Page 95 of Hallows End
“Thank you. I hope you enjoy the festivities.”
He simply shrugs. “I’m happy the others like it, but I have never been partial to the holiday. Now, Christmas is a holiday that I enjoy. It will be coming upon us soon.”
“Of course.” I offer him a smile, and Alistair nods and then walks back into the village.
When I turn to the bridge again, I’m still trapped, unable to cross.
Where are you?Lucy’s voice sounds frustrated.
Working on getting back. I seem to have hit a snag.
She’s quiet for a moment.What kind of snag?
I’m trapped, Lucy.
ChapterTwenty-One
The plan is coming together perfectly. Perhaps, rather than just one, there will be three this time.
ChapterTwenty-Two
Lucy
What do you mean, you’re trapped?
But now, there’s no response from Jonas at all.
“Jonas says he can’t get back here,” I announce, hearing the panic in my voice. “Xander, he says he’s trapped.”
“Fuck,” Xander whispers and wipes his hand down his face. “I should have anticipated this.”
“How can it block him?” I ask as the frustration bubbles through me. My stomach is roiling, my breath coming fast as Lorelei drives us over to Breena’s. “How, Xander?”
“I don’t know,” he says grimly, shaking his head. “Let me think.”
I keep trying to reach out to Jonas, but all I can hear are snippets of words as if he’s trying to speak to me through a cell phone and has horrible reception.
“I willnotlose him tonight.”
“We’re going to figure it out,” Lorelei assures me as she parks behind Breena’s car in the driveway. “We’ll get him here. There’s just a weird blip in the matrix or something.”
“This isn’t a movie, Lorelei.”
Nera runs ahead, anxious to make sure that his favorite person is okay.
When we walk into the house, Giles is sitting on the couch, his head in his hands. He looks up at us with haunted eyes and shakes his head.
“This is some fucked-up shit.”
“Is she okay?” I ask him.
“She’s sleeping. I had a hell of a time keeping her awake on the ride home. Finally, I just let her drift off and carried her to bed when we got here. She’s exhausted, as if she ran a marathon or something.”
“She did,” Xander replies.
“Having something like that inside your head is exhausting,” I confirm. “And scary. I understand why she wanted to come home to sleep. Breena has always been one to want comfort.”
“I wanted to stay with her, to lie down with her, but it felt like an intrusion, so I came out here. And that pisses me off, too.”