Page 92 of The Wolfing Hour

His head moved an inch up then down.

The son-of-a-bastard is going to pay for this and everything else he’s done.

“How,” Trey whispered. “How-w-w.”

“Trey, I don’t understand.” My voice sounded high and tight. Terrified. “What are you trying to say?”

“Howww…” He began shivering so hard his teeth snapped together.

He’s just a kid. How could they do this to a kid?

Ida set a hand on my shoulder. I hadn’t realized how badly I was shaking until she steadied me. “I’m going to get something to cover him,” she said, blinking back tears. “Be right back.”

She ran around to the front of her trailer, and I was alone with the dying wolf.

“House,” Trey managed. His voice was so faint, I had to move my ear to his lips to hear him. “Alpha.”

“You’re saying he did this to you at his house?”

“Cell. Hurt.”

“Cell? A phone? I don’t understand.” My thoughts whirred at breakneck speed as I tried to piece together what he was saying. And then it clicked into place.Cell.Hurt. The screams I’d heard in the spell vision echoed in my mind.

Trey was describing the room I’d seen when doing the spell.

“Were the walls silver?” I asked.

He did another one-inch nod then coughed up blood dotted with bits of silver. The wooden steps squeaked in protest as he thrashed against them, and I felt powerless to do anything to help him.

But I wasn’t powerless. Not entirely.

I ran to Ida’s garden and scooped up handfuls of my soil. It burned into my blood, charging my magic. I chanted aloud the onlyhealspell I knew that didn’t require a charm, switching to whispering when Trey cried out in pain and tears clogged my throat too much for my voice to break through.

Soil magic won’t work.The raging voice in my head wasn’t mine, but also … was.

The demon.

No, he’s too far gone.This voice was calmer. It was mine, but also … not.

I chanted desperately, knowing the demon was right and that it wasn’t going to work.

“B-b-base—” Trey’s body twisted in agony as he attempted to force the word out of his bloodied mouth.

Not working.

I stopped chanting.

There was so much silver. No matter how strong he was, Ronan wouldn’t have been able to remove it in a hundred years. Cecil had placed generic pain charms on the uninjured parts of Trey’s body. It wouldn’t be enough. A specialized charm wouldn’t have been enough. There wasn’t enough magic in the universe to heal this much damage.

Frustration, helplessness, and rage rose in me like bile, and the voices in my head began to argue.

The demon:The alpha must die.

Yes, but Ronan has to kill him, the calmer voice replied. My witch?

It couldn’t be. I wasn’t three parts of a whole; I was one witch with a demon problem.

Protect our people. Kill the wolves responsible. Rip out their eyeballs and boil their brains, the demon shrieked, and her ferocity scared me because she was giving voice to my darkest, most depraved thoughts. Things that fired through my brain when I thought about what I’d do if Floyd killed one of the people I loved.