Page 43 of Enspelled

My back stiffens further.

Mom grips my arm and tugs me back in my seat. “What my daughter meant, Vera, was perhaps we could—”

“The time, Cynthia, is not for honoring the dead,” Vera cuts in, all the while glaring down at me. “But for stopping this town from being utterly destroyed by a witch who has never had any control of her powers. Something we should have done long before now.”

I stare at her, struggling to comprehend that green witches do not harm, do not kill, and value life as the precious gift that it is. We are the gentle, kind ones. Or at least we’re supposed to be. Has this rotten core always existed in Madden Grove, and I’m only just seeing it now?

“So, we’ll need a finder spell,” Vera continues briskly. “I’ll want the strongest witches for this one. Sera, it’s time for you to set aside this foolish friendship with—”

I tear my arm from Mom’s grip and spring to my feet. “No. I won’t help you do anything.”

Turning on my heel, I stalk away.

“If you walk out of the door, Sera Mitchella, you will not be welcome back here,” Vera calls out.

I stop, my gaze fixed on one of the posters advertising the many luncheons and coffee mornings lining the white walls. Probably for the last time. “This coven isn’t one I want to be part of. Not anymore.”

I keep walking.

“Sera!” Mom calls after me.

Gripping the door handle, I peer over my shoulder to find every witch staring at me. Eyes wide, stunned that any witch would turn her back on her coven.

I scan the faces of the women I grew up with. Faces of the women that should be—shouldfeel—like sisters to me, but in reality are nothing but strangers.

I’ve never had the loudest voice in the coven, and I’ve never been—or wanted to be—the center of attention. But now I do. “A woman died. A woman you went to school with and grew up with.Noneof you cared, and now you’re talking about hunting a witch you admit has struggled all her life to control her power. Something that isn’t her fault. Not one of you even attempted to help her. Notone. I want nothing to do with any of you.”

And then I push the door open and step out, letting the door slam closed behind me.

I take two steps along the hallway and have to stop. Lowering my head, I study my shaking hands. There’s a panicky feeling in my chest, and it takes me a moment to work out what it is.

Fear.

I stood up for Briar, and I walked out of the green witch coven.

Now I’m on my own—something no witch ever wants to be.

But then I remember Briar, and I remember the venom and the spite I’ve glimpsed in the room behind me over the years, and I know I made the right choice.

It doesn’t surprise me that Mom doesn’t follow. Her whole life is the coven, and without it, I don’t think she even knows who she is.

After releasing a breath, and when my hands have stopped shaking, I continue down the empty hallway, my steps echoing all the way.

The moment I push the door open and glimpse the dark-haired wolf leaning against the side of my gray Subaru, my eyes narrow. “What are you doing here?”

Bodie’s gaze darts behind me before returning to my face. “I delivered the necklace.”

I stop glaring. “How is she? Did she put it on? Does she smell like…” My voice lowers. “A wolf?”

He shrugs. “Seemed okay to me. She put it on. And no, about the smell.” A half-smile drifts across his lips. For a moment, leaning against my car with his arms crossed in a red flannel shirt and jeans, sun streaming over him, he almost looks attractive. For a wolf. “She seemed a little flustered when I caught them pulling out of the parking lot.”

I frown. “Flustered how?”

But all he does is shake his head, a secret smile in his eyes.

What the hell is he talking about?

Bodie nods toward the building. “So, what happened in there?”

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