Witch Reborn
Books 1-3
(Includes Gemstone Coven Holiday Shorts 1 & 2)
A Very Opal Halloween
Witch of a Godmother
Witch of a Sister
Witch of a Bride
A Very Happy Halloween Birthday
Belinda White
Table of Contents
Title Page
Witch Reborn Box Set: Books 1-3
A Very Opal Halloween | A Gemstone Coven Holiday Short | By Belinda White
A VERY OPAL HALLOWEEN | Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Witch of a Godmother | Witch Reborn 1 | By Belinda White
WITCH OF A GODMOTHER | Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Witch of a Sister | Witch Reborn 2 | By Belinda White
WITCH OF A SISTER | Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Epilogue
Witch of a Bride | Witch Reborn 3 | By Belinda White
WITCH OF A BRIDE | Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Epilogue
A Very Happy Halloween Birthday | A Gemstone Coven Holiday Short 2 | By Belinda White
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Other Books by Belinda White
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be resold or given away to other people.
A Very Opal Halloween
A Gemstone Coven Holiday Short
By Belinda White
Copyright 2019 Belinda White
Kindle Edition
A VERY OPAL HALLOWEEN
Chapter 1
“OKAY, SO SPILL. WHY’S Opal wanting to do a seance on All Hallows’ Eve?”
“Maybe because that’s when the veil between the worlds is the thinnest?”
I could imagine Amie’s look right now. All I could do was imagine, unfortunately. I really needed to get some type of visual with this listening spell. Turn it into an audio and visual type of thing. That would help with the clarity issue. But still, as well as I knew those girls, I probably didn’t need it.
Right about now Amie was glaring at my daughter, Ruby, with what she thought was the signature Ravenswind stare. She was getting better at it, but she still had a long way to go to get it right.
“You know what I mean. We’re in our twenties, and we have yet to do a single seance that I remember. So, why now? What is it that your mom wants from Grand?”
“You think I know?”
“Okay, so what’s your best guess?”
Right about now, Ruby would be chewing on her lip. That was her thinking mode. The girl was lucky to have any lip left.
“Well, seances are pretty creepy, so it would have to be something big, right?” There was silence for a minute. “Oh, have you seen Grand’s spellbook since she passed? Maybe it’s missing or something.”
I had to smile. I had kind of figured that would be their first guess. There was really no reason for me not to tell them, but I wanted to have a little fun with it. They’d never guess in a million years what I wanted from my mother. The one thing that she had failed to pass on to me that I craved with a burning passion. I needed it, dang it all. Enough to do a stupid, and yes creepy, seance.
“Auntie?”
I looked up from the table to find Nancy standing in front of me with a question in her eyes. Taking off my spelled headphones, I smiled at her.
“Good morning, Nancy. Are you ready for breakfast?”
“I could eat.” That particular somewhat squeaky voice didn’t come from Nancy. No, that was Bridget, my Macaw and my familiar.
I looked over at her. “You know where your food is if you’re hungry.”
Nancy giggled as Bridget gave me a stare. A better version of the Ravenswind look than Amie had been able to master yet, if you ask me. “Want a cracker.”
“Can I give her one, Auntie?”
I nodded. “Just one though. She doesn’t need to stuff herself with treats. She’s not as young as she used to be.”
“Who’s a pretty girl?”
Nancy handed her a small treat and gave her a light scratch under the chin. “You are, Bridget.”
I held my breath and gave Bridget a glare of my own. Her beak opened, but when she saw my look, it closed again. I’d been expecting her to come out with her latest phrase. “Damn right.” But we’d had a long talk about her using that in front of Nancy. It wouldn’t do for the girl to pick up curse words from us.
The paperwork to make her stay with us a more permanent one hadn’t gone through yet. That meant we all had to be on our toes for a while longer. We just couldn’t risk a mark against us. As if being known witches wasn’t enough of one to make things more difficult already.
“I’m thinking pancakes and sausage. Sound good?” I figured that would be a sure-fire yes as it combined both of Nancy’s favorite breakfast foods.
She nodded, but she seemed distracted.
“Is everything okay?”
Nancy hesitated. “Can I ask you a question? It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.”
“You can ask me anything, child. If it’s in your best interest that I answer, I will. You should know that by now.” I started walking out into the hallway and across to Sapphire’s old apartment. With my sister back living with her new husband, Nancy and I had kind of taken over the whole downstairs of the farmhouse.
She followed me. “What happens to Dad’s old trailer?”
That one almost tripped me up. Literally. My foot fumbled just the slightest little bit. I was hoping that she didn’t notice.
I waited until we were in
the much larger kitchen to answer. “Well, they didn’t find a will, so everything the man had should go to you. I was thinking you’d probably want to sell it for whatever you could get out of it and maybe put it toward college or something.”
There was a moment’s silence, and it took a lot of willpower not to stop what I was doing and look at her. But I didn’t want to make this a big deal. It was a tricky subject. To give us both a little time, I started putting away the ingredients I'd left out from last night's eggnog experiment. Another failed one.
“You didn’t want to keep it, did you?”
I saw her shudder out of the corner of my eye. Yeah, I didn’t think so.
“Actually, I was kind of wondering if I could give it away.” Nancy reached up and grabbed a mixing bowl out of the cabinet while I pulled the ingredients out of the pantry. We’d done this enough times to separate out the chores.
“Got someone in particular in mind to give it to?”
She nodded. “Yes. My friend Kimberly lives a couple of trailers down from Dad’s trailer. But her home isn’t even as nice as ours was. It’s really just a camping trailer. She doesn’t even have hot water.” The blood started rising in her cheeks. “I used to sneak her in while Dad was gone so she could take a hot shower.”
I had to give my next words some thought. Nancy was young, but she’d been through a lot in her eleven years of life. In a lot of ways, she was as old as I was. A soul aged far too quickly.
“Truthfully, right now everything is probably in limbo. Until the court gets off its... behind... and officially appoints you a guardian, you probably couldn’t make it a legal transaction.” Her face fell. “That doesn’t mean that we couldn’t start cleaning the place up and trying to get it ready for when they do.”
Her eyes flew to mine. “You’d help me?”
“We’ll all help you. In fact, if you aren’t comfortable being there, we’ll just flat out do it for you. It’s what family does, kiddo.”
Nancy whirled around at Ruby’s statement, but I just laughed. “I knew you two would show up soon.” I gave Nancy a quick wink. “You aren’t the only one who likes my pancakes.”
She giggled and a little of the tension eased off. Stepping up onto her footstool, she started mixing the batter. It was hard to let her do it when it just made a bigger mess, but letting her help was the important part.
“Oh, I’m okay helping with it.” She hesitated, the spoon slowing briefly. “As long as someone is there with me.”
“That isn’t a problem, Nancy,” Amie said reaching into the fridge for a small packet of blueberries. She held them up to me, and I nodded. Then she dumped them into the batter. “And if you want, I can look in my legal books and see what the process would be for you to give it away. As the legal heir, you should have that right.”
“Thanks, Amie. That would mean a lot.”
In a matter of minutes, there were two tall stacks of pancakes and a large plate of sausage links ready for the eating. We settled down at Sapphire’s table and dug in. Dang if those blueberries didn’t really make the griddle cakes pop. I’d have to remember that for next time.
“So, Nancy, now that you’ve managed to do something Amie and I never could and got Mom to agree to let us have a real Halloween party, we need to get together and plan it all out. It’s only a few days away, you know.”
Amie nodded. “Yup, lots to do to get ready too.” Then she paused, and I braced myself. The girls weren’t nearly as sleek as they thought they were. “Do you guys remember that spell Grand did that time with the bedsheets and the levitation chant? She had the whole town convinced that the graveyard was haunted.”
“I remember that!” Ruby said. Then she looked over at Nancy. “I wish you could have met Grand. She was really something. That year the kids were complaining that nothing ever happened on Halloween and that if the Ravenswind witches were worth their salt, Halloween would be a lot more fun.”
“Not sure if peeing yourself could be considered fun for them, but watching them run sure was fun for us,” I agreed. “You know, they never complained about boring Halloweens around here after that.”
Ruby nodded. “I know, right? I was wondering if we could use that spell, or maybe a toned-down version of it, for the haunted trail leading up to the bonfire at the clearing. I mean, she had to have written it down in her spellbook, right?”
I took another bite to hide my smile. I’d known it was coming, but they had made pretty short work of it all the same. Chewing extra slowly, I let them stew for a minute or so.
“I’m sure she did.” Then I paused to take a drink of juice. They probably thought they were being very clever indeed, but I saw the quick glance between the two of them. The art of being subtle wasn’t exactly a known Ravenswind trait. “In fact, I’ll stop by the safe deposit box and take a look for you. It could be a fun one to use that night. With a few modifications, anyway.”
Amie took a deep breath. “Okay, then, that’s settled. And after the bonfire, when the rest of the guests leave, we all have our little seance to try to contact Grand, right?”
Like I said, subtlety wasn’t prominent with us.
“That’s the plan,” I said, smiling. “But if either of you girls knows of a good thirteenth person for that last event, please let me know.” I nodded at Amie. “And yes, Opie and his dad have already agreed to stay for it. Just need one more for a good, witchy number.”
I could tell from their expressions no one jumped to mind for them either. Ah well. With the power we had in our combined family and friends, along with the thinning of the veil on All Hallows’ Eve, we still should be able to reach Mom.
If not, I was doomed to yet another unfulfilled year of desperate craving.
Chapter 2
MONDAY MORNING DAWNED bright and early, and I was not one bit closer to solving the dilemma of the thirteenth seance guest. I pushed the nagging thought to one side and went about my normal start of the day routine.
We’d pretty much gotten it down to a science of sorts. Once school had started back, and the shop had reopened, it had taken a bit of work to get all the wrinkles ironed out. But now pretty much every school day morning was the same.
We rose, we ate a quick meal of cereal and fruit, and Ruby and I dropped Nancy off at school on our way to work. With all the crazy things that had happened to our family in the last few months, the shop’s hours had been cut. Now we were open from eight to four every day, and our only evening hours were on Thursday. If any local witches needed anything outside of those hours, and they were in desperate need, they knew to come to the farmhouse. We’d sell from our private stock if need be to help them out.
I was a bit excited at the thought of Halloween looming only a few days away. That seance had better work. I’d waited for this long enough. It still kind of irked me that Mom had left this world without passing that little item on. She’d known how much it meant to me.
The morning and early afternoon passed by rather briskly as the shop was always busy at the first of the week with witches restocking from a weekend of spelling and potions. But by around three, things had slowed down.
“Ruby, if you’ll be okay for a bit here alone, I might run over to the Flour Pot and see if I can order some pastries for the bonfire. I want to make sure we have a good variety for the adults. I know the kids will mostly go for the candy, but it would be nice to have something for everyone.”
When we’d posted the flyers about our little event, we’d made it plain that any children under the age of twelve had to be accompanied by an adult. Not that we planned to scare the crap out of them—well, at least I didn’t plan to—it was just safer that way. Having Sheriff Taylor and his young son Opie helping out was a big relief too. That should keep things from getting too out of hand.
“That’s cool.” Ruby paused for a minute. “And it really would be nice to have that spell of Grand’s if you have time to stop by the bank.”
I nodded and left. Unfortunately,
I didn’t quite make it down the street to the little coffee shop before my phone rang.
A glance at the number brought a frown on. Amie didn’t generally call me.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Aunt Opal. Is Nancy by chance with you?”
My heart skipped a beat or two. “No, she should have come home on the bus. Is she not there?”
“No, and the bus drove by about ten minutes ago. It didn’t even stop.”
That wasn’t good. “I know the bus driver. I’ll give her a call and see if I can find out what’s going on.”
“Should I start looking for her?”
“No. You need to stay there in case she comes home. If she does, give me a quick call as soon as you can.”
I hung up without preamble and dialed Fannie McGuire, the local bus driver. As small as Wind’s Crossing was, we only had the one. Came in handy in times like this.
“Fannie, was Nancy on the bus tonight? Amie just called and said you didn’t stop to let her out at the farmhouse.”
After listening to her for a minute, I felt my face set. I wasn’t happy, but I thanked her for letting me know and hung up. Nancy had gone to the trailer park instead of the farmhouse. Without telling me. That last part was the part that had me the most upset.
I was starting to regret my decision not to let her have a cell phone. That was a ruling I might have to relent on very soon. As it was, my only option now was a quick drive over to get her.
The small park was just as depressing as ever. Although knowing that Nancy no longer had to call the place home helped that a little. At least I’d gotten her out of there.
It didn’t take long to find her. She was playing in a small yard with a younger boy. He looked to be about five or six. When she heard the car coming down the small gravel lane, she looked up. I could see her swallow from here.
I parked the car by the small camper’s mailbox and took a deep breath. It had been a while since I’d had to handle a younger child’s insubordination. I’d grown used to dealing with more adult problems. I tried telling myself that at least she was safe, but it still ticked me off that she had come here without telling me. Or anyone, for that matter.
Witch Reborn Box Set: Books 1-3: Includes Gemstone Coven Holiday Shorts 1 & 2 Page 1