“You did well. There are occasions when rules have to be relaxed. Plus, you passed that threshold with flying colors. Your education isprogressing at a satisfactory pace, in every way.” He treated me to a slow blink.
“I hope you’re right, because tonight I could do with all the magic I can come up with.” I brought him up to speed while I hung up a closed sign. As reliable and trustworthy as Ms. Vine was, I’d rather not have anyone around when I was busy in the lair. The idea of having to explain a sudden appearance or a moving bookcase was too much to even contemplate.
I used the secret lever and stepped inside the hidden room with Cosmo. Once the door had swung shut behind us, I took out Candice’s letter and put it on the table. While I unlocked the cabinet with the spellbooks, Cosmo jumped up and touched the envelope. “You need to take this along.”
“Why?” I peered into the cabinet and my breath caught in my chest. A glow formed in the dark, settling on the spine of a spellbook up to now invisible to me. Cosmo’s ripple theory had been spot on. I’d reached a new stage in my evolution.
Carefully, I grasped it and pulled it out. My fingers twitched. I let my instincts guide me and added the first spellbook as well. It included the earliest spells I’d mastered, ones I thought I knew by heart. Maybe I didn’t after all, if my instincts were correct.
Cosmo still hadn’t answered my question. Whoever had come up with the “All will be revealed” in books obviously hadn’t had to deal with a familiar.
I settled in my chair, took the new book, and opened it. Glowing shapes rose from the otherwise blank page. They danced in the air, until they sank onto the paper and formed distinct shapes and words.
I was watching with rising excitement as I identified birch twigs, ash trees, and willows. Combined they stood for something I already had in my possession – a broom.
I almost overlooked a tiny flower flickering on the bottom of the page. “Can you say what this is?” I asked Cosmo.
He left the table with the envelope and settled on my armrest. He sighed as he scanned the page. “I’m a cat, not a gardener. That’s what you’ve got your coven for.”
“Are you talking about Ange?” As a dedicated Wiccan and nature lover, her knowledge of plants easily rivalled that of the local garden club members. “But she wouldn’t be able to see the spell.”
He flicked his tail. “That’s what paper and pencil have been invented for. Draw a picture and show it to her.”
“I should’ve thought of that solution.”
“You can’t think of everything, especially when you’re tired.”
Now that he mentioned it, I noticed my energy flagging.
“Relax,” Cosmo said, followed by a chirping sound that felt like a warm, soothing hug. “Is that better?”
“Perfect.” I made a mental note to myself to reward him with a bit of raw turkey breast for dinner. Food was a big part of our love language.
“Do you remember the spell?”
I avoided glancing down while I pictured the images and recited the words in my head. “Yes.”
“Good. Now, the other one.”
I changed books and let the other one fall open in my lap. “It’s a spell that retraces steps.” I had no clue yet why my inner witch had pointed me to this particular bit of magic but like Cosmo’s wisdom, it would eventually become clear. Unless this was a gentle reminder that even in occultism, practice made perfect and total recall was sadly a myth. At least it was for me.
With the two spells freshly committed to memory, I prepared Cosmo’s meal, flung a pair of pajamas, a flannel dressing gown, and mytoiletry bag into a backpack, and grabbed my inherited broom and the letter. If we were lucky, this was the last day I had to neglect my library customers.
Ange picked me up accompanied by her dogs. I ruffled the two heads. “Hello, guys.”
“I thought they’d be useful, if we have to follow a trail into the woods, and Nick is on call again tonight.”
“That’s a good idea.” I added my backpack and the broom to her overnight bag. Harper and Reina were going to travel in their own car.
They were already waiting in the parking lot, complete with hat and wig. Together, in full witches’ coven mode, we went to the two adjoining rooms. “Number 7 was Tim’s,” Harper said.
I unlocked the door. “You go first,” Ange said.
“Shouldn’t we put the luggage in our room, so everything is clear for Bex to do her magic sweep?” Reina asked.
“Good point.” I motioned to Harper to unlock the other door and stepped inside, waiting for any kind of reaction. Nothing happened. Room 8 held no definite trace of Tim.
We piled our bags on one of the two queen-size beds. Mrs. Miniver and Mr. Chips snuggled up on the dog blanket Ange put down for them.
