Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The Rival
“Back again, I see?” Vern said.
The next day, I was at the library. Back when I was a student, I was here all the time.
I used to go just to talk to Vern. Tell him about problems I’d had with Magic,* and he’d suggest this or that textbook.
He’d tell me about his children, grown and moved away now, and his wife, Sonia, who worked part-time in the cafeteria.
He missed his children, but he was proud of the people they’d become.
He always said he just wanted to work long enough to be able to leave them “a little something.” He was patient, and kind, and sensitive, and I loved how after thirty-five years of marriage, he’d still fret over what to buy Sonia for her birthday.
He was my friend in this hellhole, and I loved him fiercely.
“I hate to ask …” I said, biting my lip, “but do you have anything else?”
Vern raised an eyebrow. “Must be some curse if you haven’t found what you’re looking for in the entire library.”
“I’ve found hexes, but none that seem to fit the effects of Dani’s. The scarring, the”—I swallowed—“the behavior. It’s unusual, to say the least. Whatever it is, the spell is very old.”
He lifted a brow.
“What?”
“I’m just glad to see you doing what you love again, is all. You and Max back in here, it feels like old times.”
I sighed. “I don’t know. At least before, there wasn’t a chance of anyone dying if I didn’t get my notes on Object Transference in on time.”
He waved me away. “If anyone can do it, it’s you two. To be honest, Max seems on cloud nine since you came back. I have half a mind to think he cast the damn thing himself. Haven’t seen him so happy in months.”
I snorted and grew intensely interested in the inner workings of my pen.
Vern skimmed the stack. “As far as books, you’ve got yourself a good sampling here. Except … you’d be remiss to not have Brueste’s An Analysis of the Black Magicks, little-known companion text to the Ars Notoria.”
“You have that? It’s got to be ancient.”
He pressed a key on the computer, which made a less-than-encouraging chug chug clunk until he beat the sputtering thing with his palm. “Tck, don’t have it. A student had it last, but hasn’t returned it yet. Joselyn Hart.”
“Joselyn Hart …” I said, the name ringing a bell. “Dani’s old roommate?”
He scratched his head. “Could be. She’s in the physics program, is always checking those books out.”
“Dr. Strauss said she just missed out on acceptance to MIT’s graduate program.”
“I wouldn’t doubt it. Last semester, she cast a spell so a blaring alarm clock followed a student through the halls after he kept a book past due that she had a hold on.
Apparently, she kept the spell on the lad for months afterward, even after he returned the book.
Messy affair, nearly sent the boy to a nervous breakdown.
I tried to get her on staff. Anyone who’s that passionate about books deserves a job, I said, but turns out she just wanted the book. Had some kind of test on it.”
“She admitted to that?”
“No, I happened to see the confrontation when I was trying to catch The Fish.” The Fish, also known as Vern’s archnemesis.
Before he left, one of the seniors had charmed one of those animatronic singing bass to life.
Every few weeks, it would appear out of a shelf, singing Billie Eilish and telling really bad fish puns before knocking down The Old Man and the Sea or Moby-Dick. The thing drove Vern nuts.
“I swear I was this close to catching it when the damn alarm went off and startled the entire library. I peeked through the shelves to see the boy running off in tears, the feet of the little clock chasing like mad after him, and Joselyn standing there, book in hand, looking victorious. Wouldn’t want to get on her bad side. ”
“Do you think it’s possible she’d do something more serious?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Now, don’t you go twisting my words. I never said I thought she did anything to that girl.”
“Sure, sure,” I said, the excitement mounting in my chest. “But why would she have a book on curses?”
“Well now, it’s not only curses. There’s lots of history in there, too. Early natural Magic, the movements of trees, water, and the like …”
Vern realized he’d said something that would lead to a confrontation and quickly tried to backpedal. But this wasn’t something I could ignore. Not if he was right and Joselyn did have something to do with it.
“Dr. Strauss said himself that the physics majors are very competitive. And they are competing for the same spots—they basically kill themselves to get an edge. And they were roommates, too. All that festering tension from being together all the time …”
I was talking very fast now, my thoughts racing ahead of me. Suddenly, I stopped and smacked my hands down on the desk. Vern jumped. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d call that a motive.”
Vern faltered, voice weak. “I mean, I suppose it could be possible …”
I threw my stuff in my bag, shouting over my shoulder. “Thanks, Vern. I owe ya!”
An hour later, I’d got the rankings for the physics majors. “Dani and Joselyn are within only a few percentage points of each other. Joselyn is third in the class. Dani is second.”
It was a slow afternoon in the library; exams had been postponed.
Only two other students were inside. “Not this again,” Vern said.
He chewed on a ham sandwich and a bowl of goldfish crackers.
Every so often, one of them would float up and up and try to swim toward the Marine Biology section, and he’d have to snatch it out of the air and push it back into the bowl.
He released a string of expletives under his breath.
“It’s a potential motive. I can’t just ignore it.”
“Say that’s all true and she did go and off her competition. Why not go for the first in the class?”
“Maybe she was making her way up into it,” I said.
Vern sighed, setting down his sandwich. “Now, I know you’ve gone and given up on people. ‘There’s no hope for humanity’ and all that, but you can’t always look for the worst in everyone. She’s just a kid.”
“It’s not that I’ve given up on humanity. I just … would rather not study them, or allow myself to get disappointed by them any more than I already have.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Uh-huh.”
“Whatever. I don’t see the worst in everyone. I don’t see the worst in you.”
He snorted. “That’s because I am a goddamn delight.”
I took a bite of his sandwich and continued. “Hey!” he said, reaching for it.
“Someone hexed Dani, Vern. How do you explain that? Max and everyone else would be fine if I just ignored it, if I concluded that she simply did all this to herself. But who’s looking out for Dani?”
Vern took off his glasses and set them on the table, rubbing his temples wearily. “Just be careful, is all I’m saying. You’re messing with dangerous business here. If Joselyn or someone else really did do something to that girl, I don’t think they’d take too kindly to you looking into them.”
I nodded. “I know. But she’s got nobody but me, Vern. And she’s running out of time.”
I’d protested, but the council hadn’t called Dani’s parents yet, said they didn’t want to “cause them unnecessary panic,” though I think it was more likely they didn’t want another set of parents harassing them for information they clearly didn’t have.
“Just watch yourself. Don’t know what I’d do if you were floating there in Maritza’s cottage. They’ll be asking me to fix you next, and I’m afraid all I could do would be to throw a book at you, try to knock some sense into that brain of yours.”
“Well, hopefully it’d be a heavy book. You know I’ve got a thick skull.” I grinned and took another bite of his sandwich. “One for the road.”
“Hey!”
“I’ll see you later!” I said, rushing out, letting the door swing closed as I left.
Vern yelled after me. “And you’d better be bringing me a new sandwich when you come back, too!”
Max and I found Joselyn in the courtyard behind Ludlow House, on a stone bench in a rock garden housing bright orange poppies, yucca, and cacti in all different shapes and sizes. She had a line of stud earrings running up one ear and wore Doc Martens and a long purple skirt.
“Joselyn? My name is Max Middlemore, and this is Cel—”
“I know who you both are,” she said drily, not looking up from lying flat on her back. “You’re here to ask me about the golden child.” She brought her vape to her lips and took a drag. “She would get a full-scale investigation into trying to fix her after she murdered someone.”
She was wearing thick black sunglasses that only cast our reflections back at us. I sat on the bench beside her. “Golden child? Why do you call her that?”
She waved her hand, the gold cross around her neck gleaming in the light. “She’s Dr. Strauss’s favorite, of course. The man is lodged so far up her ass.”
“Mmm,” Max said and smiled a country smile that veered just a little crooked. “And I take it that’s why he gave her a recommendation to MIT and not you?”
While they spoke, I tried to ignore the ache lodged in my chest. This sun-baked courtyard was one of Aaron’s favorite spots. He used to lean back on the benches, headphones over his ears; he insisted on using our dad’s beat-up old Walkman. He always looked so peaceful like that.
At our last Christmas as a family, Aaron surprised everyone by using the money he’d made from cutting lawns to buy us all gifts with what little he had, including my Christmas mug.*
Max sent out a tendril of Magic that encircled my shoulders in a protective embrace.
She waved her hand. “He was too busy for me, of course, but who could deny the golden child? Even though I’ve wanted to work at NASA since I was five, and with MIT’s work on the Chandra Observatory, that program was the best chance for me.”
“Did you know that she got accepted?” I asked quietly. I showed her the acceptance letter we’d found among Dani’s things. She’d received it only one week before Maya’s murder.