That is all they are to you—
these you have dealt with
and labored with since childhood.
All of them go on in their error;
there is not one that can save you.*
Max made a low whistle.
I thought back to the way Dani’s eyes burrowed into mine, and I shivered. “It’s portraying Magic as a wicked deed.† What else did she say? ‘These books are banned, they are forbidden.’” I flipped furiously through Dani’s notebook, an echo of something from the night of the frat party swirling in my mind.The truth will set you free.The statement had seemed to be everywhere lately.
I found the journal entry from Dani. “That’s it … ‘The pages hold the truth, and the truth will set you free.’ Some twisted version of another biblical passage: ‘Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’” I slapped the book shut. “The pages … She’s pointing us toward a book.”
Max rubbed a hand over his chin. “That’s what Strauss said, too, remember? That Dani was obsessed with some book when she first came to the school. Are there books that are banned from Catholicism?”
“Of course,” I said slowly. “Well, not so much anymore, but centuries ago, definitely. During the Inquisition, they even went so far as to burn the home of anyone harboring the books.”
“So maybe a book hunted to extinction. Something they really hated?” Max said.
Notes, notes. I needed my notes from the class. Vern came over as I opened Dr. Perez’s course website.
“There it is,” I said, looking through the course notes. “TheIndex Librorum Prohibitorum.The Catholic Index of Forbidden Books.”
Max leaned forward. “Now what? How do we tell which one it is?”
I scanned the list, many of the works in Latin.Candideand many of Voltaire’s other works,Madame Bovary,Paradise Lost, and the writings of Jean-Paul Sartre. Dr. Perez had broken the list down further into Magical texts and grimoires, supplemented with titles from his own research when possession of texts had been used as evidence in witch trials.Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis, orthe Lesser Key of Solomon, a demonology grimoire, andPicatrix, one of the foremost texts on astrological Magic.* Agrippa’sDe occulta philosophia libri tres (Three Books of Occult Philosophy)—Agrippa’s complete works had been banned.
“Well, let’s look at the books on the list and see if there are any that reference any of the things Dani said, or the symbol we’ve been seeing around campus. There’s got to be something,” I said.
My mind raced, and my thoughts flew past faster than I could make sense of them.
We ended up eliminating many of the texts. For some of them, not a single copy had survived into this century. Others had been studied and were believed to be nothing more than the works of delirious alchemists poisoned from their own experiments. Our list dwindled to two:Liber incantationum, exorcismorum et fascinationum variarumandLiber Autumnus.
Max paused, running his eyes over the words of the first. “Maybe there’s a reason these books are banned,” he said quietly.
I bit my lip. “Vern?”
Vern looked at the computer screen, nodding slowly. “I’ll see if we have either of them in the system. But …”—he spread his hands—“if these are indeed the old Magic texts, you need to watch yourselves.”
I knew the danger these texts posed. There were so few real Magic books left in the world, and the ones that were genuine were written to be intentionally confusing to guard their secrets from untrained eyes, shrouded in symbols that could only be understood by followers or other expert Magicians. Spells were hidden between nonsensical statements. You could be reading a paragraph for hours trying to make sense of it and have no idea you were casting a spell. And all the while Magic would be dripping from your fingertips like a leaky faucet. If Dr. Robetresse knew what we were looking into, I half-think she might’ve tried to stop us. We were going against the entire system of Magic we’d studied. Everything about the Three Arts focused on control, on limitations, on not jumping headfirst into spellwork that had been written centuries ago and never studied to ensure its safety. Wild, reckless Magic like that was for students at Britton Arcane.
Or for people who ended up dead.
But while a part of me was afraid, I was also excited. If I could study one of the real Magic texts, not only could I possibly find the spell to cure Dani but spells I’d never seen before, that no one had been able to decipher in centuries. Who knew what kind of Magic was out there? Magic to return in time and fix your mistakes? To bring back the dead? To … I was getting ahead of myself. I sucked in a deep breath. My fingers shook.
Vern tapped the screen. “This first one is better known as the Munich Manual of Demonic Magic. It’s a grimoire penned in the fifteenth century.”
Max closed his eyes. “Lovely,” he whispered.
Vern dug a key ring from his pocket and returned a few minutes later from a back room, holding a very old, very creepy-looking book bound in vellum. He set the book in front of Max, who visibly shivered when his hands touched it.
“But the other,Liber Autumnus, The Book of Autumn …” Vern said, returning to the screen. He looked back at the screen and shook his head. “That one’s going to be a bit trickier.”
Max still hadn’t opened the grimoire in front of him, so I pulled it over to me. As soon as I touched it, I was overwhelmed with a sense of wrong. Magic books sound a little like objects, so many spells swirling around at once, and this one emitted a franticthump-thump-thump-thump, like the heartbeat of a small, tormented creature. I closed the cover immediately.
“Vern, has anyone checked this out recently?”
