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“It’s going to try to take a life on Samhain,” Sandra reminds him.
“It doesn’t have to wait for that anymore,” Lucy adds. “It murdered Marydell, and it wasn’t even close to the festival. I don’t think there will be a waiting period this year. It could be anytime.”
“Agreed.” I nod grimly. “I want everyone to stick together. Always. No one goes anywhere alone. It’s too dangerous.”
I turn to Jonas and feel a pang in my chest.
“I wish someone could go to Hallows End with you. I don’t even feel like that’s safe.”
“I can go with him,” Lucy says, but Jonas is already shaking his head. “Listen to me. I can go with you. I can hide in the trees, or at your house, but I don’t think you should go alone. Xander’s right, it’s just not safe for you—for any of us—to be alone. You’re my husband. Our family. You’re not expendable.”
Jonas tugs Lucy into his arms and holds her tightly, kissing her head before nodding as he looks around the backyard at the rest of us.
“Thank you. You’ve become my family, and I don’t want anything to happen to any of you, either.” He looks down at his wife and hooks a piece of her hair behind her ear. “You can come with me, but we need to be very careful.”
“Of course. I know the drill.”
“And that means that you don’t go to work alone,” Breena tells Giles, who scowls. “I’ll take the loom to the shop and work there with you. I know it’s too busy this time of year for you to close up for a few weeks.”
“I can live with that compromise,” Giles says and kisses Breena’s forehead.
“I just love that you’re all in love,” Mom says with a happy sigh. “It’s so lovely to watch. Isn’t it, Mama?”
“They’re absolutely adorable,” Grandma agrees and then turns those shrewd eyes to me. “And I see that you two are finally figuring yourselves out.”
I simply narrow my eyes at her, but Lorelei grins.
“We’re getting there.” She nods with a smile.
“You all should stay for dinner,” Hilda says. “I won’t take no for an answer. We have some soup simmering on the burner, homemade bread, and two apple pies for dessert. There’s plenty of food.”
“And we can make it stretch with a little magic,” Astrid adds.
“You don’t have to talk us into it,” Mom says, hooking her arm through Giles’s mom’s. “Oh, I want to hear about everything that’s been going on lately.”
All the parents, including Giles’s dad, go inside. The six of us hang back.
“I want to go check on my house,” Breena says, surprising us.
“Why?” I ask her.
“We haven’t been back since we discovered the water inside, and my guides are screaming at me to look in on it.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do. We can knock that out while they’re all in there, fixing dinner and gossiping,” Lorelei says. “I’ll run in and let them know.”
She jogs off to go inside and then comes running back just a few seconds later.
“Good to go,” she says.
“You all ride together. I’m going to fly.”
“We’re not supposed to be alone, remember?” Breena points out. “That includes you, Xander. Remember what happened at Beltane when you were alone? You’re not impervious to this.”
“She’s right,” Jonas says. “You should stick with us.”
“Please, don’t go alone.” Lorelei slips her hand into mine and holds on tightly. “It’s not worth the risk.”
I can’t resist her.
“Okay, let’s go together.”
“I didn’t realize your house was at the top of a hill,” Giles says to Breena as we get out of the car, about fifty yards away from the house. We can’t get any closer.
It’s completely surrounded by water.
“It’s not,” she says miserably. “It’s actually in a valley. My goddess, what’s happening? Why is this happening?”
The house is submerged up to the windows. It looks old and weathered, with part of the roof caving in on one side.
It appears far worse than it did just a few days ago.
“It looks like the energy of the house is fueling this psycho,” Giles says, scowling behind his dark-rimmed glasses.
“Breena worked some powerful magic in there,” Lucy reminds us. “She made products for customers, and her personal magic is incredibly strong. Of course, some of that lives on inside the house, especially with her belongings still in there.”
“Well, that’s creepy as fuck,” Lorelei mutters. “We can’t go in there. Absolutely not. I won’t even reach out psychically to look around.”
“No,” Breena agrees, reaching for both Lorelei and Lucy and hugging them to her. “No, we won’t be going back in. It’s lost to us for now, and when all of this is over, I plan to tear it down and have it taken away. I’ll sell the land.”
“I’m so sorry, Breen.” Lucy kisses Breena’s cheek as the three women look at what used to be Breena’s home.
