Page 96 of Enspelled

A tear splashes on my cheek. I dash it away. “She worked with us.” Another tear falls. “Foryears. She trusted you.Itrusted you.”

More tears fall, but I can’t do anything to stop them. A sob escapes. I clamp my hand over my mouth and turn in the direction the town must be in.

I try not to imagine the devastation that Aunt Mel’s explosion must have caused, but all I see is the community center as a smoking ruin in my mind's eye.

Just like Callas Cauldron. And just like the Madden Grove Tearoom.

“Briar.” Keane sounds like he’s moving closer.

I spin back to face Aunt Mel. She gazes back at me without expression. “You don’t care, do you? About anyone or anything but this need to get back at this town.”

Her silence speaks words.

I’m reaching for the out-of-control power that lives inside me before I remember it isn’t there. Not anymore. She stole my parents, my best friend, and now my power, too. “I hate you.”

“That’s good. Because this town doesn’t respect anything weak, and I should know.”

“So what now? You’ve killed everyone. What now?”

Her smile turns sharp with anticipation. “Now I deal with the elementals.”

I don’t realize that Keane has shifted until a large, tan wolf lunges at Aunt Mel, so fast I think at first he will kill her, just as I did Diana Calla.

But as if she has all the time in the world, she lifts her hand. The thing that pours from her is like no magic I’ve ever felt before. It’s raw and powerful, and the air crackles with heat. It smashes into Keane and flings him away. He disappears between the trees, but Aunt Mel doesn’t lower her hand.

Finally, long seconds later, the force his body makes as it smashes into a tree makes me flinch.

She lowers her hand and turns to me.

“That was my power?” I ask.

She nods. “Yes.”

I swallow hard. “I could never do that.”

“No, but the potential was always there. I saw it.”

I shake my head in disbelief. “But you said a phoenix doesn’t come into her power until she’s twenty-two. I’m only twenty-one.”

“Yes.” She smiles. “But I’m not twenty-one.”

Her hand rises and I back up, pressing myself against the tree. “Don’t do this Aunt Mel. Please don’t do this. You know me. I’m your niece. You took care of me. Please.”

She pauses, and I think I’ve broken through to her. “Yes, you are. And Idolove you, Briar.”

And even after everything she’s done, a part of me still loves her. “So you won’t do this?”

“I love you, Briar. But this is too important. You will only get in the way.”

Heat punches into me. I shriek as fire spreads over my skin, my hair, everywhere.

As I collapse to the ground, it follows me down, and it eats me alive.

29

KEANE

Ipace so closely behind Sera that I feel her bristle even before she speaks.

---