Spells & Shelves (A Library Witch Mystery Book 1) Page 9

  I grimaced. “Of all the ideas to copy from the normal world, why student loans? Can’t they just magic the debt away?”

  She laughed. “If only.”

  I took another bite. “I might be back there tomorrow. I have enough vouchers.”

  “I don’t blame you.” She chewed on her mouthful. “I don’t know if Zee will look for another assistant yet. The one downside to our isolated communities is that it’s often hard to find specialists like her. But that’s part of what makes our town unique, aside from the library. We get thousands of tourists in summer.”

  “I can imagine,” I said. “What was that she said about me being the lost cousin?”

  “Ah,” said Estelle. “I forgot, but it’s nothing bad, don’t worry.”

  “Oh?” I said.

  “It’s Aunt Candace’s fault,” said Estelle. “One of her books is… sort of based on your dad’s life story. With permission, of course. It’s the only book she published under her own name, so the whole town has read it by now.”

  I swallowed a mouthful of muffin, coughing. “Seriously?”

  “She writes across genres, and your father’s epic romance with your mother inspired that particular tale. She changed the names and details, but the book was dedicated… well, to you. The lost cousin.”

  Wow. I didn’t know what to say. “I guess that’s kind of flattering. Not sure I want to read about my parents’ epic love affair…”

  “It’s actually pretty good,” she said. “She usually warns us before she steals things from our family drama, but Cass has blown up at her a few times over her use of her old boyfriends as villains.”

  I grinned. “I bet. So is that sort of story popular? I mean, my parents’ love story?”

  “Oh, there’s a whole section in our Romance area of “Paranormal and Normal romances”. Star-crossed lovers are very popular,” she said. “Same in the normal world, right?”

  The lost cousin. I still felt lost in a lot of ways, especially when we left the square down an unfamiliar street alongside the clock tower and made our way to the seafront. The tide was in, and I spotted the pier she’d mentioned further down on our right. It didn’t appear to have anything on it, like the rides on Blackpool’s piers, but the bitterly cold wind put me off the idea of visiting the beach today.

  Estelle and I finished our muffins on the short walk to the curse-breaker’s shop. It was about the same size as the familiar shop but was almost empty and smelled of burning and something sharp and unpleasant. The same smell that’d filled the air when Aunt Candace had been trying to undo the spell on the book.

  The man behind the counter, presumably Mr Bennet, was tall and thin with a sour face.

  “Yes?” he asked. “Need me to remove a curse?”

  “Actually… we might,” said Estelle, with a glance at me. “Someone put a deadly curse on the copy of The Advanced Book of Curses from our library, which caused the death of a patron.”

  “Is that so? I’m sorry to hear it.” He didn’t sound very sorry at all.

  “Alice told us she loaned you the book when she had it out of the library,” Estelle went on. “Last week, in fact.”

  Mr Bennet’s lips pursed. “Yes, I looked at the book. I do occasionally need to consult another source if I run into a particularly tricky curse to break.”

  “And what curse was this?” I asked.

  “Customer confidentiality.” His tone was flat.

  “You’re aware the police will probably come to question you, right?” Estelle said, her mouth thinning.

  “If Edwin wants to know, then that’s different,” he said.

  “This is a man’s life we’re talking about, though,” said Estelle. “He was killed by a soul-stealing curse. Have you ever heard of those?”

  His expression darkened. “Very dark magic, stealing a soul. I’m afraid I can’t help you. Your family is more versed in dark magic than I am.”

  “We certainly aren’t,” said Estelle, her friendly manner vanishing. “How would one go about removing a curse from inside an object? The book appears to have been put under a series of protective spells.”

  “That,” he said, “would require a spell-breaker, not a curse-breaker. Good day.”

  Estelle’s eyes narrowed, and she turned her back, leaving the shop.

  “That was nice,” I said to her. “Dark magic?”

  “He knew Grandma,” explained Estelle. “Let’s just say they disagreed on their approaches to magic. That’s what my mum said, anyway. The library isn’t made of dark magic. It’s nonsense.”

  “Even Cass?” I was only half joking. Though for all her attempts to make me feel unwelcome, she’d never used a hostile spell against me. Unless she’d been the one moving the stairs, that is.

  “Speaking of Cass, she’ll be hopping mad that we’ve been gone for too long. We should head back.”

  After a last look at the sea, I turned away, the cold breeze buffeting us all the way past the clock tower to the town square.

  “Why not tell him about Aunt Candace not being able to remove the curse?” I asked.

  “You might have noticed, but he’s not a fan of biblio-witches,” she said. “Also, I don’t doubt the police will end up questioning him eventually, and Edwin won’t be happy if we hand the book to a potential suspect.”

  “Makes sense,” I said. “Except if he can undo the curse…”

  “If Aunt Candace can’t, then he definitely won’t be able to,” she said. “Curses might be his area of expertise, but books are our area. Cursed ones included.”

  And that was that. Nothing to do but go back to the library. With any luck, the police would show up at Mr Bennet’s shop and he’d be forced to reveal who his secret client was.

  As we neared the library, my gaze snagged on the roof. The place was tall enough that it wasn’t immediately obvious, but I could swear there was a whole extra floor above the main library.

  “Oh, don’t ask questions like that,” said Estelle when I mentioned this. “Especially to Aunt Candace. I think she put some of the corridors in there herself, but the real culprit is Grandma. If you find anything weird, chances are, it has her fingerprints all over it.”

  “Is anything here not weird?”

  She grinned. “Point taken. I have to say, I’ve missed having someone new to hang out with. Don’t get me wrong, we have people in and out of the place all the time, but it’s not the same. Being a biblio-witch sets us apart in a lot of ways. We’re different.”

  “Different isn’t a bad thing.” It didn’t seem to hurt Estelle, anyway. She seemed sociable and popular and had lots of friends. I’d been pretty bad at maintaining friendships in adulthood. I’d had Laney and some others from school, but most of my classmates had moved to the big cities to find work after graduating from university, or travelled the world, or started families. I’d stayed put, for the sake of the bookshop.

  A pang hit me. Already I was starting to forget that life. I had no doubt Abe would do his best to keep the bookshop running, but guilt soured my mood, and I walked into the library with my head down.

  Without warning, a book shot over my head, its pages clipping my scalp. Samson faced off against Cass, his straw-like hair askew and a scowl on his face. Both of them had their wands out. Cass waved hers and several books lifted into the air, throwing themselves at Samson.

  Samson waved his own wand, and the books flew to the side, only to change direction as though they had a mind of their own. As they flew overhead, Estelle grabbed my arm, pulling me out of the line of fire. The books spun around, pages spread like wings, and one of them hit Samson square in the face.

  “Cass!” Estelle said. “That’s enough! If you damage the books, you’ll be the one paying fees to the library for the next decade.”

  Samson pushed himself upright. His nose was bleeding. I took an uncertain step toward him. “Are you okay?”

  “Don’t touch me,” he spat. With a last furious look around the library, he s
tormed out of the doors.

  Cass marched after him, wielding her black-covered book. She tapped a word with her hand, and I heard Samson’s furious swearing outside the door.

  “Just sending him a goodbye message.” Her mouth twisted. “Lazy sod. He returned one book, and it had writing in the margins. He said he didn’t do it, but it’s a blatant lie.”

  “You didn’t need to wreck the place,” Estelle said, picking up one of the books she’d thrown at him.

  “I said if he wanted the books so badly, he could catch them,” she said. “Aunt Adelaide is way too lenient on him.”

  “What kicked things off this time?” Estelle asked. “Come on, he does the same thing every week. You don’t normally try to burn out your magic and damage the books.”

  Cass spoke through gritted teeth. “It might have escaped your attention, but thanks to whoever left Duncan’s body in here, we’re behind on everything and I’m wasting my time listening to losers like him making pathetic excuses for defiling our property.”

  Estelle picked up one of the books. “Well, you didn’t have to terrify the other patrons.”

  “It’s your fault for clearing off,” she said. “Did you take Aurora to every shop in town?”

  “It’s been less than an hour,” Estelle said. “I brought you a muffin, but if you’re going to be a pedant, I’ll eat it myself.”

  The crow chose that moment to land on my shoulder, fluffing his feathers.

  “Why is there a crow in here?” Cass asked.

  “He’s my familiar,” I said.

  Cass snorted. “Is he now.”

  “What’s so funny?” I asked. “It’s not so unusual for a witch to have a familiar.” Maybe it was unusual for someone who didn’t like birds to have one as a familiar, but I didn’t make the rules.

  “Sylvester is going to be thrilled.”

  Estelle handed her the bag from the bakery. Cass accepted the peace offering, while the other patrons stopped gawking in the hope that she and Samson would resume their fight and returned to their reading corners.

  Aunt Adelaide came out of the archives. “Got it out of her system, has she?”

  “You knew?” I asked.

  “Yes, I did. Samson deserved it, to tell you the truth. We don’t have many rules here, but it’s bad manners to defile the books.”

  “He said he didn’t do it,” said Estelle, with an eye-roll. “Anyway, I got you a muffin. We detoured via Zee’s bakery.”

  “Oh, how is she coping?” she asked. “I might pop by later… it’s such a shame.”

  “We’re already behind,” Cass said snippily. “If Estelle and Rory hadn’t spent the morning eating muffins and buying familiars, they might have lent a helping hand.”

  “We also learned that the curse-breaker might have been the last person to see the cursed book before it was returned to the library,” I said, “but he won’t tell us what he was using it for.”

  Cass bit into the muffin. “And that’s relevant… how?”

  “Because someone died in here a few hours ago?” I turned to Aunt Adelaide. “Is there anything you need us to do?”

  “Yes,” said Aunt Adelaide. “Your aunt’s disappeared. Can you two find her for me?”

  “Isn’t she working on the cursed book?” Estelle moved around the desk, and I followed her. Dropping her voice, she added, “I don’t blame her for hiding, considering Cass was in charge. I can’t wait until the next guy comes along. She’s only bearable to be around if she’s in a relationship.”

  “I’d feel bad for the guy,” I said. “Maybe she and the Late Returns Guy are in some hate-to-love thing.”

  Estelle cracked up laughing. “I bet Aunt Candace could write one hell of a book out of it.”

  “Has she ever written Cass into one of her books?”

  “Yes, but she doesn’t read them,” said Aunt Candace from behind a nearby shelf. “Says they’re not her thing.”

  Estelle turned to her. “Rory found out about the lost cousin dedication. Told you it was a bad idea.”

  Aunt Candace shrugged. “Roger didn’t mind. He said he was a fan of the story, actually.”

  “Your dad used to read romance books?” Estelle asked.

  “Pretty sure there wasn’t any type of book he didn’t read,” I said. “But—wait, does that mean your books are for sale in the normal world as well as this one?”

  “Obviously,” said Aunt Candace. “They’re dressed up as fiction. Nobody questions it. Why would they?”

  “Fair point,” I said. “Do you sell more to normals than paranormals? Or both?”

  “Both,” said Estelle. “The paranormal world loves her. Half the town would lose their minds if they found out she lived right here.”

  Aunt Candace shuddered. “No. I’d never get any peace then.”

  “Your last fantasy caper was on the best-seller list for three weeks,” Estelle said. “Everyone in the paranormal world was raving about it.”

  Aunt Candace backed away. “Don’t say things like that, it interferes with my concentration. And if your mother’s looking for me, tell her I’m looking for high-level spell-breaking spells. Whatever’s on that cursed book is immune to everything I’ve tried.”

  “The curse-breaker suggested hiring a spell-breaker,” Estelle said. “The weird thing is, though—he had the book himself a few days ago. Borrowed it from Alice to help with a client, and he wouldn’t tell us who it was.”

  “He wouldn’t?” Aunt Candace frowned. “Usually he deals with simpler curses. Hair loss, raining frogs, that type of thing. Not the type of curse where people lose their souls.”

  “Is losing his soul the same as dying, then?” I asked. “How does that work?”

  “Best ask the Reaper that, not me,” Aunt Candace said.

  Yeah, I don’t think so.

  The rest of the day passed quickly. Estelle and I helped customers find books in the library’s most popular areas, giving me the chance to learn the ground floor better. I tried to rein in my questions about the various locked doors and oddities scattered among the shelves, but I suspected it’d take a lifetime to unravel all the library’s secrets.

  After the library closed up for the night, I returned to my room to find my newly acquired crow familiar sitting on the bed. “Oh, there you are,” I said. “I wondered where you’d gone. I haven’t told my aunts about you yet…”

  Aunt Adelaide had spent the day running around dealing with the patrons’ various demands or sending Estelle or me to deal with them. Cass had pulled another disappearing act after her stint at the front desk, while Aunt Candace had made one last valiant attempt to crack open the cursed book and caused all the lights to turn off instead.

  The crow fluffed his feathers. According to the familiar guidebook Alice had given me, he couldn’t actually talk to me, but we were supposed to innately understand one another.

  “You want to come and meet the family?” I asked. “I’m guessing you’ve probably run—or flown—into Sylvester.”

  Cass seemed to be the owl’s favourite. Then again, I’d been with Estelle most of the time, so I’d had minimal opportunities to fall through missing steps or floors.

  Jet hopped onto my shoulder. “You’re sure you want to be my familiar?”

  The crow made a chirping noise.

  “At least you found my room,” I went on. “The library’s probably less confusing to navigate when you have wings, but I’ll give you the tour on the way down to dinner.”

  To my relief, the corridor looked the way it was supposed to when I left my room with Jet perched on my shoulder. I took Jet with me to the ground floor of the library and pointed out all the areas I’d learned about today.

  “And that’s the Reading Corner—"

  “Who in the world are you talking to?” Cass asked from behind me.

  Jet peered curiously at Cass, then flew over to her. She caught the crow on her outstretched hand. “Oh. It’s your familiar.”

  “I guess
he likes you,” I said, feeling inexplicably annoyed that he’d approached her so readily. Maybe he just liked people in general and hadn’t singled me out after all.

  “All animals like me,” Cass said, lifting her hand to look more closely at the crow. “He’s a little small for a familiar. What skills has he demonstrated?”

  “Er…” I was stumped. “He seems intelligent.”

  “More than you? That’s not saying a lot.”

  “Cass,” Estelle said, climbing downstairs behind me. Jet’s head snapped up at the new arrival and he flew over to her, landing on her shoulder.

  “See, he likes everyone,” I said, taking the lead and going into the dining room. Aunt Adelaide was in the process of levitating plates onto the table, while Aunt Candace sat at the far end, scribbling into a notebook.

  Jet took flight again and landed on Aunt Candace’s scribbling hand. She jumped violently, scribbling across the page, and swore.

  “So that’s your familiar?” Aunt Adelaide finished lowering the plates onto the table and gave him a once-over. “I wouldn’t have thought a bird would be your style, Rory. Not that I’d claim to be an expert, but the majority of witches and wizards bond with a cat.”

  “Birds and I don’t usually get along, but Alice said he picked me.” I sat down, and Estelle took the seat on my other side. “So how does the familiar thing work? He seems to like everyone, not just me.”

  “There are some spells which can only be cast with the aid of a familiar.” Aunt Adelaide said. “Sylvester is different, since he belongs to the family. Some witches find their familiars match their personalities, others find they’re polar opposites. You’ll get to know one another in time.”

  Jet hopped on the table beside me. “Alice said he’d be self-sufficient. Am I supposed to feed him?”

  “Oh, he’ll have found his way into the Magical Creatures Division by now.” Aunt Adelaide finished laying out the plates and took a seat beside Aunt Candace. “Besides, I leave food out for the birds all the time. Just as long as he doesn’t get into a fight with Sylvester.”

  “I don’t think he’s the fighting type,” I said.