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)
“She’s recovering quickly.” I smile down at her. “How do you feel, Breena?”
“Oh, I’ll need therapy for sure,” she says. “But I think I’m okay—physically, anyway.”
“She’ll need a few hours to get back to herself,” Lucy adds from behind me. “Been there.”
I place my hands on her chest and close my eyes. I feel the fire build within me and push the energy into Breena. She takes a deep breath, accepting it, and when I pull back, she smiles.
“You really are a healer.”
“I really am.”
“Oh, darling,” Hilda says, taking her daughter’s hand. “I’m so proud of you.”
“I literally did nothing.” Breena looks at Giles. “Thank you.”
He licks his lips, shakes his head, and leaves the room.
“I guess he’s mad at me,” Breena says.
“I’d say he needs a minute to himself,” Xander replies. “I think we’ve all had enough work for one night. But we do need to meet soon. We defeated it tonight, but not for always.”
“Agreed,” I reply with a nod. “It will return next year at this time. And it will be angry.”
“We’ll be ready,” Lucy says. Her eyes narrow, and she points at Alistair. “In the meantime, what do we do about him? And who is he?”
“He’s the mayor of Hallows End,” I reply. “I’ll take him back.”
“No.” Lucy grips my hand fiercely. “You’re not going back there. Absolutely not.”
I pull her against me and brush my fingers down her cheek, smiling down into her gorgeous green eyes.
“Nothing can keep me from you, my love. I’ll take him home and be right back.”
“We’ll want to make sure he doesn’t remember,” Xander adds. “For his own sanity.”
“I’ll take care of it,” I reply without pulling my gaze away from Lucy’s. “I promise, I’ll be right back. And I don’t make promises lightly.”
“No.” She lifts onto her toes so she can press her lips to mine. “You don’t.”
With Alistair tucked in bed and oblivious to what happened just hours ago in Breena’s house, I walk through Hallows End.
Rebecca Akerman walks out of her cabin to fetch some water from her well.
Her belly is round with pregnancy.
She waves at me with a smile and then returns inside with a full bucket of water.
There are clouds overhead, sending down a drizzle of rain, and as I stand in my little village, I know without a shadow of a doubt that everything has been reset.
To the way it’s always been since the night, exactly three-hundred and thirty-one years ago, that I placed the curse of the blood moon and set these things in motion.
We didn’t lift the curse tonight.
And while we did prevail over evil, we didn’t destroy it.
But for now, everything is calm.
I turn to cross the bridge and do so easily without any barrier. The walk through the woods is one I know very well.
And when the trees part, and I see Lucy kneeling in her garden with Nera by her side, I smile.
For now, I live in two times. Two homes.
And I’m grateful.
Lucy’s head turns as if she senses me, and when she sees me, she smiles and stands to greet me.
“Everything okay over there?”
“For now.” I kiss her lightly and let my hands roam up and down her slim back. Nera bumps my hip, looking for an ear scratch, and I oblige him.
“We’ve been invited to celebrate with the coven tomorrow. They’ll want to see for themselves that we’re all safe.”
“I think that sounds like a good idea. Lucy, have the aunts seen your mother?”
Agatha disappeared during her fight with the darkness, and I feared that she’d be gone for good.
But Lucy’s face lights up. “Yes. She’s back at the cottage, where she should be.”
I sigh in relief. I know that we have so much work ahead of us. We need to find the answers to so many questions, but for now, everyone is safe.
“Let’s go inside,” she suggests. “Rest.”
“Come on, boy.” I gesture for Nera to follow us. “We all deserve some rest.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
The energy is gone. He’s exiled once again, locked away where he will heal and slowly regain the parts of him they disbursed.
It will take time.
But he has all the time in the world.
And when he’s recovered, he won’t stop at just one.
He will kill them all.