“It’s Latin. The Vesper grimoire was coveted by every witch who ever encountered its magic, but the book was protected. There were lesser spells that any reader could find and perform, but only a Vesper’s blood could reveal the most powerful spells contained within.”
“I don’t understand,” I said, shaking my head. “If this book is sopowerful and important to our family, why have we never seen it before? How did we ever let it out of our sight?”
It was Rhi who answered, dropping into the chair in front of her with a weary sigh. “That’s just it, Wren. We’re not sure.”
“You’re not sure? How can you not know?” I asked, incredulous.
“The fate of the book is one of the most mysterious chapters in our coven’s history, and one we’ve been trying to find an answer to for ages. You see, it disappeared on the very night of the Covenant.”
My mother also took her seat at the table, and we all looked at Rhi, expectant.
“Sarah Claire stole the book, as you know,” Rhi said, her voice settling into the lulling rhythms of a story told and retold many times; and for a moment, I could imagine my mother and her sisters asking the same questions, and Asteria in Rhi’s place, giving the same answer I was now about to hear. “Mary Vesper was feeling poorly, and Sarah disguised the potion in a broth she brought to the cottage. Once Mary had fallen into a deep sleep, Sarah took the book, but she knew she also needed Vesper blood in order to find the spell she needed.”
My heart gave a thump. “She didn’t… I mean, did shekill?—”
Rhi shook her head. “No. She used a knife to puncture one of Mary’s fingers, and collected the blood in a vial. A drop or two will suffice, as you’ve seen. She went to the cliffs to carry out her plan. But Diana didn’t only protect the coven. She protected the book as well. She knew it had been taken almost as soon as Sarah left the house, and she followed. She roused the coven to action and they, along with the rest of Sarah’s own coven, were able to stop her before it was too late.”
“So they got the book back,” I said.
“They did. And they used it to seal the Covenant. But after that, the book vanished.”
“I don’t?—”
“It was Mary,” Persi chimed in. “She knew the grimoire put them all in danger. It held the key, not only to binding the Darkness, but also, now, unleashing it. As long as the Vespers held those secrets close, they would always have a target on their backs. It was too risky to keep the grimoire.”
“So what did she do with it?” I asked eagerly.
“No one knows,” my mom answered. “Well, Mary did, of course. But soon it was put about that the book was gone, and when people asked about it, Mary would only say?—”
All three sisters spoke the words at once. “‘It is lost, and long may it stay so.’”
“And she never told anyone what she had done with it? No one, not even other members of the coven?” I asked.
“It seems not. If she did, they kept the secret as thoroughly as she did. Our family started over, passing spells down by oral tradition, and recording them in new grimoires; but the deepest, most dangerous magic contained in that original grimoire was lost… until now.”
Until now.
We all fell quiet, staring at the book. Its very presence seemed to have sucked all the air from the room. After what felt like a long time, Persi’s voice suddenly broke the silence, making us all jump.
“And now, out of nowhere this woman just… just shows up and hands you a centuries-lost book, the most powerful book of magic known to have existed? It doesn’t make sense!” she ground out, pounding her fist on the table.
“It does if she didn’t realize what it was she was handing over,” my mom said, chewing thoughtfully on her bottom lip. “I mean, think about it. She’s an academic, right? Or a librarian?”
She looked at me for clarification, but I shrugged. “She just said she worked at a school. Fairhaven, I think she said it was called. It’s in England, although she didn’t have an English accent.”
“Okay, so let’s assume academic of some kind. She finds this book, has it examined, discovers where it belongs, and returns it. That seems reasonable,” Rhi says.
“But how?” Persi persisted. “How does a book lost for centuries—no, not lost, but intentionally hidden away—wind up at this Fairhaven in the first place, just sitting on a shelf for anyone to find? Did she explain that?”
“She didn’t know,” I said. “She told me some students discovered it intheir library, but that they didn’t have a record of it. She thought it had either been returned there by accident, or hidden there.”
“Those students are lucky to be alive, if they even are,” Persi said darkly. “Imagine someone with no magical training handling this book, let alone trying to use it?”
She shuddered, and I joined her. After all, my magical training was rudimentary at best, and I’d already had a taste of the damage uncontrolled magic could do.
“How did this woman find us?” Rhi asked, wringing her hands together. “I don’t like that she found us so easily.”
“I don’t think it was very easy, actually,” I said, holding out the letter from Dr. Vesper, along with the family tree. “This Dr. Vesper is a relative. She had already done a lot of research on our family history. She’s the one who figured out who to return the book to. Jess Ballard was just the messenger.”
