 by Kristen Proby.jpg)
Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 68024 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68024 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Returning to her beloved home of Salem after a trip away, Lucy Finch can’t shake the feeling of anxiety that suddenly plagues her. Nor can she shrug off her third eye’s urging that she has a mission she must undertake—a secret she must uncover.
As a green witch, Lucy has always felt strongest and the most at home in the forest, surrounded by nature. But when a disturbing dream wakes her and sends her fleeing into the woods, she isn’t prepared for what she finds. She expected her element. Perhaps a message from spirit. She didn’t expect to cross paths with a sexy-as-sin man, straight out of a movie scene.
Jonas Morley isn’t like the other residents of Hallows End. He knows the town’s secrets, as well as Salem’s, and it has been his honor and duty to protect them for as long as he can remember. But the gorgeous witch who graces the town’s hidden border shakes him and makes him second-guess his directive. She calls to him like no other. But can he save his home and those under his care and still make her his? Or will their union mean danger and destruction for not only them but also those who live within the town’s borders?
Curses don’t discriminate, and the curse of the blood moon is the most determined and dangerous of all.
Hallows End is the first book in the Curse of the Blood Moon Series.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Prologue
Jonas
September 1692
* * *
“They took Margaret Scott.”
I look up into the sad eyes of my long-time friend, my coven sister, Louisa, and feel my heart sink with sadness.
“They will execute them,” she continues, her voice full of frustration and urgency. “Jonas, we must do something.”
“If we speak up, we expose the entire coven, and they will murder us all,” I reply and feel the candles around us flaming higher, fueled by my anger. “We cannot risk hundreds of lives, Louisa.”
“So the few shall die instead?” she insists. “Those women have been good to us, Jonas. They have not done anything wrong, and they are certainly not witches. Margaret has worked tirelessly to protect us, to conceal us from their unjust government.”
“I know.” I stand and cross to Louisa, laying my hand on her shoulder. Her aura swirls in outrage. “And I am eternally grateful to her. To all of them. Would you have me send our entire family to slaughter now? Because if I go forward and defend Margaret, that is what will transpire.”
She shakes her head, tightening her lips in despair. “It is not right.”
“No. It is not. Staying silent as they punish our allies is wrong. But I do not know what else to do.”
She turns away and then looks back at me. “I have been dreaming again. I suspect that it will not matter in the end, regardless of whether we speak up now or not. I see fire. I hear screams. They will come for Hallows End, Jonas. It is only a matter of time. Did you see the blood on the moon this night?”
The thought sends terror through me, and I know she’s right.
I’ve had the same dreams.
And I saw the blood on the moon.
“Jonas, you know that what I say is true!”
“I know.” My voice is rough with grief—with resignation. “You are right. It is time. Summon the others.”
“We cannot undo it once the spell is cast,” she warns me.
“The alternative is death,” I remind her. “Assemble in the town square in one hour. We will end this bloodshed and protect our own.”
“Will I remember?” she asks. “When it is finished, and we are safe, will we know what we did?”
“No. Only I will remember. It is as it should be.”
“The burden is too great—”
“Go,” I interrupt. “Make haste. Time runs out.”
She pauses and hurries over to hug me close. “I’m sorry, brother.”
“It is what is meant,” I say and pat her back. “Now, do as I ask, won’t you?”
“Yes.” She wipes at a tear on her cheek. “Yes, I will make the preparations.”
She hurries out of my small, modest house, and I return to my desk, opening the bottom drawer to retrieve my Book of Shadows.
It’s time to cast the curse of the blood moon.
Chapter One
Lucy
I don’t like the dreams. I’ve never been a fan of them, even as a child when I knew what my birthday presents would be or where we’d spend our spring vacations. But the dreams—visions, really—have never been frightening. Just informative.
Still, let me tell you, when a woman is blessed with the gift of precognition, it’s hard to surprise her with much of anything.
Lately, however, the dreams have turned darker. Are they indicative of what will be or what may be? That’s the question I’ve never been able to answer—and the one I fear the most.
After another night of fitful sleep and disturbing dreams, I rolled out of bed early to go outside where I feel most at peace.
“Come on, Nera, let’s go tend the garden.”
My Irish wolfhound, with his shaggy, dark gray coat and happy disposition, follows me through the kitchen and out the back door to our garden. Most of what I sell in my apothecary comes from this plot. There are some things I can’t grow, very few things I have to send away for, but for the most part, I lovingly and carefully tend to it all right here.
As I walk down the steps, the flowers open to greet me.
“Good morning,” I murmur with a soft smile, a mug of coffee clutched in one hand and a basket for gathering in the other. “You got some rain last night, I see. It’s good for you.”
I walk farther down the path, and more flowers open as if waking from a long nap. I can almost hear them yawn, and it makes me smile softly.
Nera jogs over to the far corner of the grassy yard to do his business, knowing better than to relieve himself on any of the flowers.
Good boy, I say to him with my mind.
His head comes up, and he offers me a wide doggie grin, his tongue hanging out of his mouth. Nera’s been with me for just over five years. He was a stray and hadn’t known a gentle touch before mine. But he found me, and I knew as soon as I locked eyes with him that he was mine.