Phantom Quartz: A Stacy Justice Witch Mystery Book 6 (Stacy Justice Magical Mysteries) by Barbra Annino Read Free Book Online

dozen other women who are going to tell you exactly how you should raise this baby.” I smiled.
    Cinnamon said, “Don’t I know it.” She sighed, “But not yet, anyway.” She patted my hand and stood. “It was false labor. They’re sending me home.”
    “Oh.” I was surprised to hear that. She seemed ready not so long ago. “Okay. I’ll pull the car around.”
    “No, that’s all right. I called mama while you were downstairs. She should be here soon.”
    “That’s not necessary, I can take you.”
    Cinnamon walked over to the bed where her bag was sitting. “No, that’s okay.” She reached inside and pulled out her pants. “Sometimes a girl needs to talk to her mother.” As she said that, she stopped short as if something had terrified her.
    “Are you all right? What’s wrong?”
    She looked at the quilted bag and rolled her eyes, then squeezed them shut and tilted her head down. “I can’t believe I’m going to say this.”
    “Say what?” I began digging in my own bag, looking for the phantom quartz.
    “Agh!” She spun to face me and slapped the bed. I shot her a curious look.
    “Fine. Monique can work at the bar, but you train her.”
    I smiled. “You sure?”
    Cinnamon snapped, “Of course not, so let me finish before I change my mind.”
    I folded my arms and stared at her.
    “I don’t want her there until I take my leave.”
    “Of course.”
    “And she cannot d ecorate. I don’t even want her to bring her own pens!”
    “No pens. Got it.”
    “She can’t wear that raunchy perfume she bathes in, or her stripper shoes, and she has to wear a shirt at all times. And for the love of God, I want her nowhere near my husband. If she so much as blinks at Tony, I’ll carve out her implants and feed them to her in a sandwich.”
    I plucked the present from my bag and walked over to my cousin. “You know, you’re really kind of a softie.”
    “Don’t push it.”
    I held out the box. “For you and the little one.”
    She accepted the gift, and I explained what it was, what it represented, and all the magical properties the crystal held for both she and the baby. “I think you should open it now. Who knows when we’ll get another calm moment alone, and it has to be between just us. I don’t want anyone else’s energy clouding the charge.”
    Cinnamon opened the box and extracted the clear crystal quartz within a quartz. She cautiously placed it on the small table next to the bed and stared at it for the longest time.
    Finally, she looked up and grinned. “It’s beautiful, Stacy, thank you so much.” She ran her hands along the smooth stone, examining every corner and crevice. The phantom quartz stood about sixteen inches tall, hexagonal, with a pointy top and a flat base. The quartz inside was anchored on the bottom in a cluster of smaller crystals, but it too was tall and clear and with a sharp point.
    I explained that I had already cleansed the stone with water and bathed it in moonlight for three days, but that once the baby arrived, I could bind it to both of them. Cinnamon wasn’t well versed on the magick that ran through our family tree since it was passed from mother to daughter. Nor had she ever been particularly interested in it. But she did know a thing or two about the Old Ways simply by being constantly exposed to a family of witches. Although lately I couldn’t help but notice that every once in a while—ever since her pregnancy—my cousin seemed not only curious about magick, but downright entranced, like she was now.
    Her face took on an ethereal glow as she caressed the stone, her eyes swirling with light and flecks of gold I had never seen before. I watched her, carefully calculating if this was the baby penetrating through Cinnamon’s life-force, or if this was all my cousin. Her gaze was intent, as if she were bespelled. She shouldn’t have been. I couldn’t bind the stone to her until the baby arrived, not if I wanted to do it properly, though it was an