Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
“That’s the best way to do it,” Lucy says. “You’re a gifted witch, Breena. Your guides and ancestors won’t steer you wrong.”
“I hope you’re right.” Breena’s voice has a tiny edge to it, and Giles rubs her back soothingly. “I’m so excited for all this to be finished so we can just get back to our regular lives, you know?”
“I don’t know what that will look like,” Jonas says, speaking up. “Well, that’s not true. It will be a beautiful life with Lucy, of course. But for those in Hallows End? I just don’t know.”
“We’ll roll with it as it happens,” I remind him. “That’s all any of us can do. We’ll be prepared to help everyone.”
“And I’m grateful.”
“I have a question.” Xander swallows his bite of food, his eyes pinned to the back door leading out to Lucy’s gardens. “Should we have a conversation about the dead woman in the backyard?”
Chapter Two
Xander
Silence falls over the room as all six pairs of eyes turn to the open back door leading to the gardens beyond.
“I don’t see her,” Lucy says, frustration hanging heavily in her voice. “Not that that’s anything new. I never see any dead people, and I’m damn jealous of that.”
“I see her,” Lorelei murmurs next to me, and I’m stunned when she instinctively reaches out for my hand, gripping it tightly.
Aside from when everything went down on Beltane, Lorelei hasn’t held my hand in years.
“What does she look like?” Giles asks.
“She’s young,” Lorelei answers him. “I’d say…late teens. She has curly blonde hair and is wearing a blue dress.”
“It’s creepy how she’s just watching us,” Breena whispers, and Lorelei’s gaze whips around to her cousin in surprise.
“You can see her? You’ve never been a medium before.”
“Well, I can see her,” Breena confirms. “What about you, Jonas?”
“I see.” Jonas’s voice is hushed, and I turn to study the man with narrowed eyes. I’ve come to know him well over the past year. Also, he’s my many-times-great-uncle. I’m a direct descendant of his sister, Katrina. I’ve often wondered if that’s why I feel such a strong bond with the other man.
“What do you think?” I ask Jonas.
“I remember her.” Jonas takes a deep breath, and we all watch as the woman shakes her head, then turns and walks into the woods behind Lucy’s home. “Her name was Mildred Hale. She married John Hale about a month before she died in the early seventeen hundreds.”
“How do you know, if you were trapped in Hallows End?” Breena asks him.
“Because I had discovered that I could move between worlds by then, and I remember the incident well because it was believed that John murdered his young wife in a psychotic episode. She was brutally tortured before succumbing to her injuries.”
“What happened to John?” I ask, but I have a feeling I already know the answer.
“They hanged him the next morning,” Jonas replies, confirming my thoughts. “He claimed he was innocent but was found with her, and they immediately carried out the sentence.”
“I want to call my mom,” Breena says, reaching for her phone. “She and Aunt Astrid know who all the yearly victims were, going back hundreds of years. I wonder if Mildred is on the list.”
“She is,” Lorelei confirms, looking at the kitchen doorway. “Aunt Agatha just said so.”
“Thanks, Mom,” Lucy says, sarcasm dripping from every syllable. “You could have told me, but no, you won’t let me see you.”
“She just smirked at you,” Lorelei informs Lucy. “Agatha, was Mildred the first victim?”
“What did she say?” Giles asks, leaning forward.
“Yes. She believes so.”
“I’ll double-check with Mom,” Breena adds, typing out a text on her phone.
“I don’t know why she would show up now,” Giles says. “Why wouldn’t she have shown herself every year for the past couple of centuries? Have you ever had a ghost in your backyard before, Lucy?”
“Nope.”
“I know why.” I squeeze Lorelei’s hand before standing and walking to the door, shoving my hands into my pockets as I stare out to where the woman was, still seeing her clearly in my mind. “She’s warning us.”
“We got rid of the son of a bitch.” Giles’s voice is hard and angry.
“Did we?” Now Lorelei’s voice is hard with her anger, and I turn to see the scowl on her gorgeous face—the face that lives in my dreams and haunts my every waking moment.
The woman I’ll never get over, no matter how many lifetimes I live, because she’s a part of me.
“We saw it happen,” Lucy insists, but Lorelei is already shaking her head.
“We defeated it in battle, but that doesn’t mean it’s gone.”
“Well, shit. Then we still have that asshole to deal with on top of breaking the curse?” Giles pushes his hands through his hair with a gusty sigh of disgust. “I’m getting really sick of this piece of shit.”
“We don’t know for sure he isn’t gone,” Breena says, ever the optimist. Breena is our peacekeeper, the tenderest of hearts. But even she deflates a little as she looks around the room at all our expressions. “Well, darn.”