Page 36 of Enspelled

Even when they’re dead, the Callas are still fucking with Briar. If Briar hadn’t killed her, I most definitely would have. Somehow.

She raises her head, her eyes heavy with sadness. “I don’t think we agreed on it.”

“Well, we should have, because everything I’m hearing and seeing tells me that the Calla family is rotten through and through,” I say.

“You haven’t even met Georgia,” Briar complains.

I raise my eyebrow. “I come back from my drive and find you leaping from the porch as if death itself were chasing you down. Then you spend the next several hours unable to shift back to human, which only seems to happen when you’re too terrified to change back.”

She stiffens her spine. “That isn’t true. Just because I—”

“What do you mean, unable to shift back to human?” Sera interrupts.

And that’s when I realize Sera wouldn’t have known about Briar killing Diana, or about her shifting to wolf.

I wait for Briar to fill Sera in on everything that happened, since they’re supposed to be best friends, but she rises from her seat and wanders over to the kitchen cupboard. For something sweet to calm her nerves, I guess—at least until she pulls out a bag of chips.

I eye the bag in her hand with a frown. Now she’s craving salty over sweet?

“Briar shifted to wolf and ripped out Diana Calla’s throat,” I say, curious about what Sera’s response will be. “Is there a transformation spell capable of transforming a witch—or whatever Briar is—into a wolf?”

Silence.

Not complete silence, but the sound of crunching as Briar chews on her salty snack. With her eyes glued to the contents of the chip bag, it’s hard to gauge what’s going through her brain right now.

Why didn’t she want to tell her friend when she knows Sera is determined to help?

“An actual wolf?” Sera breathes, sounding like she’s having trouble drawing enough air into her lungs.

“Yes,” I admit when Briar doesn’t respond. “An actual wolf.”

Sera clears her throat. “And you’re sure that this wasn’t just—”

“Youdoknow what I am, don’t you?” I cut in.

A pause. “A wolf,” Sera bites out through gritted teeth.

She must like me even less than she did before.

“Then when I tell you that Briar shifted to a wolf, I mean it. Or maybe I don’t know anything about wolves at all…” I drawl.

A longer silence now.

“I’m assuming this is rare,” I prompt at Sera’s continued silence, hoping to hell she isn’t busy whipping up a spell with my name on it.

“It’s impossible. Or I always thought it was, but I guess it makes sense why Georgia didn’t immediately try to kill you, Briar,” Sera admits. “What does it feel like?”

Briar stalks back to the cupboard and shoves the bag inside. “Like having just another thing happening to me that I have no control over. And I think I humped Keane’s leg, but he won’t tell me.”

The silence that follows is the longest so far.

Right up until a choked laugh breaks it. “You didwhat?” Bodie breathes.

Shit, I should tell her she did no such thing.

Briar doesn’t turn around. “I humped Keane’s leg the way a wolf pup would.” She pauses. “And I wanted to kill a butterfly. Not to eat it, but because it was pretty.”

“Never mind the butterfly. Let’s go back to the leg-humping incident,” Bodie says, doing nothing to hide the amusement in his voice. “How exactly did that happen? Don’t leave anything out.”

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