Page 32 of Cursed Magic

After a shaky breath, Bruce stood. “I didn’t come here to play games or spin lies. I came because I want answers. Ifthat means I have to align with Ryker, I will because I trust Ember.”

I still didn’t smell any sort of horrible rotten-egg stench. He had to be telling the truth. If he were cloaked, his scent would be greatly muted, but that wasn’t the case.

To end the awkward silence, I cleared my throat. “Did your pack or the vampires find any evidence?” I glanced from Bruce to Raven.

Raven shook her head. “Nothing. The guards updated me, and the only thing left behind was a faint scent of shifter that couldn’t be distinguished.”

“The exact same situation for all the other massacres, along with being unable to see the attackers… Well, for everyone but Ember.” Ryker’s jaw clenched. “I don’t understand how it’s possible.”

“Wait.” Bruce’s head jerked back. “Ember can see them?”

A lump formed in my throat. I didn’t understand why I could see them when no one else could. “Well, notthembut a shadow-like outline.”

“That’s still better than being completely blind.” Bruce pursed his lips. “It has to be some sort of magical spell.”

“And we all know a witch lives on Blackwood pack territory,” I added, mentally pulling up the image of the witch who was supposed to conduct Reid’s and my mating ceremony.

Bruce rocked back in his seat. “True, but she doesn’t have the magical capabilities to perform magic like this.”

“How do you know that?” Raven steepled her hands together.

“Because the Blackwood alphas have always bragged about their little witch, and one night, they had a little toomuch wolfsbane and confided to some of us what her specialty is.”

My lungs stopped working. “Which is?”

He opened his mouth to respond, but then his eyes widened in surprise.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The room hung in a tense silence, the weight of his unspoken words hanging between us. He shook his head in disbelief and, for a moment, it felt as though time itself had paused.

“Emotion,” he muttered, the word tumbling from his lips like a confession. “She can manipulate emotions.”

A shiver ran down my spine, and the mating ceremony where Reid rejected me flashed through my mind. The pain, the humiliation, the overwhelming sense of betrayal—it all clicked into place. My stomach churned. “She was the witch overseeing the ceremony where Reid rejected me.”

Ryker tensed beside me and growled while Raven tilted her head.

Pressing his lips together, Bruce sighed. “The Blackwoods… They’ve always been protective of her. And after the night that your pack—” He cut himself off and grimaced. “I mean… A couple of days afterthatnight, Perry Blackwood was plastered at the bar with loose lips, and he let something slip that someone overheard and asked him to elaborate on.”

“She could make me feel something I didn’t?” The whisper was bitter on my tongue. I thought back to the rejection, to the way my heart had shattered into a million pieces.

“That was my first thought as well.” Bruce lifted both hands. “But hesworethey never asked her to do anything like that and that fated-mate bonds were completely separate.”

Ryker’s snarl reverberated off the walls, deep and dangerous. His eyes narrowed. “You’re telling me that the Blackwoods had a witch capable of manipulating emotions all this time, and you’re just now mentioning it?”

Bruce’s jaw clenched, and his hands curled into fists. “I learned of it recently and kept it to myself. Even though Perry didn’t smell of a lie, I still didn’t know who was trustworthy! I didn’t want to expose my knowledge and place a target on me and my pack.”

“Which is exactly what happened anyway.” Ryker snorted and wrinkled his nose. “Not that I believe that you weren’t working with the Blackwoods. Fuck, you could still be.”

“I’m not now nor was I ever working with the Blackwoods,” Bruce shot back, his voice rising. “And just because they have a witch on-site doesn’t mean they can attack likethis.”

My stomach dropped, and my lungs stopped working. “Wait.” I swallowed audibly.

Raven leaned forward as if ready to spring into action.

Similarly, Ryker stiffened and scanned the room as if he were searching for the shadow attackers only I could see.

“I’ve been experiencing creepy sensations like I’m being watched.” I trembled, remembering that night in the parkand when the shadows were nearly on me but couldn’t break through some invisible barrier. “That could be the witch’s doing.” I paused and bit my bottom lip. “But if they knew we were in the park, why didn’t they attack us then?”

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