Page 100 of Witch Unexpected
Brie crouched to pick up the bangle but dropped it with a wince. “That’s some strong magic.”
The bangle fizzled and then disintegrated.
“Ah, shit.”
“What is it?” Leif asked.
Sloane’s mouth turned down. “That, my friends, is pure chaos power.”
* * *
Only one typeof being used pure chaos magic. Warlocks. The bangle was Order made, but a witch must have delivered it to Tor.
The traitor in the Grimswood Coven.
Problem was, Tor had no memory of who’d given him the damn bangle.
He sat at the bar nursing a glass of whiskey while holding an icepack to the back of his neck. Liam had made himself scarce, promising to be back to clean up in the morning.
Tor winced and adjusted the pack, and I took an involuntary step toward him, wanting to help. Leif gently gripped my wrist and shook his head slightly in warning.
Fuck, what was I doing? I didn’t even know this guy, so why did I care that he was hurting? Fee must have rubbed off on me with her empathetic nature.
The pain in his head was what they called a magic hangover. Tor had been under this enchantment for at least a year, and coming out from under its influence was going to be an adjustment to his mind.
He kept his gaze down, refusing to look at me or Leif, almost as if he was ashamed.
“It’s not your fault,” Leif said.
Tor’s lip curled. “I fucking know that.” His gaze flicked to me then away. “I would have killed her.”
“That bracelet was saturated with chaos magic,” Sloane said. “It wanted you to kill her.”
“I don’t even remember where the fuck I got it,” Tor growled. He frowned. “No… Wait, I think… I think someone gave it to me…” He made a sound of exasperation. “Why the fuck can’t I remember, Slo? Fix this shit.”
“It doesn’t work that way, Tor,” Sloane said.
His chest rumbled, and he downed his drink before slamming the glass on the bar.
“I don’t think you were supposed to remember.” Sloane paced; her whiskey glass clutched loosely in her hand. “Someone gave you this bangle a year ago. They wanted you out of the picture. They wanted the anchor binding ceremony compromised, and the magic in that bangle messed with your head.”
“They wanted him out of the picture,” Brie said. “But that wasn’t enough. They went after the potentials too.”
“I thought Iwantedto leave,” Tor said. “The word anchor pissed me off and made me…scared.” He gritted his jaw. “I realized after Leif’s last visit there was something wrong with me, but I thought I was fucking broken, messed up in here.” He tapped the side of his head. “Best to stay away.”
“Our traitor has been working against us for some time.” Sloane’s eyes narrowed in thought. “It’s a fucking shame the bangle disintegrated. We could have used it to run a trace to pinpoint exactly who gave it to you.”
An idea hit me. “But what if it didn’t disintegrate.”
“What?” Sloane gave me a confused look.
“Only we know the bangle disintegrated. The culprit doesn’t.”
Sloane’s brow cleared. “I see where you’re going with this.”
“Then maybe you could enlighten us.” Leif looked from me to Sloane.
But it was Tor that answered, his steel-gray eyes narrowing. “They’re going to bluff.”
