Page 102 of Enspelled

Keane doesn’t look away from me, and he doesn’t move. I don’t think he even blinks.

I brace myself for whatever is going to come next, ready to drag Briar to the ground with me if necessary.

“Is that true?” he asks me, his voice a low growl. He blinks, and his wolf stares back at me.

I swallow. “Yes, I think so. Bullhorn Ellie said there was a rotten-egg smell in town years ago. There’s only one creature that would smell that way. A demon. And the rotten egg smell was sulfur.”

His stare makes me more and more uncomfortable.

“So she summoned a demon to kill my pack?” he asks.

Trying to remain calm in the face of his stare isn’t easy. “Yes.”

Silence.

Briar clears her throat, and I turn to find her gazing at Keane in confusion. “She said my mom wasn’t an elemental witch. She was a phoenix. And she wanted her power so she could get revenge against the witches in Madden Grove.”

“What?” My eyes aren’t the only ones to widen at Briar’s admission. I thought the phoenix only existed in myths, but to think that Briar is one is crazy. Bodie is looking just as stunned as I am.

“She said she wanted the demon to hold my mom so she could steal her power, but my mom and dad sacrificed themselves to protect me,” Briar continues.

“And then she learned you had the same power, so she could try again with you,” I guess.

Briar nods. “I think she caused the fire in her closet. I think everything she did when she figured out I was like Mom was to get me to give her my power.”

My brow creases in a frown. “But then, how did she steal it from you?”

Briar shrugs. “I don’t know. Maybe Layla had a spell all this time, but Aunt Mel needed Keane to steal the grimoire from her. Anyway, it doesn’t matter now.”

Why am I suddenly not getting a good feeling about this?

“Why doesn’t it matter?” I ask.

“We have to stop her, Sera. You didn’t hear her. She won’t stop until Madden Grove and everyone in it is burning.” She pauses. “I doubt she’d even stop then. So we have to stop her.”

“Uh, and how are we supposed to do that if she’s the most powerful thing in town?” Bodie asks.

No one speaks for several seconds.

“We need to go to the wolves. It’s only a matter of time before Mara or Mel, or whatever the fuck she’s calling herself, decides they need to die,” Keane growls.

I shift my focus to him. “Will Liam even care?”

Keane straightens. The wolf is still in his eyes, but he’s not looking like he’s in danger of shifting and killing us all. He’s actually handling the news of how his pack died better than I thought he would. I’d expected a killer rampage. “Who would you suggest we go to for help? Georgia Calla and the elementals, who are undoubtedly her next target?”

Okay, so he has a point.

I sigh. “I guess we’re going to the wolves. Let's hope they leave us alive long enough for us to explain what Mel intends.”

31

BRIAR

Ipress myself against Sera’s car door since, with Sera driving and Bodie sitting in the passenger seat, it leaves me and Keane in the back.

We have a middle seat separating us, but after what he did to me—after the way he betrayed me—it’s nowhere near enough space. If I could curl up in a ball somewhere and spend the next five years crying, I would. But we don’t have five years, because Aunt Mel…

My eyes fill with tears, and I will them not to fall.

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