Page 48 of Head Witch in Charge (The Sherwood Witches #2)
“You think you get to make demands?” Asher asks, bending at the trunk and leaning in close to me.
Under normal circumstances, this is when I’d find the loophole to jump right through and get myself the fuck out of this situation.
But these aren’t normal circumstances. This oak holds the fate of Witchingdom and—more importantly—LeLe in its gnarled branches.
A loophole is the last thing I’m looking for; in fact, what I want is the exact opposite—an agreement so tight there’s no space to slip between.
So I let the protective menace I usually only experience when my dad’s threatening Cy and Sigrid bubble to the surface. “We’re here on the orders of the pixie queen to take the golden apple and bring it back to her.”
Asher scoffs and shrugs his limbs. “Do I look like a pixie to you?”
“No, but you do look like an oak who wants to know exactly what a satyrs’ inn looks like, how a sentient house in love behaves, and what it’s like to wake up in the morning next to the witch who made you see everything in a whole new way,” I say, my voice as cold and steady as I feel.
“I’ll tell you that and so much more about my travels and the people I’ve met, but she gets to take the golden apple to the pixie queen, fulfill the challenge, and take The Liber Umbrarum out of the forest. Even if you can’t use the Svensen safe house, you’ll figure out how to keep it safe, I know you will.
That’s who you are, a witch who gets shit done. ”
“Erik,” LeLe exclaims. “I can’t leave you beh—”
“You have to,” I cut her off, keeping my focus on Asher, because if I look at LeLe, the woman I love, I can’t guarantee I won’t give in out of pure selfishness to finding some way to stay with her even if that means the worst happens.
“The Council can’t get The Liber Umbrarum.
And don’t worry about the dimitto spell.
We’re already divorced, just like you wanted. Look at your wrist.”
There’s a few seconds of silence before she asks in a quiet voice. “How?”
“There’s always a loophole, remember? There’s nothing in that spell that said we have to recite the magic words at the same time, only that we each had to do our part, which you’d done before you’d ever sent it to me via flying monkey.
” I narrow my eyes at Asher. “We have a deal? I become a tree. LeLe takes the golden apple to the pixie queen, thus completing the queen’s challenge and receiving The Liber Umbrarum and Bessie as her prize.
As we both know, the queen will try to wiggle out of the deal.
You and the rest of the trees, however, will do whatever it takes to make sure the pixies uphold their side of the agreement and ensure that LeLe leaves here unharmed and unhindered with The Liber Umbrarum. Do you agree to those exact terms?”
“No, it’s too much,” LeLe says. “I can’t let you become a tree while I go free.”
“Everyone in Witchingdom would tell you that turning into an oak is better than being a Svensen.”
Her hands cup my face and she turns my head so I have to look in the tear-filled eyes and watch her chin tremble as she says, “Not everyone.”
Even knowing it’s not an I love you, a warmth fills my chest as if it were. And for a second I let myself believe, let images of what could have been fill my mind and believe just for a second that a guy like me could ever have a life like that.
I take her hands away from my face and kiss her palms before giving her a wink and a smile as if everything since that pool in Vegas has just been a meaningless game. “And they say no divorce is ever amicable.”
She flinches—just barely, but I catch it. That old familiar sense of being the biggest asshole in the room fills me and I grab ahold of it with both hands, relishing the way it numbs everything else so all I feel is nothing.
I look back up at Asher. “Do you agree?”
“I give my word and the strength of my forest.” The oak closes his eyes and a wind that smells like the first day of fall rustles through his leaves. “Let it begin.”
At first there’s nothing and then there’s everything.
The air cools. I can hear not just the birds in the tree but the sound of each individual feather beating against the air.
I can feel the seeds buried belowground begin to split and the first sprout of growth pushing upward.
The colors around me become more vibrant and varied as if instead of only a dozen shades of green there are now a million.
And the sun streaming down through between the limbs of the tall trees is peace and joy and the pinnacle of all that has ever been or could ever be.
In other words, exactly like when LeLe looks at me and smiles.
“So it’s settled—or at least it will be by morning when the magic firms up,” Addison says, bringing her branches together and clapping.
“I just need to take care of one thing first.” I look up at Asher and shoot him a cocky grin. “I don’t suppose I can borrow the apple and make a quick phone call before I turn into a living lumber.”
The whole forest goes silent for a second as even the squirrels tucked into the tree trunks’ hollows stick their heads out to see what the oak who loves to mulch witches is going to do next.
“Can you believe the acorns on this guy?” Asher lets out a genuine chuckle, then shrugs his branches. “Fine. Make your call.”