Spell Struck Read Online Free PDF

opened the door wide. At least the grimoire hadn 't ignited anything. I rolled my desk chair over to the closet and pulled down the boot box. Once it was on the floor, I flicked off the lid and stepped back. The grimoire gasped. My heart did one of those gymnastic vaults you see during the Summer Olympics.
    The spell book wheezed. For a second I thought two eyes, one brown and the other blue, appeared on the cover and glared at me. I blinked and they disappeared.
    You're losing it. Books don't breathe or wheeze or have eyes. I studied the grimoire from a safe distance. It appeared no worse than it had this morning, but no better, either.
    I placed the grimoire on my altar. It heaved a sigh.
    "Let's start with a crystal healing." I addressed the book as if it were a patient and I its doctor.
    Candles, wands, pentagrams, crystals, and other magickal tools crammed the bottom shelf in my closet. Someday I'd make special boxes for them so I wouldn't have to search through the jumble of bags. For now, I rummaged until I located a lavender drawstring pouch and emptied its contents onto my meditation altar. The seven quartz crystals were each about the size of my thumb. I positioned them so they formed a triangle around the grimoire.
    "You're spell struck, so I figure you got zapped with a lot of bad mojo when Parvani's wrongful love spell set off your self-destruct mode."
    The grimoire stopped wheezing and seemed to listen.
    "So send any lingering, bad magic into the crystals." I straightened the lower right crystal. "Meanwhile, I'll make a snack, then summarize Romeo and Juliet ."
    Einstein met up with me in the hall and followed me to the entryway, where I had left my backpack. As I knelt and unzipped the main compartment, my cell phone, which I'd tucked into a side pocket, rang. Evie's name flashed on the screen.
    "Hey," I answered.
    "Hey. Sorry to bother you. I just wondered if everything was okay."
    "Mom's still at work, so Amy must be all right. The grimoire—"
    A small explosion sounded down the hall, like pebbles pinging against wood and glass. Amy's twenty-three trophies rattled in their display case. Einstein barked and dashed toward the noise.
    "Einstein, no!" I ran after him, phone still pressed to my ear.
    "What happened?" Evie's voice rose.
    "I don't know. Hang on a minute." Foul smoke wafted from my bedroom, setting off the smoke detector in the hall. The high-pitched screeching sent Einstein retreating toward the front door. I fanned my face with my hand and peered into my room.
    "Salem, are you okay?"
    "Yes. I'll call you back." I flipped the phone shut and slid it into my pocket. I lasered in on the picture window behind my desk. Crystal shards, scattered like buckshot across the floor, crunched beneath my boots. Reaching across the desk, I unlocked the window and tugged. The window stuck.
    "Come on!" Using both hands, I forced it open. Cold November air poured into my bedroom, like one of those low-pressure troughs the meteorologist on television always talked about. Some of the smoke slipped out. With my ears splitting from the smoke detector, I approached the altar. The crystals had vanished. Grey dust and tiny crystal splinters coated the altar.
    The grimoire burped.
     

Chapter Six
     
    Mount Diablo Boulevard, with its shop windows decorated with fall foliage, ceramic turkeys, and pilgrims, gave way to quiet older neighborhoods. My breath formed vapor clouds as I walked the twenty-one blocks from school to the foreclosed house. The final leg took me up the hill, past two-story apartment complexes squished against single-family homes. A bus rumbled down the tree-shaded street, probably ferrying renters to the library and grocery store, or the elderly to their doctor appointments.
    Before first light, I had removed the For Sale sign. No police cars were stationed out front. Guess the Don't-See-Us spell worked. As I reached the little wrought- iron gate next to the mailbox, the hairs on my forearm lifted like