Witch Reborn Box Set: Books 1-3: Includes Gemstone Coven Holiday Shorts 1 & 2

by Belinda White

  With good cause too. I was the Goddess’ High Priestess, after all. At least, I was her High Priestess for the Gemstone Coven. To me, that was all that mattered.

  He backtracked. Big time. “So, not something that can be done tonight then, right?”

  I nodded.

  Orville thought for a minute. The space of two whole bites. We were winding down on the eating. Personally, I was thinking I should have worn a skirt with an elastic waistband. It was getting a mite uncomfortable.

  “Okay, so just in case whoever it was does come back tonight—maybe with better tools than a credit card—I have a couple of options for you to help protect your shop.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “Well, my favorite is option number two.”

  Up went my eyebrow again. “Then let’s start with option number one, shall we?”

  He took a deep breath. “Had a feeling you’d say that.” He took one last bite of his soup beans and then pushed the bowl back and looked at me. “The shop is within easy walking distance from here. I can drive my squad car down and park it at the back of your shop. An empty sheriff’s vehicle generally gives people up to no good enough worry to change their plans. Then I can walk back here.”

  Sounded like a decent enough plan to me. “And what’s option number two?”

  He grinned at me. “You still have that mattress in the upstairs of the shop, right?”

  I leaned back in the chair and thought about it. Orville knew if he asked me to spend the night here, I’d say no. Even though he asked every single time. Neighbors had a way of knowing when people spent the night. Even people who came in through the family and friends back door.

  But with all that being said, the two of us had, on more occasion than one, taken full advantage of that upstairs mattress at the shop.

  And, truthfully, right now, option number two sounded mighty good to me too. A gal had to burn off the extra calories somehow, right?

  Chapter 3

  I didn’t like the smile on Kimberly’s face when she and the kids made it to the shop the next day. Yes, I’d called to tell her I was going to spend the night at the shop in case the would-be drawer thief came to try again. But I hadn’t mentioned a thing about the sheriff staying with me.

  Her smile told me that I really hadn’t had to.

  “So, here’s the change of clothes you asked me to bring,” she said, handing me a hanger with a neatly pressed dress on it. Then she sniffed the air. “Is the sheriff here?”

  I frowned at her. “No, why do you ask?”

  She shrugged. “Just smells a little like his aftershave. Must be left over from yesterday, huh?” Then she gave me that knowing smile again, got the baby settled into her daytime wearable harness, and went through to open the shop.

  What could I do? Absolutely nothing. I trusted Kimberly not to go running her mouth off around town. After all, as I’ve said before, she’s family now.

  My first call of the morning was to my sister, Sapphire. It was a little easier to call her and ask for help than to call and ask the Minehearts directly. Even if, technically, she was one of them now. Come to think of it, I’d never thought to ask her if she’d changed her last name over. I certainly hoped not. But still, marriage brings one into the family, name or no name.

  I still had trouble believing my own sister went and married an Earth witch. Even harder to believe was that my own daughter seemed to be following in her footsteps. Not that Arc was a bad young man. He just wasn’t an Air witch. Sue me, but I wanted the best for my daughter.

  I haven’t given up hope on that front yet. They’d just recently moved in together. Things usually got very interesting in a relationship when that happened. There was still time for it all to fall apart.

  “Hello, Opal. I do hope this fine morning finds you well.”

  “It does, sister. Now can we cut through the formal friendly banter and get down to brass tacks?”

  She laughed. “Of course. I take it you need something?”

  “Unfortunately, yes. Someone broke into my shop night before last, and I’m thinking about setting up a night time only protection ward.”

  There was a brief silence from her end of the phone. “Ah, I see. So you really want to be talking to my husband then.”

  I shivered. “No. I want to talk to my sister and have her talk to her husband for me.”

  Another laugh. I was glad one of us was enjoying this. Wish it was me.

  “Sorry, I couldn’t resist. What kind of ward are you thinking about?”

  “Nothing quite as full-blown as the Mineheart Fireworks spell.” I thought about it. Something that I probably should have done before dialing her. “Maybe something like our protection bracelets? That tells us when one of the family is in danger? Would that be possible? Just add a gem to tell me if someone was in the shop?”

  “Interesting idea, actually. But I have no reason to believe it wouldn’t work. Let me see if Lily is free this afternoon. If she is, the two of us can come over, and between all of us, we’ll figure something out.” She paused. “If that works with your schedule, that is. Ruby’s still off doing her own thing, isn’t she?”

  I grimaced. That was a sore spot with me. It was one thing to move into another home, and another thing entirely to quit her job here at the shop. Kimberly was great at the front of the shop duties. But she wasn’t a witch.

  She did me absolutely no good with the preparation of spells. I missed Ruby sorely when it came to that.

  “Yes, she is. I’m afraid her days here at the shop are pretty much over, even if she hasn’t exactly come right out and told me that. Absence speaks louder than words sometimes. She seems to have left the old life pretty much behind her now.”

  “That tends to happen, you know. When it was just you and her, she felt obligated to be there. Now, not so much.”

  “Exactly. But Kimberly is working like a charm. The customers love her, and she takes care of the baby and the front shop all at the same time. She’s quite the worker.” If truth be told, she was twice the worker Ruby ever was. Maybe more. But then again, she might just be trying really hard to prove herself to me. I didn’t think that was all of it though. She really was a gem. One that I was extremely pleased Nancy had brought into our lives.

  For more reasons than just as a shop worker too. Baby Pearl was special in her own right. Very special.

  “So, you’d be free?” Sapphire asked, getting me back on track.

  “Anytime you are.” I hesitated. “But is Lily the right one to help? As much as it pains me to ask this, don’t you think we might need an Earth witch?”

  She laughed. “I keep forgetting that you don’t know Lily as well as I do. For a hedgewitch, she’s very... well, scary. Proficient, too, but more scary. Trust me when I say you do not want to get on her bad side. She can make your Karma spells look like blessings.”

  I straightened. Lily might be good, but I highly doubted that she was that good. Still, not worth arguing about. Especially as it looked like I’d be needing her help either way.

  “Sorry, dear,” Sapphire said. “I shouldn’t have said that. I don’t mean to cast dispersion on your Karma spells. And I really don’t want a battle between the two of you as to who is the scariest witch of all. The world isn’t ready for that. May never be.”

  My feathers were still a tad bit ruffled, but so be it. I needed the help.

  I RAN THE OLDER KIDS to school, then stopped off for our coffee and Chai tea on the way back. Minus the Raspberry Delights, though that was very hard for me to leave out. But my dress seemed to be a little tighter than I remembered it being, so I could do without the added sugary calories for one day.

  Instead, I popped by the market for some fruit and yogurt. Yum. Well, not really yum, but edible anyway. Then I poured myself into catching up paperwork and all the accounting type stuff that goes with it.

  We closed the shop for a short half-hour around noon to go out and grab a bite to eat. That wasn’t an eve
ryday occurrence, but it happened regularly enough to not throw our customers into too bad of a frenzy. They’d see by the sign in the window that we’d be back shortly.

  There were days when you just didn’t want to have food delivered. Most days we brought our lunches from home. That had been far too much to ask of Kimberly, seeing as how she’d had to get three kids ready and out the door by herself this morning.

  So lunch was on me.

  We’d barely turned the corner on our way back when Lily’s van pulled up at the curb in front of the shop.

  After a few minutes of making over baby Pearl, and a quick switchover of the wearable baby harness to Sapphire who insisted on more baby time, we made our way into the back room.

  Lily’s eyes hadn’t stopped moving since she entered my shop, but I noticed they widened considerably when we stepped into the back. They weren’t on the door, or the lonely little window, or even the damaged desk. They were centered on my shelves upon shelves of magical ingredients.

  She hesitated, then looked toward me with an arched eyebrow. “May I?” She motioned to the shelves.

  I nodded. If my sister vouched for this hedgewitch, then that was good enough for me. Plus, of course, after today with no bad luck, I’d know the instant anyone entered the shop in my absence. That helped too.

  If I’d thought her eyes were wide at the sight of the shelves filled with ingredients, potions, and brews, then I was amazed at their width once she got her eyes on some of the labels.

  She swallowed and walked back over to us. “That’s quite a fine selection you have there. And I understand you sell them to the witch public?”

  “I do. But I should warn you, some of them don’t come cheap. At all.”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t expect them to.” She paused, glancing back at one particular bottle. “Might one ask where you got your hands on actual dragon scale powder? I’d honestly thought it was a myth, but then I’ve run into a spell or two that require it. None of the ingredients I’ve tried substituting even come close to what the end result should be.”

  “They wouldn’t. And that’s one of the rarest things I’ve managed to find.” I shivered and hugged myself at the thought of the thief taking that small little bottle instead of trying to go for a drawer of an old desk. Perhaps I’d better think twice about leaving that little item here. Home might be a much safer place for it. After all, the wards there were quite substantial and at work twenty-four hours a day. Not a bad thing for an item so rare that getting a replacement was the next best thing to impossible.

  “But you did find it. Actual dragon scale powder? How? And more importantly where?”

  Shaking my head, I gave her what I hoped was a sad smile. “Unfortunately, I’m not at liberty to disclose that. My contact requires extreme secrecy. If I tell one witch their name or how to find them, they’ll never sell to me again. Believe me when I say I simply can’t risk that happening.”

  Lily nodded slowly. “Understood. I suppose if one had access to a living legend such as a dragon, one wouldn’t want that getting out, now would one?”

  “One would not.”

  “So, ladies,” Sapphire said, obviously ready to change the subject and get to work. “Where do we start?”

  It was nice of Sis to include me in the ladies, but we all knew who she was really talking to. This was Lily’s show. Sapphire and I were just there to do whatever she told us to do and provide any magical juice that she might need.

  In the end, it wasn’t all that difficult. One might say that Lily made it look rather easy. Not that I could have done it on my own. Goddess forbid. But the three of us made a rather efficient trinity. And, in case you are wondering, trinities are very powerful things in the world of witches. Especially when two of them happen to have the last name of Ravenswind. And yes, I asked. Sapphire had kept her name.

  That made me feel a bit better about the whole thing. Not by much, but every little bit helped. And even though I don’t want to, I’d admit that the Earth witches had been rather helpful to have on our side of things these last few months.

  By mid-afternoon, the spells were finished, carried out, and even tested. We were a go. The central on and off basic item was an ornate pendant we took from the front shop. I’d had my eye on it for a while now, anyway. Kind of glad no one had bought it. I’d have been kicking myself if they had. But in this business, one can’t keep everything one falls in love with. If one did, they would end up with an attic space like my sister’s. Not a good thing.

  Downright fire hazard if you asked me.

  The spell mechanism was a simple one. Once we closed up for the night, I would turn the pendant’s stone toward my skin and tuck it under my shirt. I was afraid if it just lit up, I might miss it in the middle of the night while I was sleeping. This way, I’d feel it instead.

  If anyone entered the shop, no matter how they did so, the pendant would start warming. And keep warming until I acknowledged it. At that point, it would be up to me to call Orville to get his heiny over to my shop and jump in my car and drive like a bat out of heck to get there too.

  I wanted pretty badly to know who started all of this.

  The spell tested out great, and I felt confident that it would all work out. If whoever had tried to steal that drawer came back, we’d have them.

  Unfortunately, I let that confidence keep me from doing what I should have done with two extra witches there and willing and ready to help out. I should have gone one step farther and cast the unbreakable spell on the glass in the window.

  Yeah. That might come back to bite me in the heiny.

  Chapter 4

  I know that I’m allowed to have personal time for myself. Everyone is. But that didn’t stop me from feeling guilty about it when I actually took it.

  So, to make things up a bit to Kimberly, I took control of the kids for the evening. I gave them choices. We could bundle up and go for a walk in the woods, or we could turn up the heat a touch and stay in for a board game night.

  It was a tough decision, but the board games won out. We sent Kimberly upstairs for a nice long bubble bath and some much needed quiet time to herself and settled in to play the dinosaur version of Chutes and Ladders. Who knew they even had such a thing?

  Nancy, that’s who. Well, thanks to her new tablet that had access to the internet and online shopping. Thanks to her, we now had a fairly decent game cabinet. Last Christmas had helped that along nicely.

  We all sat around the table and played. Baby Pearl got a little extra time in her swing, so she wasn’t complaining either. For a game I’d never played before, it was rather fun. The dinosaurs were a nice little addition too. Mason knew all the dinosaurs’ names and taught me fun little dinosaur facts as we played.

  Well, fun for him. So who was I to complain about that? Nancy and I shared a few grown-up looks, but he didn’t seem to notice. It kind of left me wishing that Nancy was a little more childlike herself. Although, by the time we made it to the end of the game, that hidden part of her was showing through a bit. We’d definitely be doing this more often.

  Having a good childhood might have come a little late for her, but we could for sure try to make up for a little lost time. Weekly game nights might be a good start to that.

  Once that game was over, we opted for a rousing game of Hungry Hungry Hippos, in which the kids beat me soundly. I’d like to say that’s because I let them win, but who am I kidding? I couldn’t have beat them in a week of Sundays. They were fierce.

  They tried for more games, but I pulled the plug. The games had gotten a bit too lively there at the end, and we needed a good way to relax and calm down a bit before bedtime.

  I sent them in to pick out a good movie while I heated a bottle and got Pearl ready for bed. I should have known it would be Frozen... again. Nancy loved the love story and Mason? Well, Mason adored Olaf and the reindeer with attitude. For the life of me, I could never remember his name. But then I tended to zone out when watching movies. Even the good ones
that I hadn’t seen a half dozen times already.

  About halfway through, Kimberly came down the stairs and took baby Pearl from my arms. She was zonked out, but I’d been enjoying the feel of a baby in my arms again. We might have a rather weird relationship, Pearl and I, but in the end, she was a baby. Regardless of the age of the soul inside her.

  Who knew how old any of our souls were? They could well be timeless entities, spending lifetime after lifetime here on earth. Or, then again, just perhaps the Goddess had pulled a few strings to get my mother back into a body again.

  Either way, we’d probably never know. That was okay. Life should have some mystery to it. Death, too, for that matter.

  The movie ended, and for once the kids didn’t beg for another half hour of up time. I walked them upstairs and saw them into their pajamas and through their nightly teeth brushing and hygiene routine. Then I tucked them into their respective beds and came back downstairs.

  Energy is so wasted on the young. Or perhaps they get their abundant energy by siphoning it off of us adults. Spending one full evening in the company of three youngsters shouldn’t have tuckered me out as much as it had. I was getting out of shape. Maybe I should take Orville up on that gym membership. Wouldn’t do to start losing my edge now.

  I already had people breaking into my shop. If they started seeing weakness in me, what might come next? I didn’t really want to know the answer to that one.

  People, in general, had the worst natures of all the Goddess’ creatures.

  “Who’s a pretty girl?” Bridget asked the instant my foot crossed the threshold into my personal space. I crossed over to her and scratched the offered chin. Obviously, that wasn’t enough, because she repeated herself. “Who’s a pretty girl?”

  Bridget was my macaw parrot and my familiar. In my books, having a familiar that could talk just made sense. Beats a furball of a feline any day of the week, if you ask me.

  I gave her a tired smile because I knew the routine as well as she did. “You are, Bridget.”