Page 51 of Hallows End
“I do.” Xander shoulders her out of the way to take a slice.
“The others don’t have fish,” Giles assures her. “Okay, so, what are we doing?”
“Just chilling,” Lucy replies with a sweet smile. “Getting to know each other better. Discussing what we’re going to wear to Friday night’s dance.”
Giles’s eyes narrow. “You’re a smartass, Lucy Finch.”
“We’re researching,” Xander says with his mouth full. “I have a few books over there to go through, all from the eighteen hundreds. Basically, we’re searching for anything that might mention the curse, the town, or anything we think might correlate with what’s going on in Hallows End.”
“Essentially,” Lorelei adds and licks tomato sauce from the corner of her mouth, “we’re searching for a needle in an ocean of hay. That’s more than a haystack.”
“I’m also hitting up message boards.” Breena opens her laptop. “Reaching out to people I know but being careful in how I word things. Don’t worry, I won’t set off any alarms or anything.”
“I trust you,” I assure her and eye the pizza.
“Grab some,” Lucy suggests. “Bambolina is thebest.”
“I honestly don’t usually eat in Salem,” I admit.
“Why? The food’s great,” Lorelei replies.
“Mostly out of solidarity. I have a sense of loyalty to those in Hallows End who eat the same things, day in and out. It’s hardly fair that I can come here and eat this kind of food and they cannot. However, I’m starving, so I’ll eat.”
I snag a slice and return to my chair.
“Now that everyone’s here, we can fill you in on what happened this morning,” Lucy announces and shoves the last of her pizza into her mouth.
I can’t resist reaching over to brush a crumb from her lips.
“Tell us,” Breena says.
I relay everything that transpired from the minute I crossed the bridge into Hallows End until Lucy returned to her home afterward.
“She’s been pregnant forthree centuries?” Lorelei demands and swallows hard.
“That’s what I said,” Lucy agrees.
“I don’t like that things aredifferent.” I shake my head slowly. “It has beenexactlythe same since the night I cast the curse. There’s never been a deviation. Until today.”
“Maybe because we’re working and digging into it? Perhaps we…unstuck something,” Breena suggests. “Like when you’re trying to loosen something, and you wiggle it around until it starts to give.”
“I think that’s exactly what’s happening,” Xander says, speaking for the first time. “Also, Jonas, did you realize that you have three hundred and thirty-three years, to the minute, to break the curse?”
I scowl at the other man. “That can’t be accurate.”
“From what I’ve read, itis. The curse remains in place for those three hundred and thirty-three years, and then it’s simplydone.”
“What happens to Hallows End and all the people there?” Lucy asks.
“They’re gone,” I say before Xander can. His sober, dark eyes tell me I’m right. “Wiped off the Earth as if they never were.”
“Yes,” Xander agrees.
“Absolutely fuckingnot.” Lucy stands to pace.
“Hey, don’t worry,” Lorelei says and takes Lucy’s hand in hers. “It’s been three hundred and thirty years. Right, Jonas?”
“Almost thirty-one,” I reply. “Come Samhain.”