Page 96 of Hallows End
“Why?”
“Because if she’d just talk to me,listento me, we’d be together, and I wouldn’t feel like a damn outsider in her bedroom.”
“It’s not the time for that,” Xander says. His voice is firm but not unkind. “I know you’re impatient, but the time will come, Giles.”
I try to reach out for Jonas, but there’s still nothing. Not even the static anymore.
“I’ve lost my tether to Jonas.” I can hear the quaver in my voice. “For the goddess’s sake, Xander, he could be in danger there.”
“This is where we remind you,” Lorelei says, “that Jonas is a powerful, centuries-old witch who can absolutely handle himself. Lucy, he’s not powerless or weak.”
“Iknowthat.” My frustration is only growing, and I’m agitated. “Jonas can handle anything that comes at him. But, damn it, I love him, and I’m freaking out here.”
“Where is she?” Hilda bursts into the room with Astrid close on her heels. “Where’s my baby?”
“She’s in her room, asleep,” Giles says, but Hilda shakes her head and runs through the house to Breena’s bedroom.
“It has her!” Hilda yells and bursts into Breena’s room.
All of us are knocked back on our butts from the force coming through the doorway.
Standing in the middle of the room in nothing but a sheer nightgown is Breena.
Her eyes are glassy and white. Unfocused. Her blond hair billows in an unnatural breeze, and walking around her, almost ghost-like, is a man.
One I don’t know or recognize.
“Breena!” Giles stands and tries to walk into the room, but it’s as though the doorway is covered in glass, and he can’t get through. We can watch, we canhear, but we can’t go inside. “Goddamn it, you motherfucker, let her go.”
The man looks our way and smiles but doesn’t stop doing whatever he’s doing.
Jonas, where are you? We need your help!
There’s no answer.
“Start the chant,” Xander says. “The same one from earlier at my house.”
Lorelei and I join hands, the others follow suit, and we begin the spell.
Evil be gone, washed clean away, leave this witch free of affliction today.
But after just the first time through,hesimply laughs at us and pulls a long length of rope out of a bag, beginning to loop it over the chandelier in the bedroom.
“Help me,” Breena croaks.
“Godsdamn it,” Giles mutters and tries to break through the door again, failing. “Get me in there, Xander.”
“Not my baby,” Hilda whispers. “No, not my baby.”
I glance over and see my mother standing with her sisters, and when her eyes meet mine, they’re full of grief and sadness as if she knowshewill be successful.
“No,” I say, shaking my head. “Mom, what do we do?”
“Hold on.” Lorelei takes a deep breath before lifting her arms and beginning the recitation of a broken barriers spell.
We join in, and that gives the evil pause. He frowns over at us, and when the barrier is broken, Giles bursts through, and Breena begins to scream.
“HELP ME! GILES! HELP ME!”