Page 21 of Enspelled

Quiet. I need to focus.

I lean closer to the witch. “What—”

A powerful engine roars as it pulls into the grocery store parking lot. The driver doesn’t immediately cut the engine or even get out, making conversation impossible.

Impatience stirs in Mara’s eyes. “You know what I want. Layla dead. You want revenge against the person responsible for wiping out your pack. I’d say our goals are pretty closely aligned, but if you want to do this on your own, that’s fine by me.”

And with no apparent concern about me stabbing her in the back, she shoves the truck door open and climbs out.

After slamming the door closed, she stalks into the forest.

She must have a cabin or something there, if she’s always hanging around here. Useful information for when I need to hunt her down. And something tells me that one day soon, I will.

When the person in the powerful truck turns their engine off, I take it as my sign to leave.

Mara has given me a lot to think about. Too much. But before I do anything, it wouldn’t hurt to delve into what she was saying about Vera. And I know just who to ask.

6

BRIAR

Acupboard door slams shut, distracting me from my increasingly sober thoughts. Swiping the back of my hand across my wet cheeks, I turn from the picture of Aunt Mel toward my bedroom door. “Keane?”

Silence.

One long hot shower followed by dressing in normal clothes after what feels like forever should’ve made me feel better, not worse.

But my inability to stop my tears could be that I’m back in my bedroom, and it feels like someone is crushing my heart between two large stones.

Maybe living in the cage Keane seems to think Liam will lock me in will be better than trying to build a new life for myself on my own.

“Keane?” I call out again.

Silence.

Is he ignoring me because I wouldn’t give him jerky?

But then my nose twitches, and I draw in a deep breath. Bacon. I sniff again. Maybe sausage. My stomach grumbles as if I didn’t inhale an entire package of jerky so fast I barely tasted it.

I hadn’t thought Keane would be the kind of person who would offer to do the cooking without being asked, but he must have returned from wherever he ran to and got fed up of waiting for me to finish crying in the shower so he could eat.

But I’m not finished crying in the shower. Not even close.

I flop onto my back and stare up at the ceiling.

Everything is so different. It’s impossible to believe that a week ago, none of this had happened.

All I wanted was to get rid of this strange explosive power, and while it seems to have settled down, at least for the moment, I wish it could’ve happened without having wolf souls taking up residence.

And they’re changing me.

When I think of what Keane told me, and the look in his eyes when I thought he was going to take the jerky away…

I’m different now. And Keane knows it.

“What happens if I shift to wolf and can’t shift back?” I ask the ceiling.

There’s one reason I didn’t take off the moment after Keane did. And it had nothing to do with avoiding the rain, which started up as I finished up my first piece of jerky on the front porch.

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