Page 48 of Enspelled

My eyes narrow. “You just said she would be there.”

“What I said,” Mara says, her tone brisk. “Is that Ibelieveit would be a good hiding place. Since it’s far out of town, and Layla would smell my magic if I went anywhere near it, it’s not like I can exactly confirm it, can I?”

I’ve never fought my instincts so hard not to kill before, so I pull my claws away when she could still prove useful. “And if the spell book isn’t there?”

Mara shrugs. “Then kill Layla, and we’ll both get what we wanted.”

But no way to help Briar.

“And if the book is there?”

“Then bring it here, and I’ll work a spell to reverse whatever she did to Briar.”

“You’re assuming such a spell is even in the book.”

“Wolf, it’s hardly likely to be tattooed on her ass, now is it? Where Layla is, the book will be, unless you know someone else who would go to all this trouble…?” Mara gazes up at me expectantly.

She’s right.

Again.

Fucking witch.

“This cabin?” I growl.

Mara sticks her hand in her pocket and withdraws a slip of paper from it. “Directions.”

My eyes narrow. “You knew I was coming.”

“What I knew is that if the wolves don’t kill you, Georgia Calla will, so it’s not like you had many options left.”

“Making use of that eavesdropping ability?” I ask, my tone dry.

“Gossiping is what we do best in Madden Grove.”

I observe her for several seconds. But no matter how hard I try to read her, I can’t.

And that almost never happens.

After a moment, I snatch the paper from her hand. I briefly scan an unfamiliar address before lifting my head. “You fuck me, witch, and you’ll beg me to kill you.”

She doesn’t even blink. “There’s nothing you can do to me that isn’t as bad as what this town has already done.” And just like that, she turns around and enters her cabin, closing the door behind her.

My wolf is relieved to no longer be close to a witch he doesn’t trust. The man can’t help but feel like he’s about to step into a trap, big and bad enough to take off more than his leg.

But with time running out, I don’t have a choice.

14

BRIAR

The moment I stop hearing Keane’s truck engine, I pull my head from the refrigerator and close the door before leaning my back against it.

“I don’t think you could have tried any harder to act like you were hiding,” I mutter beneath my breath. “And Keane knew it.”

With Sera’s powerful protective spell humming against my chest, I ask myself what I’m doing. Keane has never lost sight of his need to find out who killed his pack. Sera is proving time and time again that she’s got my back, and me?

I’m not doing anything.

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