I set it down on the bed and flipped through it. Caroline crowded closer, curiosity in her face even as she held her silence.
“Oddly enough I picked it up from the book keeper,” I said, referencing her boss and the book store for spooks where she worked. “Sometimes it’s more helpful than others.”
She made an interested sound as she bent closer.
“What stellar advice do you have for me today?” I asked it.
Something on how to break Niamh’s hold on half the Fae in the city or how to keep me from being part of the Wild Hunt would be good. Hell, any advantage would help.
I doubted it would be that simple however. The book seemed to take a perverse pleasure in tap dancing around an answer. It liked to give me just a hint, a small tease, but refrained from ever being truly helpful. You had to read between the lines with anything it shared. Its advice was often subtle and not apparent until the moment when you needed it most, when it was oftentimes too late.
Those were just a few of the reasons I could never truly trust it. Not to mention the odd way it had come to me and the mystery surrounding it.
I flipped it open, randomly selecting a page. My intent was to look for an entry on the Fae, hoping to glean some small tidbit that might help me.
It opened on a blank page.
“Not helpful,” I told it.
I flipped to another page. A picture of a forest looked back at me. Another page, another part of the forest. This time with the remains of train tracks partially covered by overgrowth. Again, and again, each time showing me a different part of the same forest.
“Is it supposed to do that?” Caroline asked.
I slammed it shut and threw it on my bed. That was even less helpful than normal.
“Perhaps I should give more thought to the fire idea,” I said to where it lay on the bed.
There was a soft sound and then abruptly the book was on fire.
“Oh my God,” Caroline shouted at the same time I yelled, “No.”
We both leapt into action. I grabbed a towel from my closet, while she picked up a pillow. Together, we beat frantically at the fire, trying to smother it.
After several heart-pounding moments, it went out.
I lifted the towel, cringing at the sight of my blackened bedspread, small holes in it from where the fire had touched. The stark markers of soot were very noticeable on the soft blue. There was no way to salvage it.
Caroline stared back at me with wide eyes, saying without words ‘what the hell just happened’.
In the middle of it all, lay the book, untouched, not a mark on it. Nothing to show it had been on fire moments before.
I glared at it, wanting more than anything at that moment to put it in a shredder but not daring to voice that thought. Who knew what it would do if it knew what I was thinking? Nothing good.
“Did the bed offend you?” Liam asked from the doorway, his gaze on my ruin of a bed.
Caroline jumped, while I sighed, depressed all over again. It would take money I didn’t have to replace the bedspread and possibly the sheets. I just hoped it hadn’t burned all the way through to the mattress.
Liam’s gaze moved to Caroline. “Leave, wolf.”
She looked back at me, a question in her eyes. I nodded and indicated she should go.
“Alright, I’ll call you later,” she said. She edged past Liam before shooting me a significant look with raised eyebrows as she disappeared down the hall.
“What did the wolf want?” he asked, ice in his voice.
“She was just helping me with something.”
His gaze turned back to my scorched bedspread. “So, I see.”
