by Sara Stone
I set it next to her, trying not to disturb whatever she was doing. She nodded at me ever so slightly before prying it up. She reached her arm inside the floor, her arm disappearing up to her shoulder before pulling out an old book. She pushed it across the floor to my feet and then slumped over, closing her eyes. I sat there a moment before touching her gently on the arm, and she startled awake. Her eyes were dazed as she took in where we were.
"What did I do?" she asked worriedly.
"You went all still with your eyes doing that creepy thing before you walked up here. You looked like you were trying to talk, but nothing was coming out. Then you opened the floor and pulled out this book." I nudged the book as I told her. It was thick and covered in dust. No title could be seen on the front or spine.
"I don't remember any of that," her response came out like she was exhausted. I got the feeling this was a regular occurrence.
"Do you remember why we needed to see this book?" I asked, hopefully.
"No, no clue." She shook her head and looked down into her hands.
"Hey, it's okay. We will figure it out." I picked up the book very carefully and sat next to her on the floor. Hesitantly I opened the book to find empty pages. It was filled with hundreds of yellowing pages, yet nothing was on it.
"Oh, for the love of Pete. Why did we need to find a book filled with nothing?" I asked out loud.
"I don't think it's blank. I just think we are looking at it wrong," she said. I stared at her. Was she serious? I flipped it back and forth, looking at the pages for indents.
"What do you mean? It's completely empty."
"I have heard about these books from one of the coven members. You need to spell it to show you what's in it."
"That's just as strange as everything else that's happened. So how do we do that?"
"I have no idea," she said, taking the book and flipping it around in her hands, dusting it off as she went.
"Let's check my gram's book to see if we can find anything."
I pulled out the book and started flipping through it while she sat on the floor, trying anything from saying things to it to looking at it under different kinds of light, from the lamp to a candle. It had all sorts of answers for things from illnesses to demonic exorcisms, but nothing about visibly empty books. After a while, we just gave up and sat there trying to think of answers.
"What if you just do a generic spell?" she asked, looking up from the book in her lap.
"You haven't seen me cast. Anything could go wrong." I shrugged. Literally, any outcome was possible if I tried.
"I think you can do it," she said, giving me a kind smile.
"Let me call Ulric and see if he knows what we can do." I picked up my cell phone and called.
It rang twice before he picked up.
"Lia." He sounded irritated. I must have interrupted something.
"Hi, sorry to bother you. We came across an empty book in my gram's room. Do you have any idea what we can do with it?" I asked, in a hurry.
There was a long pause, and he huffed out a sigh. He was not happy with me for whatever reason.
"And you're calling me because I have all the answers?" he asked, curtly.
"I just thought that you might know."
For whatever reason, I felt like I should put him on speakerphone so that Hattie could hear him too.
"I don't have time to constantly be at your beck and call when you can't figure out your magic. I'm sure you will figure it all out without someone holding your hand the whole way." I was taken back. He had never been rude about my skills or lack thereof. He always made sure I didn't feel like I was bothering him as I was learning. It wasn't my fault this world was kept from me, yet it started to feel like it was.
With all that, he hung up without even saying goodbye. That made two friends acting as if I was nothing to them in a matter of a few hours. I couldn't wrap my head around it. Hattie sat wide-eyed on the floor, too shocked to say anything. I tried to keep my tears held back, but a few slipped out. She got up and put a hand on my shoulder to comfort me, which made me feel worse. I had no right to be so upset about some people being mad at me when Hattie had been attacked for associating with me. I wiped the tears away quickly and straightened myself up. Maybe Ulric was upset with the fight between Judson and me. They weren't exactly best friends, but I understood that they had known each other way longer.
"I will call Rose and see what she thinks," I said, dialing her number on my phone.
It rang over and over before clicking to voicemail. I wanted to think Rose was just busy, but there was an inkling of doubt about that friendship too. I was the coven leader, so I could call everyone together. I shook my head at the thought. That would be a waste of my so-called power.
"Let's just try it. Place the book in the circle, and I will salt it."
She did what I asked as I sprinkled salt around the circle. I had learned that salting it was just about the same as doing a circle outside in the dirt as it was from the earth. I grabbed some white and purple candles, placing them opposite each other to invoke the elements. I concentrated and lit the candles with the trick Rose taught me, excited that it came easier the more I did it. Hattie took a seat in the chair while I focused on the spell. Since we didn't have one specifically for getting information out of the book, I made one up and hoped it would work.
"Ancient spirits of the night impart to me, that which I seek, Make now mighty what is weak,
bring the secrets into the light. I say this in the power of three times three so mote it be."
I chanted three times. I watched the flames from the candles grow higher, the fire twisting into itself as they went. As I spoke it the last time, the fire shot downward onto the book, licking along the cover. Hattie yelled from behind me as we watched the book start to burn. I quickly closed the circle, and the flame disappeared, leaving a smoking book in its wake. I had to keep myself from reaching down to pick it up. Hattie ran up behind me and threw a towel over it, and I went to work patting it down in case there were any flames left. Smoke continued to filter up from it, but as I was patting it, I realized my hands were not getting warm. The towel was even cool to the touch.
I picked it up the towel, wrapped book gently, turning it over to inspect the damage. As the towel fell away, I could feel that the book was ice cold like it had been sitting in a freezer. I held the book up for Hattie to see. Nothing was wrong with it, and yet somehow, the smoke had left soot behind. I blew at the dust, watching in awe as the dust soaked into the book like it was absorbing it. Carefully, I opened it up to the first page to read that it was full of all things supernatural. This was just too strange. Somehow even though only the cover had been burned, all the pages were now filled with information on anything and everything pertaining to magical beings.
I looked up at Hattie, and she was mirroring my shock. We sat together, flipping through the pages. There were a lot more things than I could have imagined. There were ghouls and zombies. Vampires and their hierarchy, along with all the rules that came along with them. Then we came across shapeshifters. Shapeshifters could take just about any form, from animals to other people. It wasn't just a chapter but had its own index describing each type, which ranged wildly from wolves to birds to someone being able to change their looks at will. Shifters were the most common supernatural outnumbering witches ten to one. I couldn't take in the information fast enough. It all drew me in and blew my mind as I went.
I flipped a couple of pages and gasped. There on a page describing the Fae was a picture that looked similar to someone we knew. Not just similar, but downright identical. Hattie and I sat there staring at it. Fae as in Fairies. They had anything from tiny beings you would think of like a tooth fairy to the dark fae who had exchanged their souls for dark magic.
I couldn't help myself from flipping back to the page with the picture. How had this not come out? It looked like it belonged on a palace wall woven into a tapestry as he stood there regally. His long blond h
air braided intricately around a small gold crown. The crown itself looked as if it could be used as a weapon. The gold jutting into points that looked like they could cut me through the page.
"That can't be him, right?" I asked inquisitively.
"It looks too close to be anyone else," she said, checking the picture out again along with the pages following it, "It says they are healers, which obviously he has a talent for."
"Do you think we should ask him about it?" Hattie looked excited at the possibility of asking him about why he was in the book.
"Maybe you should. Ulric isn't talking to me right now." The list of people I had issues with was growing by the hour or felt like it anyway. I tried not to let it bother me, yet I felt like I was slowly losing everything.
"This is all just too much. Magic and witches are one thing, but this book is saying all these things are around us," I said. I followed up on my thoughts when she didn't respond. This book blew my mind. I couldn't have made all this up if I wanted to. If I sat and read through the whole thing, it would have taken weeks to process everything.
Chapter Twelve
After I continued to read, Hattie made her way to my room. She was still insistent we share my room tonight. I thought, naively, that after meeting Ronan she would be sidetracked enough to sleep alone. She was physically better by the time Rose and Ulric did what they needed to do, but after watching her hesitate to go to my room alone, I realized it would take a lot longer for her mind to heal. She had shown real strength in not letting it break her. I doubted I would fare as well if I had been in her shoes. I mean, I had been attacked, but not like her.
After a shower, I finally decided to sleep when I kept coming back to the page with the picture of Ulric on it. How had he managed not to say anything? I was still partially fighting with wanting my mundane life back, wanting to overrun the information I took in. None of this had been real a few weeks ago, and yet here I sat, learning about things I hadn't even seen in fantasy movies.
As I stood in the bathroom brushing my hair, I wondered how many of the supernaturals I read about I passed on the street or interacted with daily. Had I seen signs of them being other things without realizing it? I finished up my task before lying down and pulling the covers over me. Hattie was snoring next to me, sound asleep. I tossed and turned, trying not to wake her up as all the events and information bounced around my head noisily. I needed a good night's sleep, and the longer it took to fall asleep, the more irritated I got.
When I finally started to dose off, Hattie began to scream bloody murder as she flailed around wildly. I tried to tell her it was a dream without startling her, but she wasn't hearing me over her screams. I grabbed ahold of her shoulders and tried shaking her awake, but it seemed to make her fight me harder. I tried screaming at her over her screaming, which resulted in a hoarse voice. No matter what I did, she just continued. I was panicking and about to call Ulric or Rose when she started crying, a soft, desperate sound coming from her as her chest heaved with her sobs. I hopped back on the bed, pulling her into a sitting position against my chest.
"You're okay, Hattie. You're at my house. Shhh, it's okay," I whispered, hugging her tightly. The screams still ringing in my ears. The terrifying sound coming from my friend had me feeling panicky. She slowly stopped crying, so I laid her down. I walked downstairs and grabbed the rest of the wine. I didn't even use a cup. I just downed it in two gulps. I set the bottle on the counter, and it clattered as my hand shook. I took a few deep breaths before walking back upstairs and lying down.
I woke up to the sun shining on my face, wishing I could go back to sleep. I only tossed and turned after Hattie's episode with the nightmare. I debated getting up then realized I had a ton of work to get done. I walked downstairs to make coffee while checking my phone. Hattie had gone to work since others were going to be there with her.
I got my coffee and pulled out my laptop, ready to get a bunch of work done. I didn't feel like doing it, but I didn't really have a choice.
I sipped the hot beverage as I stared at the starting computer. I saw it, but not really. My mind was sludge after lack of sleep, and the wine plus the beer had me wanting a pair of sunglasses to help against the glare of the screen. I hoped the caffeine would kick in before the headache, sure to follow the light sensitivity. That was the main reason I didn't drink. The wine was an absolute nightmare the next day to someone that doesn't drink it often.
I opened all the tabs to review and write up a summary, but my email was frozen. I couldn't get into anything I needed, so that meant I would be stuck on the phone with the IT department all day. When I went to log on to the website that we use as a backup, the login I was trying kept taking me to an error screen asking to send a confirmation to my email to change the password.
I couldn't get to that to fix it, so I was dead in the water. My irritation grew with every try that I gave it until I completely locked out with the IT number flashing on the screen to help. This was going to be a long day.
When I got through on the call, which took over fifteen minutes, they placed me on another long hold. So long that I got up to change and get my morning breath taken care of, so I didn't have to sit there fuming to their background music with an interruption telling me how many callers were ahead of me. When he finally picked up the phone, I knew it was the supervisor who didn't deal with regular maintenance.
"Dahlia? This is Jared," he said in his monotone voice.
"Hi, Jared. I can't get into any of my emails. I sent off my work the other day, but even that has me locked out."
"Nothing is wrong with your computer. I need to transfer you over to Henry."
Before I could ask what was going on, I was clicked over and left listening to elevator music. My pulse had picked up, and I had a sinking feeling. Had I messed up the work I sent in? I did enough to turn in, so I knew it wasn't about the deadlines.
I got up and paced while I had my phone on speaker. I couldn't help with all the distractions lately. My whole world had been turned upside down, but I still managed to get some work in.
The last thing I wanted to do was deal with Henry first thing before my coffee kicked in, and after the lack of sleep, the more I thought about it, the more I got on the defensive. I had worked my butt off for this company, working up through the ladder to get where I was.
"Dahlia?" Henry asked.
"Yes, I am here," I said, my tone was irritated.
"What seems to be going on?" he asked. There was no way if this wasn't a computer issue that he didn't know already, but I had to humor him anyway.
"I turned in some work the other day and went to get in to review more, but my email is locked. I can't even open my sent messages. When I try to open the company website, my login doesn't work. Are there updates that need to be done or something?" I asked, trying hard not to sound like an impatient child. I was not in the mood to waste time dealing with computer issues, let alone Henry with his massive ego.
"Dahlia, this is not an IT issue. This is a lack of work from you."
"Henry, I turned in a bunch of work the other day. I know I need to get a few things done to be where I should be, but you have to understand my situation hasn't been easy."
I hated giving him excuses, but that was my only option. I wasn't the type to milk my situation. With all the distractions with finding out what was going on with my magic and coven, I was more preoccupied than I anticipated.
"Dahlia, we have deadlines to meet, and having a team member not being accountable doesn't do us any good. You have done great work in the past, but your work has been declining."
Why did he keep saying my name like that? I could tell he was doing other things as he was talking to me. I could hear the keyboard clicking away in the background, along with him smacking his nicotine gum between sentences. He never even smoked. The level of irritation grew as I talked to him. The gum squishing around in his mouth as he spoke made my eye twitch.
"I have been dealing with a lo
t. I just buried my gram and have been getting everything in order. I know I have been a little distracted, but the two weeks I was given was not as long as I had hoped. I can up my workload; I just need access to it," I said, trying not to grit my teeth trying to get my point across.
"Dahlia, they transferred you to me for a reason. I regret to inform you that your remote position has been terminated. Your leave was over a few days ago, and you still have not even reached half of the workload we sent out."
He didn't regret anything. He was never a fan of mine, so it made sense he would want to be the one to tell me. There was no way I could sell the house, and I had come to terms living here permanently. My apartment lease had already lapsed, and everything I owned was already here. The furniture I had was all hand me down, and I was always at work, so it never made sense to accumulate anything in that tiny shell of an apartment.
I simultaneously felt cold and my blood boiling. I couldn't live here and work there. This was my dream job. Everything I had worked for over the past decade was gone in a matter of seconds. Silent tears ran down my face as I tried hard to keep my composure while he was on the phone.
"There must be something I can do. I can't commute, and I am not selling this house. Please. Put me on a probationary period. I can do this." I heard the shake in my voice just as well as he could. I hated that my voice betrayed me. I sounded desperate and felt it just as much. I wanted to barter or plead with him to keep it. I needed it.
"We downsized a few positions, not just yours."
I sat there, not knowing what else to say. I wouldn't move back to keep a job that wasn't there for me. There was a finality in his voice that made it clear no matter what I did, I wouldn't have a job anyway.
"Dahlia, we will send you the final check in a few days." I wanted to let him know what I really thought of him all these years. I wanted to yell and scream at him, but it wouldn't change anything.