Page 65 (1/2)

Chapter One

I woke abruptly,on my lips

For several seconds, I did nothingto find a reason for the fear that pounded through h I’d rather weirdly become prone to prophetic dreams of late, it wasn’t a dream that had woken me The source of the fear was external, not internal

Aside fro, the apartment above the café I owned and ran with my best friend and felloitch, Isabelle—or Belle, as she preferred to be called—was silent Nor was there any noise co froiven this part of Castle Rock washere had shut down by nine

I pulled my phone out from under my pillow and checked the ti in the e of the world were thought to gain substance and reality As a witch—even if a somewhat underpowered one—I knew the truth lay not so much with the tiht hen she reached her highest point in the sky, and was therefore at her most powerful

Did that mean some sort of supernatural activity had woken me?

I seriously hoped not Only a couple of weeks had passed since we’d gotten involved in the hunt for a vae, and I’d only just recovered from the injuries received in that final bloody battle

The last thing this reservation—or, indeed, Belle and I—needed was another force of darkness finding its way here

And yet, Castle Rock was a place filled ild ood nor bad, without a proper, fully vetted witch here to protect and channel it, it would inevitably draw those who followed the darker paths—or those who coveted such unrestrained power And the olf council was—as far as I could tell—willfully ignoring the danger it represented

Either that, or they simply didn’t believe in a force they were physically incapable of seeing

I scrubbed a hand across ht was cold despite the fact Christmas was now only three weeks away, and I shiveredacross to the door

There really wasn’t thatspace up here on the first floor Belle and I each had our own bedroom, and there was a separate toilet and bathroo area that held a two-person sofa and a TV At the far end of the roo doors that led out to a balcony that extended out over the sidewalk It provided us withweather protection to café patrons who preferred to use the sidewalk tables

I glanced to the left, studying the shadows that concealed the stairs leading down to the café There was no sense of wrongness co from that area, and the wards and spells I’d placed around the inside peri were untouched and untroubled

I frowned and headed right, silently ht air condensed ed aze drifting over the silent street and the nearby buildings

Castle Rock was the capital of the Faelan Werewolf Reservation, one of only seven here in Australia It had initially been the sole province of the O’Connor pack, but soovernment had decided the three Victorian packs held too much land—and therefore too much wealth and power—between them, and had decided all three need to be on the one reservation—this one Of course, the Marin and Sinclair packs had been as uni turoverning Witches had been the driving force behind that peace deal, which was perhaps why some packs remained unhappy about a witch’s presence on their land