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I laugh and lift Lorelei into my arms, kissing her hard before setting her back on her feet.
“No.”
“Damn.”
“I would offer to run out and buy champagne to celebrate,” Giles says, “but I think we have to finish this other thing before we can do an engagement celebration.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” Lorelei sighs, but the grin on her face is one of pure happiness. “We’ll party it up later. Then I have wedding plans to make.”
“You have a week.”
She spins and pins me with a shocked gaze. “What?”
“I want to get married on Samhain.”
“This Samhain?” she demands. “Like, the one that falls in a week?”
“That’s the one.”
“Why the hurry?” Lucy asks. “Yes, I know, I got married in like four minutes, but seriously. Why the rush?”
“Because I’m done not having that permanent tie to you.” I’m staring down into her gorgeous green eyes as I push her hair over her shoulder. “So, we can elope—”
“Oh, hell no,” Lucy objects.
“—or you can plan a wedding in a week.”
“I’ll make it happen,” Lorelei promises me. “I have everything we’ll need anyway, and I also have some pretty amazing women in my life who can help with the details.”
“I love this,” Breena says with a soft, dreamy smile. “Okay, focus. We have a curse to lift, you guys.”
“That’s right,” Giles says. “And my original question stands. How are we going to get the entire coven into Hallows End? And won’t that freak everyone there out?”
“I suspect I can explain what’s happening to everyone when we walk into town,” Jonas says, tapping his chin as he thinks it over. “It might be odd to see a whole coven cross the bridge in the light of day, but—”
“Tonight,” Breena says, shaking her head. “We’re going tonight. We can make it happen.”
“It’s almost eleven now,” Lorelei says. “Breena, our own coven will be sleeping, and we have to fill everyone in.”
“It has to be tonight.” Breena lifts her stubborn chin. “I know we can do this, you guys.”
“I’m starting the phone tree,” Lucy announces as she reaches for her phone. “I’ll call the aunts first.”
“We need crystals,” Breena says, turning to Giles. “Big ones, not the small tumbleds.”
“I have a lot of bigger geodes at the shop,” Giles replies. “No problem.”
“We have to incorporate the tapestry into this,” Breena says, chewing her lip. “But I don’t know how. It’s flat. I don’t know what to do with it.”
“Why don’t we mount it?” I suggest. “I can make a stake in the shape of the algiz rune, adding more protection, and mount the tapestry to that.”
“Brilliant,” Breena says excitedly. “Yes, that’s perfect.”
“The aunts are calling more people now,” Lucy announces. “I told them to meet us by the gardens at my place. Since Hallows End is basically next to my property, that made sense to me.”
“Good idea.” I nod and take a deep breath. “Let’s go solve this puzzle and lift a curse.”
“Thank you all for coming so late.” I raise my hand, making the nearby fire build higher so I can see my coven clearly. Suddenly, Jonas raises his hand, and twinkle lights begin mingling between everyone, lighting up the area like lightning bugs.
I turn to him and raise an eyebrow.
“You’re not the only one with tricks,” Jonas says with a grin. “This will help us see.”
“Oh, this is pretty,” Breena says, a happy smile on her face. “I want to learn this spell.”
“I’ll teach it to you,” Jonas promises. “The way you taught it to me when I was a boy.”
“Huh?” Mom blinks, obviously confused. “I think you need to catch us up on some things.”
“I will. Don’t worry. Anyway, as I was saying, thank you again for coming so quickly.”
With hardly a moment’s notice, everyone came to Lucy’s property right at the edge of the bridge that leads over to Hallows End.
“If you’ve figured out a way to lift that curse,” Percy says, “we’ll happily come and do everything we can to help. You know that.”
“And I appreciate it.”
“We all do,” Jonas adds.
Not only did my coven family come, but they also came prepared, bringing their familiars, their tools, and wearing magical clothing.
They’re ready for war.
I hope, with everything in me, that it doesn’t lead to that, but it’s good to know we’re prepared if it does.
“We’re all going into Hallows End,” I inform them, filling them in on what we’ve just learned about Breena and Jonas this evening. “We found the spell to lift the curse, and the tapestry is finished. We have all the tools we need to lift this curse and free Hallows End.”
“We need to join forces with Jonas’s coven,” Lorelei continues as she slips her hand in mine and holds on tightly. I can feel her magic flowing through her, and it bolsters mine. “Obviously, they won’t understand at first, but Jonas is sure we can explain enough to them to convince them to help us.”
