Page 48 of Castings & Curses

To think he’d laughed at Jared for having a firestarter for a mate.

“Well, that was fun,” Pippa said. “Not.I was absolutely certain you were a goner, Natalie.”

“And man, the amount of trees and limbs that fell while you were in your little cyclone of goodness, just wow,” Rowan said. “Glad you’re on our side is really all I can say about that.”

“Yes, but good news,” Jo said cheerfully, “As far as we know, no one’s risen from the deadandthere haven’t been any fires—though you twodidscorch the land a bit where you’re standing, but all things considered, I’d say that’s a win, wouldn’t you?”

“Seriously?” Morana exclaimed. “Why would you say that? There’s no point in tempting fate, Jo!”

“I’m just saying, you gotta celebrate the wins, you know?”

* * *

“Maybe I was wrong,”Soraya said.

Bygul and Muezza stared at each other, utterlyamazed.

No cat worth their salteveradmitted when they were wrong. It simply wasn’t done.

There was always a reason foreverythingthey did or said.

Humans might notliketheir reasons, but that didn’t mean they were wrong.

“What’s that now?” Tivali asked.

“You know, when I said Morana was the cheerful one. I probably meant Jo. They all look the same to me. Witches, vampires, shifters, what’s the difference, really? They’re all humans.”

Well, that was a good point, Bygul mused.

“So it’s not like you werewrongso much as confused,” Muezza said.

“Exactly!” Soraya exclaimed. “And maybe not even so much confused as just not paying attention.”

“Oh, now, that makes total sense,” Tivali said.

“Absolutely,” Bygul said. “We’re cats, after all. We only pay attention when we want to.”

* * *

“What a nightmare,”Natalie muttered.

It was all the wolf’s fault!

She’d had perfect control—well, mostly—and then, he had to kiss her!

What in the world made him think a kiss would help?

For goddess’ sake, that kiss had obliterated her control, andthen,she’d dropped her staff.

She shuddered to think what might have happened if Moonbeam hadn’t leapt into play.

This was truly terrible.

Because all she could think about now was kissing him.

The wolf!

The aggravating, arrogant, sexy-as-hellwolf.

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