Page 82 of The Wilderwomen

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“Fine. You don’t have to eat it. And what’s this?” he said, nodding at her plate. “You don’t like nuts now?”

Juniper shook her head.

“Is there anything else I should know about? A tattoo perhaps?”

“Nope.”

“Okay,” he said with a mixture of amusement and exasperation,then turned to his guests. “How about you guys? You want some of my burnt bacon?”

All three nodded, Joel most emphatically.

“All right, then. Be right back,” he said, hustling back into the kitchen.

Zadie turned to her sister. She also seemed in better spirits than she’d been the day before. “How are you feeling?” she whispered.

“Great. Why?”

“You were kind of out of it yesterday.”

“I feel fine,” she said, shrugging and helping herself to a spoonful of eggs.

Either Zadie had imagined her sister’s distress the previous day, or Finn was gaslighting her. “Okay, if you say so,” she said, uneasy.

Finn appeared oblivious to her disquietude. “So we were thinking…” She looked around the room as though a consensus had been come to without Zadie’s knowledge. “We should probably stay here for another day or two. You know, in case somethingjogs my memory,” she said with an unnecessarily winking tone.

Zadie didn’t detect any recognition in Juniper or Hazel’s faces, but Rowan notably averted her eyes. She turned to her sister. “Can I talk to you outside for a sec?”

Finn grabbed another muffin and followed Zadie out onto the front porch. “What’s up?”

“You tell me.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yesterday you could barely speak, and now you’re practically ready to move in. What happened?”

“Nothing,” Finn insisted.

Zadie shot her a skeptical look. “You had an echo, didn’t you?”

“No… Okay, yes,” she whispered. “But I promised her I wouldn’t tell anyone.”

“Promised who?”

“Rowan.”

“What did you promise Rowan?”

Finn bit her lip, but if she was trying to stop herself from smiling, it didn’t work. “She’s like us, Zadie. They all are.”

Zadie stole a glance through the window at the family seated around the dining room table. Myron had just sat down to find a large bite out of the toast he’d made for himself. He held up the piece of bread with the half-moon-shaped hole and suspiciously raised one eyebrow. All three girls broke into fits of laughter, and in an act of playful retribution, Myron grabbed Hazel’s muffin off her plate and took a bite of his own.

“Even Myron?”

“I don’t think so. But their mom was. Zadie, she—” Finn hesitated. “They can talk to trees.”

Zadie stared at her sister blankly for a moment. “Is it weird that I actually believe you right now?”

Finn looked taken aback. “Honestly? Yeah, kinda.”


Tags: Ruth Emmie Lang Fantasy