Phantom Quartz: A Stacy Justice Witch Mystery Book 6 (Stacy Justice Magical Mysteries) (23 page)

Chapter 48

I had to sit down. I was completely floored. This changed everything.
Two
shifters? And Uncle Deck wasn’t alive after all. So much was happening at once, my head was spinning and a dizziness overcame me.

After it passed, I looked at Angelica. “So you have magic too?”

She shrugged. “I am mostly kitchen witch, same as Cinnamon, but her powers don’t come until baby.”

“And the baby?”

Angelica said, “If it come from just me, then not yet. But it come from grandmother Birdie too. So maybe Cinnamon different. She have magic all the time, she just didn’t believe. So we wait to tell her.”

Oh boy.

Birdie let me sink all of that in for a few seconds. Then she launched into a story about five teenagers playing at magic-making. Mom’s little group was called The Fifth Element. Evelyn was the leader of the pack. It was after her brother disappeared that Evelyn went digging for answers and ancestry and learned about the legend of the miner and the captain. Uncle Deck and my mother were tops on her list to join her coven because of the Geraghty reputation. Birdie thought that Penny Byrne joined because she was mom’s best friend and that Monique’s mother went along because her sister had disappeared the same day as Ponyboy. They were all terrified that they would be next or that their future children would suffer the same fate. That’s how legends morph into nightmares, fueled by the fear and imagination of people clinging to fairytales of good versus evil.

So while the history itself had some truth to it, as I had witnessed, the fantasy of children being stolen was drummed up by one very troubled girl who didn’t understand her mother’s power and couldn’t control her own magic.

“So when Angelica came to me and told me that your mother had called to question her about your uncle, looking for a map to some treasure, I knew something was suspicious. I knew she had belonged to that little group back then, and I didn’t mind as long as she was just practicing magic. I never dreamed that the basis of it was steeped in a horror story.”

“So we decide to do some investigating,” Angelica said. “Lisa go undercover as my husband.”

“I’m sure mom was shocked to see him.” And probably upset to learn they had deceived her too.

“She say she think he was alive all the time,” Angelica said, a wistfulness to her voice.

Birdie chimed in. “Evelyn was obsessed with finding the lost treasure and returning it as a gift to the council. Repentance, she thought. Blood money if you ask me. Sloane always had a soft heart when it came to friendship, and I’m afraid she let her judgment lapse when she agreed to help her.”

Lisa said, “When Evelyn asked about the locket, we gave her the map instead. We wanted her to focus on the treasure, but Birdie thought the locket needed to be protected just in case.”

“So the map mom gave Evelyn. That was real?” I asked.

“Well it was a real map of the old mines, but it didn’t lead to any treasure,” Birdie said. “That part we altered. No one knows where the real treasure is buried.”

Angelica gave me a pensive look. “Baby was not to come for weeks. We thought Evelyn may steal locket, but not baby. Never baby.”

“So instead
you
stole the locket and put me in danger,” I said to Birdie.

“No. We stole it to keep you safe,” Lolly said.

“Until we got plastered and blew the whole plan,” Fiona said.

“But why the locket?” I asked. “Why give it to Lisa?”

“Because it’s the key to something very valuable that only you can open,” said Birdie. “And who better to guard it than a shifter? She could blend into any situation. Disappear if she had to.”

I smirked. “Something only I can open, huh? I won’t be able to open it from prison.”

“You won’t be in prison if the plan works.” Birdie gave Angelica a conspiratorial look.

“What plan?” I asked, a prickliness crawling down my spine.

Birdie slipped her hand into her pocket and produced a copy of the page of the Blessed Book that had been haunting me.

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—

She nodded to Angelica who pulled a page out of her own pocket. She handed it to me. It was written in Italian.

“Yeah, I have no idea what this says,” I said, scanning it.

Lisa peeked over my shoulder and read aloud.

—forging a new governing body that will uphold the laws, ethics, and triads set forth by the Old Ones. The pair will continue to protect the treasures of this world, great and small, defending the sacred oaths set forth by all Councils of the New Alliance.

I looked at my aunt, seemingly for the very first time. She was still Angelica with her plump cheeks and hot chocolate hair, but there was a soft aura radiating from her now I’d never seen before.

“So you—your family—you belong to a Council too?” I asked.

She nodded. “My grandmother write that. She was visionary. It seems that she and Meagan knew each other. They work together back then. Not so segmented like now.”

“So they must have seen something in the future that made them divide the pages. One in your book, one in mine.” The page hadn’t actually been cut out after all. The second part had never even been in the Blessed Book.

Angelica nodded. “Wise women.”

I looked at Lisa. “But how can you shift? I thought it was against the rules.”

She shrugged. “Italian Council not so strict.”

I read the pages again, trying to comprehend everything they were throwing at me. “What does this mean?”

Birdie said, “It means that for too long and for too many years, the Council has doled out the harshest, most inhumane punishments. It means that they no longer abide by the codes the Druids set forth, but have been running their own selfish agenda.” She squared her shoulders, took a deep breath. “It means we’re going to overthrow the Council and implement a new world order.”

I looked at her, stunned. “And how do you propose we do that?” I asked.

The Geraghty Girls each exchanged a look with Angelica.

“We help,” Angelica said.

“Help how? What’s the mission?”

Birdie said, “You’re going to find the Irish Crown Jewels. The very treasure the captain stole.”

Well sure, that’ll be a piece of cake.

A thought occurred to me then. “Well I guess it’s good that the second passage was never written in our book.”

“And why is that?” Birdie asked.

I sighed and ran my hands through my hair. “Because I uploaded the book to the database. And the Council has confiscated it.”

Birdie looked like she wanted to strangle me. I couldn’t blame her.

Chapter 49

I washed up, borrowed sweats from Fiona, grabbed a plate of cookies, then climbed up the stairs to visit my mother. I tried to process everything I had just learned. Cinnamon was a witch, Angelica was a witch, they wanted me to overthrow the very Council that was about to put me on trial, and somewhere, there was a treasure only I could open.

All in all, a typical day at the Geraghty house.

They told me that initially Lisa was going to simply steal the locket so that Evelyn couldn’t, which was why she was lurking around my front porch, not knowing I was wearing it, but when I showed up unexpectedly, they had to switch tactics. Apparently, they cooked up their scheme while I was talking to Chance. I asked Birdie why all the theatrics, why threaten to destroy the Seeker’s Den? She shrugged. “We had to make it look good.”

I knocked gently and Mom told me to come in.

She was sitting on the bed, staring out the window, a faraway look on her face.

“I heard you’re grounded,” I said. “So I brought cookies.”

She rolled her eyes and accepted the Snowman-shaped cookie. I took one too and set the plate on the side table.

“So I guess you’ve come to lecture me.” She bit the head off the snowman and chewed.

She wouldn’t yet know what had happened in the caverns. She’d been trying to help a friend—a crazy friend, but a friend nonetheless—by giving her that map and putting the old coven back together. I understood that. The myths we hear when we’re young and naive sometimes stick with us. Urban legends become living legends, and sometimes we still check under the bed for monsters.

“Nope. I came to give you my Yule list.” I pulled out a piece of paper I had scribbled on earlier and handed it to her.

She smirked and grabbed the list. She read out loud. “One sword.” Mom looked at me. “That’s it?”

“Yes, but it has to be a big one.”

“What happened to the one Birdie gave you?” Mom folded the list and placed it on the bedside table.

“I’ve outgrown it.”

She put the rest of the cookie on the plate and pulled me in for a hug. She smelled of lilacs and lattes. And comfort. I hadn’t felt comforted for a long time. She pulled away and scooted back on the bed, patting the place next to her. “Come snuggle with me.”

I crawled up next to her and rested my head on her shoulder. She stroked my back like she did when I was little, her nails tickling my skin.

“Tell me about that handsome young man of yours.”

So I did.

After spending some time with mom, I headed back downstairs with one last question. I found Birdie in the parlor stoking a fire, Thor resting his big head on Fiona’s lap, the rabbit nowhere in sight, and Lolly embroidering what appeared to be a cape for my dog. It was black as night with a huge gold thunderbolt slashed across the back. Thor sauntered over to me and shot me an image of himself wearing the cape and flying.

I ruffled his ears. “Not sure it works that way, buddy, but if you’re going to dream, dream big.”

He gave me a few rough barks, then jumped up to nibble my nose, paws on my shoulders. I scratched his sides and he leaned in for a hug. We stood there a moment, heads entwined, and I could feel the tension drain from both our bodies. It settled into a pool at my feet and I kicked it away.

I stroked Thor’s back and he grunted. The sound of relief

“You did good, Big Man. I’m really proud of you.” I kissed his big nose and he hopped down and settled in near the lighted tree.

I pulled the medallion Leo gave me from my pocket and placed it on the mantle. Slid it to Birdie. She picked it up, her eyes brightening. The Geraghty Girls all
ooh
ed and
ahh
ed at it.

There was another huddle and more whispering.

“What’s happening here?” I asked, a bit panicky.

Birdie held the coin to the light and bit it for some reason. The gold coin sparkled under the light, and the leaves on the tree of life etched into it rippled.

Birdie said, “It’s legitimate. Who gave this to you?”

“Leo. What does it mean?”

Birdie scrunched her face, considering. Then she raised a brow and passed the medallion back to me.

“It means he’s your Keeper.”

“He’s my
what
?”

“A type of bodyguard. Every Seeker has a Keeper. No one knows who appoints them.”

I’d never heard of this. They never mentioned it to me before. And who the hell came up with such a dumb name? I ran my fingers through my hair, pacing.

“So let me get this straight. He’s supposed to like, watch over me. Protect me.”

Fiona said, “And your secrets. At all costs.” She looked at Birdie. “You owe him an apology. You haven’t exactly been gracious.”

Birdie shrugged.

I rolled this around in my brain for a moment. I didn’t like this one bit. Not
one
. And certainly, Chance would have a major problem with it.

“Why didn’t you tell me this before? Why didn’t
he
?”

Fiona said, “It was learned over the years that Seekers don’t like the idea of being protected by another, so the Keepers are usually...hidden.”

“Except you’re always in so much danger, he was bound to be discovered sooner or later,” Lolly said.

“Well as I said, he almost shot me, so he’s not a very good one. Who do I call to get a replacement?”

“I told you. No one knows who appoints them. He’s it. You’ll have to live with it,” Birdie said.

Has he known? This whole time, has he known?

Lolly said, “He wouldn’t have been assigned until you were confirmed. He’s known since you got back from Ireland.”

Which was a few months ago. I stood there, staring at the medallion, rolling it over in my hand. The metal grew hot as my anger seethed within me.

I was literally considering choking him.