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I hadn’t considered her in this mess. I didn’t know her, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have a point.
“Stay away from me,” she demanded. “No more drugging me, no more letting Zoe in my mind. I’ll avoid you if you avoid me.” She opened the door and slammed it behind her.
Guilt squeezed my chest, and I sat in stunned silence.Fuck. This was not turning out the way I imagined it. I hadn’t stopped to think about what it might be like to have her here until I figured this whole mess out. I’d spent so much time convincing myself she was an enemy that I couldn’t trust that I didn’t consider what it meant for her if she wasn’t. If she was playing me, I could let go of the guilt of keeping someone trapped her. But if she truly wasn’t involved, I was the asshole.
But that didn’t change anything. This was the right path forward. Someone was after my pack, and it was my job to protect them. They meant more than her. She was just some shifter from a pack who tried to do us harm. I didn’t know if she was part of the problem, but she was part of that pack and that was enough to make her my enemy.
It didn’t matter how insanely beautiful she was or how my stupid heart raced when I was near her. She was only here until I figured shit out. Then she was no longer my problem. Once we didn’t need her father, he was as good as dead. I might not be able to make the killing blow myself, but I’d had several volunteers after that fight.
I caught the sight of a cloud of dust forming in my rearview mirror and I got out of my truck to greet Scarlett.
The witch parked her tiny red convertible behind my truck and I swear the ground shook when she stepped out. I held my ground, keeping my chin high and my expression as impassive as possible.
Her jacket and hair whipped around her face in wind that only existed around her. Witches sure loved to make an entrance. Not a single tree even rustled. It was her magic, simmering and swirling around her like a storm. Electric charges snapped and popped, letting off little sparks around her. This was why every witch feared her. There were none who held her kind of power. At least, not that we knew of. I had to hope that the witch who’d accompanied Billy wasn’t a match for those on my payroll.
“You sent Zoe to tell me the news,” she said.
“I thought you’d rather hear it from her,” I said.
She smirked. “You were afraid.”
“I needed you to calm down before you saw me,” I said. “You hate me. You might actually kill the messenger if I told you.”
“I hate Zoe,” she reminded me.
“You don’t,” I said.
She narrowed her eyes. “Zoe took me to see them.”
I cocked a brow in surprise. “She did?”
“There was a trace of magic I could follow,” she said.
“What did you find?” I wasn’t expecting that.
“It was a spell cast before they came to you,” she said. “Very dark, very difficult magic. Something I wouldn’t even attempt. Far beyond the abilities of that witch who showed up. Zoe and I measured her magic. She was good, but not capable of breaking the wards herself or laying a spell like this.”
That part I’d already guessed based on our few conversations, but the rest of this wasn’t reassuring. “You’re saying that whoever we’re facing, they’re stronger than you?” I didn’t bother to hide my disbelief.Fuck. I was hoping that wasn’t the case.
“I appreciate the compliment, but there are other forces out there beyond my skills,” she pointed out.
“Not in this realm,” I said.
“No,” she agreed. “We might be looking at something far more dangerous than anything we’ve come across.”
“This isn’t another witch, then?” I asked.
“It might be, but if it is, it’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen,” she said.
ChapterTwelve
Morgan
I stayedin the room where I’d woken up for the rest of the day. Luke and whoever else might live here moved around in the evening. I heard the sound of a television, of cooking in the kitchen, of running water in a bathroom.
Finally, when things were quiet, I risked going out. I hadn’t been in the mood to deal with Luke or anyone else. I’d spent the last several hours oscillating between anger, panic, and devastating fear.
The worst part was that I wasn’t afraid for myself. If these shifters wanted to kill me, they’d have done so. I was worried about my dad, as weird as that was, about my pack, and about my friends.
