Page 79 of Enspelled

My lips quirk. “Observant, huh?” I ask, doing nothing to hide my skepticism.

“Yes. It’s how I know something is going on between Keane and your haunted friend.”

I level a glare his way. “Nothing is going on between them, and will you stop calling her haunted?”

“So we’ll put a bet on it, then,” he says, a smile in his eyes. “Twenty bucks.”

“I’m not betting on Briar.” Even if I had twenty bucks lying around, I’d still hesitate.

Briar should be desperate to get away from Keane Destin. I mean, the guy kidnapped her in a nightdress. But when I recall her visible reluctance to leave him, I can’t help but wonder if something hasn’t already happened between them, it soon might.

I have to help her, and fast, so Keane has no reason to stay in Madden Grove.

“Because she’s your friend, or because you know I’m right?” The smile in Bodie’s voice makes it clear what he thinks.

I turn to him. “Since you brought it up, why doyoustay? You say you’re a drifter, but you don’t seem to be showing any eagerness to leave a town that’s hardly been the most welcoming to you.”

The smile in his eyes dies. “Oh, this is welcoming compared to the ones I’ve been to before.”

Settling back in my seat to get a little more comfortable, I angle my head toward him. It’s early enough that Vera might still be asleep, so I figure we can afford to wait for a little while. “Like where?”

He shifts his focus from me to the dark house. “Most places.”

Hmm, vague much?

“Even the place you came from?” I prompt.

“I came from a lot of places. New Mexico, California, Indiana, even—”

“Shifters belong to a pack,” I interrupt before he can distract me. “You must have belonged to a pack before you became a drifter.”

Silence.

Then I remember Briar being an orphan, and I regret having said anything at all. Maybe his pack died, and that’s why he became a drifter, just like Keane Destin.

I still don’t like Keane, and I certainly don’t trust him—especially around Briar—but it’s hard not to feel sorry for a guy who lost his entire life in one night.

Just like Briar.

I sit up. “Briar’s parents died first.”

Bodie turns to me, his brow furrowed. “What do you—?”

I lean toward him, so excited that I nearly grab him. “What if the explosion was supposed to kill her, but her power saved her? What if the sacrifice that the demon demanded to wipe out Keane’s pack was her family?”

He doesn’t speak for several seconds. “Can a witch sacrifice someone else’s family to summon a demon? Wouldn’t the demon demand something from them? Personally?”

I shrug. “I don’t know. Maybe. I don’t have a lot of experience summoning, but I don’t think it would care as long as it got what it wanted. A sacrifice.”

“So someone offers up your haunt—” I glare, and a smile flashes in his eyes “—Briar’s family in return for wiping out the Destins?”

I nod.

“But why?”

I fumble around for a reason. “Maybe Keane’s pack had done something to her, maybe attacked her?”

He raises his eyebrow. “And in return, this witch decides to tangle with a demon to wipe out the pack? Why not just settle things with a good old-fashioned spell like the one you exploded the tree with?”

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