Rhi smirked. “Follow me and I’ll show you.”
And instead of taking me through the door, she squeezed past me back to the landing halfway up the staircase, where there was a small dusty window set into the wall that looked over the side of the building. She gestured me over, and we both peered down into the side garden, which was separated from the sidewalk by a gate and a fence.
“What do you see when you look out this window?” Rhi asked me.
I squinted down through the dusty panes. “I see… grass? And some azalea bushes? A sundial. Sorry, what am I supposed to be looking for?”
“Do you see a way up to this floor?”
I frowned. “I…” I looked again. “No?”
Rhi was grinning now. “Now I want you to think about Lightkeep Cottage… just picture it in your mind in as much detail as you can, and then look out the window, but only from the corner of your eye.”
Bewildered, I did as she instructed. I thought about Lightkeep, about the wide sagging porch, the colorful riot of a garden, the little room where I slept, the way the salty breeze from the ocean whistled around the eaves in a familiar song. Then I looked out the window again and, in my peripheral vision, a staircase had appeared running up the side of the house to the second floor. I blinked and turned to look at it head-on, but it had vanished again. Then I turned to Rhi, my mouth hanging open.
“There’s an invisible staircase?” I asked, my voice rising to a squeak.
Rhi shook her head. “Not invisible. It’s a glamour.”
“What’s a glamour?”
“A glamour changes your perception of the world, rather than the world itself. Most people think of glamour as related to beauty, and it is often used that way—Persi is particularly adept at glamour spells—but it doesn’t always have to do with personal appearance. Often, it simply has to do with desire—what you desire to attract in your life, and what you desire to keep away. In the case of Shadowkeep, we want to keep curious outsiders away from the upper level of the store, while still making it possible for the local witches to find it. So, Asteria put a simple glamour on the building. It’s a spell that tricks your eye into notacknowledging the staircase. It’s not invisible—it simply deflects your gaze. It’s there, but your mind refuses to notice it.”
“And everyone here—all the other witches, I mean—know how to find it?”
Rhi nods. “Over time, a witch becomes more adept at recognizing a glamour. There’s a certain feeling that comes over you, a tingling sort of sensation, like the way the hair stands up on the back of your neck when you’re being watched. It’s easy to miss, but if you’re on the lookout for it, you can often spot it without too much difficulty. Some glamours are more powerful than others, however, and the glamour on Shadowkeep is particularly so. That’s why we have that little trick to get around it.”
As she said it, I looked out the window and saw a woman stopping at the gate of Shadowkeep. She looked familiar—it took me a moment to recognize the stout, swaggering form of my friend Zale’s grandmother, Davina. She opened the gate and stood near the side of the house, still for a moment. From where I watched her, it looked as though she was examining the large lilac bushes that ran along the side of the shop, their blooms drooping and past their prime. Then, a moment later, she charged purposefully up the stairs, passing right by the window where we stood.
“Come on. We’ll need to let her in,” Rhi said, and I hurried up the staircase behind her.
Rhi pushed open the red door at the top of the stairs and revealed a room that was, in many ways, the polar opposite of the room below. Nowthiswas what I thought Shadowkeep would look like on the inside. Shelves ran from floor to ceiling on two of the walls crammed with ancient books, their spines peeling and stamped with titles in runes and symbols and languages I didn’t recognize. Apparently, my four years of public school Spanish had left me ill-equipped for thisparticular collection. One wall had been turned into a floor-to-ceiling apothecary, with row after row of tiny square drawers. Each drawer bore a circular brass ring as a handle, and also a handwritten label designating the contents. I drew closer to read a few of them: “Powdered Raven’s Claw.” “Bleached Mouse Bones.” “Dried Frog Skin.” I swallowed hard and prayed my magical education wouldn’t mean I had to actually touch any of those particular ingredients.
There were bins and baskets and pottery bowls full of feathers and precious gems and smooth, polished runestones. One shelf held a collection of mortars and pestles in a variety of sizes and materials. I moved closer to a white one to examine it, and felt my pulse speed up.
“Is this one made of…”
“Bone, yes,” Rhi said.
“Human?” My voice rose about an octave and a half on the single word.
Rhi eyed me somewhat warily, as though carefully weighing what she thought I might be able to handle before answering, “Fox, I think.”
I tried to keep my face entirely impassive, but my head swam as I moved away to examine something less disturbing. I may have decided to embrace my witchy heritage, but it was obviously going to take some adjustment.
I had barely a moment to take in any more of my surroundings when a second set of bells jangled, and Rhi hurried over to a door in the back corner of the room. She pulled it open to reveal Davina standing on the landing, arms crossed over her formidable bosom.
“Hello, Davina. How are you?” Rhi asked, as she stood back to let Davina through the door.
“Nae bad,” Davina said with a shrug. She swaggered over the threshold into the room with an appraising glance around.“I dinnae suppose you’ve got any more of Xiomara’s Florida Water? I’ve been by to see her, but it’s the lunch rush.”
“Yes, she furnished us with some new stock just last week, but it always goes quickly. What we’ve got left is over there by the herb-infused candles. I’ll show you,” Rhi said.
I was still staring around at all the labels on the apothecary wall when I heard whispering behind me. Davina was a member of the Conclave. Suddenly, goosebumps were breaking out all over my arms, and my heart began to pound so that my pulse thudded in my ears, which made it hard for me to pick up on anything she and Rhi were saying. I had to take several deep breaths before I could catch even a word.
“…cannae tell you any more except that the Conclave has all but concluded its investigation, and Ostara will let you know when she wants to see you.”
“Surely you can tell me more than that!” Rhi hissed.
