Page 42 of Hallows End

“Probably.” She rests her head on my chest. “What did you have to eat?”

“Something called a lobster roll.”

“Oh, those are my favorites.”

“It was delicious.” I brush my fingers through her hair. “Luciana.”

“Yeah?” She tips her face up to look at me. “What is it?”

“We need to talk about New Orleans.”

She wrinkles her nose and then sighs.

“Okay.”

ChapterTen

Lucy

“How did you learn that they needed help in New Orleans?” Jonas asks after I’ve told him the whole story about how I helped some friends hunt a killer earlier this year. His face remained impassive as he listened to the craziness of what we went through, but his hands fisted when I told him the part about being kidnapped.

“Through a friend,” I reply. “Their coven needed our help, so I went.”

“But your cousins didn’t go?”

“Lorelei was teaching in California, and I knew, given the situation, that Breena shouldn’t go. Not because I think she’s weak, because she’s one of the strongest people I know, but if anything catastrophic happened, I needed her here with the aunts.”

Jonas’s eyes narrow.

I rush on. “Hundreds of people from all over the country came to help. Not just me. And it took every single one of us to finish it. It was terrifying and fascinating all at once.”

“And something I hope you don’t do often.”

I smile at him and reach for his hand. “No, I think vanquishing evil once in my life is enough. Although I have a feeling New Orleans won’t be the last time I’m faced with something sinister.”

Nera yawns on the floor at my feet, then turns on his side to continue sleeping.

“Did you know about New Orleans in 1692?”

He lifts an eyebrow. “I don’t believe many European settlers were in that area until the early 1700s. So, at the time of the witch trials, probably not.”

“Probably not? You don’t remember?”

“It was a long time ago,” he reminds me. “And without any kind of communication systems like telephones or telegraphs or such things, no. We likely wouldn’t have known about explorations happening in the rest of the country until long after it was done.”

“So, how do you know about all of it now?”

“I’ve had a lot of time on my hands and access to a library through the years. I listened. I read.”

“The more I think about it, the more I realize just how bazaar the world will be to the people of Hallows End when they’re set free. I don’t know how they’ll deal with it.”

“I think the first priority is actually setting them free. Then we can worry about the mental health of the people. They will need help, Lucy.”

“They’ll get it.”

“You speak as though it’s a foregone conclusion that we’ll succeed in lifting the curse.”

“Of course, we will. Didn’t you hear the story before? I’ve vanquished evil and come back from the dead. I can handle a measlycurse.”