Malcolm gazed down at his mate. “You’re part of the Scott pack.”
“This is a magic thing, not a mate thing,” Sonia said, exasperated. “How many different covens do we have?”
Penn’s giggle escaped. She couldn’t help it. She’d been balanced on a razor’s edge for days and was ready to start. This waffling was too much.
“We are the witches and wolves of West Virginia,” Charlie said, and Penn heard the ring of power in her words.
It was a measure of how insane the spell was that the divination witch was third back in the line of power today, because Penn couldn’t believe the juice behind those words. Who was that woman?
“I mean, there are others of both in West Virginia,” someone muttered.
“Eastern West Virginia, technically,” someone else added.
“Guys. If she said it, that’s what we call ourselves,” Sonia said, exasperated.
“What are you talking about?” Malcolm demanded.
“Divination witch,” Charlie said, her voice back to normal, which was still the loudest in the clearing.
“What does that mean?” Malcolm muttered.
“It means sometime in the future, that’s what wealreadycall ourselves.”
The huge shifter shuddered, and Penn didn’t blame him.
Sonia took a deep breath. “Okay, then. Everybody ready?”
No. She wasn’t ready. She would never be ready.
“We, the witches and wolves of West Virginia, call on twelve talents, not twelve talents, however many talents we have here. It doesn’t matter. Moving on. To summon this magic.”
Penn closed her eyes. This was going to be a comprehensive disaster. What were they thinking?
“Two, Three, Six, Twelve or One Two, essence, jewel, life, beast, two conjoined and the last of four, all one on hallowed ground.”
“Mama!”
They all spun to see a three-year-old Abbott running for the circle, her dark hair streaming. She latched onto Becca like a barnacle.
“No, honey!”
“I can’t stop this now,” Sonia warned.
“Just hang on,” Becca said, but the kid would not let her go. “Shit, now her magic is in this.”
“Shit!” the three-year-old echoed gleefully.
“Just go,” Becca said.
“Seriously?” Sonia asked.
“If we’re not fine after this, standing twenty feet away isn’t going to help, and besides, we’re not the ones in trouble.”
“Right,” Sonia said grimly. “Now we join together?—”
Penn didn’t hear anything else. A connection snapped between her and Asher and the rest of the grid.
Somebody screamed; several more cursed.