Phantom Quartz: A Stacy Justice Witch Mystery Book 6 (Stacy Justice Magical Mysteries) Read Free Page B

through the closet in my bedroom. It was equipped with security cameras, a couple of laptops, weapons, crystals, and herbs, plus workout equipment and a database of information given to me by the Council. Mom was in Ireland, living with her significant other, Pearce, and that’s who she insisted was speaking.
    But I had my doubts.
    I had met Pearce on a mission to the Emerald Isle on a mission to free my mother, who had been imprisoned in the Council’s castle for committing a crime. After retrieving a priceless artifact, I was able to trade it for my mother’s freedom.
    So I knew Pearce’s voice. And he didn’t have a Midwest accent. He spoke with an Irish brogue.
    Why would she lie?
    I tried to recall my uncle’s funeral, but it was so hazy in my mind that all I could remember was a lot of tears and trying to comfort Cinnamon.
    Of course, there was something else that had had me on high alert these last several weeks—the missing page in the Blessed Book.
    The Blessed Book made up the written history of our family’s lineage and theology. It was recorded by my great-grandmother Meagan, who handed it down to Birdie, who then passed it along to me. It contained records of the high kings who once sat on the hill of Tara, warrior women who fought side by side with men in battle, spells, rituals, magical practices and recipes. It was also filled with predictions for future generations. That’s how Birdie had known, from the day I was born, that I would one day become the Seeker of Justice.
    It didn’t matter to her that I had simply inherited my father’s full name. She believed in my destiny, and finally I believed it too.
    I had just completed the process of uploading the pages of the book to the database in the Seeker’s den, but that missing page—the one even Cinnamon knew about and, I suspected, feared—gnawed at me like an insect boring a hole through my brain.
    My cousin had come to me one day, asking if there was anything in the book about her unborn child. This was unusual, because Cin had never taken an interest in the witchy side of the family. The Geraghty gifts are passed down through the mother, and Cin’s connection to the clan stemmed from her dad. But she was feeling vulnerable at the time, and so with the locket in hand, I searched the book for any passages related to children born in the New World.
    This was what we found:
    The Seeker shall never be alone in the New World, for another child will join her. Together, the pair will battle inner and outer demons, loss, and tragedies great and small. This child, born of two ancient families, will carry a great burden. For the child holds the key to—
    That was all.
    I still hadn’t deciphered who the text was referring to, but one thing was clear—there was something my family was keeping from me—something no-one wanted me to find, because when we turned the page we discovered that the next page had been extracted with such precision that if the text hadn’t been severed mid-sentence, you wouldn’t have known another page had ever been there.
    So where was it? And who cut it out?
    This was the answer I didn’t know, and with my mother acting secretive and Birdie never mentioning any reference to Cinnamon in the book, I got the sneaking suspicion that they were trying to keep whatever it was under wraps.
    Secrets stretch long and far in my family. I knew that most of what they had hidden from me, from Cin, was to protect us. Except now I knew that secrets could get you killed.
    I had tried, to no avail, to use all my powers, all my magic, to discover what had been written on that page. I had even attempted to call forth Meagan, because that was my gift. Birdie was a healer, Lolly could sense thoughts and emotions, and Fiona had a way with love and animals.
    My gift was talking to dead people. And let me tell you, there were a whole lot of them roaming around Amethyst.
    But you cannot force a ghost to talk if she doesn’t want to. At least, I