Page 129 of Surrendering Hope (The Hope Legacy)

“I’m open to better ideas.”

“Why aren’t we shoving him in the Jar the first time we lure him out?” Jed says.

“Because he would be suspicious if I called and said, ‘hey, that Jar you want? It’s yours.’ Also, he won’t expect you to compromise my safety.”

Jed frowns as his mind examines my plan from every angle. “I don’t like it,” he concludes.

Zac leans forward. “He will fall for this, he’s an arrogant monster.” I blink, everyone else freezes and stares at Zac. He doesn’t even notice his own irony, then again he’s the most suspicious person I’ve ever met, he wouldn’t fall for this.

Nathan clears his throat. “Why did you want me here?”

“Do you know the best place in the world to boost a spell?”

He runs a hand over his jaw and glances down the table at Duncan. “Do you have a map of the international ley lines?”

Duncan nods and folds his arms. “Yes, are you thinking of one of the landmarks?”

“Yes, it will be a full moon two nights from now. We can use that to boost the energy.”

“Wait,” I say, “What the hell is ley line?”

“Buffy not cover this one?” Zee smirks.

“She lived over a Hell mouth, that was enough.”

Duncan stands and walks over to the massive bookcase, he pulls out a leather bound volume. He lays it on the table between us and opens it to the center, taking up half the dining table. He unfolds a page, it’s a map of the world with hand drawn curved lines looping over it. Notes in elegant scrawl litter the map.

Duncan points to a place on the map. I twist my head. “Egypt?” I ask.

“Ley lines are grids of energy that connect important sites around the world, such as the great pyramids of Egypt. We use them to boost magic, spells, and for blessings. At certain points in the year, the planets will align to give one place a bigger boost than another. We need to work out where on the planet is the most powerful to coincide with the full moon. We won’t find a better chance of the spell working than that.”

“I have a program for planet alignment,” Aaden mumbles, snapping open his laptop and swapping Emi from his right to left leg.

I trace my finger along the lines, pausing when I come to the island where the Pandora version of me hid the Jar. “Figures,” I mumble, finding it under one of those lines. The original me had all kinds of magical knowledge.

“So these ancient dudes knew to build the pyramids in the right place so it coincided with a ley line, but they didn’t have plumbing?” I ask.

Jed laughs, even Zac smirks. “They might have had some godly guidance,” Zac says.

I blink. “You helped them?”

He shrugs. “They did lots of worshipping, it only seemed fair.”

“You also taught them how to embalm people,” Emi says.

“That’s not so bad,” I say.

Emi tuts. “Whilst they were still alive.”

I stare at Zac in horror as he leans back in his seat, his smirk growing wider.

Aaden spins his laptop around, Duncan and Nathan lean in.

“I think…” Duncan says, looking between the laptop and the map. His finger traces a line across Europe.

“Here,” Nathan finishes, planting is a finger on a small country.

“The UK?” I ask.

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