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Kathleen stepped up quickly. “Sure. If you open the wards and prove you can take care of him.”
Buck looked longingly at the horse. “I can’t.” He sounded young and frustrated. She was feeling insulted all over again that this was the man who upended her life.
Fine then. Plan A it was.
She sat casually on the edge of the horse trailer, feeling the wards crackle to life around her. These were different than the wards in the house. They braced not against magic but against impact, speed, and projectiles—anything that could harm a horse flying down the highway. They felt strangely comforting.
“You’ve got the courage of your convictions, I’ll give you that,” she said, meaning the words.
Buck spun to her, disappointment morphing into pride. “You’re better off here, I promise.”
Goldie laughed. It was hilarious because it was true. She was far better off here with Aiden. “Sit down and stop towering over me.”
Hesitantly, he sat down next to her. “Someone said you’ve never been on a horse.”
She batted her eyelashes, feeling ridiculous. This close, she felt a thousand years older than him. “You’re my first.”
“I could give you a proper ride,” Buck said.
Paul coughed, and she glared at him before trying to school her face. She got up and moved deeper into the trailer. “I’ll stick to one of these, thank you.”
He frowned. “A horse trailer?”
She crossed her arms. “Something with wheels.” She bounced a little. “Much smoother ride. Try it!”
“Try… Try the horse trailer?”
When he didn’t move, she said, “What, you thought witches rode around on broomsticks?”
He laughed, but it petered off. “Wait, do you?”
She took a step deeper, and he finally stood up and followed.
“Do you?”
She took a deep breath. He was inside. She walked around him in full circles, and he spun to face her each time.
“You don’t know much about witches, do you? We gather on new moons in a huge Circle, link all of our magic, and ride through the sky on all manner of cleaning implements. Brooms…” She circled him again. “Mops…” And again. “Vacuum cleaners…”
She was between him and the door as he laughed out loud. “Do not.”
She leaned close and whispered, “You have no idea what I can do.”
Far from me, so mote it be.
She triggered the words she’d written on her mental board as she pushed him as hard as she could.
He was a wolf before he hit the ground, but momentum was still carrying the beast into the trailer as she leaped out.
She scrambled for the next spell, but there was no time. Human-slow, she grabbed the door as the wolf turned around. It sprang toward her—huge and dark with dripping fangs, and she slammed it in its face.
It crashed against the door a millisecond too late, and if it hadn’t been for magic, the beast would have flattened her. As it was, the trailer shuddered like an earthquake hit it, but the doors held.
She ran for the truck attached to the trailer.
Kathleen followed. “I can?—”
“I’m not risking you. I got this.” She would not risk Aiden’s mother, but she also wanted to do this alone. She needed to do this part alone.
