“The whole pack gets fed twice a day without lifting a finger. They can fend for themselves for twenty-four hours.”
“We can’t do it,” Penn said, and Asher clinched his fingers together to keep from reaching for her. She shoved the book away and sat back in annoyance. “It takes all the talents. Even if I believe that we can join together, though I met all of you an hour ago, we need all the talents.”
Goldie flipped her hair behind her with a smile. “My coven has so many witches that we’re doubling up by now. I’m sure they’d help.”
Penn’s eyebrows climbed to her hairline. “Another coven? Another whole coven knows about witches and werewolves?”
Goldie cackled. “I’ve got a little niece and a nephew that just got their wolves.”
“Oh.”
Penn met his eyes. Had she truly not thought about children until this moment? It was a dream he’d never allowed himself to dream in years. Hell, he’d never dreamed of a mate either, but at least Penn was a full-grown adult who could protect herself. Vulnerable babies would never be safe around his wolf. But if the spell worked…
“So if we got thirteen, you could do it?” he asked again, unable to stop himself.
“Yes,” Kathleen said.
“You can’t promise that,” Penn said.
“We can do it, can’t we?” Kathleen replied. “You can’t sit there and say we can’t. Because it’s possible. We have the recipe. It just has to be tweaked for snakes.”
Moira waved a hand. “I can do that.”
Hope surged.
“But what does the rest of this mean?” Penn asked.
He came close and read the script at the top of the page. “Two, Three, Six, One, Two.”
“I think that last one is twelve,” Penn said. “Twelve talents, three kinds of magic.”
“Pattern, Natural, and Elemental,” Kathleen said, ticking them off on her fingers. “So what’s two and six?”
“Two could be active and receptive?” Moira said.
“So what’s six? We never divide anything in half.”
“And what’s the rest of this?” Asher asked, still reading. “The essence, the jewel, the life, and the beast for each. Two conjoined, the last of four, all on one hallowed ground.”
“That’s a lot of numbers,” Penn murmured.
“Numerology is bullshit,” Goldie said.
“Do you think we need to find two sets of conjoined twins?” Kathleen asked.
Goldie scoffed. “Technically, two conjoined would be one set, and I think it’s safe to say we don’t know what any of that means.”
“Maybe it’s just words to say?” Quinn said. “I mean, I’m a charm witch. I don’t do words, but maybe it’s the invocation, just super weird?”
“Do you have to know?” Asher asked.
“It’s not the important part,” Kathleen said.
“Probably not the important part,” Goldie corrected.
“The important part is that they built an unraveling right into the spell.”
He bit his tongue rather than insist they get started.
