Page 35 of Trick Me
She grins. “I imagine you do.”
Chapter
Six
ERYNN
Ash stiffens beside me. The wolf in my head responds to him, hackles rising, but I squeeze his hand in warning. The last thing we need is to piss off the witch and end up with something worse than a power swap.
“Learned your lessons yet?” she asks, focusing on Ash with intensity. She meant every word of teaching him a lesson from earlier.
“Yes,” I quickly say, before he can say something that’ll get us turned into toads, or worse. “That’s why we’re here. Please, how do we fix this? How do we go back to how we were?”
She takes a languid sip of her drink, the blue liquid leaving a faint glow on her lips. “Fix? Such an ugly word. Implies something’s broken.”
“You cursed us,” Ash says flatly.
She lifts one perfectly sculpted brow, clearly amused rather than offended. “Cursedis such a harsh word too. I’d say… Expanded. Gifted with perspective.”
“Gifted?” Ash’s voice drops to a growl that would be more impressive if he actually had his wolf.
I nudge Ash lightly with my elbow and step forward. His fingers twitch like he wants to stop me, but he doesn’t. The wolf bristles under my skin. He doesn’t trust the witch, and neither do I, but he knows when to beg.
“Please,” I say, trying for a smile that isn’t all teeth. “We’ve had a really shitty night. Lesson learned, big-time. Whatever you did with the apple, can you just… undo it? Reverse it?”
The witch watches me over the rim of her cocktail, her expression unreadable. She sets the glass down on a small table beside her with a soft clink and folds her hands in her lap, one elegant wrist draped over the other like a lady waiting for a suitor to grovel harder.
“Oh, sweetheart,” she says. “It was never meant to last. It’ll unravel on its own, when it’s ready. Halloween always holds on to its gifts stronger.”
Ash exhales harshly through his nose, and his shoulders coil tighter. “Then end it now,” he snaps, voice as sharp as broken bone. “We can’t afford to wait. This isn’t just some magical inconvenience. I have responsibilities?—”
“He runs a pack,” I cut in. “And if they see him likethis, if they sense weakness, they’ll tear him apart. This is dangerous,” I explain to the witch. “Not to mention, my day job relies on my ability.”
The wolf pushes against my insides again.
The woman doesn’t flinch. If anything, her smile softens. It’s the worst part. Like she expected this. Like she’s heard it all before.
“I do understand,” she says at last. “But before I give you what you want, I need something in return. A little insight, perhaps.”
I glance at Ash, who’s already shaking his head, but I squeeze his hand once. His fingers twitch, then settle.
The witch pats the chairs beside her.
“Sit. Humor me.”
We pull the chairs around to face her and settle down.
The witch crosses one leg over the other and leans forward, eyes gleaming.
“First question,” she begins, her voice a touch lower. “In the heat of anger, when you were sure the other was to blame, did you choose rage, or did you find room for grace?”
Ash doesn’t speak right away. He stares at the ground. His fingers flex in his lap.
Finally, he lifts his head. “I was furious. At her. At myself. At everything. We were both spelled, both caught in something bigger than us, but I acted like Iwas the only one affected.” He scrubs a hand over his face. “I didn’t explain. Didn’t try to help her understand what was happening to her. I just expected her to cope with it like I would have. Which was… stupid.”
“And yet?” the witch prompts, eyes glinting like starlight through smoke.
“She didn’t give up,” he says quietly. “She stayed. Fought. Even when she lost control and begged me to fuc?—”
