“Yes. He is.” Lucy clears her throat. “When I woke up, I was in that house. With the other girls. One was dead when I woke. I tried so hard to cast some spells to protect the others, but it didn’t work. It was like something blocked my magic in there.”
“It very well could have been,” Miss Annabelle adds. “I know you don’t know any of us, and we’ll introduce ourselves later, just know that all of us are part of the coven, and you’re safe here. I only wanted to add that he likely did cast a spell on that house to ward off any kind of witch.”
“I felt powerless,” Lucy admits softly and stares down into her tea. “And I knew that I couldn’t let on that I was a witch because, well…you know why. He would have made it hell for me. Even more than it already was. Anyway, we heard you earlier today. We heard you walking through the house. The other girls screamed for you, pled for you to save us.”
“But he’d cast a spell, preventing us from seeing or hearing anything,” Lucien says, frustration in his voice. “We were right there. I’m so sorry.”
“He was furious,” Lucy continues with a shiver. “He ranted and raved, stomped around. And then he killed everyone.
“Before that, when he killed a girl, he was always calm about it. Methodical. He clearly enjoyed it. But today, he killed in a rage. I was the last.”
She blinks, then frowns.
“How did you come back to life?” Brielle asks. “How did you heal that wound on your throat?”
Lucy smiles softly and turns, pointing to the tattoo on the back of her neck before turning back to us.
“I assume each of you has an affinity. A gift. Daphne’s is psychometry.” She smiles at me. “I cast a spell on this tattoo. It prevents me from dying at the hands of anything supernatural.”
The room is silent. Finally, Miss Sophia stands and crosses to Lucy, examining the tattoo on the younger woman’s neck.
“I’ve heard of this magic before,” Miss Sophia says. “Whispers, anyway. But we believe that we shouldn’t interfere in life and death, so it’s not something I’ve ever pursued.”
“It’s a spell that can only be cast once for each person,” Lucy says. “So, I cast it on this tattoo. I’ll never lose it. And I agree, we can’t interfere with life and death. But there are some crazy things afoot in Salem, and ninety-nine percent of them aren’t human. I needed the added protection.”
“I wonder,” Millie says, tapping her lips with her finger. “Could this spell be cast on stones? To protect the witches who are coming here to help us? He’ll try to kill them tomorrow.”
“I’m sure I can do that,” Lucy says with a nod.
Suddenly, Millie’s eyes widen, and she looks at Lucien. I can see they’re having a telepathic conversation.
“We’ve never tried that before,” Lucien says thoughtfully. “Never in any other lifetime. It could work.”
“What could work?” Brielle demands.
“I need to do some quick reading,” Lucien says as he stands and hurries from the room.
“You’re all so interesting,” Lucy says and spoons up some soup. “I have so many questions, but there’s no time. We have twenty-four hours until the eclipse.”
Millie turns to Miss Sophia, who now has a broad smile on her beautiful face.
“You’ve figured it out,” she says as tears fill her eyes. “I’m so proud of you.”
“We need this time together,” Millie says. The three of us are up in the attic of Millie’s house, sitting in the same spot we had when Millie showed us the hiding hole where she found the items hidden from her past life.
The rest of the house is quiet. Lucien is reading, and Jackson and Cash are talking quietly in the library.
Miss Sophia and the others went to bed. Even Lucien’s parents decided to spend the night. We’re all safe and under one roof.
Our sanctuary.
“This house is huge,” I inform my sister. “I mean, I knew it was big, but we have thirteen people sleeping here tonight, and there is room for all of them.”
“The inn is officially full,” Millie says with a laugh. “We’re at capacity. But I’m grateful that we have the space. This would have been much more difficult without it.”
We hear a door slam downstairs. Twice.
Then some scraping along the floor in the attic.
“She’s been more active,” Brielle says as she seems to watch something move through the attic. “Your ghost. She’s not just unhappy at having so many people here. She’s also looking out for you and Lucien. I don’t think she was related to you before. She just feels responsible for you. She’s protective.”
A door slams again, and we suddenly hear a baby crying.
“I hear the baby,” I say in surprise.
“I can, too,” Millie whispers. “Yes, things are ramping up, that’s for sure. The energy surrounding the house is just massive. I feel as if my skin is vibrating with it. But it doesn’t feel like bad energy. It’s protective.”
“My abilities are ramping up, too,” I confide. “I can feel emotions now. I can’t read thoughts like Millie can when she lowers her shields, but things are definitely growing and changing. Like my psyche is getting ready for tomorrow.”
“It’s happening with me, too,” Brielle says. “I should also add that the girls are gone now. As soon as we got to the house earlier and found them all, they stopped following me.”
“Thank goodness.” I run my hand down Brielle’s long, dark hair. “I hate that they followed you. It’s just damn creepy.”
“All of this is creepy,” Brielle says with a sigh. “I want to talk about tomorrow night.”
“No.” I shake my head. “I don’t want to overthink it. To overanalyze. We have a plan, a very good one thanks to Lucien, and I know it’s going to work. I don’t want to keep talking about it over and over again.”
“I don’t want to pick apart the plan,” Brielle says with a scowl. “That’s not what I meant. I just wanted to say that I think we should open the doorway between our minds the way Millie and Lucien do with each other. We need to be linked at all times during the eclipse. This asshole likes to separate us. Confuse us. We can’t let him do that.”
“Okay, I agree with that,” I reply with a nod. “I want to be able to reach out to each of you with my mind.”
“We can do that,” Millie says. “It’s a simple spell. Lucien will help.”
We’re quiet for a long moment, soaking in our love for each other and the noises in the house.
“This reminds me of when we were kids.” I reach out for Brielle’s hand. “When we’d hide under the stairs.”
“I hate that house,” Millie whispers. “I’ve never hated anything the way I do that house.”
“And none of us ever has to go back there. We aren’t vulnerable little girls anymore,” Brielle reminds us. “We’re powerful witches. And this son of a bitch underestimated our power.”
“Damn right,” Millie says and covers our hands with hers. “We will come out the other side of this.”