12. When books attack （the sequel） #2
Ash shows up around noon. He doesn’t seem surprised that Riordan is inside of the locked library, and when I start to apologize for bringing him with me when I’m technically the only ‘volunteer librarian’ with that privilege, he makes it a point to tell me not to worry about it.
I get the feeling that Riordan’s new status as Ash’s second volunteer librarian is something else they talked about, but as long as I’m making things easier for the opossum shifter, I shut up and go back to sorting through the books—
“Ouch!”
Riordan’s head shoots up. “Something wrong, Pen?”
It sounds so ridiculous, but… “I think that book I just picked up bit me.”
A strange emotion rolls over his face. It’s one part amusement, one part… okay. This is weird, too, because I can’t help but think that Riordan looks like he wants to fight a book because it made me say ‘ouch’.
“Which one? Let me see.”
I pause. “Are you going to do something to it?”
A corner of his mouth quirks up. “Do I look like the sort of male that will take vengeance out on a piece of literature because it harmed my sweet witch?”
My cheeks heat up. I don’t know why Riordan keeps flirting with me like that. I’m sure it’s because he wants to make sure I’m not afraid of him while we’re working together, and, at first, it definitely worked. Now though? I’m kinda wondering what it would be like to be his anything.
“You look like you belong on the cover of a magazine,” I blurt out, my mouth working before my brain catches up to it. Oh, goddess. I did not just say that. “Sorry. But between the hair and the clothes… I thought you were a model when we first met. Then I realized you were—”
“A wolf,” supplies Riordan. His earlier flash of amusement fades. “And that put you on your guard.”
He’s not completely wrong. My heart jumped in my throat the moment I instinctively recognized what kind of supe he is, but there’s more to it. “It didn’t help,” I admit, “but if I’m being honest, I was more nervous about your badge than anything else.”
“Really?”
I nod. “Something about a man with a badge… I get a little nervous, almost like a cop”—or a chief deputy— “can take one look at me and see every bad thing I’ve ever done.”
“Why’s that?” purrs Riordan. “Are you a naughty witch, Penelope?”
I don’t even know how to answer that. I’m sure as hell not responding to the obvious innuendo in his smooth voice, either. Instead, knowing that it’ll distract him even if I’m not sure why, I lift up my finger and show him the red mark on the side of it.
He’s instantly all business. “Holy shit. The book did bite you.”
“Told you.”
He holds out his hand expectantly. “Pass it over. I’m usually against destroying a book, but I’ll make an exception.”
“What? No.” I grab the book. It zaps me. Letting out a squeal, I drop it back to the floor. “Goddess damn it, it electrocuted me!”
Before I can pick it back up, Riordan reaches out, snatching the book.
It doesn’t seem to affect him at all. He flips it, front to back, and frowns. “What kind of library book is this?”
That’s the thing. I don’t think it’s a library book at all.
It had a leather cover without any sort of title or author on it, and the feathered edges of the pages remind me of a well-loved notebook versus an actual printed book.
I don’t know what it was doing in the pile of books, and since it doesn’t have the sticker that lists it as property of the library or its place in the Dewey Decimal system, I don’t think it’s part of the library’s collection.
So why would it—
Oh.
Oh.
“Oh,” I breathe out. “I think I know why it keeps hurting me. It’s trying to get my attention.”
Riordan raises his eyebrows. “It’s a book.”
No. It’s a book in a library that used to be run by a witch, and I’m the idiot who cast a spell to help me find a book that would interest me—and, weeks after I sent all of them flying from their shelves, I think I finally did.
“Can I see it?”
“I don’t want it to bite you or zap you again.”
“It won’t.”
At least, I think it won’t. Now that I’ve figured out what it’s trying to tell me, that magic should be satisfied. Then again, it’s my magic, so you never know how it’ll backfire, but I want to believe I already got that out of the way when I conjured a literary tornado.
Riordan lifts the book to his face, glowering at the cover. “Behave yourself. If you cause Penelope any more pain, I will use your pages for toilet paper and make a hat for Gus out of your leather cover.”
Then, as I blink over at him, stunned by the casual way the Beta just threatened the book, he hands it to me.
Whether it was the magic being spent or the poor thing really didn’t want to be used for toilet paper, I don’t know, but there’s only a gentle buzz against my fingers when I accept it from him.
I open the cover. There, written in careful script, is a name I recognize:
Garnet Brooks
My stomach gives a strange little flip.
“It’s Garnet’s journal.” I start leafing through the pages. “That’s so weird.”
“Because she wrote in a journal? After going through Faith’s notebook, I thought that was just something witches do.”
He’s not wrong. “No. We do. Witches are very big on keeping written notes. It’s why so many covens have their own archives.
It helps keep track of spells and potions and what herbs do…
I tried to talk Serena into computerizing some of what’s in the national coven’s archives, but magic and tech…
they don’t mix. Writing it down is safer. ”
Riordan cocks his head. “Do you have a journal?”
Do I have a journal? “There’s a box under my bed back at the apartment. I have three different journals, plus a diary.”
His lips split into a grin. “You write in your diary about me?”
My cheeks are instantly on fire. “No.”
He laughs. “Liar.”
One of these days I’m going to remember that alpha wolf shifters can sense a lie as easily as I can magic.
Like now. This book is saturated in it.
“Anyway,” I say, changing the subject, “it’s not weird that Garnet has a journal. What’s weird is that she didn’t grab it when she left for that other coven. I mean, she probably had a few, but this one is pretty full.”
“Maybe she left it behind in the library and she forgot,” suggests Riordan. “Just like I’m hoping you might forget your diary one day—”
I give him a look. “Don’t touch my diary.”
He holds up his hands. “Oh, my sweet witch. You know I won’t. But if you let me read it…”
“I won’t.”
“Maybe I can convince you.”
Maybe he can stop flirting with me before I combust.
I turn it over, studying the worn leather cover. Garnet’s name is written inside, but nothing on the outside marks it as hers. If it hadn’t ended up mixed in with the library books when my spell tore everything off the shelves, I might never have noticed it.
Maybe Riordan is right. Maybe Garnet forgot it.
She did leave suddenly. Ash found her note on the circulation desk saying he was taking over the library, and when he called the coven house, Delilah told him Garnet had been planning to relocate for a while. A position opened in another coven’s spell archives, and she jumped at it.
It’s a witch’s journal. Of course that would interest me. I’d love to know what Garnet was working on before she left—
The book flies open in my hands, pages rustling as though a windstorm was running through them. While I gape at it, Riordan growls under his breath, the two of us stunned until the sudden spurt of magic stops, leaving it open on a pair of pages.
Even if my magic’s never worked the way it was supposed to, I’m a born and trained witch. This book is obviously telling me something, and when I glance down at it, I instantly know what that is.
“Oh, Hecate,” I breathe out. Excitement rising up in me, I tap the page with my fingernail. “Do you know what this says?”
Riordan shakes his head. “Do I know what the obviously cursed book you’re holding says? No, Pen, and I repeat: you’re still holding it. You should put that down.”
“I can’t, Riordan. I have to read this. Look!” I twist it around, using my finger to underline a word that’s already been underlined by Garnet’s pen three times. “Lodestone,” I squeak. “According to Garnet’s notes, she thinks there’s an honest-to-Goddess lodestone buried in Moonburrow!”
Buzzing, I turn forward a couple of pages.
There are dates in the margins. Names of old texts.
References to historical records in multiple covens.
There are maps, too. Loads of maps. One in particular is labeled so I know that it’s the current borders of Moonburrow, but there’s a similar shape with similar landmarks titled ‘Avalon’.
Avalon.
The legendary witch settlement that was the first to arrive in the new world before the witches who ran it vanished the same way as the lost colony of Roanoke did.
Only, in the case of Avalon, there was a magical excuse for the end of their community.
It simply was too powerful to exist, taking all of its secrets—and its artifacts—with it.
If Garnet’s notes can be believed, the supernatural town of Moonburrow was built three centuries later on the remains of Avalon.
And if that isn’t enough, she seems to think there’s a real lodestone here.
But if all that is true… then why did Garnet leave Moonburrow if she seems so interested in Avalon and its hidden artifacts? Where did she go? Why did she not bring this with her?
I don’t know, but if there is a lodestone here, I have to find it.
Not for me, of course. No. I can’t imagine the kind of havoc I’d wreak with one of those.
But if I gave it to Serena and the national coven council?
That should be enough to protect every witch in America.
More than that. If used properly, it can do amazing things.
After all, isn’t that what this investigation is about? Stopping a witch killer and making sure the witches in Moonburrow are safe?
With a lodestone, I can make sure we all are.