Page 70 of Hallows End
“I know, baby. I know.”
ChapterSixteen
Jonas
She’s still sweaty when I lower her gently to the bed and pull the blankets over her. I wipe at her brow with a rag and wish that I could take away the horrible discomfort.
“Tired,” she whispers once more, and I kiss her forehead, then her cheek. I don’t like that she feels feverish. “So weird.”
“Just sleep,” I breathe in her ear. “Nera’s here. Nothing’s going to hurt you.”
She’s already drifted off when I look down at the dog, who’s been agitated with worry.
“You stay with her while I go back down with Lorelei and Breena. Keep guard, and if anything is wrong, come and get me. Okay?”
The big dog nods and jumps up onto the bed, resting his head on Lucy’s chest. He’s alert and on guard, and it relieves my mind to know he’s here with her. Lucy’s hand automatically comes up to stroke Nera’s head as though, even in sleep, he brings her comfort.
Secure in the knowledge that he won’t leave her side, I return downstairs, where Breena and Lorelei glare at a stone sitting on the kitchen table.
“What, exactly, happened here?”
“That happened,” Breena says, pointing to the stone. “Lucy said it was delivered just before she closed. She was expecting it and excited to have it, but when we all opened it, and Lucy touched it, she just…changed.”
“Changed how?”
“She wasn’t herself,” Lorelei says. “She acted drunk and young. Andstupid.She didn’t act that way when shewasyoung and stupid.”
“Selfish,” Breena adds. “Like a kid who doesn’t want to share her toys. And I didnotlike the vibes coming off that thing when I picked it up.”
“Me, either,” Lorelei agrees. “It was beyond creepy. It was…malicious.”
I reach for it and frown when I feel absolutely nothing. “The stone is clean.”
“No way.” Lorelei takes it from me and blinks rapidly. “You’re right. I don’t feel anything at all now.”
“I don’t want to touch it,” Breena says, shaking her head. “I’ll take your word for it.”
“How could it feel so sinister, soawfuljust a few moments ago and like nothing at all now?” Lorelei demands. “What in the goddess’s name is going on here?”
I brush my hand down my face, trying to think clearly, but all I can see in my mind is Lucy, retching and crying.
I couldn’t even reach her telepathically when I ran back here from Astrid and Hilda’s house. I’d never been so damn frustrated.
“Something was attached to it,” I say as Lorelei sets the cracked crystal on the table. “And it transferred itself to Lucy. How it got in, I don’t know.”
“I do,” Breena insists. Her voice is thin with fear. “Lucy brought it in herself. By bringing the box inside, sheinvitedwhatever that was to come inside with it. It must have attached itself somehow.”
“It could still be here,” Lorelei says. “We have to cleanse the whole house. Sage and palo santo.”
“I think we should use the singing bowl, too,” Breena adds. “We need to put all of our tools to work here.”
“I know where Lucy keeps her cleansing tools,” I offer to the others. “Let’s get to work.”
Lorelei chooses a fresh bundle of sage and rosemary and a stick of palo santo from the shop and uses Lucy’s personal bowl to hold the lit bundle and wood, beginning to work her way through the house, moving widdershins to banish.
Breena does the same with a bowl she holds on a pillow, using a thick wand to trace the rim, creating a beautiful noise.
Both women chant protection spells as they make their way through the house toward the open door, ushering out anything bad.