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)
“I don’t think it’s possible to measure such things that way,” Astrid says. “We’ve always been told by our guides and angels that souls travel in packs, so to speak. We spend our time with the same souls over and over again.”
“I believe that all of us have been together for a very long time,” Hilda agrees. “But if you’re asking if the girls were together in previous lives, we’d say without question they have. Likely many lifetimes.”
“Perhaps even one that happened in the late sixteen hundreds?”
They both narrow their eyes in thought.
“It could be.” Hilda then turns to her sister. “I wouldn’t rule it out.”
“What has you curious about this, Jonas?” Astrid asks.
“I may be thinking about everything too much,” I admit as I push my empty bowl aside. “But I can’t help but wonder if I couldn’t lift the curse in the past because Lucy and the others are the key to it. Perhaps they were a part of it before, and I didn’t know it.”
“And now that you’ve found them again, you may have all of the pieces you need to finally prevail?” Astrid finishes for me.
“Yes. That’s what I’m thinking.”
The two women share a smile.
“That’s it, isn’t it?”
“We can’t reveal too much,” Hilda says slowly. “The path of this will happen the way it’s meant to, but I will say that you’re not on the wrong road of thinking.”
“I knew it,” I mutter excitedly.
“Now you can answer a question for us,” Astrid pipes up. “Do you know what happened to Louisa Mayfield?”
I blink at her and then frown. “Surely, you don’t mean Louisa Mayfield from Boston.”
“That’s the one,” Hilda says. “She went missing, and it’s been a long-standing cold case in the area. She was in her mid-thirties and unmarried, which was unheard of at that time, and she just suddenly disappeared.”
I stand and pace the small kitchen, then go stand by the window and watch as the sun begins to set to the west. “It can’t be.”
“What is it?”
I turn and stare at them, stupefied.
“Louisa is in Hallows End.”
Chapter Fifteen
Lucy
“We’ve had such a lovely autumn,” Breena says as she lifts her pretty face to the last of the sunshine falling in deep golden rays over her skin. “I know we’ve had a few days of rain, but for the most part, it’s been warm. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the flowers still blooming this close to Samhain.”
“Winter will be here soon enough.” Lorelei takes a bite of her bruschetta. “And it’s usually long and dark. That was one thing that didn’t suck about California, the sunshine.”
“But you’re happy to be home, aren’t you?” I ask her.
“Oh, yeah. Home is where the heart is.” She stretches her legs out in front of her. We’re sitting on a huge quilt that the three of us made together as teenagers. I’ve hung on to it and use it often for picnics like this one. “But if Xander suddenly moved away, I wouldn’t be sad.”
“You’re doing really well together, all things considered,” Breena says. “You hardly ever snipe at each other, and you haven’t punched him even once. I consider that progress.”
“No physical altercations is good,” I agree and laugh when Lorelei narrows her eyes speculatively. “Oh, no, now she’s thinking about slugging him.”
“I already did that once,” she says and then jerks a shoulder. “Anyway, enough about him. I have to tell you guys that I’m having such a good time rediscovering everything that I used to love about the Craft.”
“Oh, that makes me so happy.” Breena rests her chin in her hand. “Tell us everything. What have you been up to?”
With a smug smile, Lorelei looks around my yard to the fountain I have running in the middle of my vegetable garden, which is about done for the season now, and wiggles her fingers.
To our delight, the water runs much faster and then bubbles up and over the side to slosh onto the ground before I hear her whisper, “down,” and it all calms to the way it was before.
“You’re so good at that,” I say, shaking my head. “You always were.”
“I’m relearning,” she admits, returning to her food. “And I’m discovering things about my magic that I didn’t know was there before.”
“Fascinating,” Breena says. “Like what?”
“I don’t even know if I can describe it to you. It’s just…I never realized how powerful I was until I came home and started studying again. And I know well enough to understand that I can’t ever go back. I’ll use my powers for the rest of my life. No more turning my back on them, even if Xander makes me want to scream.”
“He isn’t the center of your powers,” I remind her gently. “That’s always and forever only you.”
She nods and looks back at the fountain. When the water splashes once more, the three of us laugh.