Page 92 of His Whispered Witch

She found the wolf first, tortured and crazy and barely holding on, and ignored him.

It howled, and she had to let it. She kept going.

There it was, the reptilian ancient presence, as incensed and riled as the wolf.

I’m here for you,she said, pouring welcome through her magic.

It didn’t move.

You are the one who deserves all the help.

It twitched, and she gulped.

Look what I have made for you.

She opened her habitat, mirroring the real world, complete with perfect warmth, better than the body that was always going to be a little uncomfortable for a snake. It was teeming with mice, and plenty of places to sun and to hide right next to each other, with water tinkling in the background.

It’s perfect.

For a heart-stopping second, nothing happened, and her failure took her breath away.

And then the snake struck, slithering into the construction.

And into her mind.

The snake was in her.

Someone was shouting for her to let go.

Did this make her a shifter now? Except it wasn’t tethered safely to a charm but galloping free through her consciousness.

“Let go!” the only witch she could hear repeated. Penn couldn’t remember her name.

Did she know a single person’s name? Already, she felt too warm. That wasn’t a good sign, that she was suddenly worrying about her temperature…

They tore her away from Asher, and she screamed in protest as she was folded into a traditional Circle of Abbotts.

She didn’t know these women. They weren’t related to her. She’d lost her one connection to the magic.

“We don’t have words for this,” Sonia shouted.

“What the hell do we do?”

“Are there eagles in West Virginia?” a masculine voice shouted.

She felt a blessedly cool hand on her shoulder. Whose? She cracked her eye to see Asher crouching before her, infinitely beloved.

“Don’t touch me,” she gasped. The snake might go back.

“Call a bird,” he whispered as he took her hand.

“Bird?”

“Call on a raptor,” he whispered, then he looked around. “One of you. We need a predator. You were all so intent on making her comfortable for him, you never thought of the main reason an animal would run. Call a predator.”

“We should’ve called Grace,” Sonia said.

Everybody needed grace.

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