securely shut, held steady by the weight of the furniture bracing them. Willow moved closer and placed her right arm around Tara's shoulders to reassure her.

"And if they don't?" Giles asked pointedly, his gaze contemptuous. "What will happen tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow doesn't matter right now," interjected Spirit. She was tired of listening to Tara's friend argue with Giles. She needed to do something. "We have to do something now to save the people out there tonight."

"She's right," added Dawn, giving quelling glances to both Giles and Willow.

"There are too many," Willow said, fixing Giles with a steely gaze. "And they have to be totally destroyed to stop them. We found that out on the way here."

"Just like Return of the Living Dead," Spirit nodded though she was frustrated that Willow addressed her objections to Giles instead of her. She was the Slayer and it was her suggestion that Willow was arguing against.

Dawn turned her head to look at Spirit in surprise. "You watch that sort of thing?" she asked.

"Horror movies are like homework for the Slayer," Spirit said. "Right, Giles?" She smiled hopefully at Giles, hoping to break up the tension.

"Um, I'm not sure about that," Giles said, too preoccupied to smile at her attempt at humor. He reluctantly continued, "Willow's right though. We don't have the firepower to take on thousands of those zombies." He held up a hand to forestall Spirit's objections. "So we'll have to find another solution."

Willow glanced at Giles in surprise as he admitted that she was right. Perhaps she could get him to see reason after all.

"The center of the spell," Tara said excitedly.

The others looked at her without comprehension, but Willow looked thoughtful and nodded. That gave Tara the courage to present the rest of her idea. "The spell isn't on the moon. No one could reach that far with magic," she said, stepping up to the table around which everyone was standing. "It's like a filter between us and the sky that's transmuting the moon's rays. The caster has to be maintaining it right now. If we follow the gradient of the spell's power towards its greatest strength we'll find the caster at the center."

"That's brilliant, Tara!" Giles said, a genuine smile on his face. Then the smile faded and he added with greater reserve, "But we still have to get there."

"I'll go," Willow volunteered. "I can get through the zombies without getting hurt." She glanced at Tara then quickly looked away.

Tara had let Willow push her aside that night with the demons in the graveyard, but she had since learned that Willow needed her as much as she needed Willow. She took a step towards Willow to tell her that she wasn't going to let that happen again, but Spirit spoke first.

"I'm the Slayer, I should go," Spirit said, straightening up and looking defiantly at Willow. She couldn't see why Tara's friend wanted to go alone, but she was the Slayer and she wouldn't stay behind to let others face the danger that was her responsibility.

"We're all going," Giles said as he calmly regarded Willow.

"I'm the only one who can make it there safely," Willow said, her tone matter-of-fact as she placed her hands on her hips. "What's so hard to understand about this?" She looked around at the group, challenging them to find a valid objection to her statement.

Giles started to object, but was stopped by Dawn who said, "How many times did Buffy tell you to stay home and you went with her anyway?" Dawn watched Willow closely as she spoke. Seeing Willow shy away from her own steady gaze, she continued, "And how many times did she need you there? How many times were you able to help?"

"A lot," Willow admitted, carefully not looking at Tara. "But that still doesn't justify putting Tara in danger."

"You can't live my life for me, Willow," Tara said. "I've seen what you went through, but you can't lock me away from life to keep me safe." She looked at Willow, her eyes pleading with Willow for understanding.

Willow gazed back at Tara, her eyes full of fear for what might happen tonight. She didn't have to be having this argument. She had the ability to seal them all safely in a force shield and leave. It would be easy, but as she looked into Tara's pleading eyes she realized that she couldn't use magic on Tara against her will again, not even to keep her safe. She had learned that lesson at an extreme price.

"Okay," she sighed, accepting that they were all coming with her. Walking over to Tara, she pulled off her black cloak and placed it around Tara's shoulders. "This will keep you safe," she said. "Not from everything, but it's best I can do on short notice."

Tara adjusted the cloak. "Thank you," she said, with a grateful look.

Willow gazed into the peaceful blue sea of Tara's eyes, looking into the depths beneath the simple gratitude and saw that she was forgiven, that Tara understood her need to protect her. The serene acceptance in those eyes allowed her heart rate to slow and permitted her to feel a sense of calm as she turned around to face the rest the group.

"Okay, guys," she said. "What do we have for weapons? I think axes and blunt weapons will work best, but there may be vampires there too."

With the continual sound of pounding on the library doors reminding them of their limited time, they busied themselves getting weapons and making plans.

Soon they would enter the night of the living dead.

It had been a constant battle to reach the graveyard. Willow had led the group through the night of horrors, scouring a path through the undead with controlled blasts of blue fire. Tara had followed with Giles and Dawn, armed but avoiding conflict whenever possible. Spirit had guarded the rear, hewing the feet out from under the zombies as nothing else seemed to work. No damage short of total destruction would kill them, but they were a lot slower crawling than walking.

Ironically, the cemetery was the one place in town free of the walking dead, though the churned earth of the empty graves showed that they had risen from here. Tara felt almost physically ill as they entered the cemetery. A miasma hung over the grounds, remnants of the power that brought the dead back to a hideous parody of life. Nausea filled her as she breathed in the tainted air. The corruption was as much moral as magical. She could feel that the power that had been used here tonight could only be used for ill. She wondered how Willow could bear this torment so impassively. Or was she accustomed to this feeling through her use of dark magicks?

She stumbled on a hummock of newly turned earth in the path and almost fell, but Willow caught her by the elbow and helped her over it. She smiled at Willow and received a tight smile back that didn't reach Willow's eyes. Tara noticed that Willow's face was tense every time she looked her way, and that she never let a minute pass without checking on Tara. She worried that the distraction might let something get past Willow's defences. What if tonight was the night of her vision?

Then there was no more time to think about such things.

They had arrived.

The caster was certainly not trying to hide himself. A vampire, bent and old as they'd never seen before, stood in the center of a pentagram blazing with emerald fire. Waves of corruption emanated from the pentagram, pounding at her senses. Five vampires stood outside the pentagram, one at each point.

As they had planned in case of vampires, Tara, Dawn, and Giles attacked the bloodsuckers from a distance, while Spirit engaged the closer ones hand to hand. Willow poured a torrent of blue fire at the ill, emerald power of the pentagram. Three vampires quickly turned to dust, slain by Tara's stake and Dawn's and Giles's crossbow bolts. Spirit beheaded her first vampire handily with her great axe, but was bowled over by the second one.

Tara watched Willow strike at the pentagram again and again with scorching bolts of blue fire. Each time, emerald and azure flames warred with each other, crackling and hissing their rage as they fought. Emerald always won, consuming the pure blue of Willow's magicks, until she renewed the conflict with a new flare of her power. The ill power of the fiery pentagram prevailed more rapidly with each succeeding attack as Willow grew more and more tired, her strength dwindling as she expended it against the seemingly impenetrable defences of the master vampire.

Spirit finished the last vampire with a stake through the heart. Looking tired and frustrated, Willow paused in her struggle to break the pentagram to close her eyes and lean with her hands on her knees. When she reopened her tired eyes, they glanced at each other, wondering what to do next.

The figure in the pentagram turned to face them, his eyes glittering coldly like emeralds. He smiled at them in evil humor, completely unaffected by their attacks. "Destroying the vampires won't help you," he said. "They weren't here to kill you. They were just a symbol of my position as Master." He made a sweeping gesture at the woods behind them. "Those are what will kill you." Then the Master turned away from them as if they were beneath his notice.

Tara turned her head to look behind them. Several zombies emerged from the trees as she watched; the woods were full of shadowy forms shambling towards them. She turned around to look at the woods beyond the pentagram and saw more of the creatures emerging from those trees. She realized that they were surrounded by hundreds of the living dead approaching from all sides. Their Master was summoning them home to protect himself.

Willow quickly assessed their situation. The Master was telling the truth. They were surrounded. Although the zombies were slow, she didn't have much time. She had to make a decision about her promise. If she could pull dark power from the Hellmouth, she could shatter the protective pentagram with ease.

She looked at Tara, her gaze desperate but also speculative as she weighed the alternatives of using dark magic to rescue them from this trap. Tara's eyes widened as she read the question in Willow's eyes. Then she gazed back at Willow with eyes full of resolve as she shook her head firmly.

Willow felt a flash of anger. Didn't Tara understand? Without dark magic she had no hope of destroying all these creatures or breaking the pentagram's power. She had used too much magic already tonight getting them here. She still had enough to take Tara and her to safety if it came to that. Yet how could she abandon Dawn and the others?

As she asked herself these questions, the dark magic of the Hellmouth whispered like a siren in her ears, offering all the power she needed to save them and more. So much more. She just had to ask and her exhaustion would be replaced by a sure, dark strength.

She was powerful even when she was limited to light magicks, but only with dark magicks was her power truly glorious. Tara did mean more than any magic, but why couldn't she have both? She had learned her lesson from casting on Tara and would never do that again, no matter where she drew her power from.

With her rightful power at her command once more, no one could ignore her like this arrogant vampire standing aloof in his pentagram. It would give her such pleasure to destroy him as she had so many others. He had almost killed Tara more than once. Surely, it would be a good action to kill him, no matter how she did it. She could ask for forgiveness afterwards. What was the value of a promise compared to Tara's life?

Then she had it, her mind working feverishly underneath her worries and temptations. A solution. She didn't have to face the impregnable defences of the pentagram directly, matching her puissance against its directly. She didn't need dark magic at all. The vampire was monstrously powerful, but he was an amateur. She just had to discover where he hadn't thought to protect himself, and she knew just where to start looking.

She raised blue fire in her hands again, but this time she directed it at the ground beside the pentagram, ripping away at the earth around the mystical symbol to tunnel under it. Her face whitened as she desperately poured more power into the assault as the zombie horde drew closer.

Finally the earth under the pentagram cracked, tilting half the symbol so that green fire spilled out of its channels on the grass of the graveyard. Instead of burning, the grass withered and blackened when the fire touched it. The advancing zombies faltered as the emerald light of the moon began to dim.

Willow advanced towards the figure in the pentagram, power crackling in her hands, ready to strike. She saw Spirit approaching him from the other side. A gout of green fire spewed upwards from the Master, stabbing at the moon in a desperate attempt to hold onto the unraveling fabric of the spell. Willow countered with bolts of lightning striking directly at his now unprotected form in order to distract him.

The fires of the pentagram had died down enough for Willow to see the Master recoil as her spells struck him. He retaliated for her attacks with a blast of emerald fire that cracked her outer shields in an explosion of brilliant colors. As he attacked her, she could feel the spell holding the dead to life teetering towards collapse.

The zombies around them stood motionless, waiting for the power of the Heart to command them. The Master was powerful indeed, but he couldn't fully engage in magical combat and maintain control over his undead legions at the same time. He would have to choose.

Approaching from the other side while the caster was distracted by Willow, Spirit reached him and unerringly plunged a stake at his heart. The stake shattered into splinters as it struck him. It was as if he was made of granite. He roared in surprise and anger while Spirit looked on in shock, then he backhanded her, smashing her into a nearby tombstone.

The vampire walked slowly towards Spirit, his hands full of emerald fury. "At last, the Slayer," he said with malignant pleasure in his voice. He ignored Giles's crossbow bolt, which struck him in the shoulder and splintered, but Willow's blasts of blue fire caught him in the back and smashed him to the ground.

His face was a mask of insane fury as he slowly got up to his feet. He wrapped his hands around the Heart and squeezed hard. The emerald glow of the gemstone brightened and dimmed erratically, pulsing like the beating of a struggling heart. Having no other recourse to answer his demand for all its dark power, it reached out and pulled back every scintilla of emerald might clouding the moon to answer its Master's request.

Tara watched as the emerald brightness of the moon waned, gradually being replaced by its natural white color. The flow of magical corruption reversed itself as the hideous gem sucked the miasma back into the Heart. The Heart swelled with emerald brilliance as its dark power returned to it.

The zombies fell down in waves, like a forest of trees blown over by a powerful wind as the animating power of the Heart was withdrawn from them. The once again silvery light of the full moon shone down brightly on the now quiet dead. They succumbed to an unnaturally quick decay, their bodies returning to the earth. The Heart had replaced their substance with its own corruption. Bereft of its ill power, they moldered into dust.

"Willow, the emerald!" Tara yelled, the cords on her neck standing out. "All his power is in the gem."

Willow didn't have time to react as the Master struck at her with all the Heart's dark might. The furious blast of emerald fire ripped through every layer of her shields and threw her across the graveyard, smashing her through the stone wall of the crypt behind her. A small cascade of rubble fell from the broken wall of the crypt, burying Willow's slender form in debris.

Tara looked on in shock and horror, unable to say anything. The stake she was holding slipped from her suddenly numb fingers. Her vision narrowed until the only object in her world was Willow's still form under the pile of rubble. Her mind screamed that this couldn't be happening. She'd seen their future in the scrying bowl.

While the Master grinned malevolently in triumph, Spirit stealthily approached him from behind. Turning away from where Willow had fallen, Dawn shot him with a crossbow bolt in an attempt to keep his attention diverted from Spirit. Giles reloaded his crossbow to do the same.

Ignoring the conflict, Tara overcame her momentary paralysis and ran towards the crypt where Willow had fallen, her thoughts completely focused on that small, still form.

Behind her, Spirit grabbed the thick gold chain and tore it from the Master's neck, breaking the heavy links easily with her Slayer strength. She quickly stepped back from the Master and was several meters away before he could react to what had just happened.

Then she made a mistake.

As she shifted the chain in her hands, she accidentally touched the Heart. Emerald fire surged up her arm and engulfed her entire body. She collapsed to the ground, and the Heart rolled free from her limp fingers, its cold flames dying as it left her hand. Dawn and Giles ran towards her still form.

As Tara reached the crypt, she saw Willow's hand sticking out from the pile of rubble. The rubble began shifting as Willow struggled to get out. Tara rushed over to pull some of the detritus off Willow. Willow rose from the rubble like a juggernaut, bruised and bleeding from numerous small cuts, but shrugging off heavy chunks of stone as if they were dry autumn leaves. Her eyes were full of darkness, and her face was contorted with rage. Dark energies crackled at her fingertips. Her gaze slipped across Tara's face without recognition as she looked for the Master.

Tara shuddered as she drew back from Willow. She had never seen her so cold, so angry. She felt that if she lost Willow to the darkness tonight, she would lose her forever. While the dark power of the Heart didn't tempt Tara, she was terribly afraid that Willow in her rage would be all too susceptible to it.

The Master moved slowly to regain possession of the Heart. He was strong, stronger than he had been before the unholy gem had come into his possession, but he was no longer capable of moving quickly. As he approached Spirit and the Heart though, it didn't seem that he needed speed. Spirit twitched weakly but did not move away from his approach. Another crossbow bolt struck him, splintering on impact.

He turned to look back at Giles, who had fired the bolt, and made a mistake of his own. He was not invulnerable, and his turning gave Dawn a perfect target. Her bolt flew directly into his eye. The Master threw back his head and roared in pain, clutching at his ruined eye.

Tara grabbed Willow, her fingers digging deep into the flesh of her slender arm. In a frantic attempt to gain Willow's attention, she shouted, "You promised!"

She could feel the future that she had seen receding from her. After seeing Willow struck down by the might of the Heart, she had lost her faith in the future she'd seen in the bowl of seeing. Willow was the one thing that was holding her together as she tried to accept and understand the revelations about her past. She couldn't lose her. Not now. Not this way. She clung to Willow with a strength born of desperation, refusing to let her love slip into the darkness.

Willow turned to face Tara, visibly wrestling with her anger. She stood frozen for a moment, shaking with inner struggle, her fists clenched tightly at her sides. Tara held her breath as she watched, her hand still clasped tightly around Willow's arm.

Then Willow closed her eyes and took several shuddering breaths. When she opened them again, the darkness had receded to its normal limits. She gently clasped Tara's arm in thanks, recognizing that without Tara there to help her she would have broken her promise about dark magic without even intending to.

It was one thing to chose to draw power from dark sources, but it was another to use it instinctively from anger or fear. Her promise wasn't simply a matter of Tara's comfort. She could lose herself so deeply in the darkness that she wouldn't be able to find herself afterwards.

Willow turned to face the Master, her hands once again full of pure, blue fire, ready to strike. She was battered and bruised from her fall, but there was a new strength in her eyes that pushed back the exhaustion she had felt earlier. The Master had started back towards the Heart, while Giles and Dawn circled him at a distance, quickly reloading their crossbows.

Willow struck the Master with lances of pure blue fire from each hand. The Master screamed as she immolated him in bright, blue flames that clung to him like a living thing, but despite the terrible pain, he dove for the Heart and grabbed it in one gnarled fist. Squeezing the Heart with desperate strength, he stamped his foot on the ground, ripping a deep fissure in the earth. Dawn and Giles grabbed for Spirit as she began sliding into the widening chasm.

Aflame and screaming, the Master hurled himself into the chasm which rapidly began to close behind him. Dawn and Giles pulled Spirit free, but the fissure closed as Willow rushed towards it.

The Master was gone.

Dawn and Giles knelt beside Spirit as she gradually regained consciousness. Spirit's face was pale as she opened her eyes and shivered, chilled to the bone by the intense cold of the Heart's fire.

Coming up from behind Willow, who was still looking down at the crack in the earth which was all that remained of the great fissure, Tara took one of her hands gently. Willow turned and smiled gratefully at Tara with tired eyes. She leaned into Tara, exhausted from her exertions of the night.

Tara wrapped her arms around Willow, pulling her close with weary relief now that this night of terrors was over. She felt tired and stiff, her muscles knotted with tension, but her mind still buzzed with thoughts. She had almost lost Willow tonight. Twice.

Her visions had proved useless. Yet in a way that was comforting. The future wasn't completely determined by what she had seen. There could be a happy ending for the two of them. She'd have to tell Willow about her visions soon though, but not now. They were both too drained by the events of the night.

It was time to go home.

From the protective shadows of a nearby copse, Amy watched the culmination of the fight with disappointment. She'd wanted a conclusive battle with one side dead and the other side incapacitated, ripe for her to step in and take the spoils. While her magic still prevented anyone from seeing her, it was time to leave. The show was over, and she had plans to set in motion.

The Master was not going to be pleased with her disappearing act, but now that she had certain knowledge of Willow's presence and power, she knew exactly what to tell him about Willow and her friends. She smiled as she walked invisibly away from the remains of the battle. It would take longer to get the Heart this way, but she looked forward to settling her account with Willow Rosenberg.

Continued...