Page 104 of Witch Unexpected
* * *
CORA
The morning air was colder than ever, and a crisp white frost covered everything. I sat on the porch steps outside the cabin, wrapped in a fleecy blanket courtesy of Leif. Rune lay across the step to my left, his head on my lap acting like a hot water bottle.
The coffee Tor had brewed was fragrant and strong, and I was wide awake, stomach in knots as we waited for news. We’d been careful to take a back route to the cabin. No one had seen us.
The main house was still empty. The alphas had taken Charlotte to the theater out of town last night as a treat. They weren’t due back till later today. My heart ached for the current anchor and how bittersweet every moment she was spending with her guys must be.
Was this what Tor, Leif, Rune, and I would be like in several years? I shook off the thought. No. I didn’t want to become entwined with them like that. I needed to keep some distance.
Bramble lowered herself onto the step beside me, coffee mug clutched in her hand. “Jessie just texted. It’s begun.”
In a few minutes, we’d have our traitor. “Any word from Elijah?”
She shook her head. “No word.”
So much for his promise to be here for me. I gulped my coffee and swallowed my annoyance. “I just want this over with.”
“It will be.” Bramble set her mug down. “Once we get the call, we can head over to the mansion and see who the fuck is behind the attacks.”
A soft rustle drifted on the air, and Bramble’s head whipped around to scan the treeline.
“What is it?”
She stood slowly, her hand flexing at her hip. “Who’s there?”
A slender naked figure stepped out from the trees. Her skin was pale and covered in a network of inky black veins. Her head was bowed, so her long, moss-colored hair obscured her face and fell to her waist in thick ropes. She moved jerkily toward us, bare feet leaving steaming indents in the frost.
“Stay back.” Bramble had her daggers out now. Rune growled menacingly at the figure.
The door behind us flew open, and Tor and Leif hurried out.
“What the fuck?” Leif said.
“What is it?” Tor asked Bramble.
“I don’t know.”
The creature raised its arms, and a crack and rumble filled the air as the ground around us exploded outward, and brown vines shot toward us.
* * *
SLOANE
The buzz of conversation dies when I step onto the podium. Every eye is on me.
“Grimswood witches, today I have disturbing news.” Faces look up at me expectantly. “There’s a traitor in our midst.”
Shocked gasps and the hubbub of confusion follow.
“One of you conspired to prevent the anchor ceremony and enchanted the Mana Pack alpha, which almost resulted in Cora Dawn’s death.”
The whole room broke into a cacophony of exclamations.
“Quiet!” Jessie’s voice is a magically amplified boom.
I smile thinly, cruelly, allowing my intentions to sweep across my face. “But little traitor, you fucked up. You forgot that, as The Elites, we have the power to put a trace on a spelled artifact to allow it to lead us to every person who handled it. The artifact was saturated with chaos magic, but even if the spell was put on it by a warlock, a witch passed it to Torsten. In a few minutes, Torsten will be here with the bangle, and it’ll lead us to the very person who gifted it to him.”
