The Better to Bite (Howl #1)(26)

She was such a happy Christmas card. I glanced down and realized that my hands were shaking. I was trying to act like it didn’t matter, but—death?

I jumped to my feet. “This is ridiculous! I don’t even believe in this crap!” I hurried away.

“Anna!” Cassidy sounded hurt and I hated that, but I had to get out of there.

“Your mother believed…” Granny Helen spoke quietly.

I froze. Then, slowly, I craned my head so I could look back over my shoulder. “I told you I didn’t need to know anything from my past.”

Her dark eyes held no expression. “You know what she was, don’t you?”

Oh, no, I was not going to hear this. “She was confused.” Sick. That’s what the doctors had said. Mom had an addiction problem. One that destroyed her life. “I’m not like her.” I won’t be.

“Certainly you are.” Granny Helen rose and bones cracked and snapped. “That’s where the trouble comes from. You’re just like her.”

The words seemed to burn me. When I’d been younger, dad had always told me…You’re just like your mother. But later, the trouble had started, and he’d stopped saying that. Because I’m not like her. “This was a mistake.” What had I been thinking? I’d been at the sheriff’s office and I’d felt…pulled to this place.

And even now, I wasn’t leaving. I should have been running out, but I was just standing right there, like I was glued to the spot.

Or under a spell.

Granny Helen walked slowly around the room. She bent and reached inside a heavy oak box. When she rose, she had a small, silver chain in her hand. There was a half-moon dangling from the chain.

“You need this,” she told me.

I shook my head. “Look, I don’t have any more money—”

“No money needed. This is a gift.”

She was giving me gifts? First she told me about death, and now I got a present? I darted a glance at Cassidy, but she just looked lost.

Granny Helen’s twisted fingers shoved the chain at me. “It will keep you safe. But you have to wear it, all the time. Never take it off, no matter what happens.”

I touched the silver. It felt cool against my fingertips. I lifted it slowly and clasped it behind my neck. Granny Helen’s gaze seemed to soften a bit when the half-moon fell into place at the base of my neck.

“Better…” she whispered.

Actually, I did feel better.

“Your mother would have wanted you to have it.” She nodded, as if satisfied.

My jaw dropped. “What?”

Granny Helen frowned at me. “You know don’t you, child? Your mother grew up here in Haven.”

Um, no. No one had ever bothered to mention that fact to me. As far as I knew, my mom had spent her whole life in Chicago.

“And she believed in the magic,” Granny Helen continued, her voice as easy as a breeze on a spring day, “she understood the power that can wait in the light…and the dark.”

I swallowed and dropped my gaze. Maybe I was supposed to act surprised by that bit. But…

“Knew that, did you? Because you got a touch of her…special power…too.”

Dad didn’t call it special. Different.

I turned away and this time, I made myself march out of that back room. The beaded curtains slid over me as I walked under them.

“Be careful who you trust!” Granny Helen warned me. “The moon knows the truth. Enemies are hidden, but in the light of the moon, you’ll see everything.”

Right then, I didn’t want to see anything.

I hurried out of the shop, totally ignoring Cassidy’s voice as she called out after me. My fingers wrapped around the half-moon and I plodded forward, one foot in front of the other, one foot— I slammed into someone. I looked up—and realized I’d hit Jenny…and Troy? They were holding hands. As if my day hadn’t been weird enough.

“Anna!” Jenny sprang forward and hugged me. “I’ve been so worried about you!” Her voice dropped. “Last night, you were just covered in blood.”

“Right. I remember that.” My gaze darted between them.

“You okay?” Her eyes were worried.

“Fine.” I forced my lips to lift. Was that a smile? Maybe.

Troy’s stare drifted behind me. “You went to crazy Granny Helen? Why’d you want to see that old witch?”

I flinched, and my hand dropped away from the necklace. “I have to go.”

Rude, yes, but I was past polite conversation. Right then, I needed to just shut the world out.

So I pretty much ran away as fast as I could.

My mom had grown up in Haven. Granny Helen knew how obsessed mom had been with magic. Always reading those spell books. Always bringing out charms.

Dad and I weren’t escaping from the mess in Chicago. He’d just brought me right back to where the nightmare had started.

Haven.





Chapter Seven


It turned out I’d pretty much become the number one outcast at Haven High.

When I returned to school on Monday, the hard looks got to me first. Angry glares from the football players. Withering glances from the cheerleaders.

“What?” I demanded, when one perky girl with red hair gave me a stare cold enough to chill. “What is your problem?”