Read Book of Shadows for Free Online Page A

candles. One large shelf unit was like candle mania. There were huge pillar candles; tiny little birthday-style candles; candles in the shape of people, men and women; nice dining-table tapers; star-shaped votives:You name it, this store had it.
    “Oh my God.” I pointed to a candle in the shape of a life-size penis. At least I assumed it was life-size. I hadn’t seen one up close since Robbie had flashed my class in first grade.
    Bree giggled. “Let’s get a bunch of these for tonight. They would make dinner really festive.”
    I laughed. “My mom would keel over.”
    Most of the other candles were pretty, hand dipped in graduating shades of color, some in earth tones, some in rainbow colors. A little rhyme came into my head: Firelight, my soul is bright. I didn’t know where it came from—probably some Mother Goose book I had when I was younger. It reminded me of how I had felt the night before, looking into the fire at the circle.
    “Are you looking for anything in particular?” I asked. Bree had moved to examine shelves of glass jars, each filled with herbs or powders. One section was called essential oils, with row after row of tiny dark brown glass vials. The air was heavy with scent there: jasmine, orange, patchouli, clove, cinnamon, rose.
    “Not really,” Bree said, reading jar labels. “Just checking it out.”
    “I think we should maybe get a book on the history of Wicca,” I suggested. “For starters, anyway.”
    Bree looked at me. “You’re getting into this, huh?”
    I nodded self-consciously. “I think it’s cool. I’m curious to learn more about it.”
    Bree smiled at me. “You’re sure it’s not just a crush on Cal?”
    Before I could answer, she was studying a small bottle and opening it. The scent of roses after a summer rain filled the air.
    I was about to say that wasn’t it at all. Instead I stood there, staring at my clogs. I did have a crush on Cal. Though I knew better than anybody he was out of my league, I was drawn to him. What a pair we would make: Cal, the most beautiful person in the world, and Morgan, the girl who had never been on a date.
    I stood still and silent in the aisle of Practical Magick, overwhelmed by a strange sense of longing. I longed for Cal, and I longed for . . . this. These books and these smells and these things. New emotions—passion; yearning; gnawing, inexplicable curiosity—were waking up inside me, and it was thrilling and threatening at the same time. One part of me wished they would go back to sleep.
    I looked up to try to explain some of it to Bree, but now she was bent intently over the jewelry case, and I had no idea how to put my feelings into words.
    As I was gazing blankly at the labels on the packets of incense, I felt a slight prickling on the back of my neck. I looked up and was startled by the intent gaze the store clerk had fastened on me.
    The clerk was an older guy, maybe in his early thirties, but with short gray hair that made him appear older than he probably was. And he was looking at me with a focused, un-moving stare, as if I were a new kind of reptile, something incredibly interesting.
    Most guys don’t look at me that way. For one thing, I’m usually with either Bree or Mary K. Bree is straight-up gorgeous, and Mary K. is totally cute. I’d heard that a guy in my class, Bakker Blackburn, was thinking about asking her out. Already Mom and Dad had started instituting rules about dating and going steady and all that stuff—rules they hadn’t needed to worry about with me.
    I turned my back to the clerk. Had he mistaken me for someone he knew? Finally Bree came up and tapped me on the shoulder.
    “Find anything interesting?”
    “Yeah, this,” I said, pointing to a package of incense called Love Me Tonight.
    Bree smiled. “Ooh, baby.”
    Laughing, we headed for the bookshelves and started reading titles. There was a whole shelf of books labeled Books of Shadows. One by one I opened them, and they were all completely