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“Gladly.” He takes a deep drink and seems to calm some, retaking his seat at the table. “That was as weird as it gets. I was perfectly fine, and then I just…wasn’t here. It was like I was in the background, watching.”
“Was it painful?” Jonas inquires.
“No, just damn weird. I hope the girls are okay.”
Immediately, I reach for my phone and call Lorelei.
“You just interrupted a spell,” she says upon answering. “What’s up?”
I quickly explain what just happened to Giles. “Are the three of you okay?”
“Poor Giles,” she says with a sigh. “Yeah, we all seem fine. If anything changes, I’ll let you know.”
“Do that. Keep an eye out.”
“Will do. I have to tell the girls. Kiss Giles for me.”
“I absolutely will not do that.”
She’s laughing as she disconnects.
“They’re safe?” Giles asks.
“Yes,” Jonas replies. “I just spoke with Lucy telepathically.”
“Lorelei also says they’re fine.”
“Good.” Giles rubs his forehead, but it’s a completely different movement from before. More…Giles. “Okay, let’s keep going.”
“Do you want to rest?” Jonas asks him.
“No, I want to figure this shit out. I’m really okay. A little tired, but mostly just unnerved, you know?”
“Yeah.” I nod at my best friend. “I know. Okay, moving on. If it is in the groundwater, he can get anywhere in Salem.”
“We don’t know that he’s in the water,” Jonas replies thoughtfully. “But I agree with you that, at the very least, he’s using the water for energy.”
“Makes sense,” Giles says, thinking it over. “When we defeated it at Beltane, you were in the water, Xander. It dispersed into the water.”
“I hadn’t thought of that,” I murmur. “You’re absolutely right. I wonder if that’s why Lorelei hears music coming from the harbor and bay.”
“What?” Jonas demands, his voice sharper than I’ve ever heard it before.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you both about this. I didn’t want to bring it up when Lorelei was with us because I don’t want to scare her. Several times now, I’ve found her standing near the shoreline, in some sort of trance. She just stares out at the water and doesn’t respond when I talk to her. It’s not until I touch her that she snaps out of it. And every single time, she asks me if I can hear the music. She loves the music, but then she feels sick until we’re back inside the house.”
“Godsdamn it, it’s fucking with her.” Giles makes a fist and thumps it against my table. “It’s doing the siren thing.”
“I agree,” Jonas says, nodding. “Giles, didn’t you once make a comment that Lorelei believes in mermaids and other sea creatures?”
“She believes in all of it,” I reply before Giles can. “She used to swear that she saw the merpeople.”
“I’ve never seen anyone so in tune with their element the way Lorelei is,” Jonas continues. “Even my mother, who was also a sea witch, wasn’t as gifted as Lorelei, and she was extremely powerful.”
“Wait.” I hold up my hand and the grimoire I need floats off the shelf and into my grasp. “This is your sister’s Book of Shadows. Maybe she made some notes about your mother’s gifts.”
“I still can’t believe you have Jonas’s sister’s grimoire,” Giles says, shaking his head. “How did it survive more than three hundred years?”
“Witches are sentimental,” I reply with a shrug. “Ancestors are a big deal. The witches in my family didn’t throw anything away, and while that used to annoy me, I’m damn grateful now.”
“As am I,” Jonas replies softly, staring at the book before me. “It was a nice surprise the day you showed me Katrina’s book. She was diligent in keeping notes and writing everything down.”
“You were close to her.”
He looks up at me and offers me a small smile. “I loved both my sisters, but I was closest to Katrina. She was older than me by a few years and was my constant friend. We enjoyed writing spells together. In fact, she helped me write the curse of the blood moon.”
“She helped you but didn’t write anything about it in her grimoire?” Giles asks.
“Even if she’d written it down, it would have disappeared when I cast the curse,” Jonas replies easily. “She likely did record it. When it disappeared, she wrote over the pages.”
“You were too thorough with that curse, man.” Giles frowns at the book in front of me.
“It was life and death. There was no room for error.”
I gingerly flip through the pages, not wanting to rip or ruin the fragile paper. “There are plenty of water spells here, and she makes reference to some of them being from a…Marjorie.”
“That’s my mother,” Jonas says, leaning forward.
“Katrina recorded everything, but she didn’t use this book as a diary. However, we may be able to find a spell in here to help us with our current water situation.”
“That would be helpful,” Giles says, blowing out a breath. “Does it say anything about siren songs?”
