Page 115 of Enspelled

“And so you decided to be even worse than they were?” I ask.

She stares at me for a beat. “I can see you don’t want to listen. If you don’t want to choose, I’ll decide for you.” Her gaze settles on Keane.

My stomach lurches at the look in her eyes as she raises a hand toward him. “No!”

As if she was expecting my response, she turns to Bodie. “Not surprising, since it looks like the wolf isn’t the only one to have formed an attachment. So the drifter wolf it is.”

I take a step forward. “I’ll give you the grimoire,” I say in a rush.

Keane drags me right back. “No, you won’t,” he hisses, his eyes filled with fury as he stares down Aunt Mel.

She killed his pack, and he wants to kill her for it, but he can’t.

If Abigail couldn’t kill her with magic, there’s no way Keane will be able to shift to wolf and get to her before she kills him too.

I can’t let that happen. “Let me go, Keane.”

His hand tightens on my arm, almost painfully. “This is a trick.”

I turn to him. “Keane, let me go.”

“I said no.” His tone is so determined that I know no amount of struggling will get me free.

I meet his gaze head-on. “I’ve lost everyone I love, Keane. Please don’t make me watch as I lose all of you.Please.”

He doesn’t want to. I read the desperation in his eyes, but I won't back down. I can’t. “She just wants the grimoire. Let me give it to her.”

“Give it to me. I’ll take it,” he offers, already reaching for it with his free hand.

Before he’s finished speaking, I’m shaking my head. “No. It has to be me.”

“It’s a trick.” His tone wills me to believe it.

“He’s right,” Sera says. “Don’t go to her.”

“Probably. But I can’t just watch you die. Please let go.” I don’t look away from Keane, because he’s the one most at risk of lunging at Aunt Mel just like he did Diana Calla. This time, I don’t think I could protect him.

“I just want the grimoire,” Aunt Mel says when Keane continues to stare down at me.

“Everything will be okay,” I tell him.

It’s a lie.

There’s no way Aunt Mel is going to be happy with taking the grimoire and walking away. Not with the hate in her. She’s not going to settle for anything less than the total destruction of Madden Grove and everyone in it. Not unless someone stops her, and the only person who can do that is me.

Abigail’s words swim in my mind. She told me that I wouldn’t come into my full power for a few more days yet, on my twenty-second birthday. Or unless I died.

A phoenix rises from the ashes.

I guess now I find out if the saying is true.

Keane’s brow creases in a frown. “Briar…”

I force a smile I don’t feel. “I’ll be okay.”

I think.

Reluctance hardens his expression.

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