Page 53 of Wretched Thorns

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After a while, Mom and Celie disappeared back down the hallway together.

Mom touched Celie lightly between the shoulders as they passed through the doorway. The door shut quietly behind them.

Beside Jasper, Eli was staring down at his left hand where it rested against the table. The tremor showed more when he stopped trying to hide it.

Jasper reached over and squeezed the back of his neck once.

“You’re paying for it,” he said quietly.

Eli stayed looking at the table. “Probably.”

“How bad?”

“Don’t know yet.”

Jasper waited.

Eli finally exhaled through his nose. “If I don’t find answers, Mom’ll figure it out.”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.” Jasper said.

Miss Delphine walked back in with Mel and sat quietly beside Celie’s empty chair, watching Callum over the rim of her coffee cup.

Callum noticed eventually and looked back at her with the steady patience Jasper knew all too well.

Whatever she wanted to say, she wasn’t ready yet. If she thought Callum might budge first, she was sorely mistaken.

Then the bond shifted.

Jasper went still.

The gold thread in his chest pulled tight, hard enough to hurt.

Serena.

The feeling hit him hard and sudden — Serena reaching for them on purpose.

Beside him, Eli froze too.

Across the table, Callum’s head lifted at the exact same moment.

Chapter eleven

The Cottage Past the Herb Garden

Tara left through the screen door without looking back.

The new charm was still in her hand, fingers wrapped tight enough around the braided cord to leave marks.

The kitchen had gotten too crowded. Too loud. Too full of Serena. Marcus. Missing women. A pack called Beaumont she was going to learn more about than she wanted to.

She needed air before she climbed out of her own skin.

She walked past the wrought-iron at the front gate without slowing. The sigils caught the last of the porch light and let it go again, brightness running through them in a slow seam her witch-eye picked up. Old work. Clean. Carefully laid for a very long time.

The realization brushed past her and disappeared beneath the seventy other things crowding her head tonight.