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“But then I thought, life is too short for red nail polish, and how did that get to be the default color, anyway? Who wants to go around with their fingers dipped in blood? But what if that’s your favorite? So I worked a spell, and you only have to say a color, and it will shift.”
Goldie winced. “Don’t say shift.”
Kathleen squeezed her arm. “Right. Maybe I’ll stick with red.”
“I’m not here about the nail polish.”
Kathleen dropped her hand. “What can I do for you?”
Goldie swallowed; she had a crazy sensation that if she asked this woman to go bury a body in the woods, Kathleen would do it. What she was about to ask was almost as crazy. “I need your help to kidnap a dire wolf.”
Kathleen blinked twice. “Okay.”
“Just okay?”
“I wanted you to feel supported before I started in on why, what for, how, when, and also why again.”
Goldie wanted to hug her. She tried to imagine her family’s reaction if she said she was going to kidnap someone. They would have made some wards and locked her in her house like Aiden.
“I forgot who,” Kathleen said as she set down her potions. “I probably should have started with who.”
“Buck. I am going to kidnap him, march him to the wards, and tell him to open them.”
“Right. Makes sense. Let’s get started.”
Goldie sagged in relief as she followed Kathleen into a living room full of overstuffed couches in dark leather facing a gigantic fireplace.
Covertly, Goldie examined the hutch against one wall stacked with beat-up pots and an iron cauldron on the bottom shelf. It was a good reminder that she was in the presence of a crazy powerful witch mated to a dire wolf who was also the mother of the man she wanted to claim. She gulped.
“You’ll need something to hold him,” Kathleen said as she rubbed her hands together.
“Yeah, I was going to ask you to ward something like Aiden’s house?”
Kathleen jumped to attention. “Already done. I have a horse trailer for transporting the big fish.”
“The big fish?”
“Horses. Big horses. Well, regular-sized horses with irregular price tags. It’s more secure than a tank.”
“That is so perfect,” Goldie said and tried to think through her plan. All she really had was the look she wanted on Buck’s face when he was in that horse trailer. She wanted to wipe thesmug superiority off of it. She wanted him confused, humbled, and begging her to let him go, just for a few minutes.
Kathleen started to pace. “We could back it up to the horse stables. Everyone expects to see it there, anyway. How do we get him in it? I’m not putting a horse in there as bait.”
“No, ma’am.” Goldie joined her pacing. She couldn’t sit while someone pivoted around her. “What would get him into that trailer?”
Kathleen stopped.
“What?” Goldie asked.
“What would get a nineteen-year-old boy who thinks witches are the answer to all his prayers to do anything?”
“Me.”
“This is not a good idea,” Kathleen said and sat down.
“I’m not asking. I mean, I’m asking for your help. I’m not asking for permission. It’s perfect.”
The spike of fear that seized her chest when Kathleen suggested she be the bait just made her angrier. She hated that she was still afraid of him. She hated that he still held so much of her mental energy. Hopefully, this would also work to shrink him down to size in her mind, too.
