Page 138 of Black Willow Witch
A silence hit the room again, short and pensive.
Dez rubbed at his jaw. ‘You know, I never thought I’d say this at any point regarding anything at all, but I agree with Emberlyn.’
Getty looked at him, her brow hiking up in challenge. ‘Why? Because you think it makes you look less guilty?’
Dez clenched his jaw tight. ‘I’m not part of the faction, Getty. But I agree with every person here who’s swearing thatyouare.’
Tyra threw up both hands. ‘Can we all stop accusing each other already! It isn’t helping. Are we sure there’s even a factionat large? How do we know it isn’t just one witch working alone? A witch powerful enough and shrewd enough to do all this and get away with it, enabling her to cause divides within the coven and turn the clans against us? Does that not make more sense than for anentirefaction to remain unmasked for so long?’
Picking up on the insinuation that the witch in question could only be Emberlyn, Ripper didn’t bother biting back a low growl of warning. ‘What witch would you be referring to?’ he asked, his voicedaringher to be so fucking stupid as to finger his witch – who’d gone back to reading her magazine, ignoring Tyra completely.
Her eyes flickering, Tyra licked her lips. ‘I’m not naming names. I just think it’s a theory we should consider. Some witches in this town are creatively vengeful and don’t much care about how much destruction they cause.’
‘Name them,’ said Shane. ‘I’ll look into them.’
Tyra dropped her gaze. ‘I’m not comfortable doing so when I have no proof.’
Kage snorted derisively. ‘You mean you’re not comfortable admitting that you’re referring to Emberlyn, because you know what the consequences will be and you don’t want to face them.’
Carver grunted his agreement. ‘She’s the ideal person for you to blame because it would shift the anger from the coven onto her, that’s all. And let’s face it, Tyra, you have personal grievances with her.’
Considering Carver had months ago referred to Emberlyn as ‘the devil’s witch’, Ripper was more than a little surprised by the Alpha’s vote of confidence.
‘I won’t buy for a second that it’s Ripper’s woman,’ said Shane. ‘Emberlyn has a reputation for being vengeful, but she’sspecificabout who she targets. There’s never collateral damage – you all know that. So, let’s discuss who couldreallybe behind this.’
Tyra wisely snapped her mouth shut, not looking happy about it.
‘I personally don’t believe that it’s only one person,’ said Bennet. ‘But I do think the number of witches involved is small. The things that have been done . . . Very few in our coven would condone it, and even fewer would be part of it.’
Nods and murmurs of agreement came from most of the coven.
‘Ithink it’s worth looking at witches who’ve mated with werewolves,’ Ruben cut in. ‘They’re still in our coven, yes, but maybe their loyalties have shifted.’
Carver sat up straighter. ‘No werewolf wouldeverask a witch to target the Rabid.’
‘Inyouropinion,’ said Ruben, crossing his arms over his chest. ‘I’m entitled tomyopinion.’
The two fast fell into an argument.
Shane leaned a little toward Ripper, saying, ‘The names I heard most often repeated were Dez, Hank, Sera, Getty, Ames and Ruben.’
Ripper gave a short nod. ‘I’ll be taking a closer look at them.’
‘How many members do you think the group has?’ Shane asked him.
‘Probably not very many. Maybe twenty or so. The only way to keep an inclusive club secret for so long in such a small town is to keep its numbers low.’
Chewing on that, Shane dipped his chin. ‘You have a point there.’ He paused. ‘They all need to die, Rip. They have blood on their hands. That can’t be overlooked.’
‘It won’t be.’
Just then, Carver slammed a hand on the table. ‘Enough,’ he barked at Ruben. ‘Your theory is pure bullshit. You’re just trying to turn the attention away from yourself – anyone can sense that. I’ve seen a lot of that happening here tonight.’
Shane leaned forward in his seat as he addressed the townsfolk. ‘I’m gonna make something clear to the faction members – you know who you are. Your time on this Earth is limited. I don’t care who IDs you first, Reena or the clans, youwilldie. All of you.’
Almost as a whole, the coven uncomfortably shifted their attention to their High Priestess, clearly waiting for her to object.
Instead, Reena shrugged one shoulder. ‘Why should I fight for the right to punish those traitors? They are not worth the trouble it would cause. They skulk around practicing immoral magick, implicate and bespell others, and here tonight remained silent when others pointed fingers at innocent people. They are not one of us, they areagainstus.’
