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“Could they be on a timer?” I ask.
“Maybe, but I don’t think so. Of course, I could be wrong.”
“Wait.” I hold up my finger as inspiration strikes. “You guys, doesn’t Xander’s family still own an abandoned house over in Danvers? Near the Salem Village Parsonage where the witch trials began?”
“Yeah, it’s a historical site, and Xander’s family did own a house over there,” Lorelei says, thinking back. “It just sat there, empty. Xander mentioned it, but we never went over there.”
“We need to find it.” I turn to Giles. “Do you know where it is?”
“No, but we can find out. Call Lucy and Jonas to come with us. I have a bad feeling about this.”
“On it,” I say as I pull out my phone and video call Lucy. “Hey, we think Xander might be in trouble.”
“What?” Lucy clears sleep from her eyes. “What’s going on?”
“I’ll tell you everything, but we think you and Jonas should come over here, to Xander’s place. We’ll leave from here.”
“On our way. Be there in fifteen.”
She clicks off, and I turn to Lorelei. “Oh, by the way, we took care of the asshole spirit who tried to kill us. It’s gone now.”
Her mouth drops open. “What? How? When?”
“I’ll explain all of that, too, just as soon as the others get here.”
Chapter Eighteen
Giles
“We destroyed the killer,” Breena informs everyone as Jonas and Lucy get out of their car.
“What?” Lucy looks shell-shocked. “Just now?”
“No, last night,” Breena says and explains what happened with the crystal. “We buried it all over eastern Massachusetts. It’s gone.”
“Fascinating,” Jonas murmurs but doesn’t look as if he’s ready to celebrate. At least, not yet. “And what’s going on with Xander?”
“We don’t know.” I sigh grimly and look over at his house. “He’s not here, and we can’t get him to answer any of our calls or texts. It’s been several days since any of us has spoken to him, and that’s never happened before.”
“I think he’s hurt,” Lorelei says, her voice hushed as if speaking the words aloud will make them true. “I’m really scared that he’s hurt.”
“Okay, we need to find him,” Lucy says. “Where would he go?”
“Xander’s family owns property over in Danvers, right next to the Old Salem Parsonage.”
“Where Samuel Parris lived?” Jonas asks. “Where the hysteria began?”
“That’s right,” I confirm. “I know the property has been in Xander’s family since before the hysteria started.”
“I can confirm that,” Jonas agrees. “Although the house from three hundred years ago is surely long gone.”
“It is,” Breena confirms. “But others have been built and torn down since then. No one has lived on the property in about thirty years, and it’s sat empty. It’s the only place we can think of where Xander might go.”
“It’s worth checking out,” Lucy replies. “What’s the address?”
“We don’t know.” I drag my hand down my face. “But there should be public records.”
“I know how to find it,” Lorelei says, pulling her phone out of her pocket. “So, I have some neighbors that drive me crazy, and I wanted to find out who they were so I could contact them. There’s an app—”
“Of course, there’s an app,” Lucy mutters.
“—that tells you who owns each property. It was originally made as a hunting app so hunters could contact the owners of properties to get permission to hunt there, but obviously, people use it for all kinds of things.” She pinches the screen and narrows her eyes. “Okay, there’s the Old Parsonage of Salem, so I’ll just look around that.”
She’s quiet for a moment and then says, “Aha! Found it.”
“Let’s go.” We pile into my car, and with Lorelei giving me directions, I head into modern-day Danvers, driving as fast as I possibly can on the winding roads. “How much farther?”
“Not far. Turn there, to the right.” Lorelei consults her phone. “At the end of this street, you’ll take a left. Okay, it should be up here on the right.”
The neighborhood is just a regular one, with normal houses set back into the trees. Some look a little dilapidated, and others have obviously been cared for. It’s nothing special at all.
But when I find Xander’s house, I have to blink several times. “Holy shit.”
“Whoa,” Breena says from the back seat.
“There’s some crazy activity happening in there,” Lorelei says. “Also, it doesn’t look inhabitable at all. Like, it looks like it’s going to cave in at any second.”
“Why would Xander let it get this way?”
“It belongs to his father,” Lorelei says. “And Xander wants nothing to do with him. As long as his dad’s living, it’s not Xander’s problem.”
“Well, let’s go see if he’s in there,” Breena says as she opens the door and hops out.
I hurry after her and grab her arm, stopping her from going up onto the porch.
“Jonas and I will go in.”
“Oh, please.” Lorelei rolls her eyes. “We have wards on our bodies. Nothing paranormal can kill us, as you well know. We’re all going in there.”
