Spells & Shelves (A Library Witch Mystery Book 1)

by Elle Adams

  “What happened to him?” asked the first speaker.

  There was a joke in there somewhere about eating one’s words, but I settled for saying, “Someone fetch Aunt Adelaide.”

  16

  Aunt Adelaide appeared in an instant. “Samson? It was him who damaged the wards?”

  “He also killed Duncan and Tad,” I said. “He cursed the scrap of paper with the poem written on it—that’s somewhere back there, too. It was the paper he cursed, not the book. But I undid it.”

  Everyone gaped at me, while Aunt Adelaide strode up to the corridor where he lay tied up. “What did he do back here?”

  “Messed with the library’s magic. He said his magic lets him manipulate pages…”

  “Not for long,” she said firmly.

  Sylvester flew over my head, grabbed a struggling Samson by the scruff of his neck, and dragged him into the spotlight. Meanwhile, I walked through and picked up the paper bird.

  “This was cursed,” I explained to Aunt Adelaide. “He forgot he left another copy of the same poem lying around. Look.” I held up the second piece of paper, handing both of them to my aunt. “The poem was originally written by Samson. Duncan stole it from him.”

  “And that’s why he killed him,” Aunt Adelaide said. “I see.”

  “I think Tad witnessed the murder and was trying to warn me,” I said. “Then he went looking for the book and got cursed, too. We’re lucky nobody else touched it, especially Aunt Candace.”

  Aunt Candace. She’d be able to walk away free now.

  “Yes, we are,” Aunt Adelaide said. “Very lucky.”

  She snapped her fingers and Sylvester released the struggling, swearing young wizard. “Very unimaginative use of the English language, young man,” she said to him.

  Samson’s face went purple.

  I grinned. “Jet, will you go and fetch Edwin?”

  Jet departed with a caw, while Estelle rushed to my side. “Cass will be furious she missed this.”

  “Where in the world is she?” Aunt Adelaide muttered. “The police—they won’t need to use handcuffs. You did a spectacular job with the spell, Rory. Caught in his own words—how apt.”

  I felt my entire face catch fire. A couple of the poetry night crowd clapped, and I ducked my head. “Uh, should I fetch Cass?”

  It was about time I found out what she’d really been doing when she sneaked off. Aside from reading Aunt Candace’s books, that is.

  “I saw her heading upstairs,” Estelle said. “She’ll have heard the alarm, for sure.”

  Right. Time to clear this up.

  I walked up the spiralling staircase, my heart hammering in my chest, my body still trembling with adrenaline. I didn’t know which floor Cass was on, but I could guess. The entire upper section was deserted, and when I reached the third floor, darkness surrounded me.

  The vampire leapt out of the gloom, hands grabbing for my throat. I gasped, fighting for breath—and Cass hit him over the head with a hardback book.

  The vampire collapsed onto his front with a thud.

  I blinked at her, astonished. “You just—”

  “Yes, I did,” she said, lowering the book. “I thought I heard something up here that shouldn’t be.”

  “Except me?” I climbed to my feet, one eye on the fallen vampire. Apparently, even a vampire couldn’t stand up to a swift knock on the head.

  “You’re not about to accuse me of letting him in, are you?” Cass said.

  “No, I’m not. I just caught the murderer and I know he let the wards down. But—what are you doing up here? Aside from avoiding the poetry night?”

  Cass made an impatient noise. “I knew you’d come nosing around. Fine.”

  She pushed open the door to the Magical Creatures Division and led the way to one of the out-of-bounds rooms with the marked X on the door. Inside the room was a huge tank, and in the tank—

  “What is that?”

  The creature in the tank looked like a horse, but pure white with a long mane.

  “He’s a kelpie. I found him washed up on the beach, injured. Sylvester’s been helping me take care of him—and your crow, too. I can’t release him into the sea in this state. He’ll get eaten alive. Kelpies are native to Scotland, so I’ve no idea how he got this far south.”

  I stared at the horse. Cass had a soft side after all. Who knew?

  She cleared her throat, looking embarrassed. “Anyway, we’d better get that vampire downstairs before he wakes up.”

  She closed the door and waved her wand at the vampire, whose body levitated into the air, floating down the staircase. We followed close behind, and Cass deposited the vampire in a heap on the floor in the lobby.

  The vampire lunged to his feet, running for the doors—and ran smack into the Reaper. Xavier looked down at the vampire, his scythe in his hand.

  “I wouldn’t try to run,” he said. “Are you the one who’s been bothering Rory?”

  “He is,” I confirmed.

  The vampire moved, and so did Xavier, the scythe blocking his path. “It works on undead, too, you know,” Xavier said. “I felt two souls move on.”

  “Oh yeah, we caught the criminal.” I grabbed for my notebook and pen. “What should I do to him? Tie him up?”

  “Let me deal with him.” Aunt Adelaide’s pen scrawled on her notepad and the vampire collapsed again, unconscious. “He’ll wake up in a cell. I’d rather lock him up in one of our top-secret rooms, but there are rules.”

  “It was the paper that was cursed,” I explained to Xavier. “Not the book. I’ll explain in a minute.”

  Behind him, the doors opened once again. Edwin strode in, looking even more frazzled than earlier. Jet sat on his shoulder.

  “Your bird wouldn’t stop pecking me until I left,” he said accusingly. “You’d better not be wasting my time.”

  “We found the killer,” Aunt Adelaide announced. “Our wayward vampire showed up here as well. Very much real, as you can see.”

  Xavier stepped to my side as the doors opened wider to allow two troll policemen to enter. “Are you all right, Rory? I should have come sooner.”

  “You didn’t miss much at the poetry night, trust me,” I said. “It’s a shame it ended up like this. Samson was a terrible poet anyway. I guess they’re going to set Aunt Candace free.”

  “They will,” said Estelle, approaching us. “And they’ll lock him up, for sure.”

  “Are you going to release my sister, then?” Aunt Adelaide asked Edwin.

  “Yes, yes, you can take her back. Please. The vampire, too.” He indicated one of his companions, a stocky wizard who’d entered the library behind the trolls.

  The wizard took out a wand, waved it, and Aunt Candace and Dominic appeared before us. Both looked a little rumpled, but otherwise fine.

  Dominic eyed the prone vampire. “Is that your troublemaker? I recognise him.”

  “You do?” I asked. “Er, sorry for suspecting you. He’s the reason why. Him, and a couple of his friends.”

  Dominic scowled. “Yes, I know him. I looked up his name, and they’re part of a group of hunters of rare artefacts.”

  My stomach lurched. We’d only caught one of them. The other two were still out there. “You knew, then? You know what they’re after?”

  “Whatever it is, I’ll make it clear they are not welcome here.” His fangs gleamed in his mouth, and I suppressed the urge to back away.

  “Why would you?” I couldn’t help asking. “I got you locked in jail. Not to mention my aunt.”

  “Oh, I had the time of my life,” Aunt Candace said. Her notebook and pen floated at her side. “I have to write it all down.”

  “She claimed she needed to see the inside of the torture chambers, for research purposes—there aren’t any,” Dominic added. “I rather think letting her go has added years to Edwin’s life.”

  “We can’t all be immortals,” she said to him.

  “But what were you doing in our quarters?” Aunt Adela
ide asked the vampire.

  “Your aunt and I are involved,” he said matter-of-factly.

  “You two?” Aunt Adelaide looked between him and Aunt Candace with an expression of disbelief. “Really?”

  “Is it so strange?” asked Aunt Candace, defensiveness in her voice. “I would have preferred not to make a public spectacle, but apparently it’s that sort of week.”

  “Well, I hope for all our sakes that you don’t do anything to get arrested again,” Aunt Adelaide said.

  “Oh, I think I have enough material for now.” She yanked her pen and notebook out of the air and turned to the inert body of Mortimer Vale. “So—what did I miss?”

  Xavier moved to my side as Aunt Adelaide launched into an explanation. “Are you sure you’re okay, Rory?”

  “Never better,” I said honestly. “Does that mean your boss will stop berating you now?”

  “Yes,” he said. “Provided I report in, anyway.” He clearly wanted to say more, but not with everyone watching.

  “I think Rory should win the prize for tonight,” said one of the poetry club members.

  There was a murmur of agreement. “Yes,” someone shouted. “Rory!”

  My face heated up again. Xavier chuckled behind me, then he was gone.

  I had every confidence I’d see him again, soon. Hopefully not with a dead body in tow. Even the Reaper got days off sometimes, right?

  I sat behind the desk, greeting each customer as they came in. After all the excitement of my first week, it was a relief to do something with little risk of falling through the floor. Even if the library had been on its best behaviour lately.

  The doors opened, and Mr Bennet approached the desk.

  “Oh, Aurora,” he said, placing three books in front of me. “I wanted to return these, and to apologise for the way I spoke to you before.”

  I blinked. That, I hadn’t expected. “No need,” I said. “Er, did you guess the curse was on the paper?”

  “Paper?”

  “There was a slip of paper with a poem written on it inside the book,” I explained. “Samson cursed the words on the page. That’s why touching the book was fine.”

  “And where is the paper?” he asked.

  “I don’t know, my aunt threw it out. The curse is undone. It’s harmless now.”

  “Shame,” he commented. “I would have liked to study it. No matter. May I have a copy of Beginner’s Bindings?”

  “Sylvester?” I said to the owl, and he flew off to fetch the right book. He was being nicer to me than before, confirming my suspicion that he’d been provoking me on Cass’s orders. I wouldn’t say we were exactly friendly with one another now, but she’d warmed considerably since my discovery of her guest on the third floor. It helped that I no longer suspected her of wanting to get her hands on the journal.

  Despite Mortimer Vale being jailed, nobody had found the other two vampires yet. I guessed they hadn’t shown up in town—if they had, they’d have come with him to threaten me. But one thing was certain: there was no place safer for my dad’s journal than the library.

  The curse-breaker took the book from Sylvester. I watched him leave, wondering just what he’d seen in the library to make eternal enemies of my aunts. Considering he’d wanted to study the cursed paper, you’d think he and Aunt Candace would get along better. Luckily for all of us, Aunt Candace had found a new distraction in the form of a new manuscript about a cursed space artefact and seemed to have entirely forgotten our argument.

  Of course, Dominic might be a part of it. I’d often seen him going in and out of the library. Thankfully, he’d forgiven us for his stint in prison.

  Aunt Adelaide cleared her throat behind me. “Rory?” she said. “I found this upstairs, and I think our dad would want you to have it.”

  She handed me a photograph of Dad standing beside Aunt Candace and Aunt Adelaide. At the back was a woman with grey hair in the same wild style as Aunt Candace, and the same curvy figure as Aunt Adelaide. She must be Grandma.

  “Just in case you had any doubts we’re your family,” she said.

  A lump grew in my throat and I blinked unexpected tears from my eyes. “Thank you.”

  “Also, I think it’s time you added your first word to your Biblio-Witch Inventory.”

  “Is it?” I dug into my bag and pulled out my book and the pen. “Which word?”

  “Find,” she said. “That way you won’t get lost. Bound to come in useful, right?

  Find. I liked that. I might have lost one life, but I’d found a new one. I’d found a family. And I’d finally found somewhere I belonged.

  Thank you for reading!

  The story continues in Charms & Chapters (Library Witch #2), available soon.

  Find out more at: smarturl.it/LibraryWitchMystery.

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  For more magical adventures, try my Blair Wilkes mystery series, starting with Witch in Progress. Find out more at: smarturl.it/BlairWilkesMysteries

  I hope you enjoyed Spells and Shelves. If you have a minute to spare, then I’d really appreciate a short review. For independent authors, reviews help more readers discover our books. I’d love to know what you thought!

  About the Author

  Elle Adams lives in the middle of England, where she spends most of her time reading an ever-growing mountain of books, planning her next adventure, or writing. Elle's books are humorous mysteries with a paranormal twist, packed with magical mayhem.

  She also writes urban and contemporary fantasy novels as Emma L. Adams.

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