A voice that was most definitely illegal in the Bible Belt states.

“I wasn’t staring.” Pru sighed. Even to her own ears, the words were completely dishonest.

“Besides sassing her? Fuck her. Either of those would work for you, Prudence Ophelia Fowler of the ancient and questionably reputable Crow’s Nest Fowlers.”

“I couldn’t not stop by, Pru. I was just at the Library Board meeting. Can you imagine we have another anonymous complaint about several queer books?”

Book bans were something they had been seeing a lot of lately. Always anonymous. Always against queer or racial justice literature.

“We’d need to change the library statutes to exclude anonymous challenges. I don’t even know when that whole thing started and who wrote it into the governing documents. But no, I didn’t have enough votes to overrule this particular challenge. I don’t know how these people who call me a colleague have the gal to look me in the eye every time they vote to ban queer literature.” Ceridwen’s smile was sad, frayed at the edges. “So, we lost two more books, Pru. Will you⁠—” “Yes, I’ll order more copies, put them on sale. Freaking give them away, if it comes to that. Just send me the titles.”

“A queer possum girl. How charming.”

“Clever girl.”

The fact that she hadn’t voted for him this past election since he started to become more and more conservative in some of the policies he was promoting…

was it a half-shaved-off eyebrow? Rhiannon lifted hers in surprise and Seren’s smile was bashful, the Crowhart dimples peeking shyly. “It was a fire, Rhy. I’m not that vain.”

“It was one of my best hexes. Good enough to hang in a museum. Hey, maybe the Louvre. I hear there’s room now.”

She wanted silence. Her books, her cat, and her comforter. She hadn’t opened a book in ages, very much aware that her mood and her state of mind kept her from reading, from touching paper and leather, from doing what she did best. She had been in love with books since she was old enough to walk.

“And what if I don’t want that collective pronoun, Prudence Ophelia? Ours sounds so very…nonexclusive.” Her thoughts spun, heady and dizzying, as Prudence’s treacherous blush snuck up from her low-cut dress and up her long neck. Rhiannon could almost taste the salt of her, the scent of her. She’d leave a mark and Pru would have to hide it for days, Rhiannon reveling in it, obscured but still there. Still hers.

Hell, if it wasn’t a book, she’d probably burn it. But that was a line that brought her too close to those who wrote it, and one line she couldn’t cross.

may not be all that au courant in physics, but I do remember that classic paradox. And what happens when an unstoppable force hits an immovable object is…” She trailed off suddenly, dropping her arms, aware of what the next words out of her mouth would be. “Yes, both will forever be changed.”

“And why were you there, Rhiannon?” Fucking sneaky witch. First Seren, now Ceridwen. An entirely family of sneaky witches!

“That I’d be the one? No, maybe I’m too grounded.” Ceridwen waited a beat. Rhiannon’s mouth actually dropped open. “Was that a pun? An Earth pun? Damn, Ceri!”

You enjoy antagonizing people?” she asked. Rhiannon’s smirk grew wider. “Just men.”

“You needed me?” “Not as much as you need concealer, Pru.” Ceridwen glared daggers at Rhiannon. This is fun.

That takes steel ovaries.”

She is beautiful, I’ll give you that. But we redheads do tend to have a bad rep.”

morality.’” “Damn, why is it always the men with gazillion divorces and out-of-wedlock children—no offense, love—who claim to be the paragons and standard-bearers of said morality? Does he really believe it? Is he that much of a zealot?”

It didn’t even matter that she could feel that Rhiannon cared for her. The woman saved her life. Granted, the woman also had a martyr complex the size of Lake Tahoe, but the point still stood.

“I love you. My life, my Wind.” Pru felt the words in her bones, in her soul. The thunder above them stopped, the sky cleared. A long rainbow connected the Viridescent Cliff to the Dragon Eye lighthouse. It was a sight to see, yet Pru couldn’t take her eyes off the one she never wanted to look away from.