Page 69 of His Whispered Witch

“I can’t believe you’d want us here.”

Quinn burst into tears again, “Welcome home.”

Apparently, they weren’t just moving to the land. They were moving into the big house. This was insanity.

“You said you could help Asher?” Quinn asked tentatively.

“I mean, maybe.”

“How? I could force him to be human, but I hated it. It was the worst day of my life. Though maybe it was worse for you,” she added with a glance at Asher.

“And I have thanked you every day since that you did,” he said quietly.

“I wasn’t going to help the wolf,” Penn said. “I was going to try to kill the snake.”

16

Penn drank in the sight of rich wooden furniture in the huge downstairs living room and a similarly gigantic kitchen before Malcolm led them upstairs.

The house was done in warm tones and soft fabrics, with none of the ostentation of the twins’ house in Silver Spring. This felt like home the moment she stepped across the threshold. She didn’t know if it was her mind desperately playing tricks on her to try to make this safe, but it felt real.Shefelt real for the first time in weeks.

Malcolm led them to a landing on the right. He opened a door with a slight bow. He looked like an alpha wolf, this huge man towering over them in the corridor, but the woman at his side was tucked under his arm like she didn’t want to be anywhere else, and that helped.

“This feels weird,” Asher said. “You don’t have to escort me to my own door.”

His door? His house? Unable to stand not knowing more, Penn stepped over the threshold.

“Can we get you anything? Leftovers, pajamas, water?” Quinn asked.

Asher shook his head. “We’re gonna sleep for a week and then…” He bit his lip.

Penn shouldn’t have said anything about the snake. It was an insane plan. She knew it wasn’t going to work. She was just glad that immediately after Quinn had demanded to know everything, she’d stopped and said it could all wait till morning. Penn eyed Asher, wondering if it truly could, but he’d just nodded.

At that moment, Penn remembered Asher had fled this land for reasons they’d never really dug into. It clearly wasn’t because they didn’t want him here, but something had gone down, and the awkwardness pointed to the fact that it wasn’t over.

She wanted them, the two of them, to be alone.

“And the lizard?” Quinn asked.

“What about him?” Penn asked, immediately ready to go to war.

“What can we get it?”

“A cage?” Malcolm muttered.

Quinn nudged him. “What does it eat?”

“He’s fine. He eats bugs.”

Malcolm perked up. “Great, we can set it loose in the horse barn.”

“Not that kind of bug. I’ll take care of him. Also lettuce. But not right now. He’s diurnal.”

Quinn frowned. “He’s what?”

“Not a night owl,” Penn said. “He keeps the same hours as we do.”

“And it is past all of our bedtime,” Quinn said, caressing her stomach, and Penn frowned. Was she? It was none of her business, except in a few months, she’d be living with a baby?

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