by Sarina Dorie
Oddly, Thatch was absent. Could he be with … Derrick? All I knew was that for once he wasn’t with Miss Periwinkle. If I did see him, I considered whether I would speak with him about the run-in with Odette. The woman might have been lying. Or he might have been lying. Though, why, I couldn’t imagine, other than the fact that he was a pathological liar.
Khaba cleared his throat. “I’ll keep this short and to the point. I trust you read the letter and heard the announcements earlier. Several students have been lured away by Fae. Unlike the usual occurrences, we have three—potentially four—in the last week.” His eyes met mine.
My throat tightened. He meant Derrick. I didn’t want it to be true.
“Witness reports suggest the Raven Court is behind this. I can confirm their most recent activity in town.”
Teachers gasped and whispered among themselves. I wasn’t surprised.
“But that’s against the law!” Evita Lupi said.
I noticed the way her husband ogled Miss Periwinkle. It didn’t even look like Pro Ro and Silas Lupi had heard Khaba. Seriously, the librarian needed to rein in the siren powers.
“Has the Witchkin Council been notified?” Grandmother Bluehorse asked.
“We have contacted the proper authorities,” Khaba said. “They are unable to do anything at present because the students weren’t technically snatched. Students went of their own free will.”
Pinky raised his hand. “More likely they were coerced or hypnotized. They do realize that, don’t they?”
“We can’t prove it.” Khaba’s expression was grim. “We know what the Raven Court is like. They’re too powerful to fight physically or politically. That’s why we need to come up with a plan to keep the students safe. Kids are going to get bored on school grounds, which is going to cause behavior problems.” Khaba looked to Puck.
Puck stepped forward. “Some of you may be familiar with PBIS, right? Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports. Part of this involves good classroom management. We need to give students something fun and rewarding to take their minds off recent events. Sure, we can provide short chaperoned trips to town with small groups after school, but that isn’t going to be sufficient to keep the rest of the kids occupied.” Puck nodded to Khaba.
Khaba waved his hand over the chalkboard. The schedules shifted to a list of activities ranging from sports to chess to basket weaving.
Puck went on. “Some of you already serve as faculty advisor for some of the school clubs. We would like to encourage the rest of you to start an after-school or weekend club. You don’t have to be there to supervise the entire time, but be involved enough to help give students ideas to keep them occupied.”
“More busywork,” Vega said.
Puck held up a clipboard with a sheet of paper. “I’m sending around a sign-up sheet for field trips for teachers with abilities strong enough to protect students if they should encounter a hostile Fae.”
“The problem isn’t hostile Fae,” Grandmother Bluehorse said. “It’s having the ability to thwart a spell meant to enthrall.”
Khaba nodded. “I only encourage those who feel they can fight Fae influences to sign up.” He looked directly at me and gave the smallest shake of his head.
I would not be one of those teachers.
I raised my hand. “Can I go with—”
“No,” he said firmly.
If I couldn’t go to Lachlan Falls at all, how was I going to be able to help Derrick? I needed to find another way to search for him. Or a way to find out more about that spell.
The clipboard came around the table. Vega passed it off to someone else. Grandmother Bluehorse handed it back to her.
“Not another duty,” Vega muttered.
I didn’t know what she was complaining about. She had fewer duties than ever!
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Books and Babes—Check Them Out
After the meeting, Josie and I sat at the table, waiting for the other teachers to file out. Pro Ro flirted with Miss Periwinkle. Pinky lingered a few feet away from Josie. He looked like he wanted to say something, but he didn’t approach us.
A spider scuttled across the table over to Josie. She held out her hand to it and allowed it to crawl across her skin. Ick. I would never be that kind of witch.
When the bottleneck to the door had died down, Josie and I made our way out.
Vega stood in the hallway, arms crossed. She looked me up and down. “Well?”
“Well, what?” I asked.
“I said we were doing research after school yesterday—which you blew off.”
That wasn’t fair! Yesterday I had told her I had to see Khaba, which had led to hours of chaos. She’d been in Lachlan Falls chaperoning students back to school.
I started, “I didn’t blow—”
“Shut your piehole. Are you coming to the library or not? I’ve already been waiting here five minutes for you. That’s one entire duty.”
Ugh! The price of Vega’s assistance.
“Can Josie help with—”
Josie backed away as she eyed Vega with revulsion. “No thanks.”
Vega strode to the library, her high heels clattering against the floor. I had to run to keep up with her.
Miss Periwinkle sat behind the library counter, listening to Pro Ro as he leaned against it. Vega and Miss Periwinkle nodded to each other when we walked in. Maddy stocked shelves along one of the walls. She smiled, and I waved to her.
There were a lot of students in the library, most of them young men, but no one was staring at Maddy for once. Boys kept sneaking clandestine glances at Gertrude Periwinkle. A young man at the card catalogue walked over to the counter to ask a question, but Pro Ro waved him away.
Vega incanted a spell, starlight circling around her. I couldn’t recall if she had done this when she’d tried to locate the ingredients by keyword search in our room. I thought the magic might draw Miss Periwinkle’s attention, or even one of the students’, but no one gave us a second look. And why would they? Spellcasting was normal here. Vega was a teacher. There was no reason she wasn’t allowed to perform magic.
Imani and Greenie sat in one corner reading books away from the groups of boys staring longingly at Miss Periwinkle. When I looked back at Vega, she held a star in her hand. Or what looked like a star. She blew on it, and it scattered into a million sparkling specks that flew in opposite directions.
“This is different from the other spell,” I said.
“Naturally,” she said in her superior way. “I don’t want to stand here for hours. This will take less energy and reaches farther.” The sparkles shot across the expanse of the room, drifting through books and weaving up and down shelves.
“What are those stars doing?” I asked.
“Tasting. If one of them finds a match, it will tag the book and show you where it is.”
A student cleared his throat behind Vega. His hair was black but glittered with starlight. From the stack of books in his arms and haughty expression, I suspected he might be a Celestor. “Miss Bloodmire, I need assistance checking out these books.”
“Why are you asking me? Do I look like a librarian to you?” She grimaced.
He glanced at Miss Periwinkle, his expression transforming to longing and then annoyance. “Professor Rohiniraman keeps sending me away. He’s hogging Miss Periwinkle all to himself.”
Vega rolled her eyes. “I’ll deal with him.” She looked at me. “Go peruse without me. I trust you won’t get into any trouble.” She sauntered over to the circulation desk.
I strolled the perimeter of the library, studying the drifting lights. Maddy returned a book to a shelf, smiling as I approached.
“How’s it going?” I asked, trying not to look guilty.
“Great!” Maddy smiled, her face radiant. “I can’t believe how much easier my life is now that I’m apprenticing with Miss Periwinkle. Not that I’m saying it wasn’t great before when you were
mentoring me, but you didn’t know how to do glamour spells or how to tone down my magic. My affinity is way more manageable now. Boys hardly ever look at me anymore.”
Of course they didn’t. Every set of eyes attached to a male body in the library were too busy ogling Miss Periwinkle.
“I’m glad to hear it,” I said.
I continued examining the lights dancing around the shelves.
Maddy gave a little cough. “I, um… .” She stepped closer, glancing back at her new mentor. “I found one of those books you were looking for, one about the Raven Court.” She glanced at the librarian. “But I don’t know how I’ll get it to you. It isn’t a book I can remove from the library.”
Pro Ro was gone. Vega and Miss Periwinkle spoke in hushed tones, but I suspected from their rigid body language and red faces, they weren’t exchanging pleasantries.
“No worries,” I said. “I don’t want you to get in trouble. If you find something else I can check out, let me know.”
“Okay,” she said cheerfully.
I examined the lights, trying to see if any of them looked different. Some of them slipped through the floor or floated through the ceiling. There were less stars now. I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.
I knew this spell was important in figuring out what Thatch was up to with Derrick and why he had been keeping him secret from me, but I was afraid we were going to come to another dead end. The spell had probably come from Alouette Loraline’s diary, and unless she had stored an extra copy in a public place like a library—it was unlikely I would find what I needed. A student squeaked from around a row of books, over by the fiction section. I passed teen literature, all old books like Little House on the Prairie, Treasure Island, and The Secret Garden. The newest book on the shelves was The Outsiders. I could see my department wasn’t the only one with budget cuts. Not that most students here had time for recreational reading.
A student rounded the corner, waving stardust away from his face. He sneezed. It drifted out his ear. The speck collided into another speck and converged. More dots joined together. It reminded me of atoms forming molecules. I didn’t know what was happening. Either it was something good and they had found what we were looking for, or something bad and they were reacting to being inhaled by a student.
More and more of the lights joined together, forming a larger star. They gathered before me. I peeked around the corner at Vega, wondering if I should call her. She still stood at the desk, pointing accusingly at the librarian.
When I turned back to the light, it was the size of a tennis ball, the same as when it had started. Slowly it drifted away. I followed it around the tall bookshelves in the fiction section. I accompanied it around another wall of books and stopped when I came to a door set in the wall. It hovered in front of the door.
A thrill of excitement coursed through me. This was it. The book had to be in this room.
I tried the handle. It was locked. My hopes sank like a lead balloon. Probably this room was off-limits. The light sank to the level of the keyhole and pushed through. I placed my hand on the door again, hoping the light might work some magic that would help me. The latch clicked.
It was unlocked.
That was handy. I considered getting Vega again, but decided I didn’t want to risk drawing Miss Periwinkle’s attention, especially if this was a secret room of library books. I slipped through the door, keeping it ajar. The light glowed bright enough to illuminate the stairs descending to somewhere below. I hoped this wasn’t leading me into the dungeon. It would make sense if it was. Thatch was the one who had the copy of Alouette Loraline’s diary. Maybe I could steal it back.
My shoes made no sound over the stone floor, muffled by a hundred years of dust. The air chilled as I descended. At the bottom of the stairs, the hallway was still and stagnant.
My heart thrummed in my chest. This was it. I was about to find the answer to some—all?—of my questions.
I followed Vega’s star and past rooms of books. The air smelled like vanilla cookies, which had to be impossible since no one in a forgotten tomb of books would be eating Nilla Wafers. From the stone walls, it looked like we were in the ancient section of the school, the part that had once been a monastery. I thought about the blog post I’d read mentioning the spell. Hopefully there wouldn’t be any dead bodies.
The light entered a room. The air smelled fruity, like apples and autumn. A witch leaned over a book, her long wavy hair and hat obscuring her face. She held a quill in her wrinkled hand, pen poised over a line of text. It appeared she was copying a book. A golden goblet had been overturned on the table. The long-gone fluid that it once held had left a dark stain over the table.
“Hello?” I whispered.
The star hovered over the book before the witch.
I edged closer. “Excuse me.”
The woman didn’t stir. My heart beat harder.
I circled around the table. The woman was dead.
Of course.
From the way her shriveled skin hugged her bones like dried leather, she looked like she’d been mummified. Even in death, her features held a certain beauty, her bone structure not so different from Gertrude Periwinkle’s high cheekbones, though her hair was silver, not blonde.
I wondered who she was and how long ago she’d died. The book she copied from was in another language. Maybe Old High German. I couldn’t tell since I hadn’t learned much Old High German. The potion she translated was incomplete. The ingredients were listed, but there was no title, and how to use it wasn’t yet included. Her list did include one line mine didn’t.
The Witchkin performing this spell will need the power of a Red for this spell to—
That was all she’d written? If this was related to the Fae Fertility Paradox, I already knew that. Why couldn’t fate just give me the answers for once? I’d faced the Raven Court, Thatch’s supposed sister who wasn’t dead, and worst of all, Vega. Now I was faced with another dead end.
Dead end. Heh. I glanced at the corpse again.
The star pulsated, as if trying to draw my attention to the book. I could read the one translated, but not the one in Old High German. Then again, that was probably the one I wanted since the spell was complete.
Carefully, I started to slide the book out from under the head and arm of the corpse. The moment I did so, the star sank into the book. The light went out. When the seeker of the keyword match touched the book he or she sought, that must have been the signal that the magic was no longer needed.
I froze, waiting for the dead body to come to life and strangle me. She didn’t.
I continued sliding the book out from under her. Something brushed my arm and I screamed. It was the witch hat. I laughed in nervousness, my heart still racing. I closed the book and fumbled for the second book. The translated volume was incomplete, but I could take both and see what else was written.
Vega had once admitted she couldn’t read Old German, but I might be able to find someone who could. Darla could, but I hated to involve a student.
I removed the second book from the table. The books smelled like vanilla. Something rustled in the dark. It was just her hat or something I had bumped, I told myself. There were no such things as ghosts, zombies, or other dead things. Only witches, fairies, and bigfoot were real.
An exhalation that wasn’t mine made me jump back in surprise. I dropped both books. I wished I had my phone. Or that wand I’d appropriated from a student. I couldn’t even remember where I’d put it. I tried to use the Elementia spell I’d learned in Jackie Frost’s class, but my hands were clammy with sweat. I was afraid to speak the Latin words out loud for fear of using them wrong and causing a dead body to come after me.
Blindly, I groped for the books on the floor. I found one book, encountered one of the seated Witchkin’s shoes, and scooted on my knees as I felt for the other book. My fingers encountered another foot instead.
The breath came again. Along with it
came the fragrance of berries and fruit. The foot shifted under my hand. I yanked my hand back and stumbled to my feet, tripping on the book I’d been searching for on the floor. I let out an undignified squeal.
Finally I decided it was time to shed some light on this. I used the Latin incantation and focused on the Elementia spell. The magic flashlight revealed a still and silent cadaver. Keeping my eyes on the dead Witchkin, I stooped to pick up the fallen books.
The corpse had moved both times I had touched her. My Red affinity was touch magic. Was I able to raise the dead with touch? This had to be why it was forbidden. But it didn’t make sense. I wasn’t aroused. Thatch had said he thought my affinity was tied to pleasant feelings. If I was doing this, he had to be wrong. There was something more to the magic. Either he didn’t know, or he did, but he wasn’t telling.
No surprise there.
I hugged the books to my chest. My heart slammed against my ribcage. I wanted to go back upstairs into the sanctuary of the library where my worst problem might be Miss Periwinkle accusing me of stealing her boyfriend and Vega telling me I owed her more duties. But as terrified as I was, I was also curious. I didn’t fully understand my own powers.
I needed to.
I allowed my breath to calm and my heart to slow enough that I could form words. “Can you hear me? Are you … alive?”
No answer came. I crept closer.
Necromancy was forbidden. Technically, so was my affinity. But let’s say I could communicate with the dead by touching their dead bodies. That would mean I could find some answers. This Witchkin scribe might be able to tell me about the text she was copying.
With one hand, I clutched the heavy tomes to my chest. I held the other out blindly until I came to the edge of the table. I positioned myself closer.
“Can you speak? Who are you?” My voice quavered.
She still didn’t answer, but I wasn’t touching her yet either. I scooted as close as I dared, reaching out with my hand to touch where I suspected her shoulder was. I repeated my question.
Bones shifted under the thin dress and beneath the tougher hide of her skin. I wanted to shrink away. This was seriously creepy.