Chapter 6 Kayla #3
A door stood open to my right, and I glanced in as I crept by—I had no idea who I thought might overhear me walking around. I hadn’t bumped into another soul all morning. Vampires could probably hear my tiptoeing, anyway, so looking like a mime on a bad day was really doing me no favors.
I’d passed by the room then I did a double take and nearly gave myself whiplash when I spun back around to take another look into it a second time.
It was a library. A gorgeous, gothic, dark hardwood shelved library, with spooky corners lined with shadows, and lots of wrought iron details. There were books kept in actual cupboards behind more intricate metal work, like they might escape and attack someone.
Such old books. The room smelled of ink and paper and something else. Leather? I wasn’t sure. Sebastian’s sea-salt scent lingered here, too, but I couldn’t imagine him curled up with a book.
Before I’d made a conscious decision, I was inside the room, standing in front of one of the tall bookcases, and I ran my finger gently over some of the cracked spines. So much wisdom in one room. Perhaps there was even a witchcraft section.
I wandered among the shelves, glancing at all the titles and authors until I spotted the name of a well-known witch. She’d been at the forefront of early witchcraft and her methods were still well-respected today.
Well, certainly well-respected by the covens who refused to have anything to do with witches like me.
I mentally added the book to my Tbr list as I perused the rows on either side.
I glanced up then dragged a chair closer so I could reach the top shelf.
If only this library had ladders—but perhaps that was a dream too far.
I climbed up and faced a set of… Holy shit.
Actual grimoires. Vintage, antique, ancient.
Hell, I didn’t know. Just really, really old.
So old, they didn’t even look like they’d been printed on paper.
And from the looks of some of the symbols on them, not all of these had been owned by strictly good witches.
Sebastian was definitely becoming more of a mystery to me.
He didn’t seem like the kind of guy who would be into witchcraft or its history, but perhaps I was underestimating him.
He’d had a lot of years to fill, after all.
Either way, I wasn’t going to complain about having access to these types of resources.
I grabbed the heftiest tome and carried it to the closest comfy-looking chair.
I flipped the delicate pages as my gaze scanned spidery writing, where the ink was so faded in parts that I finally switched on the Tiffany lamp to my left so I could read it, careful to keep the pages out from the direct glow.
Some of these spells were so dark, there was no way I’d attempt them. They’d leave a permanent stain on anyone’s soul. But some of them looked useful. I could update my own grimoire from here. Maybe living in Sebastian’s house would have a benefit after all.
More benefit than associating with Francois or émile had ever offered, anyway. Except that I valued my life, and they’d let me keep that at least.
I pored over the pages, my mind wandering around the spells as I half thought about Lettie and how much wisdom she already carried in her mind, how much she knew.
She’d just always known the spell she usually performed on me.
Perhaps I could find something in here or in one of these other books.
Or maybe it was in one of Lettie’s grimoires. And I knew a witch, right?
I mean, granted, that witch was Naomi, and her skillset usually ended at fairly simple charms and incantations, but Lettie had always made it seem important that someone else had to perform this spell on me, so what could I lose by trying?
I only had one witch in New Orleans still talking to me, so that made Naomi my it by default.
I dialed her number on my cell.
“Nay?” I said when she answered. “You like a challenge, right?”
She laughed, but she didn’t seem at all like a person who enjoyed a challenge.
“I need you to find a spell in one of Lettie’s books.”
Naomi groaned. “Really? Do you have any idea how many books she has here?”
“It’s a protection spell for me, Nay.” I kept my voice quiet, reasonable.
“I can do that.” She sounded unnaturally perky, and I could imagine her casting her eye over Lettie’s shelves of books.
On the face of it, it did seem like I’d just given her an impossible task.
“What kind of spell?”
I cleared my throat. “It’s…uh…” This shouldn’t be hard to say. I wasn’t ashamed of what I was. “It’s to hide my virginity from the vampires so they don’t…you know.”
Naomi whistled softly. “Say no more. I get it. I always wondered how you worked so close to the mad prince without him claiming you. I guess I just assumed you… well, I thought it wasn’t a problem.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, and Lettie made sure it wasn’t. But the spell’s up for renewal and I need a witch to perform it and you’re…”
“I’m your understudy?” Naomi laughed.
I laughed too, unable to deny her place as my second choice. “First place loser,” I guess.
“I’ll see what I can find. Are you coming over to the shop?”
I checked the time. “Nah, I need to be somewhere later, I wouldn’t have time for both. How about you come here?”
She made a small squeaking noise. “To the regent’s house?”
“Sure. No one’s here but me right now as far as I know, and this was always pretty quick.”
“Okay. I’ll see if I can find what we need and gather up any of the ingredients and I’ll call you when I’m outside.”
My cellphone chimed with a message not too much later. That was faster than I expected, almost like she’d flipped to the right spell straight away and she’d prepacked anything she needed. Maybe Lettie kept the things on hand in the shop. I’d find out soon enough, anyway.
I closed the grimoire I’d been studying, returned it to the shelf, and promised it I would be back with a pen and my own grimoire at some point to copy some of the most interesting things into.
Then I figured out how to let Naomi through the foot gate, and she left her car parked outside at the curb.
“Come up to my room,” I said. “We should have enough privacy up there.”
“I thought you said no one else was in?” She glanced around, her eyes wide, anxiety on show.
“They’re not. Just in case anyone comes home, I guess.”
She nodded and followed behind me, her footsteps hesitant. She slowed even more as we passed over the bridge to the guest quarters, overlooking the gardens. “You get to live here?”
I laughed. “That’s one way of putting it, I guess.” Living here, imprisoned here… It was kind of the same thing.
And really the main reason why I needed to ensure I had the continued protection of Lettie’s spell.
When we reached my room, Naomi gestured to the bed. “Lie down.” She looked at me. “Wait. Lettie made you lie down, right?”
I shook my head. “Nope. Lettie pretty much just looked at me, but you gotta do this your way or it won’t work, right? Intent, remember?”
She swallowed and nodded, her face suddenly tight. “Right. I brought some herbs to burn, and I found the spell in here.”
She let a large book fall noisily onto the bare dresser before flipping through the pages. “This is the spell.” She lifted the book and flashed the page briefly in my direction. “Close your eyes.”
I withheld a sigh but closed my eyes anyway. Lettie never did all these theatrics.
“I just don’t want you watching me while I do this… thing with your virginity.” Naomi sounded almost annoyed, but I laughed.
“You’re not doing anything with my virginity. Relax.” I consciously breathed out and released any tension left in my muscles. I needed to take my own advice here.
“Okay… I’m doing it.”
I didn’t laugh this time, but Lettie had certainly never announced her spells like that.
The smell of herbs filled my room alongside the deep sound of Naomi chanting unfamiliar Latin words.
I fought to keep my eyes closed. The words were unfamiliar—maybe she needed to know.
Or hell, perhaps she’d just found an alternative spell.
She was my friend and I trusted her. I forced myself to relax again.
Warmth spread through my abdomen. This was new too, but it tingled, and I kind of liked it. “This is different,” I murmured.
Her chanting cut off. “Huh?”
I cracked one eye open as she hurried back to the spell book. “Everything okay?”
But she stood silently for a second just flipping a page back and forth.
“Naomi?” I prompted.
“Shit. Oh, shit. Shit, shit… Kayla. Shit What have I done?”
I sat up, my movements slow. I still felt pretty good after the spell. “I don’t know. What did you do?”
“It’s the wrong spell.” She paled as she faced me and brought her hand to cover her mouth.
I shrugged. “I feel fine. And I’m sure there are lots of different spells that do exactly what Lettie’s did.”
“No. You don’t understand.” Her eyes glistened. “I mean, I found Lettie’s spell. The one I did is different.”
“Ye-es…” I looked at her, willing to go on as my relaxation started to dissipate.
“I did the reversal spell.” She whispered the words in a rush, so it sounded like a gust of wind direct from her lungs.
“You did what now?” I held up my hand when it looked like she might repeat herself. “Don’t worry. I got it. Well, just do the right spell.”
“I can’t.” Her eyes were still wide. “I’ve burned all the herbs already. It won’t work now!”
I groaned as I let my head fall back against the pillow. “Well, go get some more. I’ll wait.” But just as I finished speaking a clock in the hallway outside chimed the hour, and I subconsciously counted the notes. Shit. It was nearly time to go to dinner, and I wasn’t even close to ready.
Worse, I was a virgin. An obvious one. And I currently lived in a house of vampires.
“It's too late,” I said. “Sebastian is expecting me.”
“Maybe you can wear lots of perfume?” Naomi suggested, and I nodded rather than tell her how dumb that sounded.
“It was an accident, Nay. A mistake. You can fix it for me tomorrow.” I only had to get through one evening, after all. How hard could it be?
She closed the grimoire and pressed it tightly to her chest. “I’ll come back tomorrow,” she murmured, sounding like a very faint echo. “I’ll fix it tomorrow.”
Honestly, Naomi was about ten years older than me, but sometimes I felt more like she looked to me for guidance and reassurance—which I always seemed to manage to provide.
I showed her to the door then hurried back to my room to get ready, unexpected excitement lurching in my chest.
As much as a part of me never wanted to see Sebastian again—especially after this afternoon’s turn of events—another part of me couldn’t wait.