Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
“I love this,” I murmur as I link my hand with Xander’s. “What a beautiful way to lift the curse.”
Jonas is incredibly emotional. He’s not crying, but I can see all the hope and fear and love churning in his eyes. I can’t imagine how much this must mean to him.
“Are you ready?” Breena asks. “Does anyone have any questions?”
“We’re ready,” someone calls out, and everyone else nods in agreement.
“Okay.” Breena takes a long, deep breath, and we all instinctively follow suit.
And then, she begins to speak.
“Earth, Fire, Water, and Air, be the answer to our prayer. Banish this curse and leave these lands pure. Tonight we are the blessed cure.”
We repeat the words three times, and then, as a coven, begin to walk very slowly counterclockwise.
I notice the wind first. Clouds form over the starry skies, and lightning streaks through them. Then, the rain begins to fall.
I raise my hands and use the power of the water to fuel me as we repeat the spell. I see others doing the same. Some, like Jonas, draw magic from the fire.
Lucy’s feet glow, and I see she’s pulling energy from the earth.
When we’ve finished moving counterclockwise and pause, I blink, automatically coming to attention when I see other people walking down the dirt road to join us.
“Jonas?”
“Louisa,” he says in surprise. It looks like everyone from his coven was freed when Robert died and are now coming to join us.
I reach out with my mind to see if we need to protect ourselves from their fear, but they’re not afraid.
They’re curious and eager to help.
“Listen to the words and join us,” I say with an encouraging smile. “Please.”
Louisa, who is just lovely, returns the smile and nods.
“We will join you. And then I must know more about you. We know the words. We’ve been listening.”
Jonas’s coven joins ours, mingling into the circle, and once they’re all in place, we begin the spell again, walking clockwise this time.
The energy is unbelievable. All the colors from earlier—the red, orange, yellow, green, and blue—are bright and vivid as we repeat the spell, mingling with the purple of our intuition and intention and haloed by the pure white of goodness and protection. The energy glows around us, pulsating, and if I’m not mistaken, I can hear the ancestors and spirits just outside the glow of the fire, saying the spell with us.
We’re all working together, and it’s the most powerful thing I’ve ever felt in my life.
After the last word has been spoken, Jonas raises his hands and says, “The curse of the blood moon is lifted. As we will it, so mote it be.”
“SO MOTE IT BE!”
The fire shoots up into the sky as if in celebration, and then sparks fly, exploding into a grand display of fireworks.
“We did it!” I jump into Xander’s arms as others dance and hug and cheer.
Jonas is hugging his friends, and when he finds Louisa, he kisses her forehead tenderly.
“Oh, my friend,” Louisa says. “It is over.”
“I have so much to tell you,” Jonas replies, gesturing for Lucy to join him. “This is my wife.”
Louisa’s eyes widen in surprise, her hands flying to her cheeks. Then she laughs. “Yes, we have much to talk about, indeed.”
“What is that light?” one of the townspeople asks, pointing toward Salem. “What are those buildings?”
Amazingly, the barrier is gone.
“That’s Salem,” Xander replies, moving to shake the man’s hand. “And we have much to tell you.”
“I can’t believe we planned this wedding in a week.” I’m standing in my bedroom, my mother fussing over my dress. “It’s been so busy, what with casting the invisibility spell to put Hallows End in a sort of bubble to keep them safe for a while, moving Xander into this house, and all the other things. I don’t know how we did it.”
“We might have had some magical help.” Mom winks at me as she fastens a clip to my hair with some shells and hag stones I collected glued onto it. “There, you’re all ready.”
I stand and look myself over in the mirror. My cousins and Hilda offered to help, as well. Hell, even Agatha is around here somewhere.
And Xander’s mom and grandma stopped by earlier to see if they could do anything.
But I wanted this moment for just my mom and me. She finds my eyes in the mirror and rests her chin on my shoulder.
“You’re the most beautiful bride I’ve ever seen.”
“I think you said that to Breena and Lucy on their wedding days, too.”
“And it was true on those days, as well.” She smiles softly. “I’m proud of you, daughter. You’re a strong woman who doesn’t take any sass from anyone.”
“I learned that from you.”
“Damn right, you did.” Mom smirks, but then she’s serious again. “For a while, I thought you were lost to us. I knew that you had to go out to California to heal whatever it was that hurt you so deeply, but I feared you wouldn’t come home. As a mother, that was my worst nightmare.”