by Boyles, Amy
So back to Magical Elements it was.
She shot Axel and me a big smile. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a class to teach.”
We left her office and stood in the hallway. Axel studied me.
“You’re wondering why Beverly believed the Unks had been here so long.”
“Am I that transparent?”
He shrugged. “To me you are. Maybe not to someone else.”
“I am wondering that. I mean, they had been here a long time, don’t get me wrong. As long as the Craples, but yet Deidre is so convinced otherwise.”
“It’s genealogy, not murder,” Axel mused.
I shook my head. “Yeah. I know. You’re right. I’m being silly.” I pushed a smile to my face. “Now what do you want to do?”
He swiped a thumb over his mouth. “You want this book for some reason.”
I smiled. “It’s Betty’s secret, and I’m not allowed to say what it is.”
He lifted his hands in surrender. “Please, don’t tell me. I don’t want to learn anything about Betty’s business that could result in winding up either blind or tongueless.”
“Very funny.” I hooked a hand through his crooked arm. “Let’s return to Magical Elements. I need to get ahold of that book.”
Connor looked surprised to see me at the store. “Burt called in today. I think he’s feeling sick.”
I grimaced. “I’m sorry to hear that, but it isn’t why I’ve come.”
He hitched a brow as his gaze swept from Axel to me. “Looking for something a bit more on the personal level, perhaps? Something for the two of you?”
“Um. No.” Heat flushed my neck. I had no idea what sort of thing Connor was talking about, but I needed to steer the conversation back to the book.
“No thanks,” Axel said in a dark, clipped voice.
Connor’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. Axel may be human most of the time, but he could be frightening when he wanted.
“No, we’re looking for something else.”
Connor raked his fingers through his short brown hair. “Shoot.”
I worried my hands. “I’m embarrassed to ask this, but that book Deidre Tipple had received from here, she said she returned it into your drop box. Here’s the thing—my grandmother wants it to prove something very important to Magnolia Cove, and she needs it now.”
I cringed. I hated asking for a favor like this, but I didn’t know if I had any other choice.
“I’d love to learn how to check out the book, but I was wondering, if it’s not too much trouble—could I borrow it? Just for a little while? I’ll bring it back way before it’s due.” I crossed my heart. “Promise.”
Connor waved at me as if the whole thing was no big deal. “Of course you can borrow it.”
He stepped out from behind the counter and headed toward one of the walls. Cut into the brick was a box that looked like a mail receptacle.
“This is the drop box.” Connor pulled a key chain from his pocket, flipped through the ring until he found the right key and inserted it into a lock.
“There’s usually not much in here. We don’t get many requests for books from other towns. The local library used to be the place to order them from, but they got mad at some of the other magical hamlets, so we started ordering for folks.”
I quirked a brow. “Why’d they get mad?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Somebody’s cousin’s cousin, who also happened to be head librarian, said the wrong thing at a Christmas party.” Connor rolled his eyes. “You know how family feuds go.”
“Hmm, I may have an idea of that.”
Not that my family currently feuded, but when tempers flared, they rose like funeral pyres.
“Anyway, like I said, we usually don’t have too much in here.” Connor flipped a handle and pulled the bottom drawer of the box.
Connor frowned. “That’s strange.”
His back blocked my view so I couldn’t see what was going on. “What is it?”
Connor leaned away so I could see.
My jaw dropped. I turned to Axel. “It’s empty.”
Axel’s eyes narrowed. “So it is.”
NINETEEN
“What do you mean, it’s missing?”
It was later that night. I sat at dinner with my family and Axel. For some reason I’d been foolish enough to tell Betty that the book—the only in the entire world capable of proving the Craples didn’t secret away knowledge—had vanished.
“Like I said, it’s missing.”
Axel poured gravy onto a pile of mashed potatoes. How was it he could eat whatever he wanted and not gain a pound? It was totally unfair.
He sucked gravy from his thumb. I almost died watching. His full lips puckering over his thumb made my insides tingle. I pulled a handful of hair over my face so no one would notice I’d turned red.
“Like Pepper said, Deidre Tipple said she’d dropped the book off at Magical Elements—in their drop box,” he added quickly before Betty could argue. “And when we arrived, the book was gone.”
“Maybe she forgot what she did with it.” Betty twirled her butter knife. She held a cornbread muffin so it looked like she’d either butter it or stab someone.
“You’re not going to hurt anyone, are you?” Amelia eyed the knife suspiciously before picking up her own.
Betty scoffed. “No, I ain’t aimin’ to hurt nobody. I just want to know what happened to that book.”
“Relax,” Cordelia said. “It’s not as if the town is standing outside waiting to tear the place apart.”
The doorbell rang. We shot each other worried looks.
“Or maybe they are.” Cordelia rose and headed toward the door.
Garrick Young stood on the front porch. His head dipped low and his shoulders slackened as if something great weighed on them.
I rose. When I did, I understood why.
Half the town milled behind him.
Cordelia whipped her head in our direction and grimaced. “Y’all, I guess I was wrong.”
“Come on in, Garrick.” Betty waved him inside. “Pull up a chair. You want to invite that angry mob in, too? It’s suppertime. I aim to be cordial. Tell ’em all before they plunder my house looking for a scroll that doesn’t exist, they’re welcome to some creamed potatoes and gravy.”
Axel rose and gestured for Garrick to take his seat. “Tell them it’s delicious. They’re missing out.”
Garrick shot Axel a dark look. “Y’all know I don’t want to be here.”
“Then what are you doing? Gilda paying you overtime out of her own pocket?” Betty laughed. “I never thought you could be bought off, Garrick, but apparently I’m wrong.”
“She’s not paying him.” Cordelia grimaced at Garrick. “Is she?”
“Of course she’s not! For goodness’ sake, y’all. This is serious.” He pointed toward the street. “Those folks think you’re holding out on them.”
Betty splayed her arms. “What is this? The blizzard of ’68 and I’m the only person with flour and milk? And they’re going to ram down my door for provisions?”
Garrick scowled. “You know it isn’t like that.”
Betty pointed a finger heavenward. “Or is it the twenty-first century and I’m the one person who can help all those folks walk among humans without being noticed? Maybe you should remind them that they live in a magical town that only witches—for the most part—can enter. It’s not like a gaggle of humans is going to step into Magnolia Cove and start drowning us by the cartload.”
She stopped. Her eyes narrowed. Garrick’s expression darkened. “I am only trying to keep the peace.”
“If you want to keep the peace, you can march out there and explain the scroll doesn’t exist.”
“I can’t do that. They need more.” The heels of his boots hit the floor hard as he strode forward. “I’m here for your own safety.”
Betty squinted. “I don’t need your protection.”
“Your granddaughters might. You can
at least listen to me for their sakes.”
“He’s got a point.” Amelia nodded. “I don't want to be trampled by an angry mob of witches that thinks we’re hiding things.”
Betty dragged her gaze from Amelia to Garrick. “What are you proposing?”
He fiddled with the brim of his hat. “That you come up with something, anything that will convince them you’re not hiding anything.”
She cackled. “What do you think I’ve been doing all this time? Sucking my thumb like a baby?”
“I had hoped not.”
Betty threw her napkin on the table. “Fine. You tell that horde of folks who are no longer my friends that I will have proof for them.”
She raised two fingers. “In two nights, tell Gilda I want another showdown. This time I’ll have all the proof I need to convince the town. One way or another.”
I swallowed a knot in my throat. We didn’t have proof. We didn’t know where proof was. Heck, proof could’ve been hiding in the proverbial pudding and I still wouldn’t have been able to whip it out.
Y’all, we were screwed.
I shot Betty a look that said, Are you crazy? She replied by winking. Not very reassuring. A wink when there were a couple hundred folks outside looking for a scroll that didn’t exist? Worse, they were looking for an answer they would never have.
But at least they would have an answer, one they didn’t like. All we needed was to find the book.
Right. That was all. No big deal. Maybe if we searched door-to-door and asked politely who had nabbed a book from a locked drop box, we’d have some luck.
Then again, maybe not.
Garrick rubbed his thumb on the rim of the fedora. “Is that what you want me to tell them? That you’ll give them the answers they want in two days?”
Betty nodded. “That’s right. Tell them that.”
“If you’re sure?”
Betty huffed. “What are you doing lollygagging? Tell the good folks of this town what I said.” She thumped her chest. “I am a woman of my word.”
His lips set into a tight line. “That you are.” A resigned sigh bellowed from him. “All right. I’ll let them know.”
Garrick gave a nod to Cordelia and left the house. As soon as the door closed behind him, Betty rose.
“Y’all let me know when the crowd’s gone.” She grabbed her coat in one hand and her skillet in the other. “We’ve got a book to find. If we have to overturn every toadstool in this town to scare it up, well then that’s what we’ll do.”
Amelia loaded a stack of dirty plates into her hands. “Don’t you mean rock instead of toadstool?”
Betty whirled around. “I do not. Magical books do not hide under rocks. They are much more selective.”
“Or, we could use a spell to find it,” I suggested.
“It won’t work,” Betty said. “Not with a magical book like that. It’s too powerful for a simple finding spell to. The thing will have all sorts of protective shields placed on it.”
Cordelia glanced out the window. “Looks like they’re heading out.”
“I need all hands on deck. Are y’all ready to go?” Betty stood by the front door, pipe in her mouth and grit in her eyes.
I nodded. “Sure. Axel and I will look at the school. We’ve got a divination to search for anyway.”
“Good. Your cousins will help me with the rest of the town.” Betty buttoned her coat. “Come on, Craples, let’s go find that book.”
This time Axel and I took Sylvester to the school. The snake seemed glad to be out, but coiled into a knot when I told him where we were headed.
“We need to get into the divination room. I hear there’s been a foretelling that could be useful.”
I haven’t heard of such a thing.
“Just you wait, I’ll explain it all.”
Axel got us into the school with no problem. His wizarding talents unlocked the right doors on the backside of the building.
The dormitories for the school were located away from the main school, which I thought was good. There was no reason to have the classrooms and sleeping quarters in the same building.
The school was quiet and creepy. Shadows loomed in corners, and moonlight broke through the glass, scattering slices of light across the floor.
“Where’s the divination room?” I whispered.
Axel squeezed my hand. “I think it’s this way.”
I nearly stepped on his heels I stayed so close. A chill raced down my spine. I felt eyes on me. Eyes I couldn’t see but that could see me.
I shivered.
I felt the same as the other night when it had seemed shadows watched me.
“Do you feel that? Like someone else is here?”
Axel grunted but said nothing more. I think that meant he felt it, too. But he didn’t want to talk about it.
It’s up the stairs.
“The snake says turn to the left.”
We hiked up the steps to the second floor.
Up one more.
To the third floor. We stopped at a heavy metal door. Axel pushed the bar, and we entered a dark room.
A light.
“The snake says make light.”
Axel glanced over his shoulder and scowled. “I was about to.” He opened his palm, and an orb filled the cup of his hand.
“Wow.” The room stole my breath.
Silk scarves of every color covered the walls. A crystal ball sat on a table as if waiting to reveal someone’s future. A row of books lined a case at the far end of the room, and in one corner, stacked high in small square cubbies, lay hundreds of slips of paper.
Every divination ever told is there.
I pointed to the wall. “Sylvester says those are all the futures ever told.” I frowned at the serpent. “But if Prissy saw a future for Beverly that would’ve gotten her accused of murder, wouldn’t she have taken it?”
They cannot be destroyed; they cannot leave the room.
“Well that answers that.” I released Axel’s hand. “The snake says the divinations are spelled.”
He nodded. “They can’t leave.”
“How’d you know that?” It was irritating how he was always one step ahead of me. I mean, just for once I’d like to have a tad bit more knowledge than Axel. Was that too much to ask?
He shot me a seductive smile. “When you’ve lived around magic your whole life, there are some things you know. I know these papers can’t leave.”
He settled the light orb on a table. “Now.” He took Sylvester’s cage and raised it until he and the serpent were eye level. “Sylvester, I need you to help me find an important divination. In this stack there may be a slip of paper that will prove who killed Beverly. I need you to seek it out for us.”
I shot Axel a confused look. “The snake will find it?”
Axel’s gaze darted to mine. “Just watch. He has to agree to it first.”
Sylvester uncoiled from his knot and looped around the branch. You need my help?
“Yes, we need your help.” I tipped my head toward the papers. “Can you do it?”
The snake seemed to weigh the request. And what do I get if I help you?
I gave Axel a panicked look. At least it felt panicked—my mouth twisted in a grimace and I know my eyelids flared.
“The snake wants to know what he gets in return for helping.”
Axel leaned over and met the snake’s glittering black eyes. “If you help us, you will get a new match. One who won’t harm or cause you undue stress. One that will feed you and give you a good place to live. It’s what you deserve. It’s what every animal deserves.”
Okay, well, I didn’t know who the snake’s match would end up being, but I almost didn’t want to wish him on anyone. Sylvester hated women—maybe hate was too strong a word. He wasn’t crazy about women, and he wasn’t exactly warm and cuddly.
I’d have a heck of a time finding his match. I might have to take an ad out in the local paper or Witchlist—an online witch-advertising platf
orm.
The serpent’s forked tongue tasted the air. The snake uncoiled and slithered to the cage door. He tapped it with his nose.
I will help.
“He says you’ve got a deal.” I unhooked the latch. “I hope you know what you’re doing,” I mumbled.
Axel ignored me. He extended a hand, and Sylvester glided up his arm and coiled around Axel’s bicep.
Axel slid a finger down the snake’s head. “We need a divination foretelling Beverly’s death. Can you do it?”
The snake nodded its head. Then in a flash that resembled lighting, Sylvester darted down Axel’s arm and leg, slithered onto the floor and moved like a spear into the cubbies of papers.
I hitched a brow. I was more than skeptical of this. “How exactly is that there snake supposed to find a needle in a haystack?”
Axel’s mouth quirked in what I liked to think of as delicious amusement. Meaning, his amusement was delicious to me.
He draped an arm over my shoulders. I didn’t know what agreement the two of us had come to—nothing had been said—but I wasn’t going anywhere.
I wasn’t sure about the whole mating-for-life thing, but in Axel’s arms I was safe. No, I didn’t know what the future held, but I was ready to live and learn, be open to the possibilities and not let fear encase my heart.
Fear wasn’t good, y’all.
Axel snuggled me close. “The serpent can taste the divinations.”
“Taste them?”
He nodded. The faint brush of his hair sent a trickle of Axel’s scent wafting up my nostrils—coffee and pine. “Each one has a particular scent, based on who the divination was about. Since we’re looking for one about Beverly and her death, that should have two distinct scents—Beverly and death.”
“But why can the snake do that?”
“Because it’s essentially a divination snake. He was a familiar to a diviner, so that’s how it can do it.”
To pass the time, I rummaged through a few of Beverly’s books. Buried under several lay one with a crackled black leather binding. I opened it and scanned the first page.
It had been written by an Unk, an ancestor of Beverly’s, it seemed. A list detailed the names of the first settlers in the area. I saw Unk and Craple and started to scan more names when the snake emerged.
