by Amy Boyles
“So could you take the forest and end up here?”
“If it let you,” Axel said mysteriously.
“That’s cryptic.”
He smiled and pulled into a parking spot. “So’s the forest. It’s a living, breathing thing that’s hard to decipher.”
“But it’s where you go the nights you change.” I didn’t understand this conversation at all.
“Only because it lets me. The hillbilly giants live beyond it and we can find them, but only because the forest lets us.”
I shivered. “I might need to stay away from the forest.”
He hitched a brow. “Sounds like a great idea.”
I followed Axel inside. It looked exactly like a house on the outside and on the inside, too. But it was much larger inside than out. Antique rugs, dark wood and winding staircases greeted us.
“This place reminds me of a castle more than a house.”
Axel took my hand. “Just don’t get lost.”
“I’ll try not to.”
A few students passed by. There weren’t many of them as it was the holidays. I didn’t imagine lots of kids stayed at the school during the break, but there were a few.
They each wore a basic dark school uniform with an insignia on the sweaters. Axel led me past them down a hall into a two-story room that could’ve easily swallowed Betty’s entire house.
Books lined the walls on both levels, but I didn’t see any ladders to reach them.
We found the circulation desk. A small, mousy woman in a bright green sweater and wearing red-framed glasses was muttering to herself.
“She always gets the holidays off. I never do. I swear for one year…”
Axel cleared his throat. “Ahem.”
The woman blinked up at us. Her gaze landed on Axel, and her eyes flared. Of course they did. Axel had that effect on women everywhere he went.
I mean heck, he had that effect on me, too.
“Oh my goodness,” she said. “I didn’t see you there.” She glanced at me. “I didn’t see you, either. Oh, and you’ve got a box. How wonderful. Are you selling something?”
It took me a moment but I recognized her as one of the judges from the panel. This mousy librarian was the woman who’d had that wonderfully teased-out hair. Now it was pulled back and not nearly as wild or lush, but either way, here she sat.
“Maybe you can help us,” Axel said.
“I will most certainly try.” She batted her lashes at him. “What can I do for you?”
“We’re looking for Keating’s Book of Spells.”
The woman blanched. “Keating’s Book of Spells? Are you sure? There are so many other wonderful tomes here at the library.” She twiddled a pencil between her fingers. “We have books on magic work that aren’t nearly as um, controversial as the Keating.”
Axel’s lips curved into a smile. When he made that expression with his blue eyes shining, it was hard for any woman to resist his desires.
I will yell hallelujah to firsthand experience there.
“Actually, there may be something else you can do. We need some help with transmutation.”
I pointed to the box. The librarian rose and peered inside. “Oh my goodness! This is the toad that Shelly Seay created, isn’t it?”
I nodded. “Yes. Weren’t you one of the judges?”
The woman smiled proudly. “As a matter of fact, I was.” She extended a hand. “Babs Cantrill.”
After Axel and I introduced ourselves, Babs led us on a tour through the library. “It’s a pity about the contest being canceled. I so look forward to it every year. But you know you can’t exactly continue with a contest after someone’s been killed.” She leaned over and whispered, “It doesn’t look good, you know. Oh, I know what people say, the show must go on and all that, but I have a hard time buying it when someone winds up dead.”
“Murdered,” I corrected.
Babs’s eyebrows shot to peaks. “Murder? Is that what they’re thinking?”
I glanced at Axel. He shrugged. “I don’t think it’s any big secret, but yes. That’s what the police are pursuing.”
“What a shame.” She pointed left. “Over here you’ll find our section on spell work. Most of it is very light seeing as we do teach youngsters, but there are some darker spells. The Southern School of Magic has the most comprehensive magical library in all the South.”
She smiled widely. “We pride ourselves in it. I’ve spent years studying potions. That’s how I came to be a judge.” She sniffled. “Shelly was a controversial character, but she was liked by a lot of people.”
Axel and I exchanged a look. “Did you like her?” I said.
“Oh yes,” Babs said, almost sounding flustered. “We had coffee all the time. We’d discuss potions. She was an accomplished potion maker, but that’s obvious from what she was going to reveal.” She glanced at the box. “Or did reveal. I assume you’re looking for a spell that will change this one back to her normal state?”
“Yes,” Axel murmured, “among other things.”
Babs pointed to the rows and rows of books. “I can recommend something if you don’t find what you’re looking for in”—she shuddered—“the Keating.”
“That would be great.” Axel shifted the box holding Betty. “Were you here when Shelly taught at the school?”
“Oh yes, I’ve been here for forever it feels like.” She giggled. “Yes, Shelly was very controversial. She and Saltz didn’t get along at all. It was all-out war between those two.” Her eyes misted. “But then I suppose they found common ground. Don’t we all need common ground every once in a while?”
I nodded. “I suppose we do. So did they um, bury the hatchet? You know, find a way to get along?”
Babs tapped a finger to her cheek. “Oh yes. It was rumored…well, I shouldn’t talk about rumors.” She leaned in. “It isn’t nice to talk about people when they’re not here.”
“We already know about the affair rumor,” Axel said.
“Oh?” Something glinted in Babs’s eyes. Was it relief because now she could gossip since we already knew the dish? “Well in that case, you also probably know that it didn’t end well.”
Ha! I was right! She was happy to talk since we already knew the basics of the rumor.
“No, I didn’t know it didn’t end well.” My voice struck an innocent tone. “They seemed to get along great at the competition. I mean, besides the fact that Saltz did sort of get on to Shelly when he thought she was working blood magic.”
Babs pointed to the shelves and several books slid out and flew around the room before landing at the table before us.
“They don’t get along well now at all,” she confided. “They used to, but then I believe Shelly accused him of, well, using his position to oust her as potions mistress and taking her spot.” She sighed dramatically. “Which of course forced Shelly to take on the task of teaching witch defense, which she didn’t want to do. And of course in witch defense if you’re going to teach defense, you have to have the children defend themselves against something, so…”
“So that’s when the accusations of sorceress came into play,” Axel said.
“Correct.” Babs nodded. “If you want to show children the baddest of the bad and teach them how to fight against it, you have to do a bit of conjuring. So Shelly conjured a few entities, was deemed a sorceress and fired from the school for putting the lives of children in danger.”
I hitched a brow. “Were they? Ever in danger?”
Babs lifted a shoulder. “Hard to say. I wasn’t in the class, but I don’t think Shelly ever would’ve hurt anyone. What I mean is, I don’t believe she would’ve conjured something she couldn’t control.”
She inhaled deeply and smiled. “But what do I know? I’m simply a librarian.”
Seemed Babs knew a lot. She could probably start her own celebrity gossip paper if she wanted.
She strolled to the books and sifted through them. “Let’s see. I’ve pulled a few volumes on shifting.” She lea
ned over to us. “We don’t have many books on transmutation here, as you can imagine with the children around and all, but if you need one, I can unlock it from the basement. That’s where we keep the big bad books.” She giggled a touch manically at her own joke. I shivered.
“Aha!” Babs waved her hand, and a large, heavy, leather-bound book emerged from the stack. “Here’s the Keating.” She adjusted her glasses high on her nose and peeled back the cover. “Now then, let’s see when this book was checked out last. No one ever asks for it, so I’m curious.”
For all the magic in this place and Magnolia Cove, the checkout list was a pasted slip of paper on the back of the front cover. Babs scrolled her fingernail down the lines of names until she landed on the very last one.
“Ah, it was checked out over a year ago by one Gale East.”
“Oh.” I couldn’t hide my surprise.
Babs whipped her glasses off. “Do you know her?”
My gaze flickered from her to Axel. “I do indeed. She almost killed my dragon.”
NINE
“The girl who shot the potion ball at you? That’s who checked out the Keating?”
Axel and I were in the Land Rover rumbling back toward the tunnel of love. Kidding. It wasn’t a tunnel of love, but I could probably convince Axel to kiss me in the dark.
It wouldn’t be too hard to make happen.
But not with Betty the Toad on my lap.
“Yes, Gale’s the one who almost hit Hugo. Said she was working on a potion to help witches find magical creatures.”
“He is magical,” Axel murmured.
“But then I talked to her at the contest, too. She’s the one who told me about Saltz and Shelly having an affair. She also mentioned she flunked out of the school.”
Axel hitched a brow. “Flunked or was expelled?”
“Flunked.”
“Hmmm.” His lips coiled mysteriously.
“What?”
“Maybe she said flunked but was discharged for other reasons.”
“And you think those reasons are that she was expelled and decided to lie about it instead and say she flunked.”
“Of course.” Axel winked. “Wouldn’t you rather have flunked than been expelled?”
Was that a trick question? Neither option sounded like a winner. “Um…I would rather neither happen if you want to know the truth.”
“That’s because you’re a responsible person.”
I cackled. “You are so funny. Before I moved here, I was homeless, jobless and couldn’t pay the bills. I wasn’t a flunky in school, but I’d pretty much flunked life.”
He took my hand and squeezed. Axel dragged his gaze from the road and studied me. “In case you haven’t noticed, you’ve excelled here. In fact you’ve soared.”
“Thanks for the pep talk.”
“I mean it.”
I brought his hand to my heart. “Seriously. Thank you.” I glanced at Betty in the box of dirt. “But what are we about to do now?”
“Now, we’re going to get creative.” Axel took a right toward his house. “We’ve got some spellwork to do.”
“We’re going to try to transmute Betty with our power.”
I stood in Axel’s cellar that was full of magical objects and talismans. The whole place seemed to buzz with power.
“You’ve been working some magic.” I cocked a brow at him.
He nodded. “I’ve been doing what I’ve had to in order to figure out how best to help Betty.”
“But you haven’t figured it out yet.”
He shook his head. “No, so I thought we’d try a combination of good old power and blood, sweat and tears.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously.” He grabbed an ebony mortar from a shelf and placed it on a table. “The amount of blood it would normally take to work a transmutation spell is significant, so I thought if we combined both of ours, added some tears and sweat, then maybe we’ll manage to knock her back into herself.”
I pulled Keating’s Book of Spells from my purse. “Do you think there are answers in here?”
He scowled. “Be careful with that.”
“It’s not like I’m going to start spouting incantations. I only wanted to scan through it, make sure the poppet spell is in there. Maybe there will be others that are useful.”
His brows tightened to a severe line across his forehead. “Or dangerous.”
“Or all of those,” I said with sarcastic chipperness.
Axel growled.
I rolled my eyes. “I’ll be careful.”
He scowled. I smiled. The look of frustration melted from his face. Axel kissed my forehead. “Please do be careful because I really don’t want to have to rescue you.”
“When have you ever had to rescue me? Wait. Don’t answer that. Can we please get on with this?”
Axel pulled his hair back and tied it. Then he took off his shirt and kicked off his shoes.
I almost dripped onto the floor. “Do you have to take your clothes off?”
“Control yourself.” He smiled. “It makes it easier to feel the magic. You know that.”
“Yes, I know. What are we doing?”
He pulled a knife from a sheath. I almost melted again, but this time from fear of blood instead of lust. “That looks horrifying.”
“It’s nothing compared to what the original spell calls for. I’m only doing a small cut on each of us and then tears.”
I extended my hand. “If it will help Betty.”
He took my hand. The warmth from his skin spread over my flesh. “No guarantees.”
Axel slashed the knife over his thumb and then wrapped his hand. He did the same to me. It stung, but I needed my grandmother back and a little bloodletting was nothing compared to helping her.
“Now for the tears.” He inhaled. His chest heaved, and I had to strangle my urge to spread my fingers over his pecs. “Think of something sad.”
We stared at each other and burst out laughing. “Stop,” I demanded. “Don’t stare at me. It’s doing the wrong thing. I’m supposed to be sad.”
“Okay, I’ll stop.”
I stared at the table until I felt the tears surface. It wasn’t hard. All I had to do was concentrate on what it would feel like to lose Betty, a woman I was only just beginning to know.
Seconds later tears were spilling. I was so good at it I felt like creating a new profession—professional crier. I could make millions, but only if people wanted to buy my tears.
Probably no one would ever want to do that. Scratch my plan to achieve millions.
The mortar appeared under my chin and my tears dripped into the bowl.
I hadn’t seen Axel cry, but I knew he had. He wiped a hand over his face and inhaled deeply.
“Now for the words.”
He opened his hands, and a book on a pedestal unfurled. The pages flipped for several seconds and then stopped with a flourish. Axel chanted quietly, and I immediately noticed a shift in the air.
It felt like the barometric pressure dropped. That’s the only way I can describe it. Like an unseen cloud had dropped from heaven and was pushing down on the room. The energy had completed shifted. I only prayed what Axel was doing worked.
Betty remained unchanged. She sat on top of the dirt; her throat expanding and contracting as she did whatever it is toads do.
Axel’s voice rose. He dipped his hand in a pouch and tossed a silvery powder into the mortar. The blood and tears flamed. Axel dropped his hand in the flames, plucked out a fiery ball of goo and dropped it on Betty. The toad didn’t flinch.
Axel stopped chanting, and we both waited.
The toad didn’t change. Not good. I shot Axel a hopeful look. “Is there more? Maybe?”
His shoulders sagged. “No. It was the best shot we had without making a sacrifice.”
“Ew. I’m not making a sacrifice.”
“Me neither. But that’s how it used to be done.”
I ran a finger along Betty’s back.
“Don’t worry. We’ll figure out a way to help you. We won’t let you be stuck like this forever.”
I sank onto a chair and watched as Axel tugged his shirt back on. “What about the bands? Do you think those will work?”
Axel slumped onto a chair. “From what I’ve read, the amount of power it would take might disappoint you.”
I hooked my legs under me. “What do you mean? How would I be disappointed?”
He folded his arms. “Here’s the thing about those bands. I already explained they work the best when both beings can talk. Since you can’t reach Betty and your entire plan is to reach her, by using the bands, you’ll wipe out all the magic in them in one try.”
I pressed at a worry line forming between my brows. “I’ll wipe out their magic? You mean they won’t work?”
He shook his head. “No. They’ll work fine. I think. But they’ll work too good. The bands will reach out to link the two of you, but you’ll be using them in a way that they weren’t intended. You’ll use up all their magic.”
“So I won’t be able to use them on you.”
He nodded.
My heart sank. The bands would break? By using them on Betty, I would basically be destroying their power.
So I wouldn’t have them for what I wanted—which was to help Axel.
What was more important? Freeing my grandmother from her prison or helping Axel? I mean, Axel had survived this long without my help. Why did I seem to think I had to change him?
I guess that’s just who I was. And besides, when I first met Axel, he was tortured by the wolf. He didn’t even want to date me. He carried his burden like a curse. I didn’t want him to feel that way.
I loved him and wanted him to shine like the star he was.
Yes, I know it was cheesy, but that’s how I felt.
I exhaled and untucked my legs. “If that’s what it takes, then that’s what it takes. I’ll use the bands on Betty. I doubt I’ll have another choice.”
He raked his fingers over his chest. Axel crossed to me. He wrapped his hands around my waist and pulled me to my feet.
“I know you want those cuffs for me. We’ll keep looking. There will be other choices. Don’t worry. I’ll keep searching. There has to be another way.”
