Chapter 18
Jahla took a deep breath, staring blankly at the double doors of the Cross Heritage Private Library for a moment, trying to get her mind sorted.
Or rather, trying not to think about the dream she had last night.
Which really was just the first weird dream repeated, with more detail—no new dialogue, but she now could fully describe what the two men looked like.
Though, she hadn’t realized she hadn’t gotten any of those details the first time around, and she wasn’t exactly sure why she needed to know them now, but she did.
The man whose voice sounded like pages being flipped was tall and on the thinner side, even if slightly muscular, with long white hair pulled into a high ponytail.
He had a sharp, pointed nose, seemingly pure-black eyes, full lips, and very angular features.
While the one whose voice sounded like flickering flames had short, spiky hair as red as Ollie’s, deep naturally tanned skin, and dark blood-red eyes.
The second man was possibly a few inches shorter than the first, but he was far more muscular, with a squarish jaw, hawk-like nose, and high cheekbones.
Again, she wasn’t sure why she needed to know all that, but then this was just her own mind messing with her, and it meant nothing.
Shaking her head, she unlocked the front door, leaving it unlocked as she let it close behind her.
Bag of donuts in hand, she hurried up the wide set of steps to the first floor, forcing a smile when she spotted Ollie near the circulation desk, working on something.
Noble was next to him, and Red was lounging on the ground nearby.
“I brought goodies,” she drawled, holding up the paper bag in her hand when Ollie looked up at her approach.
Ollie tossed his pencil aside and hurried over. She let him pull her into a hug as he dramatically cried, “My best friend, the only one who loves and understands me in this world!”
Noble sighed. “Should I feel insulted?”
“I do,” Red huffed.
Jahla rolled her eyes. Turned out, Ollie wasn’t the only one who was dramatic around here. As she pulled back, letting her friend take the bag of donuts, she asked, “So, what are the plans for today, Boss? Hope it doesn’t involve getting chased by any more wax figures.”
“Yeah, getting chased by wax is decidedly not on the agenda today. But then, it wasn’t yesterday either.
As for what is… Aside from catching up on things we missed during that week off, meeting with the crew coming in to begin repairs on the floor in the damaged room, and having to deal with damaged property that wasn’t ours?
” he mused as he pulled out an apple cider donut and took a bite.
“Aside from all that?”
“Well, last night, I just happened to find a secret door in the library in my home, so I guess, exploring that? Oh, by the way, there are apparently others that just haven’t appeared yet.”
“Secret doors… Starting the month off right, I see,” she drawled sarcastically.
“You know the worst part? I won’t even have time for it until at least noon because there is too much to do!”
“Poor baby.” She snickered.
Ollie oddly frowned instead of getting irritated at her teasing. After eyeing her for perhaps a moment too long, he finally asked, “Are you okay?”
Jahla hadn’t realized she’d failed to hide that she was possibly freaking out about something, but apparently, she had.
“I’m fine,” Jahla quickly lied, barely stopping her wince as the words came out almost as a question.
She sent Noble a sardonic smile when the hunter started to stare and frown at her as well, then repeated more firmly this time, “I’m fine. Just didn’t sleep well last night.”
Well, Jahla had slept, but it wasn’t peaceful, that was for sure. And she wasn’t totally lying. The dreams were nonsense, so obviously, she had to be fine.
And Noble possibly proving that at least her second dream likely hadn’t been a dream, not to mention the chasing one, meant fucking nothing.
Yep, nothing to worry about. Aside from her seeming to slide further into Ollie’s domain of self-gaslighting, cause apparently, no tips needed…fuck…
Noble sighed as he drove away from the library. He hated being away from Ollie, but he really needed to continue breaking down and destroying things in his home.
Also, he needed to do a total scrub down of his house, and that would take...all day. He hadn’t done one in a long while, and who knew how much evidence had been left behind…
Probably not as much as he thought, but more than one would want. Not that he’d likely be caught by any human authority at this point. But there was always a chance he hadn’t been as thorough as he needed to be.
Noble really just needed to make sure there was nothing left that Ollie could find that would alert him to what he was. The realization would come eventually, but he would do whatever he could to put it off.
Ollie quickly slipped away as the kids got distracted by Red, heading past the rows of shorter freestanding bookshelves painted in rainbow order, to the taller rows near Winnie’s desk by the entrance of the Young Readers section.
It was finally time for him to see what was behind the secret door in his private library. He sort of wished Noble could be there to check it out with him, but the man had things to do, so…
Ollie wasn’t sure if he was excited or terrified, but either way, his heart was racing and his nerves were on edge.
There was, of course, still other stuff he should and could be doing, but…
it could wait. Besides, he was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to focus on anything else until he found out what was hidden.
Though, he would do pretty much anything to put off discussing the destroyed wax figure with Elias.
Bricker Brightly, the owner of Fantastical Decorations, hadn’t sounded too happy with him over the phone earlier, Ollie having purchased insurance or not, and he wasn’t looking forward to having what would likely be a similar conversation with Elias anytime soon.
Smiling when Winnie looked up, just as he reached her desk. Instead of smiling back, she eyed him suspiciously. “Need something, Boss?”
“Yes, I do. I’ll be out for the rest of the day doing paperwork, so I’ll need you to take over storytime.”
“Will do,” Winnie said, to her credit, with little hesitation, even if her attitude lingered in her tone, followed by an unhappy sigh.
He glared at her. “You could at least try not to sound so put out doing what is technically part of your job.”
“I mean, you do it eighty percent of the time, so I have to get my complaining in somehow.”
Ollie rolled his eyes. “Why did I hire you again?”
“Because I’m amazing, that’s why.”
He snorted, shaking his head as he walked right past her desk, towards the center of the first floor. Spotting that Jahla was free, aside from whatever paperwork she was working on, he hurried over.
“I’m heading up to check out the new door in my house. If anything goes wrong, that’s where I’ll be.”
“Well, if I hear an explosion, or someone freaking out, at least I will know exactly where it came from.” She winked.
“Rude, bestie, rude.” He hmphed as he quickly rushed to the antique bronze elevators and pressed the up button. As one opened, he nodded politely to the person stepping off and got on, selecting the button for floor three.
Exiting the elevator once it stopped, a ding sounding as the doors opened, he powerwalked out, trying his best to appear busy, nodding and waving as he went. On reaching the door up to his home, he swiftly unlocked it, before relocking it once he was inside.
Taking a calming breath, he jogged up the stairs.
After unlocking his front door, he entered and closed it behind him, but left it unlocked.
Ollie headed straight to his private library and found that the glowing, cracked-open door was right where it had been last night and this morning.
He supposed, he’d be worried if it wasn’t.
Or maybe he wouldn’t be, since there were apparently more hidden doors, so he wasn’t sure he’d be that surprised that a previously hidden door had disappeared once again.
Approaching slowly, he walked around the spiral staircase, his eyes glued to the glowing outline.
Six shelves of the stupidly tall bookcase built into the walls of the room were inset and clearly showed a slight gap between them and the surrounding shelves, making up what he assumed was the hidden door.
If I could just figure out how the glow worked, and explain it in a scientific way, I bet I could make a fortune.
Ollie rolled his eyes at the silly thought. Standing directly in front of the door, he hesitated, wringing his hands together as he stared. But then something cold brushed against his leg, causing him to flinch.
Meow.
Smiling at the soft sound, he looked down and, without hesitation, scooped up the ghost kitten.
To the touch, the ghost was almost ice-cold.
Yet, thankfully it wasn’t exactly like holding an ice cube, making it so that Ollie could just barely stand holding the ghost for any period of time.
Aside from the cold, it felt just like any other kitten, with an overly soft fur texture and all.
He didn’t know exactly how he’d known he could touch, let alone pick—he frowned and quickly checked underneath—her up last night, but he hadn’t really thought about it at the time.
Ollie had just been tired, and well…he grabbed.
The cold was easy enough to get past in favor of holding the kitten cuteness.
“Planning to go in anytime soon?” Red asked dryly from behind him, causing him to jump.
“I’m getting to it!” Ollie huffed before setting the kitten back down and running his hands over his corduroy pants to warm them up, before eyeing the door and sighing again.
How did it open, was the question? Well, it looked to be pushed in slightly already, so he might as well push it a bit more.
Placing his hands on the bottom of one of the shelves, he pushed.
He kept going as the door moved further backwards, until it wouldn’t budge past what appeared to be the back of the surrounding shelves.
After pushing it in various directions, he found that the only way it wanted to go, in that position, was left.
Despite the glow that had been present before, as soon as he started to slide the door, the light disappeared, and what greeted him as he fully slid it open was, of course, pure darkness—yippee...
“What is the point of the glow if it’s going to turn off the second I need it?” Ollie complained.
“Just go inside!” Red snapped.
“I am!”
Taking a deep breath, Ollie stepped into the unknown, blinking rapidly as light suddenly lit up the room the second he did. He gasped as his vision cleared, and he stepped further inside.
Standing in the center of the room, he spun around in wonder, giggling gleefully as he clapped. “Books!”
But not just any books—old books. Ollie had walked into a secret library, which was bigger than the one on the other side of the door.
Each bookcase was eight shelves high and filled with books that had to be more than a hundred years old.
The bookcases had intricately carved wooden edges depicting things like fire, trees, and more.
And their tops had arched latticework with an oddly empty, flat space in the center.
The bookshelves lined the rectangular room, which had wooden floors and a domed painted ceiling featuring the night sky with the constellations shining bright.
He wasn’t sure where the light in the room was coming from, yet he couldn’t help but think that some of it had to be coming from the painted stars above.
To the right of the door, in the center, was a medium-sized table with spiraled legs, surrounded by four matching wooden chairs.
To the far left sat a plush, tufted-back dark-blue velvet chair and footstool, both embroidered with silver stars in a repeating pattern, with a pale yellow star-shaped rug underneath.
Feeling giddy as can be, Ollie approached the shelf that was to the left as you entered, the bookshelf door itself having disappeared behind the very thick wall.
He gasped again as he neared the bookcase with edges carved with what might have been fireflies, when, in English, the words ‘History of Witchery’ lit up in cursive in the blank space of the arch atop.
Briefly glancing around once more, he side-stepped to the next bookcase, and as another word lit up, he kept going until he’d made it all the way around the room.
In all, there were thirty-four marked sections.
Each of the major arcana taking up a separate bookcase, with the minor sharing one.
As for the remaining ones, there were various other supernatural and witch-related topics represented, from ghosts to witch hunters and more.
As he took in all he’d just seen, he couldn’t stop himself from spinning around, with his hands on his hips, and snapping at Red. “And you couldn’t tell me this was here again, why?!”