The Coven of Bones Series
by Harper L Woods

All the spoilers ahead. Alaric Grayson Thorne, known to most as Thorne but by those closest to him as Gray, is a Vessel. A creature created by Charlotte Hecate as part of a deal made with the devil himself that gave her, and others, access to magic and to become witches. Vessels are bodies that house demons from Hell. The Vessel will live forever, but they are trapped in the same body for all that time, and they cannot be killed by anyone except another Hecate witch. Difficult, since the line died out a few decades ago. The Tribunal, which includes Susannah Madizza (an earth witch) and George Collins (a fire witch), tell him that they have decided to reopen the university. For two generations, ever since the massacre, witches outside of Crystal Hollow have had to teach themselves their craft, and now the university will accept twelve new students: one from each extant line. They’ve already personally selected the new students. This will allow new blood into the school, to mix with the students who live in Crystal Hollow and for the Vessels to feed on (another part of the agreement of Charlotte Hecate). Willow Madizza’s mother dies, which means that the Coven will soon be coming for her. While her mother was alive, they were able to hide that Willow existed. Her mother had gone to Crystal Hollow but faked her own death and left before the massacre, when a bunch of the students at the school were killed. But now that she’s really dead, the witches will be able to feel that Willow is alive and she will be forced to join them - in order to protect her little brother, the actual youngest person in the Madizza line. Willow will join them and convince them that she is the last Madizza. Otherwise, they will force her little brother Ash to make a decision: either he can keep his magic, or he can one day have a family and children of his own. To prevent witches from inheriting magic from two different lineages, male witches are only allowed to procreate if they relinquish their magical abilities. And Willow doesn’t want Ash to have to decide that yet. After the funeral, she and Ash go back to her house and get a call from Willow’s father. He chastises her for still being at their house and says it’s imperative that she follow through with their plan! He is going to use his daughter to avenge his sister’s death. Her father has a secret. His sister was the last Hecate descendant as far as anyone knows, his family had kept him a secret, so he also didn’t have to choose to give up his magic. When he sired Willow, she was born with the Green powers of the Madizza line and the Black powers of the Hecate line. And although he always hoped for it, Willow is the heir to the Hecate power, so it has to be her who avenges her aunt’s death. She hangs up, assuring her father that the plan is already moving forward. Willow has arranged for Ash’s father to pick him up at the bus station. Willow has waited too long to get Ash to safety. Gray has already arrived to escort her to the school. She needs to hide Ash’s existence from anybody with ties to the witches. When Gray asks her to accompany him, she declines. Gray then tries to compel his way into the house, but she is protected from his compulsion by the amulet she wears. Even so, Ash comes to help his sister, and Gray realizes who he is. Now Willow really needs to move. She takes Ash to the basement where she and her mother had created a group of tunnels protected by tree roots. She takes Ash as far into the woods as she can before they go back to the surface. Willow commands Ash to run to the bus stop, where his father will meet him. She runs in the opposite direction to keep Gray’s focus on her. But Gray did not come alone, he pursues her (and eventually catches her, biting her neck and taking a small amount of blood from her when he does) while his two cronies go after Ash. Gray shows Willow that they have caught Ash, and she begs him to let Ash go. Gray is somehow swayed, and allows Ash to go, but Ash doesn’t want to leave without Willow. Gray compels Ash to go to his father, who is waiting for him near the bus… and to never look for Willow again. He tells Willow that now she owes him a favor and he can ask for anything at all, she will give it to him. He commands the two other Vessels to say nothing about Ash, they agree without question. They take her to Crystal Hollow to attend Hollow’s Grove University for witches. She meets the Tribunal when she gets there. She’s already heard about their existence, but it’s still jarring to see to two reanimated skeletons in charge of a bunch of witches. Susannah Madizza is the head of the Madizza line, while George is the brother to the head of the Collins line. And by “the head of” I mean the lines originated from them, centuries ago. They were both hanged for witchcraft and their skeletons reflect the injuries that caused their deaths. It quickly becomes apparent that Willow is not the meek witch that they were hoping for, she does not want to be at Hollow Grove and believes there is a reason that her mother faked her own death. She will not make this transition easy for anyone. The Tribunal asks Iban to escort Willow to her rooms, she will start classes with the other witches the next day. Iban is from the other Green line (the Brays) but gave up his magic to be able to start a family one day. He doesn’t waste any time, it seems that he likes the looks of Willow. But she already has her sites set on Gray. It’s all part of the plan she has with her dad: 1. Find a Vessel (check) 2. Seduce said Vessel 3. Find out what they know 4. Get the bones. In order for a Hecate witch to be able to fully access their powers, they have to have the bones of Charlotte Hecate. Most witches channel through their magic’s gift. Green witches use plants and the earth. Blue witches use water. Black witches use death through the bones of their founder. But those bones have been hidden since the death of Loralei, Willow’s aunt who was killed in the massacre, her father’s sister. On the way to Willow’s room, she and Iban pass a courtyard full of dead plants and Willow stops. Iban explains that the magic is not as potent as it used to be, but Willow is still confused, it should take a minimal amount of magic to keep these plants alive. She goes out into the courtyard. Iban explains further, telling Willow that offerings have been forbidden by the Coven and this astounds Willow. She was trained by her mother in the old ways. They channel their magic through a specific element, but that element needs an offering in return to remain strong. This courtyard is dead because the witches have taken and taken but have not offered anything back. She allows some of the plants to come to her and to take what is needed from her. They wrap around her arms and take her blood. She replenishes the courtyard, and it springs back to life, lush. But even though the courtyard plants only took what they needed, the loss of blood was so great that it makes Willow weak and lightheaded. Iban starts to help her to her room and Willow berates the witches, telling them they’ve become so corrupt and selfish that they don’t even teach the old ways to the students anymore. Iban tells her that although it was forbidden, what she did was beautiful. She makes him wish he hadn’t given his own magic up. The two of them don’t make it far before Gray (officially Headmaster Thorne since he owns the school) finds them. He offers to have Willow feed from him, which would replenish her and make her strong again, but she refuses. Instead, he carries her to her room. She feels distracted when he holds her, not good when Vessels have no feelings and she’s supposed to be seducing him, not the other way around. He puts her in her room and leaves her to rest. That night, Gray decides to check on Willow. He sneaks into her room, where she’s sleeping on the bed in the clothes she wore all day. He helps her get a little more comfortable by taking off her shoes and pants (inappropriate, Headmaster), but then he leaves. She will likely assume she undressed herself and just doesn’t remember because of her fatigue. But it seems the seduction is going well because he definitely wants her, he just wants her to be awake too. What an upstanding dude. That night Willow has a dream. Not uncommon for a Hecate witch but what is strange is that when she sees her mother, who is dead in the dream, her mother touches her. That is not supposed to happen. Her touch is so cold that it fills Willow with pain. Her mother tells her that Ash may be safe, but Willow is not. The next morning, Willow starts classes. She’s collected by three other students: Della Tethys (Blue witch), Nova Aurai (Gray witch), and Margot Erotes (Red witch). They run into Iban on the way. He and Willow talk for a moment, and she flirts a bit with Iban where Gray can see them, but Iban makes something clear to her. He knows that she’s playing, but he’s not. One day she will realize that the Vessel is not a real possibility. Actually, maybe he is playing, but he is playing to win. It's time for history, which the headmaster teaches (who better to teach history than someone who saw it firsthand?) but Willow thinks this is a strange choice since Gray hates the Coven. After class when Willow questions him, Gray points out that everyone has a bias and would need to recognize that in order to teach, and although he doesn’t like the Coven, it is beneficial to him to keep witches around. They have a moment when they taunt and flirt with each other and Susannah, the walking skeleton, comes in and interrupts. She doesn’t like Gray sniffing around her descendant, even if she doesn’t particularly like that descendant. When Willow leaves, Gray invokes dominium, which is his right as written into the Covenant (the agreement between the witches and the Vessels). Dominium will make sure that no one except him may use Willow to feed from. He may use other witches, but no one else can visit her. A Vessel may only invoke dominium one time ever during their existence. When Susannah questions this (Why her? Why now after all this time?) he tells her that he likes the way Willow tastes, simple as that. Oh, one last thing. He tells Susannah to keep the dominium a secret. He will tell her when he’s ready. A few days pass and Willow is no closer to finding Charlotte’s bones, but she knows they’re somewhere around here because she can feel them waiting for her. She does some research on Charlotte in the library. Charlotte made a deal with the devil and made Vessels for his demons so they wouldn’t have to be bothered by possessing people, who adopted new names when they started using their Vessels. No one knows their true identities, whether they are one of the seven demon lords or a lesser demon. No one knows why the devil agreed to this deal, what plan he had put into place. Gray comes to Willow and offers her a truce. He points out that there is no need for them to be on opposing sides, especially since she has no desire to truly join the Coven. They are both feared by their peers, him by the other Vessels and her by the rest of the Coven. He pulls out her record, the research they did on her before picking her up. Her mother dead, her father absent, she often had bruises when she came to school but insisted there was no abuse. He wonders what she was fighting, and she answers honestly: anybody who was willing. No clubs or hobbies (she had no time when she was training with her father to exact his revenge on the Coven). Willow points out that she doesn’t know any of Gray’s secrets, yet he seems to know all of hers. He tells her that there is only one person whose life matters to him, and he will guard her with his life from anyone seeking to harm her. He cannot feel love, but Vessels can become obsessed by something they consider theirs. He points out that they both know that the Coven is going down the wrong path, they are not following the ways that were given to them. As his part of the truce, he will make sure Susannah cannot marry her off and get her with child as soon as feasibly possible, to ensure the Madizza line continues, although he does not reveal how he plans to protect Willow. He will also make sure they don’t kill her. She will help them make the Coven strong again and restore the old ways. He pricks his thumb, and she takes a little bit of his blood, and for his portion, he kisses her and pricks her lip, taking her blood that way. They have themselves a deal. In Susannah’s class about magic, they discuss where magic comes from - from the elements of nature all around them. The number of Houses that exist was dictated by the elements, not the other way around. That includes the Reds – the House of Desire. More so, the Houses balance each other out. Water and fire, air and earth, life and death (Red and Black witches). Susannah also talks about the tragedy it was when they lost the last Hecate, Loralei. Without a Black witch, they cannot keep the Vessels in line. Even if you burn them to ash, they will repair given time. The only way to hurt them is to deprive them of a witch’s blood. Once they are weak, you can entrap them in the earth, and they will slowly fade into nothingness as they continue to be deprived of sustenance. Having the Vessel unmade by a Hecate is so much faster. Gray is brought some news while in his office - and it is not good. A witch was killed, in the same courtyard that Willow brought back to life. One of the students that had been brought in from outside of Crystal Hollow has been killed. George, the other skeleton, believes they should close the school now. This is how the massacre started last time, could history repeat itself? But Susannah fights back. It must be a copycat, someone trying to scare the witches. Willow comes into the courtyard and asks the vines encircling the dead witch to let her go. The Bray elder is suspicious, he’s also a Green but the vines wouldn’t listen to him. Willow reveals that she made an offering to the courtyard when she first arrived. Once the vines have backed away, they see the dead witch has a hole in her chest and her heart has been removed, just like with the original massacre. They can’t find the heart anywhere. The Bray elder blames Willow, but Willow points out that she wouldn’t be so stupid as to leave a body lying around in the courtyard that she just resurrected, not to mention she didn’t even know this witch. Why would she kill her? The Bray man points out that Iban was pretty close to this witch before Willow showed up, could it be a crime of passion? That is quickly discounted, by Willow and by everyone else. Willow has another dream. She watches another woman, someone who holds a piece of onyx in her hand as she runs through the halls, and Charlotte’s bones are in a bag at her hip. It’s Willow’s aunt, Loralei. She turns and tells her pursuer that she doesn’t have what they’re looking for. Willow calls out her name in fear. Loralei hears her, looks right at her, and yells at Willow to run. As Loralei is attacked, she commands Willow to wake up! Wake up! When Willow does wake, she sees slash marks on her back - just where Loralei was scratched. What is happening?! Gray comes in right then. He can tell she’s bleeding, and he continues asking about it until she tells him she got sliced up in a dream. He sees the marks, already healed over somehow, and tells her it is called “the devil’s eye” which enables the actual devil to watch you closely. They have another hate/flirting moment, and he takes in a little of her blood again. And he leaves her wanting. Now that she’s drunk his blood too, he can compel her regardless of her amulet. He tells her that no one, not even herself, will satisfy her needs from this point on except for him. Not until he releases her from this compulsion. And he won’t release her until she tells him what exactly the devil wants with her. They go to the dead witch’s funeral. When Willow’s mother died, they had her buried like the human laws dictate but Willow’s father later went and dug up her body, reburying it directly in the ground to be reabsorbed by the earth magic. It is the last offering a witch makes. The other Houses should do the same, but Willow sees that they intend to bury this witch in a casket, not laid on a bed of sacred stones and allowed to be absorbed into the source as a White witch should be. Willow realizes that the Coven has not been following even this ancient rite. She continues to say that this is wrong but even Gray asks her to wait to talk about it, this is not the time. She sees the wisdom in this, so she waits until after the funeral and then storms in to see Susannah and George. Susannah asks George to leave and give her a moment with Willow alone. She tells Willow that what they’re doing, everything they are doing, is for the good of the Coven. It may not seem like it, but systematically weakening their own witches is for the best. Weakening the witches weakens the Vessels as well. Vessels are forbidden from feeding on the living members of the Tribunal - one witch sits on the council for each of the House legacies. Legacies are the original families that started each house (i.e. one seat on the council for the Bray family, one for the Madizza family, as the two original Green families). Those members of the Tribunal still practice the old ways and keep themselves strong. As time goes on and the other witches continue to weaken, they will eventually have no magic. Which means the Vessels will have no one to feed from. Then the Tribunal can get rid of them all and start anew. Besides, Willow is the last of the Madizzas, she’ll be fine – she has a seat on the Tribunal simply from there being no other options. Susannah explains that the Coven is more important than one life, or many lives as it happens. When Willow argues back, Susannah grabs her and starts to choke her. She needs Willow alive, but she doesn’t need her awake. She could keep her asleep and just get some offspring from her that way, ensuring the Madizza line survives before killing Willow outright. Gray comes in just then and tells Susannah not to touch Willow ever again. George went to get him. George doesn’t seem so bad. Gray tells Susannah that if she touches Willow again, she will have violated his right and he will make the consequences rain down on her. Gray takes Willow to his room where she drinks some of his blood to speed along the healing of the internal injuries she’s sustained from Susannah. Now she’s terrified of sleeping, since Susannah threatened that she wouldn’t wake up, but Gray tells her that she’s safe with him and she sleeps in his room that night. The Reaping approaches, when the Vessels are allowed to feed from the witches. Gray makes sure that all the Vessels know that Willow is off limits to every one of them except him, but he warns them not to tell the witches. Since these Vessels are assigned to the school, they do not leave and must feed from the students, although the underage students are off limits. If a Vessel plans to visit a witch during the Reaping, the witch will find a red mark on their door after classes. If they’re not chosen, they must remain in their rooms that night. Willow is obviously chosen; Della helps her prepare. Della explains that they will not know who feeds on them, it helps prevent bonds from forming between the Vessels and the witches. Vessels used to choose a witch for the full year, that no longer happens. Every week a Vessel will come to feed, but it will be a different Vessel each time and the witch will not be aware of who it is. Della points out the two nightgowns that were left on the bed. A simple floor length one for just feeding, and a lacy short one if you’re open to doing more while the Vessel feeds. Della tells Willow she has two options, either on the bed or standing, but she will have to be restrained. Willow chooses standing and Della puts leather cuffs on her and chains her with her arms above her head so she can remain standing. Then Della blindfolds her. This really bothers Willow, whose father used to put her in a dark, confined place as a punishment (a small human sized rectangle in the ground, the entrance/exit at her feed). Now she hates not being able to see. When Gray gets there to feed from her, he doesn’t tell her who he is but he does realize how afraid she is, and he makes a vow to find out why - and to make that person pay. He releases Willow from her chains when he is done but is quick to exit before she can see him. She unlocks her cuffs with the key that was left for her and reaches into her dresser drawer where she is cut by something. She pulls out a silver mirror in a frame made of human bone. When she looks in the mirror, she sees someone moving behind her. Someone decaying but only on half of her body, someone with lilac eyes, like Willow. Charlotte Hecate. Charlotte tells Willow to look at her, but before she can say more, Willow drops the mirror and breaks it. No worries though, the mirror reconstructs by itself. Willow is in the bath when she hears someone calling her name, all low and like a moan. It doesn’t sound like anything she wants to answer. Before she can even get out of the bath, Gray storms in and checks if she’s been hurt. There’s been another murder. She gets dressed and he takes her to the spot where she had been sparring earlier in the day, where she had bled while sparring. The word “two” is written next to the body, whose throat was cut. She asks what the word two means, Susannah tells her that Charlotte Hecate had seen a prophecy before her body had been torn apart and her bones scattered. A prophecy of the daughter of two, born of two bloodlines, who would restore “what had been lost to time” – whatever that means. It’s the reason that the male witches are now forced to choose: their magic or a family, so that the daughter of two could not be born. When Willow leaves, Della stops her. She heard someone calling for Willow too, she’s afraid that Willow is next. Della isn’t the only witch that heard Willow’s name being called. Willow is stopped in the hallway by a group of the witches who were brought in from outside Crystal Hollow. They believe that it should have been Willow that died this time, instead of their friend. They beat the crap out of her, and she does not fight back. Afterward, she crawls to Gray’s room. She drinks some of his blood to heal, she’s in rough shape right now, and he asks who did this to her. She won’t tell him. He helps her get cleaned up and puts her in bed. She realizes that she went to Gray when she was hurt, when she needed help. Not Good. Maybe she’s not been seducing him as much as falling for someone who is incapable of loving her back, per his own admission. She asks him why the pair bonds between Vessels and witches were ended and he explains that a Vessel can become addicted to a witch, but also because if a Vessel feeds on the same witch enough times that it is only that witch’s blood that flows in the Vessel’s veins, they get a little bit of the magic that the witch has. The Vessel won’t be strong, but they’ll be able to control it a little. This is also forbidden to talk about, so only a few know that this phenomenon happens. He reveals that he visited her during the Reaping, and he hasn’t fed on anyone else. He can feel her magic and he knows exactly who she is, who her ancestors are. All of them. But then, he’s known for a while now. This is directly after he helped her shower, so they’re both wearing very little. The next logical step is hate sex. But there’s one catch, Willow is a virgin. He doesn’t realize this, and she doesn’t tell him until it’s too late to hide the fact. Her father made sure that she couldn’t lose her virginity to someone else, she had to give it to the Vessel that she chose to seduce. Gray stops and explains to her that when a witch turns sixteen, they choose someone to lose their virginity to. There is already potent magic in blood and in sex (there’s a whole House devoted to bodily pleasures), witches do not choose a Vessel for their first time because that is blood that can only be given once and it forms a bond with the Vessel, an obsession on the part of the Vessel. This is something Willow’s father did not reveal to her. Now, Willow will never be rid of Gray. They finish what they started, but in an easier, slower way. He feeds from her, too. The next day, Gray asks another Vessel, Kairos, to watch over Willow as he goes to town. But don’t let Willow see him keeping an eye on her, she won’t like that. Kairos asks if Willow has the bones yet, so clearly, it’s not just Gray who knows the truth. Gray tells him no, not yet. He also reveals to Kairos that someone hurt Willow the day before, Juliet is figuring out who did it. Willow thinks about the Coven, how it isn’t all corrupt and terrible. The corruption is certainly there but there are also people like Della, like Iban, who deserve more than the Coven is providing to them. Susannah approaches her. She’s figured it out, finally. Susannah says she has known since she met Willow that something was off, that she looked familiar but not in a way that screamed Madizza, and Susannah has realized why. She looks like Loralei. She doesn’t want to kill Willow (last of the Madizza bloodline and all that) so Susannah encourages her to leave and never return. Ward herself so that not even the Covenant – or Gray – can find her. Willow asks Susannah where Charlotte’s bones are but Susannah just laughs. Gray has had them all alone. Willow tells Susannah that Gray already knows that she is a Hecate and would have given her the bones if he had them, Susannah gets very worried. Everything Susannah has done is to make sure Gray did not get his hands on Willow. There was another bargain made, one that prevents Susannah telling Willow exactly what will happen, only that she will unleash something terrible if she uses those bones. Rose bushes wrap around Susannah and pull her into the ground, but Susannah doesn’t fight back, she just keeps urging Willow to run. Her destiny is to destroy them all. Run! Willow runs. She knows that Gray is in town, but she doesn’t know that Kairos alerted Gray as soon as Susannah started talking to her. She runs into the woods, where there are ancient creatures that even the Vessels don’t like to tangle with, and she is attacked. Just before one of the beasts kills her, Gray grabs it and rips it apart. He never even made it to town. He’s angry, she could have been killed! She asks what the beasts are, and he tells her they are the Cursed. Cursed by Charlotte Hecate. When Charlotte first received her magic from the devil, she did not know how to control it. Men from the village chased her, hunting her down so she could be executed – they had already decided she was a witch; she figured if she was going to die for it, she might as well be guilty. That is what caused her to make the deal in the first place and she cursed those men and turned them into the creatures in the woods. He asks her why she was running, and she tells him that Susannah knows the truth about her. He takes her back to his office so they can talk without interruption. He asks Willow what Susannah told her, telling her he was so afraid for her safety when he found out she had gone into the woods. She recounts parts of her conversation with Susannah: how she looks like her aunt, how she should leave Hollow’s Grove forever. She didn’t want to be here in the first place, so Willow took the chance to leave. Something is not adding up for Gray. Then Kairos comes in and tells Gray that Susannah has not been seen since her talk with Willow. She never left the gardens. Gray commands Kairos to search the dirt in the gardens. He tells Willow that he has something for her, but he hadn’t wanted to give them to her yet so it would be less traumatic for her. He opens a biometric safe, hidden behind a giant portrait of Lucifer falling from the heavens after having his wings cut off, and pulls out a small bag. She can feel the bones inside. He orders Willow to sit and hands the bag to her, but all of a sudden, she does not want them. This doesn’t feel good, something bad is going to happen. She’s forced to take the bag. What she wants doesn’t matter, the bones have chosen her. She knows this is true, her father always hoped to be chosen and exact his revenge himself, but the bones chose Willow instead. Gray opens the bag for her, and she is flooded with power. The bones leave the bag of their own accord and reshape themselves as a necklace around Willow’s neck. Gray tells her that she will be the last of the Hecate line, for real. This magic will die with her, the bones know that, and they will never leave her. When Kairos walks in to tell Gray that they’ve found Susannah and freed her, not without a struggle, Willow reaches out and touches his neck. She turns him into a pile of dirt on the floor, Unmade without even a word. But she cannot Unmake Gray, he has too much of her blood in his veins. The magic now recognizes him as an extension of her. He carries her out of the room and yells for Juliet to have Susannah and the missing pieces brought to the Tribunal room. Willow is absolutely furious that Gray has used her (that was her plan!) but she’s happy that Susannah ruined his plans. No, no, not ruined, they’re just on an expedited timeline now. And he’s mad, because he’s pretty sure that Willow will hate him for what’s about to happen. He was hoping to avoid that. When they get to the Tribunal room, George stands up, but Gray touches the bones of Charlotte and forces George back down. He’s able to use her powers somehow, but of course he can! Her blood is in his veins, and where do you think Charlotte got her powers in the first place? From Hell. He bends down and removes a tile in the floor, revealing a mirror that reflects the ceiling and a sculpture of a woman’s face. Willow’s face. They bring Susannah in – still putting herself back together – and Juliet throws a couple body parts down next to the mirror. The heart of the first murder victim and the liver of the second. Gray was the killer all along. They bring in the other new students, including the ones that jumped Willow, and one by one Gray kills them and removes an organ from each. He reveals that he also killed Loralei, to protect Willow’s father. He needed Willow’s dad to make Willow before the Coven found out about him. Then, Gray brings in Willow’s father, who is holding Ash at knifepoint. They need Willow to follow their orders and if she does, Ash won’t be hurt. She spits that she will kill her father for this, but he just laughs, she won’t live long enough for that. Dad of the year over here. Gray tells Willow to make bodies for the Tribunal, then Gray rips them apart. The floor is covered in their blood and their bodies are turned to dust, finally dead after centuries. He looks at Willow and tells her that he’s sorry, but it will be over soon. Gray stabs her in the stomach and pulls out a rib. From the blood of the Tribunal and the organs of the other students, from the bone of Willow, Charlotte is reborn. Now Willow’s dad is irate. Gray told him he’d bring back Loralei! Serves him right, the jerk. Charlotte isn’t having this. She tells him only the worst kind of man would hurt his own daughter, she nearly suffocates him, but then she throws him in a hole that has open up in the floor. She wants to know how he likes living in the darkness, like how he used to punish Willow. She closes him up in the hole and repairs the tiles on top. He won’t be bothering them anymore. Ash runs to Willow’s side. Charlotte approaches Ash and tells him that it’s time for him to go back to his dad. She reassures Willow that it’s just for now, not forever, but it’s not safe for Ash here until they’re done. Juliet takes Ash. Willow is confused, was her job not bringing Charlotte back? Charlotte tells her no. She’s just a gift from Willow’s husband to help her survive the next part. Husband?! Apparently, the devil claimed her as his wife when he gave Willow the mark on her back. Willow has so many questions. Where did that rib come from? It wasn’t one of hers, Gray explains that Charlotte had given it to him to ensure she would always be with Willow, he’d put it there the night she was born. Charlotte explains further that Willow is what Charlotte bargained for. The Vessels were the price she had to pay to get her power from the devil, but only Willow can open the seal. She presses Willow’s hand into the glass of the mirror on the floor and tells her not to let go until Charlotte says so, otherwise she will die. And Willow must live, to fix all that Charlotte had wrought. The glass disappears and a staircase takes its place. Willow watches as Beelzebub pulls himself into the room, followed by Satanus. When Leviathan comes out, he’s carrying a cot behind him, Belphegor at the other end. On top of the cot is the unmoving body of Lucifer. Charlotte explains that Lucifer is so still because his soul is not in that body, it was already here. Gray watches as Mammon and Asmodeus also arrive. When Willow looks at him after talking to Charlotte, he asks if she is ready to hear his true name. She’d asked for it once before, but he refused to give it to her then. Charlotte tells Willow to close the gate, but she doesn’t know how. Charlotte starts to evaporate, her job here is finished, but she tells Willow that she will always be with her as she lifts her hands from Willow’s, she fades completely. Still Willow cannot let go, her hands are frozen to the seal. Gray picks her up around her waist and tears her away, the glass then reforms. She screams that she will never forgive Gray for what has happened, but he thinks that she will. He takes Willow’s hand and guides her toward Lucifer’s body. Surrounded by the other archdemons, Gray asks her to put him back into his body. She says no, but he doesn’t mind killing a few more people to get his way. He will not stop until she puts him back in his body. He tells her, he cannot love her as a Vessel, but he wants to. Put him back into his true body and allow him to love her like she deserves to be loved. She’s all out of fight. Gray collapses to the ground and Lucifer opens his eyes.