Chapter 19 #2
“You know it won’t work for you,” Paige said. “Vampires can’t do magic. The fae curse interferes with human spellwork. Same with werewolves, which makes sense, because you all share a root curse structure.”
That was interesting, indeed. Arthur parted his lips to ask for more detail, but realized it wasn’t important enough to derail the investigation. “We don’t intend to attempt magic. This is research for catching a killer.”
“Ah, human justice. I care very much about that, as a fellow human person.” Paige nodded. “Wait here.” They walked off toward the circulation desk.
Arthur, unable to curtail his curiosity, peeked out from behind the shelf in time to see them walk behind the desk, then duck out of sight. Strange, but hardly the strangest thing about Paige Turner.
A few minutes later, they returned with an armful of books. These were not the glossy-covered, labeled books one normally found in a library. Bound in leather, they looked ancient and smelled of actual parchment.
“Do not leave the premises with any of these,” Paige said in a neutral tone. “Or there will be dire consequences.”
“We’ll just be at the tables over there,” Arthur assured them, pointing to the little study area nearby, well within eyeline of the circulation desk. “Thank you very much for your help.”
“That’s what I’m here for,” Paige said brightly before returning to a cart several shelves away.
“I…I don’t think they’re a regular human,” Hailey said softly.
Paige, who was indeed too far away for a human to hear, turned their head slowly to stare at Hailey.
“Don’t be silly,” Arthur said in a rush. “Of course they’re a normal human. It says so right on their name tag.” He gave Hailey a significant look.
“Oh, right.” Hailey let out a shaky laugh. “My mistake.”
Paige Turner looked back toward the shelves, and Arthur’s shoulders lowered an inch. He shifted the books in his arms and hurried over to the nearest table.
Arthur could practically feel the tomes’ age and value radiating off the thick pages. No wonder Paige had threatened them with violence if they attempted to abscond with them. Each book was stamped with FROM THE PERSONAL LIbrARY OF with the next word blacked out, then PAIGE TURNER handwritten in.
The work slowed to a crawl. Unlike the newer books on the shelves, these had no indexes or guides.
Arthur thought of himself as a bit of a bookworm, but even his eyes began to cross after enough pages of complicated diagrams he couldn’t begin to understand.
The inconsistency of the penmanship didn’t help, either.
Hailey, on the other hand, lit up with each new discovery. She understood the diagrams and spells, and her running commentary held the promise of a reader who would undoubtedly return for closer study once they were done.
“Oh em gee,” she whispered over one page. “I think this is it.”
Arthur and Sal moved to look over her shoulder. The page was full of complicated symbols and cramped writing. He couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Hailey moved a finger beneath each line, murmuring to herself.
Eventually, she leaned back and let out a long breath. “I guess it is possible to steal magic. This is…it’s such a violation.”
“How does it work?” Arthur asked.
“It creates a connection between witches, then siphons the stronger power to the weaker person. Thankfully, it’s not permanent. Says it only lasts a decade. And it’s not something anyone can do at any time. There are a lot of requirements for the spell.”
“Such as?” Sal prompted.
“It’s a ritual casting, which means it takes a long time. And it can only be performed at a nexus of power nearest to both witches’ place of birth, at a magically significant location.” Hailey scanned the rest of the page, then sighed in relief. “Oh. Well, there’s no way anyone did this to Lola.”
“Why’s that?” Arthur wished the page made sense to him, but no matter how he examined it, the contents remained mysterious.
“The spell requires an influx of solar energy. The sort of thing that can only happen on the longest day of the year.”
“The solstice!” both Arthur and Sal cried.
“That’s today, and Lola died days ago!” Hailey explained cheerfully.
Arthur and Sal exchanged a significant glance.
“She’s going to cast it today,” Sal whispered, his ominous tone entirely devoid of its usual performative dramatics. “She might have already done it!”
“Hang on.” Hailey held up a hand. “It takes all day, so whoever you’re worried is going to cast the spell would’ve had to start at dawn and it won’t be complete until sunset.”
That wasn’t as comforting as Hailey might have thought.
Arthur bit his lip, not caring for once if his fangs were visible.
He remembered with sudden clarity the festival flyer with Ambrosia’s performance schedule on it.
She wasn’t set to perform until after dark, probably by design.
This was premeditated. “That only gives us a few hours to find her.”
“That is unfortunate, but maybe we can still figure this out. Do you have any other clues as to their identity? That might help us find where they’d go.”
Arthur hesitated. “Well…we’re pretty sure it’s Ambrosia Celestine.”
Hailey gaped. “No. No way. She’s—she’s so…”
“Powerful?” Sal finished, much more gently than usual.
“Ambrosia doesn’t need to steal magic.” Hailey tipped her head back in a laugh too loud for a library. “See, I’ll show you.” She pulled out her phone and hit play on a video. “This is from last year’s summit in Utah.”
Arthur and Sal crowded around the phone to watch as Ambrosia took the stage.
It looked like some kind of conference hall or megachurch, though it was difficult to tell.
The video quality left something to be desired.
Ambrosia raised her arms, just like she had at the festival the day before.
The ceiling went dark, storm clouds gathering.
Wind whipped at her dress, and lightning cracked overhead, illuminating her on the stage in a jagged spotlight.
“See?” Hailey said. “It’s not like she’s hurting for magic. That’s a ridiculously powerful spell.”
Arthur frowned. “Would you say it’s harder to create a storm or summon a snow flurry?”
“Oh, that’s easy!” Hailey let the book fall to the table and lifted her hands above her head. Snowflakes began to drift lazily toward them.
Paige Turner cleared their throat. “No spellwork in the library!”
“Sorry!” Hailey brought her hands down like a conductor and the snow dissipated. In a quieter voice, she said, “See? Even I can do that. I don’t think I could call a whole storm, though. Storms are a lot more volatile than a little snow.”
“Storms are harder than snow?” Arthur thought aloud.
“Yes, so you see, it doesn’t make any sense for Ambrosia to need to steal magic. She’s already more powerful than anyone else around.”
“Then why didn’t she call a storm at the festival?” Arthur scratched his chin, eyes unfocusing as he thought through the possibilities.
“Could be she didn’t want to cause panic? Sometimes when you do that kind of magic outdoors it can mess with real weather patterns,” Hailey explained.
“Maybe…” Arthur didn’t want to dismiss her out of hand, but there was a far more compelling reason.
“Or it’s because her stolen magic is running out.
She doesn’t have enough to pull that sort of thing off anymore.
If it’s been ten years since she stole magic the first time, like Martha said, then it would stand to reason that her powers would be diminished now that we’re approaching the anniversary. ”
“Wait, she’s done this before?” Hailey gasped. “And who’s Martha? Maybe she’s the one who’s stealing magic. Did you think of that?”
Sal shook his head. “She isn’t a witch. Besides, Martha spends all her time worrying about tax fraud. I don’t think she’d consider stealing a candy bar, let alone someone’s magic.”
Not for the first time, Arthur thought his husband’s characterization of their accountant a tad pejorative, but it wasn’t the time to defend Martha Whatsername’s honor. Instead, he said, “It wasn’t Martha who made the accusation. She was just relaying the information from a third party.”
“What about this third party, then?” Hailey suggested. Her voice was growing higher with each word, as if desperate to find an alternative that didn’t implicate her idol.
“We could be wrong,” Arthur admitted. He didn’t want to push Hailey away.
“But whoever it is, they’re most likely in the coven’s inner circle.
Is there anyone else you know of at the platinum level from Trident Falls?
If someone’s planning to steal magic tonight, it would have to be from someone born here, too. ”
“I don’t think so. Wow, I’m glad I’m not a local,” Hailey said, laughing weakly.
“Otherwise I might be a target. It wouldn’t be totally unimaginable that someone might come for me, since I’ve risen through the ranks pretty quick.
Not as quickly as my new recruit, though!
” She held a hand to her chest in pride.
Arthur froze. Her new recruit, who was from Trident Falls. A boy who had a lot of magic but little training. Who was at this very moment trying to get close to Ambrosia to investigate his mother’s disappearance.
Sal looked to Arthur, the same realization dawning on his face.
“We’ve got to go,” Arthur said in a hurry. “Please bring these books back to Paige.”
“Where are you going?” Hailey asked, standing.
“To find Ambrosia!” Arthur called as he began to jog away. “Brody Young is in terrible danger!”