Chapter 4 #2
“Sarah Claire stole the book, as you know,” Rhi said, her voice settling into the lulling rhythms of a story told and retold many times; and for a moment, I could imagine my mother and her sisters asking the same questions, and Asteria in Rhi’s place, giving the same answer I was now about to hear.
“Mary Vesper was feeling poorly, and Sarah disguised the potion in a broth she brought to the cottage. Once Mary had fallen into a deep sleep, Sarah took the book, but she knew she also needed Vesper blood in order to find the spell she needed.”
My heart gave a thump. “She didn’t… I mean, did she kill—”
Rhi shook her head. “No. She used a knife to puncture one of Mary’s fingers, and collected the blood in a vial.
A drop or two will suffice, as you’ve seen.
She went to the cliffs to carry out her plan.
But Diana didn’t only protect the coven.
She protected the book as well. She knew it had been taken almost as soon as Sarah left the house, and she followed.
She roused the coven to action and they, along with the rest of Sarah’s own coven, were able to stop her before it was too late. ”
“So they got the book back,” I said.
“They did. And they used it to seal the Covenant. But after that, the book vanished.”
“I don’t—”
“It was Mary,” Persi chimed in. “She knew the grimoire put them all in danger. It held the key, not only to binding the Darkness, but also, now, unleashing it. As long as the Vespers held those secrets close, they would always have a target on their backs. It was too risky to keep the grimoire.”
“So what did she do with it?” I asked eagerly.
“No one knows,” my mom answered. “Well, Mary did, of course. But soon it was put about that the book was gone, and when people asked about it, Mary would only say—”
All three sisters spoke the words at once. “‘It is lost, and long may it stay so.’”
“And she never told anyone what she had done with it? No one, not even other members of the coven?” I asked.
“It seems not. If she did, they kept the secret as thoroughly as she did. Our family started over, passing spells down by oral tradition, and recording them in new grimoires; but the deepest, most dangerous magic contained in that original grimoire was lost… until now.”
Until now.
We all fell quiet, staring at the book. Its very presence seemed to have sucked all the air from the room. After what felt like a long time, Persi’s voice suddenly broke the silence, making us all jump.
“And now, out of nowhere this woman just… just shows up and hands you a centuries-lost book, the most powerful book of magic known to have existed? It doesn’t make sense!” she ground out, pounding her fist on the table.
“It does if she didn’t realize what it was she was handing over,” my mom said, chewing thoughtfully on her bottom lip. “I mean, think about it. She’s an academic, right? Or a librarian?”
She looked at me for clarification, but I shrugged. “She just said she worked at a school. Fairhaven, I think she said it was called. It’s in England, although she didn’t have an English accent.”
“Okay, so let’s assume academic of some kind. She finds this book, has it examined, discovers where it belongs, and returns it. That seems reasonable,” Rhi says.
“But how?” Persi persisted. “How does a book lost for centuries—no, not lost, but intentionally hidden away—wind up at this Fairhaven in the first place, just sitting on a shelf for anyone to find? Did she explain that?”
“She didn’t know,” I said. “She told me some students discovered it in their library, but that they didn’t have a record of it. She thought it had either been returned there by accident, or hidden there.”
“Those students are lucky to be alive, if they even are,” Persi said darkly. “Imagine someone with no magical training handling this book, let alone trying to use it?”
She shuddered, and I joined her. After all, my magical training was rudimentary at best, and I’d already had a taste of the damage uncontrolled magic could do.
“How did this woman find us?” Rhi asked, wringing her hands together. “I don’t like that she found us so easily.”
“I don’t think it was very easy, actually,” I said, holding out the letter from Dr. Vesper, along with the family tree.
“This Dr. Vesper is a relative. She had already done a lot of research on our family history. She’s the one who figured out who to return the book to. Jess Ballard was just the messenger.”
“Hmm,” my mother said, taking the papers from me and looking them over. “Well, I suppose that’s easy enough to verify. But why you specifically, Wren? Why not one of us?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I didn’t think to ask that question while she was here.”
“Well, we need to find her and find out. Maybe it really is all an innocent discovery, but I’d like to know for sure. Did Jess leave anything that would help us contact her?”
“No.”
“Hmm. Well, we might be able to find her through this Dr. Vesper, or that school she mentioned. Unless…” My mom sat up a little straighter. “How long ago did this woman leave?”
“I don’t know… an hour ago, maybe a little more?” I said.
“And did she say where she was going?”
“She… she asked where she could get food on the way out of town, and I told her to go to Xiomara’s, obviously.”
My mom jumped up out of her seat. “We might still be able to catch her. Come on, we’ll take the car.”
Before I could even process what was happening, my mom and I piled into my mom’s beat up little Subaru and began speeding down the road toward town.
As we got closer, the size of the crowds meant we had to slow down to a crawl.
My mom, swearing under her breath about tourists, swung the car into a parking space just as another car vacated it; and we jumped out and began to weave and duck our way through the hordes on the sidewalks until we reached Xiomara’s Cafe.
“Do you see her, Wren?” my mom asked, as we surveyed the line of customers snaking right out the door.
“No,” I replied after scanning each face carefully.
We skirted the line and ran around the side of the building, where there was a door that led to the kitchen. My mom hammered on it and waited, bouncing on the balls of her feet. After a few seconds the door opened, and Eva stuck her head out. She looked startled to see us standing there.
“Wren! Ms. Vesper! What are you—” she began, but my mother cut her off.
“We’re looking for someone who might have just stopped by.” She turned to me. “Wren can you—?”
“Uh, yeah, she was like mid-twenties, black dyed hair with purple highlights, all black clothes, kinda heavy on the eyeliner?” I said quickly.
Eva frowned. “I don’t think so, but I feel like I’ve seen at least a dozen girls who could fit that description today. Black clothes and colorful hair could describe like half the tourists who come in here during the lead up to Samhain. Sorry.”
“That’s okay. Will you text Wren if you spot someone who fits that description?” my mom asked.
Eva’s eyebrows pulled together. “Sure, sure. Can I ask why you—?”
“We’ll explain later, honey, we’ve got to keep looking,” my mom said. “Thanks for your help.”
Eva threw me a curious glance as she pulled the door closed. I turned to ask my mom what was next, but she was already halfway back up the narrow alleyway toward the bustling street again.
“Mom, would you wait up? You don’t even know who you’re looking for!” I cried, hurrying after her. She didn’t slow, though, reaching the end of the alley and turning her head back and forth, scanning the crowd for any sign of Jess Ballard. I arrived beside her, panting.
“Mom, isn’t this a little… overkill?” I asked.
“Huh?” she asked, not even looking at me.
“This is ridiculous, Mom. We’re never gonna find her in this crowd. And anyway, she said she was heading out of town.”
“We need to talk to her, Wren. We need to find out more about how she came across that book.”
“I know, but this isn’t the way to do it. She left us Dr. Vesper’s card. Let’s get in touch with her. She’ll know how to reach Jess.”
My mom sighed, lowering her heels to the ground. “You’re right. This is a needle in a haystack situation. Let’s just walk the main thoroughfare once, okay? Humor me. If we don’t see her, we’ll go home.”
I agreed, and together we walked from one end of Main Street to the other, my mother pointing at every black-haired woman she saw and hissing, “Is that her?” over and over again until I was ready to scream.
Finally, the shops trickled away, and the bustling downtown faded to a few cottages dotting the grassy dunes.
Up ahead, we could see the Manor, home of the Claires, looming on the hill and marking the furthest reaches of Sedgwick Cove.
My mother reluctantly admitted defeat, and we turned around and retraced our steps back to the car.
When at last we pulled back up in front of Lightkeep Cottage, both Persi and Rhi were waiting on the porch for us.
“Any luck?” Rhi asked, though without much hope in her voice.
“No,” my mom said, slamming the car door a bit harder than necessary in her frustration. “No sign of her.”
“Damn it all,” Persi cursed.
“I still think we’ll be able to get in touch with her,” I said. “We’ve got—”
“What do we do about the Conclave?” Persi asked, steamrolling right over me.
“We have to tell them,” Rhi said at once.
“We have to tell them eventually, yes,” my mom said, twisting a strand of her hair around her fingers like she always did when she was preoccupied. She looked at Persi, who nodded.
Rhi looked back and forth between her sisters, her expression scandalized. “Kerri, you aren’t seriously suggesting we keep this from them!”
“No, not exactly. It’s just… you know how they are.” She raised her eyebrows as though that was all that needed to be said on the subject.
“I don’t know how they are,” I said, starting to feel annoyed now. “Can someone please explain?”