Page 77 of Ravenous

“Great Häxa,” Rose breathed. “More of that anger, witch! I have plenty of it on tap, but your magic’s pure fuel.” Her own power sparked in reaction. Had her healing arm given a spurt of growth, stretching the bandage?

Meera blinked, chest heaving. “Why are you so angry all the time?” she demanded. “You’re young, untouched by war, yet you’re bitter. Why?”

Still riding Meera’s anger wave, she snapped back, “I don’t know! I wasbornangry. Like a cauldron that never empties.” Her good hand trembled. She looked startled at her own admission, her guard cracked by pain and regeneration. “I’ve never known peace. Don’t even want to!”

A born firebrand. A weapon that knows it’s loaded.“Some of us do want peace.” Meera’s heart beat too fast. She drew in a slow breath, forcing her magic down, feeling like she drowned in Rose’s anger.I’ve got enough fury of my own. Because of Lowell.

Yet that wasn’t entirely true. When she’d been young, she’d melted into pools of it, affecting everyone around her. Her mother’s last words to her:Control your power, or it will control you.

Mother was the reason she’d fought against it all her life.

Rose tilted her head. “You always wonder, don’t you—if people want you or that rush they get when you flare?”

“I don’t usually release my magic outside training.” But Lowell had seen it, had drawn it out of her again and again. Was the easygoing wolf attracted to the violent shimmer of magic in her blood?

Either he used her for that…or for information. Or both. But he didn’t want Meera alone.

Darkness settled over her. Sinking realizations.

Her encounters with warlocks had likely been so lackluster because a witch like her—buttoned-up magically and figuratively—had underwhelmed them.Those males had no ulterior motives to feign passion; Lowell did.

When she caught Rose studying her, Meera forced herself to calm. “Aren’t we a pair? You burn rage. I produce it. Dangerous.”

“Powerful.We’d make a killer team, Meera.”

She smoothed her cardigan and said easily, “I believe that anger without sense is never welcome.”Such a combination can kill a good witch.

“You’ll get there one day. Once someone gives you a real reason.” Rose’s lips curled. “Ditch has. She’s got to go. Help me take her down.”

“Asking me to spy is one thing.” Meera turned toward the door. “You’re talking outright sedition. I won’t be a part of it.”

“Because you’re weak!”

At the door, Meera looked back, voice low and cutting. “And you’re foolish. You’re stumbling right off the block.”

“At least I’monthe block. You hide your gift until it’s shriveled”—she raised one stump—“like this arm. One day we’ll need your fire, and you’ll have nothing left to give.”

Meera’s pulse pounded. “That so, huh?” Rose didn’t realize how much she’d just sounded like Ditch.

***

Rose

When Meera left, the air cooled in her wake, and regeneration slowed once more.

As bone eked inches beneath her taffy skin, Rose started to doubt her earlier schemes.

She hadn’t expected Eyrun to take an armanda leg.

Bitch.

And that Valkyrie’s beast form continued to haunt her sleep. She’d never seen a Lykae fully risen before. Now that monstrous vision stalked her dreams. Massive. Shadowed. Its roar threaded every nightmare like memory.

Yet despite suffering from her last scheme, Rose actively worked on her next, mainly to distract herself from sinister visions of Lykae.

Ditch had to go.

Maybe Meera too.