Spells & Shelves (A Library Witch Mystery Book 1) Read online

  Brightness shone through the blinds. They’d been closed when I’d first come in and I hadn’t got a good look outside, but now I opened them, I could see past the clock tower to the seafront. The tide was out, revealing a stony beach running down to the sea. Sunlight streamed through the clouds and glittered on the water.

  Even if it’d been sunny every day, I’d have a hard time tearing myself away from the library. I turned to my own bookshelves, which my aunts had transported here from home. My room looked bare compared to the rest of the place, but maybe I could decorate once I learned some magic.

  I’d put Dad’s journal on my bedside table, mostly to reassure myself it was still there. I’d yet to get any answers on why those vampires had been after it, but I’d been too preoccupied with the library to remember to ask Aunt Adelaide yesterday. She must know. It sounded like she’d been closer to Dad than Aunt Candace had.

  I pulled a fresh outfit from my wardrobe to wear under my new cloak. Yesterday’s clothes had already vanished from the bag marked ‘laundry’ overnight. Yet another perk of magic—no chores. Aunt Adelaide had reassured me I could live here rent-free, and I’d get a salary I could spend on anything I liked. It seemed too good to be true. Librarians didn’t earn much in my experience, but this place was absurdly extravagant and my aunts had inherited it from Grandma. That suggested she’d had money, right? Another question for later. In the meantime, I dressed in a T-shirt and jeans—no more bookshop uniform for me—and put on my cloak before opening the door.

  I’d thought Estelle’s room was next to mine, but there weren’t any other doors at all. Just blank walls. Odd. Closing the door behind me, I walked slowly down the corridor. My room had only one exit, so I must be in the right place. I turned the corner. Still no doors, and no stairs leading down into the family’s living quarters, either. Instead, an unfamiliar staircase spiralled upwards. That hadn’t been there yesterday. I’d have knocked on Estelle’s door to ask her, but it wasn’t there.

  The staircase stopped after one spiral and had no door at the top, only a blank wall. Huh?

  A rustling noise came from above my head, and a large bird flew down, feathers tickling my face. I stumbled back, stifling a yelp of surprise. A large tawny owl hovered in front of me, its head rotating so it was looking at me backwards.

  “Hello,” said the owl, in a loud, male voice.

  My heart jumped in my chest. “You can talk!”

  “Wow, you’re not a very bright one, are you?” His eyes scanned me, then his head rotated the right way around and he looked me up and down again. “Definitely a biblio-witch, though. That makes you the lost cousin Aurora, correct?”

  “Well, I am lost at the moment,” I admitted. “Do you have a name?”

  “Sylvester,” he said. “And you’re Aurora.”

  “I go by Rory,” I said. “Most of the time. Is the library rearranging things again? This staircase wasn’t here before.”

  “It certainly was the last time I checked,” said the owl. “If the staircase isn’t here, then neither am I. Maybe none of us are here.”

  I tried to think that one through and gave up before it gave me a headache. I’d rather not have a philosophical debate with an owl when I hadn’t even had coffee yet. “Where’s the way downstairs?”

  “Someone’s got a sharp tongue,” he observed, clucking his beak at the emblem on my new cloak. “That same someone is dressed in our uniform. That makes you a biblio-witch, which makes you an expert on the library. It looks like our standards are slipping.”

  “That’s not a nice thing to say. I am new here. Who even are you, anyway?”

  “I’m your family’s familiar, of course,” he said self-importantly. “I help run the place. Meaning Adelaide and I run the place, because Candace is about as much help as a used teabag.”

  “That’s not a nice thing to say, either,” I said.

  “Did I ever claim to be nice, Aurora?” He spread his wings wider, and I backed up a few steps. I’d never been a huge fan of birds, not since a swan had nearly bitten off my finger when I was a kid.

  “Nope,” I said. “We’ve clarified that you’re not nice and I’m lost. What do you do, chase the guests?”

  He clucked his beak. “I work for the library. That means I’m in charge of late fees.”

  “But of course. Can you please point me in the direction of the stairs down to the kitchen?”

  “Wouldn’t that spoil the fun?” He took flight up the staircase, disappearing in a rustle of wings.

  Great. The staircase appeared to be the only way out, but it ended in a blank wall, which the owl had apparently flown through.

  I really needed coffee. I turned the corner and walked back to my room. Past the door, the corridor didn’t finish at a dead end as I first thought. Instead, there was no wall, just… nothing. I peered over the carpeted floor at the sheer drop. Was there anywhere to land?

  “I wouldn’t advise it.”

  I jumped, almost tripping over the carpet’s edge.

  “Clumsy and slow.” Sylvester fluttered down to my side.

  “How did you get back in?” I asked. “You flew… through a wall. Which is also impossible, I might add.”

  “Not only are you slow, you have no imagination whatsoever.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with my imagination,” I protested. “Just where I come from, the world obeys basic rules.”

  “Oh, does it?” He clucked his beak. “How dull. I do hope you get what you came here for.”

  He took flight in a flutter of wings. Shaking my head, I peered over the edge. There must be a way down. When I leaned right over, I saw the corridor which led to the family’s living quarters below, as though someone had removed the stairs.

  “Rory?” Estelle’s voice drifted from downstairs. “Where are you?”

  “On a ledge,” I called.

  She came out of one of the doors below and looked up at me. “Oh, did the library move the stairs again? It’s usually better with strangers, but I probably should have warned it that someone new was staying overnight.”

  “No worries,” I said, as though I dealt with semi-sentient libraries every day. “I also met Sylvester, but he wasn’t much help at getting me un-lost.”

  “Oh, him,” she said. “Sorry, he makes Cass look positively welcoming.”

  “That’s one way of putting it. He said he was the family’s familiar?”

  “He is,” she said. “I was on my way to grab breakfast—I slept in a bit late, so we’ll be opening soon. Want anything?”

  “Er, a way down?” I said. “Sorry, I haven’t had any coffee yet.”

  Estelle pulled out her pen and notebook. “Oh, are you like Aunt Candace? She can’t function on less than a pot of coffee—there.”

  The ledge flickered and became a staircase leading down into the corridor. I stepped onto it warily, but it felt solid enough. Still, I climbed down as fast as I could in case it decided to vanish again.

  In the main part of the library, the lanterns weren’t lit yet, but the sun through the stained-glass windows bathed the carpet in bright colours.

  “Wow,” I said. “This place is atmospheric.”

  “Isn’t it?” She beamed. “That’s why it’s the most popular venue for hire. It adapts to every occasion. We’ve even had wedding receptions here.”

  “Seriously?” I asked.

  She nodded. “My official title is head of hospitality when I’m not handling the day-to-day running of the library. Of course, my mum’s meant to be in charge of that, but sometimes things get away from her.”

  “Like the stairs?”

  Estelle grinned. “Yes, like the stairs. And the floors sometimes, too.”

  I peered after her into the kitchen. Unlike the rest of the library, it wasn’t filled with books, but the appliances looked modern. “What’s on the menu for breakfast?”

  “Whatever you like, within reason,” she said, opening cupboards. “How about one of these? Breakfast
bars with an energy boost. I think you might need it today.”

  “Sounds good.”

  She pulled out two bars and passed one to me as we walked through into the main living area, where someone had left three steaming mugs out on the coffee table. Estelle picked up one and sniffed it.

  “Mood-boosting coffee,” she said. “I’d guess the third one’s for Cass.”

  She took a seat on the sofa, which looked identical to the one my aunts had transported over to my flat yesterday.

  “Does your mum think I need my mood boosting?” I picked up the nearest mug and took a sip. Tasted like normal coffee to me.

  “Nah, but Cass does,” Estelle said.

  “Do I have to pay for any of this?” I asked, taking a bite from the bar. The taste of apple and cinnamon filled my mouth.

  “Oh, no, everything in the kitchen is for whoever gets there first,” she explained. “If you want to buy food from outside the library, you can use your earnings—my mum’s sorting that out for you.”

  When I’d finished my breakfast, I said, “I need to make a phone call.”

  “Ah, use our phone,” Estelle said. “We’ll add your phone to the paranormal network so you can make calls and access the internet. I’ll do that when I have a free moment.”

  “Right, you said sometimes magic can interfere with technology.”

  “More like the library,” she said. “Some technology used by normals often breaks or malfunctions, which is why you won’t see many cars here. The town’s small enough to get around on foot, so it’s not a huge issue. And we have transportation spells.”

  Then I wouldn’t be visiting home for a while. Calling Laney would bring back all my bad feelings about being fired, but it wasn’t fair to ditch her, so I drew on all the fortitude from the mood-boosting coffee and went over to the phone on the sideboard.

  I dialled Laney’s number, cobbling together my story.

  “Hello?” she said. “Who is this?”

  Right—she wouldn’t know the number I was calling from.

  “It’s me, Rory,” I said.

  “Rory!” she shrieked. “Thank god, I thought you were in trouble. Alice said she saw some strange men outside your flat.”

  “Oh. Yeah.” They’d better leave my friends alone. “Long story short, I got fired. Abe kicked me out.”

  Her breath caught. “Oh, I’m so sorry, Rory. What will you do?”

  “I’m okay,” I said. “I… this is going to sound crazy, but it turns out my dad had two sisters who I never met. They’ve been out of contact with the family. But they found me, and well, offered me a chance to live with them.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, they have their own family business and I can work there while I get back on my feet. They own a library, can you believe it?”

  She positively squealed. “I’ll have to come and visit.”

  Oh, no. The non-paranormal rules…

  “This is all new to me,” I said quickly. “I’m just getting to know my new family. But I’ll ask my aunts.”

  “Oh, of course, you only moved this week,” she said. “But it sounds perfect for you. Call me soon and let me know how it goes.”

  “I will,” I said. “I’ll talk to you soon.”

  “Absolutely.” She hung up, leaving me feeling like the worst best friend in the world. But I didn’t even know how far from home I’d travelled. At least an hour, since Ivory Beach lay on the coast.

  Estelle gave me a questioning look. “Are you okay?”

  “Laney is… she’s my best friend. We haven’t seen a lot of each other in the last few years, but she’ll be upset if I disappear without ever contacting her again.”

  Estelle pursed her lips. “Ask my mum. She can manufacture a cover story or even arrange for you to meet her somewhere else. There’s no limit when it comes to magic.”

  I turned those words over in my head. All my life, I’d run into limits. Dad hadn’t been rich, and I’d had to spend my inheritance on the deposit for my flat. Then for the last three years, all I’d done was scrape by. I’d worked all the time. My social life had been mediocre. Now I had a new job I could learn to love, and no more Abe underpaying and belittling me.

  Propelled by the mood-boosting coffee, I walked with Estelle into the main area of the library. Without the lights, it seemed to contain twice as many shadowy corners than before, but it didn’t look unwelcoming or scary.

  Sylvester swooped overhead, landing on a nearby shelf. “Found your way off the stairs, did you?”

  “Sylvester!” said Estelle. “Don’t wind up Rory. Be nice.”

  I turned away from the owl. “Will I get my own familiar?”

  “Oh, you might,” she said. “All four of us share Sylvester, but it’s not typical. The library isn’t animal friendly and even magical animals get spooked easily.”

  “Because they lack imagination.” Sylvester took flight in a flutter of wings.

  “Is that his go-to insult?” I asked.

  “One of them,” she said. “Okay, we’ll do the returns. I think Cass left some from yesterday.”

  I walked after Estelle with a new spring in my step, eager to see more of the library. “Where do I begin?”

  “Here.” She stopped beside a floating box near the front. “Returns go in here. There’s a dozen magical ways to return them to their proper places, but some require special handling. This’ll give you the chance to get to know the library, besides.”

  “Works for me.” I smiled.

  Estelle handed me a long roll of paper. “This tells you the codes we use and the sections they correspond to. I won’t pretend it’s straightforward, but sorting the books into the right piles is a good starting point.” She pointed at the floating box, which levitated itself over to the wide desk at the front and tipped upside-down. A handful of books fell out, and Estelle picked one up. She showed me the spine, which was marked with a sticker telling me it belonged in Section D12. I checked it against the list and found it was the ‘Potions and Poisons’ section.

  Aunt Adelaide called Estelle’s name, and she turned around. “I bet she wants me to fetch Cass. If you need help reaching the higher shelves, call Sylvester. He might complain a lot, but he takes his job seriously and he always comes when you call his name.”

  “Okay, sure.” I was less than enthused at the idea of working with the owl, but if we were going to be living in the same library, I might as well try to reason with him. I hadn’t seen Cass yet either. After her attitude yesterday, I couldn’t say I was disappointed. Dealing with Sylvester would be enough on its own. “Where’s the Potions and Poisons section?”

  “Third floor,” said a self-important voice, and Sylvester fluttered down to land on the book pile. “Watch the books. Some of them bite.”

  “Ha ha.” I resisted the impulse to check the book I was holding for sharp teeth. Estelle would have mentioned if I was in danger of losing a finger to a paperback. “I take it the sections generally stay in the right place? It’ll stay on the third floor?”

  Sylvester clucked his beak and didn’t answer. Figuring I’d work it out as I went along, I headed for the staircase on the right, which curved above the entryway with an exit on each floor.

  I reached the third floor without anything weird happening and stopped to admire the view of the sprawling ground floor from three stories up.

  “Are you going to return the book or stand there gawking at the view?” Sylvester enquired.

  I gave him a scowl. “Both. Not all of us have wings.”

  I made my way through to the second corridor. The Potions and Poisons section was full of ominous stains and odd smells, but I managed to locate the right spot without needing to call Sylvester back in. One of the books hissed at me on the way out, but I ignored it. Hissing was fairly harmless, all things considered.

  The next one was trickier. I had a single book to return to the Dimensional Study section, which seemed to rest somewhere between the second and third
floors. I walked up and down different staircases for ten minutes before I found one that stopped off at the right section. The instant my foot hit the ground, the shelves moved to the left. I stepped down on my right foot, and the shelves moved again.

  Okay…

  I checked the number on the spine, turned to the right, and the shelves shifted to the side as though they were on an invisible conveyer belt. Every time I tried to read the number on the side, the shelves did another shuffle.

  “Stop!” I commanded.

  To my surprise, the shelves rolled to a halt. I ran three rows down to the right section, reaching to slide the book into place. To my annoyance, the shelves shifted upwards, out of reach.

  “Oh, come on.”

  I stood on tip-toe and the shelves shifted yet again. When I grabbed the ladder, the shelves climbed higher. A rustling sounded from the pages. If I didn’t know better, the books were laughing at me.

  I fixed on a glare. “Stop it. I might be new, but I live here now. Let me put the book back.”

  To my surprise, the shelf dropped a couple of levels, so I put the book onto the shelf. Immediately, the shelves lurched to the right and started their conveyer belt act again. I turned my back and walked to the stairs.

  Problem: the stairs were gone. Oh, no. They must have moved along with the shelves.

  I turned to the side. The shelves kept moving—not just up and down and left to right, but in an oddly rippling manner that made my eyes glaze over and completely blocked any possible paths between the shelves. I looked down at the floor, then wished I hadn’t. The blue spirals on the carpet were moving, too.

  I have to get out. With no staircase, the only way to go was forwards until the library took pity on me and let me out.

  My head spun with vertigo, so I closed my eyes and flat-out sprinted. Rustling and clicking pursued me. I opened my eyes—too late. Both my feet went through the top step of the staircase.