My eyes had slid shut, and they opened when David shook me. “What?” I protested, pushing at him when he peered at me, his liquid brown eyes too close to mine. Now he reminded me of my dad, and I smiled at him.

“Rachel, honey,” he said. “You been bitten by a Were?”

A sigh came from me. “Nope. Never you and never Ivy. No one bites me but mosquitoes, and I squish them. Little bastards.”

Jenks hovered backward and David drew away. I closed my eyes, listening to them breathe. It seemed awfully loud. “Shhhh,” I said. “Quiet.”

“Maybe I gave her too much,” David said.

Ceri’s soft padding of feet seemed loud. “What … What did you do to her?” she asked, her voice sharp, pulling my eyes open.

“Nothing!” David protested, his shoulders hunched. “I gave her some bane. It shouldn’t have done this. I’ve never seen it do this to a witch before!”

“Ceri,” I said, “I’m sleepy. Can I go to sleep?”

Her lips pursed, but I could tell she wasn’t angry with me. “Yes.” She tugged the coverlet to my chin. “Go to sleep.”

I slumped back, not caring that I was still wearing wet clothes. I was really, really tired. And I was warm. And my skin was tingling. And I felt like I could sleep for a week.

“Why didn’t you ask me before you gave her bane?” Ceri asked sharply, her words a whisper but very clear. “She’s already on Brimstone. It’s in the cookies!”

I knew it! I thought, trying to open my eyes. Boy, I was going to let Ivy have it when she got home. But she wasn’t, and I was tired, so I did nothing. I’d had it with people getting me drunk. I swear, I wasn’t going to eat anything I didn’t make myself ever again.

The sound of David’s chuckle seemed to set my skin to tingle where the coverlet didn’t come between him and me. “I got it now,” he said. “The Brimstone upped her metabolism to where the bane is going to do some real good. She’s going to sleep for three days. I gave her enough to knock a Were out for a full moon.”

A jerk of alarm went through me. My eyes flashed open. “No!” I said, trying to sit up as Ceri pushed me into the pillows. “I have to go to that party. If I don’t, Quen will tell!”

David helped her, and together they kept my head on the pillow and my feet under the afghan. “Take it easy, Rachel,” he soothed, and I hated that he was stronger than I. “Don’t fight it, or it’s going to come back up on you. Be a good little witch and let it work itself out.”

“If I don’t go, he’ll tell!” I said, hearing my blood race through my ears. “The only thing I have on Trent is that I know what he is, and if I tell, Quen will freaking kill me!”