Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 67614 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 338(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67614 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 338(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
“Beltane is two weeks away.”
“I don’t think we can wait two weeks to speak with the coven.” His mouth is set in grim lines. “Let’s talk with the others first and then bring in the rest of the group.”
“You’re all welcome to come to my place tonight.”
Xander nods. “Let’s make it happen. I’ll see you then. I’m going to escort you home, Giles. I don’t think you should be alone.”
“You know, ordinarily I’d tell you I’m fine, and it’s not a big deal. But today, I’m going to take you up on that offer.”
“I wasn’t there when Giles was pressed to death,” Jonas says, shaking his head. “At that point, I hadn’t figured out that I could move between worlds yet. I didn’t know for some time that he’d been killed.”
“So it wouldn’t have been possible for me to see you in that crowd?”
Jonas shakes his head. “No. If you were witnessing an actual historical moment, I wouldn’t have been there.”
“It wasn’t time travel. It was a bunch of bullshit,” Lorelei spits, her eyes firing with anger. “It was a vision designed to scare you.”
“It worked,” I mutter and rub my hand over my mouth. “I can honestly say that if I never see a man tortured like that again, it will be too soon. You hear about it, you even see reenactments of it, but let me tell you, it’s far worse than you can even imagine.”
“What’s it saying?” Breena wonders. “Is it warning you that it’s going to try to do that to you, too? That you’ll meet the same fate?”
“Have you seen all the witches in Salem? We don’t persecute people for that anymore,” Lucy says, but I shake my head.
“You might be on to something. What if this is the…thing that tried to kill Breena? That killed Agatha?”
“But it can’t come back until Samhain,” Lorelei assures, shaking her head emphatically.
“Can’t it?” I demand. “Why not? It failed last time, and that changed everything. What if it can come back now because it failed?”
“I don’t have the energy to fight a homicidal paranormal entity more than once a year,” Lucy says as she hangs her head in her hands. “Seriously, this is getting out of hand.”
“Getting out of hand?” Breena asks.
“We need to rally the troops,” Xander decides. “We’re all back on high alert for the foreseeable future. That means I won’t be out at sea for a while either.”
Lorelei’s shoulders sag in relief. I share a look with Breena, but neither of us says anything.
“I’m about to start spinning the wool into yarn,” Breena says. “Nothing about this Tapestry of Fate will be quick. It’s a long process, and I was worried about making it in time for Samhain as it was. Now, I have to worry about having it done faster?”
“No one is pressuring you,” Xander assures her. “It’ll get done when it’s done. In the meantime, we need to reinforce the protections and work together to keep one another safe.”
“I feel like we should move into a communal house so we can protect each other,” Lucy mutters.
“I don’t want to listen to all of you having sex,” Lorelei says with a sigh. “No thanks. I’m perfectly safe in the cottage by the sea.”
“I don’t want you to hex me for saying this or anything, but maybe Xander should stay with you, Lorelei.”
She snorts and shakes her head. “Absolutely not. Never in this or any other lifetime. You’d have to kill me first.”
“Something tells me she doesn’t like that idea,” Breena says.
“None of us likes the thought of you being alone,” Lucy states, trying to be reasonable. “You’ve said yourself that there is safety in numbers.”
“I’m fine,” Lorelei insists. “Now, let’s change the subject before I get really mad.”
“So stubborn,” Breena mutters. “Fine. But if things ramp up and get really dangerous, you’ll move in here, and you won’t argue with me.”
“Since when did you get bossy?” Lorelei wants to know.
“When a maniac killed me.” Breena swallows hard. “He won’t get the chance to hurt any of you. Absolutely not.”
“I need to make sure that Hallows End is safe, as well,” Jonas adds. “So far, everything there is normal—as it can be. But we may need to intervene if things start deviating from that norm the way they did last fall.”
“Agreed,” Xander says with a nod. “Let’s get to work.”
Chapter Eight
Breena
“Hello, pumpkin.”
I smile at my mom and then laugh a little at the term of endearment. It’s always seemed like such a silly nickname to me.
“Hi, Mom. What are you doing?”
“Why, I’m just working on my journal.” I notice she’s writing in a big book, using an old-fashioned quill and ink. The feather is that of a peacock, and it’s beautiful.
“I’ve never seen that quill before.”
“Oh, it’s an old one. It was your great-grandmother’s. I only use it when I have something important to write down.”