Stranger Than Witches (The Witches of Secret Hallow Book 3) Read Free Page B

better.
    Kimberly could sense the wind whistling through Thorn’s tree, too. He didn’t roost at the farm because he liked his space, but he wasn’t too far away, either. He always remained near enough that Kimberly could contact him. They didn’t speak, really—not with anything that resembled actual words. She communicated with her familiar via vague sensation. She was always aware he was nearby, somewhere in her periphery, like the way she felt soft curls of hair brush along the small of her back.
    When she thought of Thorn, he thought of her in return. Their minds brushed. She knew he was ruffling his feathers and flexing his talons on the branch.
    He must have felt what she did, too. The kiss of wind, the anxiety knotting within her belly.
    The moon was full enough that she almost didn’t need lights to see at the farm, but there were lanterns around for Maddock’s benefit. He had already moved outside to resume work. Many farmers worked long daylight hours, but Maddock didn’t allow his time to be limited by silly things like being able to see.
    Kimberly’s vision was excellent. Her gaze carved across the fields to her husband, where Maddock was stacking hay just outside the barn, but she didn’t call out to him. It was nice seeing him work in so many ways. Mostly, it was comforting—if Maddock was working, things couldn’t be too bad in the world—but it was also attractive, if she was honest. She couldn’t quite see with the distance and the darkness, but she knew what he looked like with a sheen of sweat on his skin and his muscles flexing as he used his pitchfork.
    Her mind drifted to the time they had met, when Maddock had been a young lad working others’ farms. He had always dreamed of this future for himself—for them—where he would toil over his own land, land that belonged to them, nurturing the fruit of their labors.
    It didn’t take long for Maddock to notice her eyes. He put down his pitchfork and waved, and when she put up a hand in return, he jogged over. She could definitely see the sweat from up close. She leaned in for a kiss as he came up.
    “Oh, hon, I’m gross,” he said.
    “I don’t mind,” she said.
    He grinned and gave her the kiss, pulling her close. She relaxed—not much, but a little—for the first time all day.
    “You were awfully quiet at dinner,” he said, pulling back. It wasn’t judging coming from Maddock’s lips; it was an observation. “This school thing getting to you?”
    Kimberly sighed. She’d told him a little bit when they’d gotten home, but she hadn’t gone too much into it because Keene had been around and still had had a lot of energy to burn.
    “You’re not wrong, you know.”
    “About?”
    “Keene being around all that magic. It’s scary when he doesn’t have any of his own.”
    Kimberly shivered a little. “He’s still so little. He doesn’t know to listen to warnings.”
    “Which is one thing he would learn at school, if he were given enough time to adjust.” When Kimberly looked his way, he held up a gloved hand. “You’re not wrong, but I think we can trust the coven about this. There have been plenty of generations of kids in this town who don’t have powers. He will be safe at the Ash Academy. Rowan and Gemma would never allow him, or any other child, be hurt in their care. You know that as well as I do.”
    Kimberly didn’t answer. There wasn’t much she could add. She knew the possible benefits and dangers as well as Maddock; even if the Ash Academy hadn’t existed when she was a kid, she’d grown up around witches without having particularly strong magic to call her own. She’d managed to survive, but how much of that had been luck? What if Keene wasn’t as lucky?
    She simply wasn’t willing to leave her son’s safety to luck.
    Maddock’s eyes crinkled with a gentle, knowing smile. It always felt as though he could read her mind. In truth, that was nowhere near Maddock’s talents as a member of the coven;