Page 105 of His Hunted Witch

“One would hope so if you made her the coven healer.”

She poked him in the ribs. “My point is, maybe I really am a scribe. If I fell for you, maybe you got all my words.” She stepped to him and put her hand on his cheek. “I got your self-control, and you got my words.” She dropped her hand and her gaze. “And isn’t that the most codependent thing I’ve ever said?”

He grabbed her hand and pulled it back to his jaw.

“That’s just bullshit,” he whispered. “We’re better off together. And I don’t mean endless sex.”

“That is a perk,” she said, remembering her popcorn-induced pity party. She caressed the soft stubble of his beard.

“I do what you can’t,” he said. “You do what I can’t. We are objectively stronger together.”

“You’re supposed to be able to function without anyone.”

He looked genuinely confused. “Why?”

“Why?”

“To rely on somebody?” he asked. “To let them shore up your weaknesses? Those all sound like serious upsides.”

She rested her head in the center of his chest and took a deep breath, surprised to feel herself trembling. She’d spent her childhood lying about her talent and trying to shore up a grieving, single father who was hell-bent on pretending he would never need anyone again. In her wider family and coven, she was driven to speak the truths she spent her life protecting him from, and her inability to keep her mouth shut annoyed her entire family.

Aiden couldn’t get enough of it. He seemed genuinely thrilled every time she opened her mouth. It truly sank in that shewas not alone. It felt delicious and restful in a way she hardly remembered and maybe never had.

His arms wrapped around her, and she was dismayed to feel tears beading in her eyes.

Maybe sometimes, Goldie Abbott did cry.

“I’m gonna finish up here,” Buck shouted, “so we can set up the catapult, or do you just want to let my dad eat you?”

Aiden pulled away, laughing. “We’ll be right up.”

With burgeoning hope, she looked back at the door. “Protect me, so mote it be, from all the enemies.”

Aiden shook his head. “That’s not gonna work.”

“How do you know?”

“I don’t know. How about, ‘Protect me from every enemy, only when it’s necessary, all this expediently, so mote it be’.”

“Nice double rhyme. Appreciate it.”

“Your magic slides all over the place.”

“I’m sorry, what?” He felt her magic? She’d pulled on his strength when she first tried to open the wards, but that was a far cry from him being able to write a spell.

“You said it yourself,” he said as he kissed her temple. “I got your words.”

“Do you want to help me with the catapult, or are y’all just going to make out in the back hallway all night?” Buck shouted at them.

“We’ll be right there,” Aiden shouted back. “Go on, try it. Protect me…”

She felt her magic stir like she had in the horse barn weeks ago. It flowed well as she scribbled the words with her finger on the back of the door. Unlike whenshewrote a spell, they didn’t slip and slither around. She opened the door and waved. Nothing happened. “The problem is, we won’t know if it worked unless it’s necessary.” But she knew it would. The singingrightness of the magic flowed through every letter. Bemused, she stared at him.

“What?”

“We really are one functional human being.”

He squeezed her tight. “Good.”

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