A curse was lost in the music before the music was turned off. "Who in hell's name would be coming around here to see me?"
Shaking a little inside, Willow stepped around Sammy. "Me."
She barely noticed Giles standing next to a stereo on a bookshelf. The rest of the room devoured her attention. So this was where the missing books from the Magic Box had gone. But there were none of the sparkly gimcracks that the store had sold to tourists and wanna-bes. The implements scattered about spoke of power in use, dark, deep power. Several skulls rested in a row on another shelf, only one of which was human. Old human, dark with age and smoke, smeared with faded runes. The other skulls had horns and spines or strange arrangements of eye sockets. Willow wanted to know what kinds of creatures they had come from and what they were used for.
Giles strode forward, yanking her attention to him. "Willow! What are you doing here?"
From the couch on the far side of the room, Spike was levering himself up to a sitting position. "Red? What the hell?"
Sammy drew back, watching with interest.
Willow took a deep breath. "I need your help, Gi-- Ripper."
Giles glanced at Sammy and frowned. "Thank you, Sammy." Pouting, Sammy left. Giles took Willow's arm and pulled her into the workroom. "Willow, what's wrong?"
"Let the girl sit down," Spike interrupted, getting painfully to his feet and pulling over a chair.
Willow stared at Spike as she sat. "They said you were hurt, but I didn't know it was this bad ..."
He waved off her concern. "I'm mending. Why the hell are you here?"
"Did you come alone?" Giles added. "It's incredibly foolish of you to just wander in here. And how did you find us?"
"I asked. And I kept asking until I got answers. I think I scared Willy," she said with a faintly proud smile.
Giles glanced at Spike in surprise, then knelt next to Willow and put a hand on her knee. "What's happened?"
The words refused to come the fist time she tried to say it. "Glory ... hurt Tara."
"Bloody hell," Spike muttered.
"How badly?" Giles asked, being as calm as he knew how.
"She--she's at the hospital, Glory broke her hand. And ..."
"And ..."
"Glory thought she was the Key," Willow whispered. "One of her demons followed Dawn from school to the shop."
"Dawn's all right?" Spike asked sharply.
"Uh huh. We caught him at the shop, he told us we were all being watched while Glory went to get the Key. Tara's the newest of us, so Glory figured ..."
Giles nodded. "That makes sense, if you didn't know about how the monks played with everyone's memories. And then?"
"I--I was supposed to meet her at the cultural fair, I went after her, and Glory was there, and ..." The tears were slipping away from her again. "Glory took my Tara. She took my girl's mind."
Giles pulled her into his arms. "Willow, I'm so sorry."
She shoved him back. "Don't be sorry! Help me make her pay!"
"Excuse me?"
Willow gestured around the room. "Show me! Teach me what I can do to make that bitch pay!" She jumped out of the chair and went to the books. "One of these has to have the answer. I saw it once--" She found the volume she wanted, "Darkest Magic," and yanked it off the shelf. Giles was suddenly there, taking the book out of her hands. "Give it back."
"No. This isn't the way."
"Give me that book."
The temperature in the room dropped, and air currents that shouldn't have existed in a basement began swirling.
Spike took out a cigarette. "Is this the famous resolve face I've heard so much about?" he asked calmly, shielding his lighter from the building wind. He blinked at the look he got from Willow.
Giles grabbed her shoulder. "Stop it, Willow. This won't do any good." He met her challenging glare without blinking. "Magic and emotion do not mix well. You must control the power, not the other way around."
"Thank you, Obi-Wan," Spike muttered.
"Shut up. Willow, what are you planning?"
"To find something to destroy her, the way she's destroyed Tara." She reached for the book again, but Giles pulled it away.
"You're not strong enough to destroy Glory with magic."
The searching winds got fiercer. "Then make me strong enough," Willow snarled.
Giles eyes went hard. "Certainly. Which demon shall I summon so that you can sell it your soul for your revenge?"
Willow blinked, and the winds dropped.
Spike took a deep drag off his cigarette as he watched. "Doubt the little shy witch would be happy to find out what you'd done when she gets back."
"Well, she's not going to get back, now, is she! Glory destroyed her mind!"
Spike looked at Giles. "Not what those Knights said."
"Good lord, you're right," Giles breathed. He shoved "Darkest Magic" back on the shelf and went to his desk to dig among the papers.
Willow reached out slowly towards the book. The answer to her grief was there, the way to transfigure the blades of agony into a weapon that she could against Glory. The leather was soft under her fingertips, strangely warm against her skin. Her hand wrapped around the spine the way it used to wrap around Tara's fingers.
Pale, slender fingers pushed the book back onto the shelf against her pull. "Best not," Spike said softly.
She started to protest, then was distracted by the bruises still discoloring his face. "Xander said you were a mess."
He flinched but didn't move his hand from the book. "Boy's a regular poet, isn't he."
"Don't you want to get back at her, too?"
"Sure, but I'm not going to make myself some slimy creature's plaything for the privilege."