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“We need to know exactly what’s in this,” he said. He held it up to the light, his face grave. The liquid seemed to sparkle in the light. “This looks like it came from Louisa’s kitchen.”
“I don’t know if all three of them are involved, or if just one of them killed her… But I’d bet it was all three.”
I could imagine the scene too easily. Louisa had been disliked by the shifters in our pack—shifters and witches tended to hate each other—but Louisa had been a genuinely nice person. Even if she contributed to some unpleasant things. Imagining the three of them binding her and forcing her to help them with their spell while she was terrified…
“Do you think that she would have created what they asked for?” I asked. “Could she have played her own trick on them?”
“They might have made more than one dose and and tested it out. We’ll find out.” He sounded grim. He handed it over to Teresa for testing.
“I don’t want to turn into a damn witch myself,” she grumbled as she was looking through Louisa’s books.
“I don’t think that’s how it works,” I said.
She drummed her fingertips on the paper. “As far as I can tell, it looks like it’s exactly what they said. Like the spell that keeps someone from shifting.”
“There’s an old spell that I had heard about before,” I admitted. “It's been used before to keep shifters who weren’t ready from shifting at the wrong times. You know, like when cubs start to shift and we need to keep them close for a while as they figure out their shift?”
“See?” Stone asked Teresa. “Perfectly safe. Taken by cubs.”
“You aren’t really going to just drink that…”
“No, I’m not.” Stone handed the bottle back to me. “We’ll make a look-alike for Cole to slip into my drink and save this for a special occasion. I just won’t shift.”
“You know he will,” I warned. “It won’t be a fair fight.”
Stone shrugged. “You’re right. But if I don’t shift, at least it will be sporting.”
Teresa said, “Can I speak freely?”
“You usually do,” Stone said.
“Don’t be stupid.”
Stone ignored us. He was good at that. “At the autumn ball tomorrow night.”
Some of the pack members were already busy setting up the dance floor and stringing the lights between the pines, and the bakery staff were busy baking. Claude would relocate operations for one night.
“Stone, don’t make me do this.” I said. “What if things go wrong?”
“Then you have Tee to vouch for you. No one’s going to think that you betrayed me.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about. I don’t want… Something to happen to you. And for it to be my fault.”
Stone’s face softened. “You’re a good friend, Cole. Even if you are fucking my girl behind my back.”
He clapped my shoulder.
“No,” I disagreed, furious at the accusation. “It’s notbehind your back.You knew. You know how I feel about her, and how she feels about me. You and I agreed that pretending we were jealous and fighting over her–”
“You would have pursued her no matter what I said,” Stone said. “There was nopretending.”
He seemed calm. His face was impossible to read.
I couldn’t quite read him, as well as I knew him.
CHAPTER47
Amelia
