Penn slumped back. “We have to. Any kind of fight is going to be too dangerous. The only way this ends peacefully is that once it’s loose, itwantsto go where we want it to. And you’re right, it’s got food. It’s got warmth. But it’s not safe.”
“It won’t be safe out here either,” Moira said. “Everything about this is going to be terrible for it.”
“That’s the last part of the spell,” Penn said. “We have to make the most inviting, safest, best metaphorical environment for a snake possible, so there’s no hesitation. There’s no chance it chooses to stay.”
Moira rubbed her hands together in delight. “I’ve been training my whole life for this moment. I just didn’t know it.”
Penn swung to Kathleen. She had a feeling that if the old woman didn’t want this to happen, it didn’t matter what the pack or the witches said.
“It’s not a completely terrible idea,” Kathleen said, and Penn went weak-kneed with relief.
“I pick apart the charm,” Quinn said. “You and Moira do your snake magic to make him magically want to get off the bus, and then I put it back.”
“And I make sure his heart still beats,” Becca said.
Okay, maybe theydidneed the healer. Maybe she had the most important job of all.
“That’s it?” Penn asked.
“And everybody else pours as much raw power into me, Penelope, and Becca as witchly possible,” Quinn added.
“But you just said Moira would help.”
Moira smiled. “What I know about snakes comes from thirty years of work, not my telekinesis. I can only lift heavy objects and feel what people are feeling. Snakes don’t like anything big looming over them, so you don’t want me in on the spell itself.”
Goldie snorted. “Except this one has had a giant carnivore looming over him for millennia.”
“Exactly,” Moira said, sounding so happy.
“What else doesn’t he like?” Penn asked.
“It’s an asp, so it also doesn’t like being in water or high up. It likes mice and small vermin. It likes a temperate climate, indirect sunlight, and a place to hide. Think European forest floor, which is probably where they picked him up in the first place.”
Charlie squinted. “So we have to heat the wolf, douse him in water in direct sunlight.”
Penn shook her head. “Wolves don’t like heat either, but they’re fine with cold, and the snake isn’t.”
Goldie snorted. “So we get him reallycoldand wet and build something nice and warm and dry outside of him, and pelt him with dead rats.”
“With somewhere to hide,” Moira said, “so he feels protected from above, and yeah, with a rat. Great idea.”
“That was a joke,” Goldie said faintly.
“And hungry,” Quinn said.
“What?”
“Asher needs to be cold, wet, and hungry, and the box we build needs to be warm, dry, and full of snake food.”
“And all our words have to be about saving the snake,” Penn said. “Getting him free, warm, safe, dry, and better.”
Becca nodded. “We’re changing the spell for his benefit.”
Goldie snorted. “You’re good at that.”
“Goldie,” Charlie said with a warning note in her voice.
Goldie flung her hands out. “What? That was a compliment! She lies to her patients all the time. The needle is only gonna hurt a little bit, and then you get a sucker!”
