Page 48 of The Wolfing Hour

“Wait. Betty, please.” Bronwyn caught up to me next to a display of enchanted rose water. “Please.”

I stopped, crossed my arms over my chest, and gave her an expectant look.

She averted her gaze from me then swiftly returned it. “It’s not that I don’t want to tell you. Goddess knows, I’ve wanted to, even tried a few times. But I can’t.”

“Why not?” I asked laconically. “Mason spelled you to secrecy?”

“No.” She let her head fall to her chest. “The organization that sent us here did.”

Chapter

Nine

Chapter Nine

Asecrecy spell worked especially well on honest people. And I believed that, deep down, Bronwyn was an honest person.

However, on the surface, the witch was lying like a rug.

There was only one way to strong-arm a truth spell, and it wasn’t pleasant. The TL;DR version was that you had to make the person believe they were in mortal danger unless they told whatever secret was being protected. And even then, it might not work.

What would the backlash be if Bronwyn broke her word?

The last time I’d cast a similar spell, the wordliarwas supposed to appear in angry red letters on the person’s face. Something told me the repercussions from this one would be far more severe.

“How deadly is this organization?” I said loudly, so Margaux would hear me. She stood in the doorway to the back room, knotting her fingers together.

“We don’t kill. We protect people from—” Bronwyn’s mouth clamped shut. She scrubbed viciously at the side of her neck then jerked her head to one side.

The spell was kicking in.

Margaux said, “Mason hinted that he and Bronwyn were connected somehow. That’s all he said, and I didn’t push the man.”

“So, he’s spelled to secrecy, too?”

“Who knows? He isn’t the sort to tell you anything outright, spelled or not.”

That tracked. I’d had several encounters with him, and each one had left me scratching my head. He was either trying to kill me, trying to help me, or trying to figure me out. Nothing he did felt sincere.

No, that wasn’t true. There was one thing he was sincere about. Oneperson.

And she was standing right in front of me, twitching like a woman on her ninth cup of coffee.

“He only gave me scraps of information, and that was on the back of a violent threat,” Margaux continued. “He said that if I protected Bronwyn, he’d owe me. But if she died on my watch, he’d kill me.”

Goddess damn you, Bronwyn Jonas, what are you hiding?

Magic blasted from my pores in an electric, buzzing rush. I thrust out my hand, and it exploded from my fingertips and wrapped around Bronwyn like an invisible rope, pinning her arms to her sides and restraining the movement of her legs.

I didn’t say a word—didn’t think a spell or otherwise call on my magic. One moment my power was silent and the next itroared.

Maya let out a fearful yip. Margaux’s face lost all emotion.

“This is when you start talking, Bronwyn—if that’s your real name.” I squeezed my hand into a fist, and she groaned.

“Betty, what are you doing? What’s going on?” Maya ran out from behind the counter, babbling furiously. “I don’t believe you would hurt Bronwyn—not after everything we all went through. This isn’t like you. Please, stop.”

I ignored her and focused on the witch in front of me. “IsBronwyn Jonas your real name?”