Page 95 of Enspelled

“So you killed them for no reason.”

She shakes her head. “No, you see, you survived. And the only way you could have survived is if you took after your mother. I didn’t need her at all, because I had you.”

“But I don’t have power. At least not one that works. I’m not—”

“A phoenix doesn’t come into her power—not her true power—until her twenty-second birthday. Keane Destin complicated things a little, but in the end, he planted a spell on you, and I was able to do the rest from afar.”

“Keane did what?” I whisper, struggling to comprehend that this nightmare just keeps going on and on.

As if my words have summoned him, something crashes through the forest. A tan wolf. He shifts, and then I’m looking at Keane.

“Stay the fuck away from her,” he snarls, his eyes spitting fury.

“Why would I do a thing like that?” Aunt Mel replies, coolly. “Youwere the one who betrayed Briar. And you’re a wolf. No wolf is trustworthy.”

I stare at her. “What do you mean, he betrayed me?”

She smiles, but this one is sad. “How did you think I could steal your powers, Briar? I couldn’t have done it without him.”

I don’t believe her, not until I shift my focus from her to him. “Keane?”

He jerks his head toward me. “She said the spell would remove the souls from you. That’s all. I wouldn’t have—”

“When?”

I need to sit down before I fall down.

But then I remember. He went out to get rid of the body, he said, but he couldn’t have been doing that. He was killing Vera, or doing whatever he was to help Aunt Mel. I know because when I woke up, I felt strange. Different. And I couldn’t shift and my power didn’t work. “You planted it on me when I was sleeping?”

He takes a step toward me. “Briar, I—”

“You knew she was alive, and you didn’t tell me.”

His brow creases. “No, she wasn’t…thisis Mara. Or it was. I don’t know how she did it, but she tricked me.”

“So you didn’t slip a spell on me when I was sleeping?” I wait for an answer, but I know what it will be.

“Yes, but—”

“I don’t want to hear it, Romeo,” I snap.

His face freezes. I’m sure he even stops breathing. “What did you call me?”

I frown. “I said I don’t want to hear it, Keane.”

He shakes his head slowly. “No, you didn’t. You called me Romeo. Only one person in the world called me that.”

As he’s talking, I recall Aunt Mel’s words. I don’t know how it passed me by until now. My gaze returns to hers. “You said you wanted to kill all the green witches.”

“I’m sorry, Briar, but they had to go. All of them.”

I shake my head. “But you don’t mean…” My voice trails off. “You can’t mean all of them. Not Sera?”

She doesn’t respond.

“No.” The word falls as a whisper from my lips, despite the scream echoing in my head. “Tell me you didn’t kill Sera.”

She takes a step toward me, that same smile on her face I used to think was real, but now I see it for what it is. A deception. A mask to hide the cruelty and the bitter hatred festering beneath. “She didn’t do anything to you.”

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