Blood Witch Read Online Free Page A

After all, Hunter and Sky had both had a profound effect on me, and I couldn’t figure out why. But if Cal wanted to leave it alone, I could respect that. There were things I didn’t want to talk about with him, either. I hopped out of the car and slammed the door behind me, then ran to catch up with him.
    “It’s too bad you don’t have anything else of your mom’s,” Cal remarked as we walked toward the cozy little shop. We both buried our faces in our coats to protect ourselves from the cold. “Like the coven’s tools, its athame , or wand, or maybe your mom’s robe. Those things would be great to have.”
    “Yeah,” I agreed. “But I guess all that stuff’s long gone by now.”
    Cal swung open Practical Magick’s heavy glass door, and I ducked inside. Warm air wafted over us, rich with the scent of herbs. We stamped the snow off our shoes, and I took off my gloves. I smiled. Automatically I started scanning book titles on the shelves. I loved this store. I could stay here and read all day. I glanced at Cal. He was already reading book spines, too.
    Alyce and David, the two store clerks, were both in the back, talking quietly to customers. My eyes immediately flashed from David—with his short gray hair, his unusually youthful face, and his piercing dark eyes—to Alyce. I’d felt a connection with Alyce the first time I had met her. It was Alyce who had told me the story of my birth mother, how her coven had been completely destroyed. From Alyce, I’d learned that Maeve and my father had fled for America and settled in Meshomah Falls, a town about two hours from here. In America they had renounced magick and witchcraft and lived quietly by themselves. Then, about seven months after I was born, they gave me up for adoption. Soon after that they had been locked in a barn, and the barn was set on fire.
    “Have you read this?” Cal asked, breaking into my thoughts. He reached for a book on a shelf near the register. Its title was Gardens of the Craft. “My mom has a copy of it. She uses it a lot.”
    “Really?” I took it from him, intrigued. I hadn’t remembered seeing it in Selene’s library. Then again, there had been hundreds of books. “Oh, this is incredible,” I murmured, flipping through the pages. It was all about laying out an herb garden to maximize its potential, to get the most out of healing plants and plants for spells. “This is exactly what I want to do—”
    I broke off. At the very back of the book there was a chapter titled “Spells to Cross Foes.” An unpleasant tingling sensation crept across my neck. What did that mean, exactly? Could the plants’ magick be used to harm people? It didn’t seem right somehow. On the other hand, maybe a witch needed to know about the negative possibilities of herbal magick—in order to guard against them. Yes. Maybe that knowledge was a crucial part of the big circle of Wicca that Cal had mentioned only moments ago.
    Gently Cal took the book from me and tucked it under his arm. “I’ll get it for you,” he said, kissing me. “As a pre-birthday present.”
    I nodded, feeling my concerns evaporate in a wash of pleasure. My seventeenth birthday was still eight days away. I was surprised and thrilled that Cal was thinking about it already.
    We started walking through the store. I’d never been here with Cal, and he showed me hidden treasures I’d never noticed before. First we looked at candles. Each color of candle had different properties, and Cal told me about which ones were used in which rituals. My mind whirled with all of the names. There was so much to learn. Next we examined sets of small bowls. Wiccans used them to hold salt or other ritual substances, like water or incense. Cal told me that when he lived in California, he and Selene had spent a whole summer gathering ocean water and evaporating it for the salt. They saved the salt and used it to purify their circles for almost a year afterward.
    After that we saw brass bells