Page 122 of Burning Embers
My hotheaded twin jumps to his feet and rounds on Ashton. “Why are you such an ass to her? What did she ever do to you?”
“Your dick is going to get you in trouble, Emery,” Ashton responds coldly, not even bothering to move from his casual position on the armchair.
“Fuck you, Ashton.” Emery jabs a finger in our pack brother’s face, but Ashton simply stares at it as if it’s a twig he could snap in the blink of an eye. “You’re going to push Izzy away, and then, when you realize you were wrong, you’ll regret every cruel word you ever said to her.”
Ashton begins stroking Pepper faster, even as his eyes harden, turning to chips of obsidian, the darkness swallowing the golden brown. “Or I’ll save my brothers from ruination.”
Emery takes a step closer, and I quickly insert myself into the conversation before things can come to blows.
“Did you talk to Christian? What did he say?” I ask quickly.
Emery tosses me a look rife with betrayal—as if he’s upset I didn’t take his side—and the sight of it makes my stomach sink like a lead weight. An uncomfortable itchy sensation overtakes my skin.
Why can’t I do anything right when it comes to him?
Ashton accepts the subject change with ease. “Christian said absolutely nothing. One second, I saw him at the football game. The next, I woke up at home and in bed. The asshole drugged me.”
His lips purse, even as an agonizing silence settles over our group.
All of us are thinking of last night, when Izzy was tackled.
Has it only been a day since that happened?
God, I still remember sitting on the bleachers, watching her get swallowed by the body of a two-hundred-plus-pound man. Her tiny squeak of fright plays on a continuous loop in my head.
Reid growls and pushes himself off the wall. “That fucker Kain had a part to play in it. I’m fucking sure of it. He allowed that Viper to tackle Izzy.”
“We don’t know that,” Ashton says, but his voice is calculating. Thoughtful, even.
When Ashton claims not to know something, it’s only because he hasn’t turned over every rock to discover the truth. I guarantee that by the end of the week, Ashton will know for sure if Kain had a part to play in what happened to Izzy.
He can bitch and moan all he wants, but Izzy is still our Heart. Our mate.
And we’ll destroy anyone who dares to hurt her.
“That actually brings us to another topic of conversation.” Ashton leans forward slightly, his eyes astute as they study each of us. “Ansel.”
“Ansel?” Emery blinks. “The annoying fucker?”
I squirm uncomfortably.
Ansel and I have always had a bitter rivalry. We’re both on track to be the top of the class, but only one of us will end up valedictorian. Admittedly, I’ve been a little preoccupied with other things as of late, but I still don’t want Ansel to win.
“I saw him use magic.”
Ashton’s proclamation is the equivalent of an atomic bomb exploding in the room. My ears begin to ring, this high-pitched whistling noise that threatens to make my brain bleed.
“That’s impossible,” I say immediately. “All warlocks are required to register themselves as such.”
I don’t know a lot about the other supernatural species—most of us live independently of each other, and for good reason—but there is a large group of witches and warlocks in town. Probably due to the ley line running through the forest and providing magic to the land.
Warlocks and witches form covens, and all covens are required to register with the Unholy Trinity—the Maiden, Mother, and Crone who work closely with the wolf Council to instigate peace. From the day they’re born, every witch and warlock must take part in some secretive ceremony with the Unholy Trinity where they’re officially indoctrinated into the world of magic.
So how is it that none of us knew about Ansel?
Is he an illegal warlock in town?
“What exactly did you see?” Reid’s voice is thunderous, and his face is slightly paler than normal.