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I massaged the back of her neck, then kissed my way along her jaw, so what I said next would be for her ears only. “I ate your pussy, then fucked you upstairs, but I didn’t say good morning.” I lifted my head so I could see her face.

Her cheeks turned pink. “That filthy mouth of yours…I think you love to shock me.”

“I could put it to better use if you’d like?”

For once, she didn’t have a smart comeback at the ready, something I was starting to think she used to keep herself distant. No, her brown eyes heated.

“I have what you wanted,” Asher said, breaking the moment and shoving a bag at me.

“What’s this?”

“A sweater from that witch’s laundry hamper,” Ash said.

After the night I’d had with Iris, I’d almost forgotten about it. I hated this wild goose chase she was on at the mother’s whim. I wanted Iris to myself. I wanted to take her back upstairs and keep her there.

“Thanks, Ash. I owe you,” Iris said, taking it from her.

“Nah, it’s all part of the job,” she said, then tilted her head to the side. “Unless you have a spell or potion for sexual stamina? Bears are good in the sack, but they tire easily.”

I chuckled at the look on Iris’s face.

“This is not a laughing matter,” Ash said to me. “He’s good for two rounds, then he’s out for the count.”

“Um…” Iris said.

“You don’t have anything like that? Nothing at all?” Asher said hopefully.

I laughed harder, and Iris waved a hand at me to shut up. “Ignore him. I’ll ask my aunt Else. She’s the best herbal and potion specialist I know. If anyone can get you what you want, it’s her.”

All my humor vanished at her words.

Is that what Selene was? A herbal and potion specialist? Yes, she’d had an affinity with animals, but she’d always been out harvesting herbs and other things as well. Is that how she created her love draft to control me? The reminder of what Iris’s family was capable of had me freezing in place—

A memory flashed through my mind. Charity, her blood smeared on my chest where she’d planted her sliced palm, calling out her spell that destroyed so many lives. My warriors and I were unable to move as Selene and Charity walked away that last time.

I shook my head. I didn’t need to be thinking about that now. I needed to put it back in the past, where it belonged.

“Draven?”

I looked down at Iris. She was frowning. “Sorry, what?”

“Where did you go? I called your name three times.”

“I was trying to work out our next move,” I said, lying, and motioned to the sweater she held.

“Well, I’m ready when you are.” Her smile vanished, replaced by tension. “My time is running out. I don’t know how much longer I have to find Amy and Marina, but it can’t be long.”

“Let’s go now, then,” I said.

The sooner this was over, the sooner I could bury the past where it belonged.

“Stay close,” Iris said to Nia when we got out of the car.

Oldwood Forest was at the southernmost end of Roxburgh State Forest, and from what Iris had told me, two of the three witches missing were last seen on this stretch of road. Amy Sartori had been seen wandering along here.

Nia sat and looked up at Iris, her expression one of concentration as she listened and, I assumed, replied to Iris.

“No chasing today,” Iris said. “Stay close to me, and if you sense a demon, you run the other way.” Iris paused and shook her head at whatever her familiar was telling her. “No, you will not fight them. Remember the rules: if there’s more than one, even if they are trying to hurt me, you run.”