Page 15 of Enspelled

“What makes you think—”

“Unless a spell like that is one that any witch can just knock up?”

He’s right. “Uh, no. It would take a powerful witch to enslave wolf souls like that.”

Maybe Dad could have done it, but I doubt he would have. I’d have remembered seeing a spell like it when I’d flicked through our family’s grimoire.

I can’t believe I destroyed all those spells with my magic. An entire generation's worth of spells and knowledge, gone in an instant. That book should have been able to survive anything. But clearly, my out-of-control power is so messed up that it can do the impossible.

“And what is Layla Markham, if not a powerful witch?”

“But Abigail didn’t—”

“Abigail lived in a cabin in the woods to get away from Layla,” Keane interrupts. “She’s hardly going to know who or why. Andshewas the one askingyou, remember?”

I nod. “But why would Layla do that?”

“The same reason she tried to blame Abigail for wiping out my pack—to make herself look good to her coven. We’ll ask her, if you’re so concerned about the reasons why.”

His dark glare makes it clear exactly how he intends to ask her, and it does not involve doing it nicely.

Jeez. Am I going to just stand there and watch him torture the information out of her?

I gulp. “And if she wasn’t the one who did either of those things?”

“Then she has nothing to worry about, does she?”

I take in the dark intensity filling Keane’s amber eyes, and I know Layla has a lot to worry about. “Keane…”

“You don’t seem to understand that we’re running on borrowed time here, Briar.”

I frown. “Diana Calla is dead, so she isn’t a threat anymore. I know you said the wolves might come after us, but what if we ask Liam for help?”

Keane snorts. “Liam doesn’t give a shit about any of this. All he cares about is preventing anything that will stir up more trouble than he wants to deal with between the witches and wolves. Just like his father.”

I’d forgotten there’d been bad blood between Keane and Amos Wolfe. “You killed his father.”

He straightens from his lean against the counter. “Hetried to killme. I stopped that.”

“Well, maybe I could speak to Liam alone, see if he can’t…” My voice trails off as a mask obscures what Keane thinks about my idea. If he’s hiding what he thinks, it can’t be because he agrees with me. “You don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“What I think is that once Liam hears about a witch who is suddenly a wolf, a witch who ripped out the elemental coven leader's throat like it was nothing, he’s going to throw you in a cage until he figures out how you did it.”

My mouth goes dry and my heart rate spikes. “And if he can’t figure me out?”

He doesn’t respond, but he doesn’t have to. I can guess.

I stick my head in the refrigerator and reach for a piece of jerky.

After I’ve ripped the package open with my teeth, I lean my back against a counter and tear into it before I realize Keane is staring at me. “What?”

His eyes dart to the jerky in my hand. “I thought you’d go for cake.”

“I eat other things too, you know,” I snap.

Silence.

I must be hungrier than I thought to be this tightly strung. That, or my nerves must finally be snapping. “Sorry.”

---