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

by Belinda White

  Heading the opposite direction.

  “Not the airport, Orville. What’s behind us?”

  He thought for a second, even as he gave a curse and did a quick U-turn. “The train station. I should have thought of that. With all the extra security at airports, they must not have been sure they could get Flynn on board. A train is easier.”

  As it happened, we were in Orville’s squad car, and jurisdiction or no, he turned on the lights and siren. Good thing, too. Giving people fair warning when my man was on a run was a good thing.

  He kept his eyes on the road ahead of us. Mine were on that thin blue line of magic.

  Lucky for us, both were going the same way.

  Chapter 23

  In a way, it was much easier on us that the Tomlins had headed for a train rather than an airplane. The chances of finding them in a crowded airport when we had absolutely no idea where they were headed to would have been very hard indeed.

  The train station? One lobby. One building. And as luck would have it, the particular train that the Tomlins were waiting for just so happened to be running late.

  It took Orville all of three minutes to flash his badge at the clerk at the window and get their location. The train might have been running late, but it was already loaded and about to pull out of the station.

  Orville took off like a shot, headed for the tracks. I was behind him, but quickly being outdistanced. I really hoped he wasn’t about to do something stupid, like jump on that moving train.

  Stupid, because I knew for a fact that my slower and more out of shape body would never make it in time to do the same.

  But he didn’t jump on the train. That wasn’t, however, the good news you might think it was. No. He kept running until he was in front of the dang thing. Then he calmly stepped onto the tracks.

  Granted, it wasn’t up to full speed yet, but still. The man stepped in front of a train that was moving. With his arm outstretched and badge in hand too. Like that would make one whit of a difference to a moving train.

  If luck were with us, it might, however, hold some weight with the engineer at the helm. Or whatever the heck you call the steering mechanism of a train. If he was actually looking at the tracks in front of his locomotive. Which didn’t seem to be the case. And Orville showed no sign of backing down and moving either.

  My brain wasn’t working quite right at the moment. And yes, my mind was busy searching for a spell and wishing like all get out that my all-powerful Light Witch of a niece, Amie, was here beside me. If anyone could stop a moving train with magic, it would be that girl.

  Unfortunately, all Orville had was little old me.

  There were things I could have done, yes. But all the things I could readily think of, like magically warping the tracks or something of that nature, might cause an even worse result. If that were possible. The train could derail, and I, as a witch, would never see the light of day ever again.

  Crystal would dearly love that.

  My mind went again to Amie, and the words Light Witch hit me like a ton of bricks. Light!

  Normally, when you’re about to do a spell, you simply open yourself up to magic and let it come to you naturally. But then, normally, one isn’t about to see the man one loves crushed beneath a behemoth locomotive. I threw myself wide to the magic and started pulling with all my might. Then I put all that power into the biggest light spell I could manage.

  It might not have been as big as a nuclear explosion, but it was close. I think the Goddess had my back on this one. I’m powerful, yes, but not that powerful.

  For just a few seconds, the world disappeared. There was only light. It was enough to get the engineer’s attention all right, and the train slowed and finally came to a full stop. By the time it did so, the Oak Hill police force was already filling in the area by the tracks.

  Huh. When had they gotten there?

  Pulling that much magic through oneself takes a lot out of a witch. I almost hit the ground before I felt Orville’s arms wrap around me. He lifted me into his arms and carried me over to a nearby bench.

  “I would have stepped aside, you know.”

  Would he have? I don’t remember thinking that was a possibility. But then, I hadn’t been thinking very clearly either. I’d had too many thoughts of a life without Orville flooding my brain. It hadn’t been a pleasant feeling.

  His eyes met mine. “You okay? I really want to lend a hand and make sure they get them.”

  I nodded. “Go.” The word was harder to say than it should have been, but I meant it all the same. Once I got my feet back under me, I’d join them.

  But for now? Sitting was a really good idea.

  IT WAS A VERY GOOD thing they didn’t need my help for the whole capturing the bad guys thing. Orville and the reinforcements handled that part of the job quite nicely.

  Didn’t take them all that long, either. Flynn was in custody for breaking bond, which he did as soon as he stepped foot on that train. His father, Archie’s dear old rat of a best friend, was sitting right beside him in the back seat of that squad car too.

  And I didn’t think they’d have much luck getting Archimedes Mineheart on their defense team. Not if my sister Sapphire had anything to say about it.

  Come to find out, yes, it had all been about time. Well, at least the framing Archie part of it.

  Tomlin had called in his blood-brother pact for one reason and one reason only—to get the trial postponed for long enough to allow him to liquidate enough assets to set up a home in a nice new country. One without extradition pacts with the United States. And, of course, to outfit themselves all with nice new identities too.

  They had boarded the train as the Tomlins, but they would have departed at the next station as the Romans.

  Archie had done all he could to postpone things, but was still a day short of meeting Tomlin’s goal. All this grief for one stinking day.

  It had taken Archie disappearing off the face of the earth (as far as the non-witch world was concerned) for Merlin to be able to get that extension from the court.

  They might have been planning on holding out for a few days longer, too, but I think they’d pushed their hand more than was wise with alerting the police to Goldman’s body. That really upped the stakes there. But without that, we might have been able to work things out without the council getting involved.

  Once a dead body dropped, good luck with that. Tomlin must have known that too. Not that he killed Goldman for that. No, Mark had been getting cold feet. He knew the Tomlins were planning to run and had been trying to get a free pass to join them.

  Didn’t work so well for him.

  All this came out within hours. Once Tomlin was under arrest, he cracked hard. Now, he was in even hotter water than his son. And that was saying something.

  Once we were through at the police station, which didn’t take long as again, this wasn’t Orville’s jurisdiction, Orville drove me back to the farmhouse.

  He’d called Crystal personally to tell her the good news. Well, it was good news for us. Not so much for her.

  By the time we reached the farmhouse, Sapphire had called to let me know that Patricia was driving her and Archie home. She sounded happy.

  Relieved and happy.

  So now, here we were, sitting out in front of the farmhouse in Orville’s car. Just sitting there, neither of us reaching for the door handles.

  “So, that’s pretty much that,” Orville said, deliberately not looking at me. “I’d say this whole thing is wrapped up, wouldn’t you?”

  I nodded, but my heart was in my throat. I was that sure of what was coming next. My time was up, and he was going to want an answer to his proposal. But if anything, all this just reinforced my feeling that I really couldn’t afford to be the one that got in the way of him continuing on as sheriff. What would Wind’s Crossing do without him?

  Goddess help us all, what if we got someone like Menard in his place? Could I really risk that?

  We sat there for
a beat or two more in silence. Finally, he turned to me. I took a deep breath, trying to tamper down my emotions. Funny, I never really thought I was the emotional type. When it came to Orville, though, there were emotions aplenty.

  “I have some news for you. I want you to hear me out, okay?”

  I swallowed but managed to meet his eyes and nod. I didn’t trust myself to speak right now.

  “I’ve told you before, Opal, but I’m tired. This last year has been a hard one, and it’s brought me to a hard decision. A decision that the last couple of days has firmly reinforced. Don’t think this is something I haven’t put a lot of thought into, either. I have. A lot of thought. Tons of it.”

  Another swallow. This sounded serious. I started to open my mouth to prod him forward, but I’d promised to hear him out first. As hard as it was, I had to give him time to say the words in his own time frame.

  He glanced out the front window, breaking eye contact. “I’m retiring as sheriff at the end of this term. I’m not running for re-election, Opal. I’m done with this stage of my life.”

  My emotions flared. So much I wanted to say, and no words came to mind to say them. Good thing too, because he wasn’t finished yet.

  “I’d been toying with the idea of going into a consultant kind of thing. Like a detective agency or something like that. With my experience, it wouldn’t take me long to get licensed and be legal to hang out a shingle and everything. Thing is... I don’t want to do it alone.”

  “Opie?” There. I felt kind of proud of myself. I’d managed to get one word out.

  He shook his head. “Not Opie. You.” He turned to me again, smiling. “Believe it or not, you kind of have a knack for this kind of thing. Working with you is... invigorating, to say the least. Plus, I know how headstrong you are, and actually working together gives me an opportunity to keep an eye on you. I like that. A lot.”

  Now I couldn’t just not talk, I was having trouble breathing too.

  “So, how about it, Opal? Will you be my partner?”

  Finally, my words broke free and I could feel the glow start up. “For life and in every possible way, Orville, yes.”

  He blinked at me. “Does that mean?”

  I’d have answered him, but that’s kind of hard to do when you’re kissing someone.

  I think he got my answer loud and clear all the same.

  Epilogue

  Funny how I’d been the holdup all along for me and Orville becoming a true couple, and now that title had passed on to him. I was all for him taking the plunge and moving into the farmhouse right away.

  Kimberly and the kids were all for it too. Not that I’d thought that would be an issue.

  No, the problem was that my man was as old-fashioned as they came, apparently. He wanted a ring on my finger before taking that step. And, as I’d never thought of actually being one to walk down an actual aisle in a wedding dress, well, there were a lot of things to plan.

  I never did anything halfway. If I was going to get married, then by golly, I wanted to do it right. Wedding dress, cake, guests—though we had agreed to keep that to just close friends and family—and all the trimmings that went with it.

  Would the wedding be in a church? Kind of. My religion’s church, anyway. I was holding out for a full moon wedding on the top of our hill. Who could possibly ask for more than that? The perfect time for the Goddess to rain her blessings down on our union too. Full moons were powerful things.

  But while we were holding off on the whole living together things, even if it wasn’t by my choice, Orville had made darn good and sure that our relationship was no longer a secret in Wind’s Crossing. Oak Hill, either, for that matter.

  So, as we took our seats for the Wind’s Crossing Elementary School talent show the following Monday, there were more than a few people going out of their way to wish us well. More than a few feeling Orville out about his plans for the future too. Those, we were keeping under our hats for a bit longer.

  Lots of ducks to get in a row before we went and announced that part of things.

  I’d made sure to get there plenty early to snag us four seats in the front row. Orville took the aisle seat, then me, then Kimberly, then Gray. The rest of the family would have been there too, but they were limiting the tickets to two per child. Lucky for us, we had two kids in the show. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been pretty.

  But Orville had his fancy, schmancy phone out, fully charged, and ready to record the kids' part in things for posterity. I was so getting a copy of that. Memories like these are important. Having them on film, even digital film, was a very good thing.

  I noticed that Gray had his phone out too. Good. We had a backup plan. Those were always good too.

  Some of the acts were pretty good. Enough so that they had me a little worried. I knew how badly the kids wanted to win this. And I’d seen their act, and they were good. Very good. But a couple of the others would give them some real competition.

  But I kept telling myself that the people running the show had put Mason, Nancy, and (Goddess help me) Sassy on the docket for last performance for a reason. You always save the showstoppers for last, right?

  The lights on the stage dimmed, flickered, and then flashed. With the last bright flash of light, Mason and Nancy were center stage. With nothing more than a small table with an old magician’s top hat sitting on it and a stool for Nancy.

  When the audience gave a collective gasp at their appearance, I relaxed a little. The kids had this one.

  Mason, Nancy, and Sassy had everyone in the palms of their hands.

  They only gave each act a ten-minute slot, so there wasn’t a second wasted. Mason started off with a few card tricks and some of the standard tricks that had come in that box of magic he’d gotten from Sapphire’s attic. He was good, that boy. A true showman. But the real clincher of the act, the one that tied it all together into a true showstopper? Was the team of Nancy and Sassy as the boy’s magical apprentices.

  It didn’t take long before they had the audience rolling in the aisles. A couple of them quite literally, too. This act had appeal for all the ages. And the kids off stage were loving it just as much, if not more, than the adults were.

  Finally, with only a blessed few minutes to spare, Mason reached for his hat. Holding it in front of him, he turned the bottom of the hat towards the crowd.

  “As you can see, this is just an ordinary old hat. Nothing special about it at all.”

  Sassy snorted. “Nothing special, my wooden fanny. That there’s a magic hat.”

  “Perhaps,” Mason said. “But an ordinary and empty magic hat.” He finished showing the audience the apparently empty inside of the hat. Then he sat it back down on the table. “And now, I shall say the magic word and pull from this empty, ordinary...” he threw Sassy a glance “magical hat, a fluffy bunny.”

  “You’re gonna say please?” Sassy asked.

  “What?”

  “Please is the magic word, right?”

  Mason shook his head and shrugged toward the audience. This was what he had to work with, he seemed to say. Every kid in the place giggled. A fair few adults joined in.

  “Please is a magic word, yes, but not THE magic word.”

  Sassy looked from Mason to the hat and back again. “I wanna pull the bunny out.”

  Mason looked at her and then out at the crowd. Then he said, in a stage whisper that he made sure everyone could hear, “We talked about this. I get to pull out the rabbit.”

  Sassy shook her head and stood up on Nancy’s knees. A shiver went down my spine. Nancy was a little too good at this. “I wanna pull out the bunny. He likes me better.”

  Mason looked torn. If I didn’t already know it was a rehearsed part of the act, I’d really think the request surprised the boy, and disappointed him too. Finally, he took an overly large deep breath.

  “Okay, you can pull out the bunny, but I get to say the magic word.”

  “Deal,” Sassy said, making her way onto the table
to stand beside the hat. We’d worked on a little alteration to Nancy’s cape that hid the fact that her hand guided Sassy’s. With the darker cloth, it was pretty good as far as illusions go.

  Mason pulled out his short little bright purple wand, complete with sparkly glitter. Glitter that I would be finding all around the farmhouse for many months to come, I might add. Then he waved the wand over the hat and said loudly, “Abracadabra!”

  Sassy’s hand dipped into the hat, and when it came back out, it was holding a bunny all right. But not the small fluffy stuffed bunny that we’d prepared for her to pull out. Instead, there in Sassy’s (really Nancy’s) hand was a small, fluffy, and very much alive, bunny.

  The shock was apparent to everyone, and baby Pearl, strapped into her harness on Kimberly’s chest, went into peals of laughter as Nancy tried to contain the small creature. Luckily for the act, people thought it was what was meant to happen. The curtain went down to a standing ovation and thunderous applause.

  Of course, that only registered with one small part of my brain. The other part was focused on little baby Pearl.

  Oh Goddess, here we go.

  Witch of a Bride

  Witch Reborn 3

  By Belinda White

  Copyright 2020 Belinda White

  THIS EBOOK IS LICENSED for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be resold or given away to other people.

  WITCH OF A BRIDE

  Chapter 1

  “YOU’RE ABSOLUTELY DEAD set on a full moon wedding?”

  I just looked at him. I didn’t think that was unreasonable, the circumstance being what it was. Full moons gave powerful blessings, and in my opinion, it would be only prudent to have our marriage blessed right from the very start.

  “I take your silence as a yes.”

  “Correct.” I paused. “You do know my reasons, right?” He should. I mean, I’ve explained it to him in detail before.