Ollie eyed the cat suspiciously. “You sound less than confident about it.”
Red shrugged. “I’m here, so if things go wrong, it should be fine.”
Noble had almost reachedthe open double doors to Ollie’s private library when he heard what sounded like something bursting, or rather…exploding.
“Oh no, oh no!” He heard Ollie squeak frantically before coughing violently.
“Ollie!?” he cried as he rushed into the room. Noble headed straight for the already-open secret door.
His eyes widened as he got his first look at the secret room, and saw Ollie jumping around, waving at something on fire on the table, as if that would put it out…
Noble was about to run and grab the nearest fire extinguisher from Ollie’s kitchen when Red suddenly leaned over the mess and drew in a breath. The flames appeared to be consumed by the familiar until they were extinguished, followed by the cat letting out a stream of smoke.
“Umm…everything…okay?” With the fire out, he glanced at the mess on the table, which looked to be a mix of broken glass in the middle of a large black scorch mark, along with a pile of burnt—well, he wasn’t sure what it was, but it smelled almost like freshly laid asphalt with a faint metallic tang and a hint of burnt hair.
Ollie coughed one more time before barely managing to croak out, “Fine.” Clearing his throat, the witch turned to him, moving in closer as he wrung his hands together and tried again. “Everything is fine. Just, um…a failed magic attempt. I wastrying to make a Death Mark Mirror, which would have been super helpful if I had…actually succeeded—ha.”
While Ollie’s words were a bit more convincing the second time…the soot on his face and the singed ends of his stray curly red hair ruined it for him.
But Noble was not going to point that out. “I see…”
“Anyway, all good here. Oh, more importantly, I named my ghost kitten!”
He smiled as Ollie deflected. “I see, and what did you name them?”
“I named her Pumpkin!” Ollie beamed, bouncing a little on his feet.
“Cute,” he chuckled.
“Isn’t it?”
Noble had been talking about Ollie more than the cat’s name, but oh well. Wiping a bit of soot off the little witch’s nose, he asked, “Have you eaten yet?”
He’d sent him a text, but hadn’t gotten a response. It either meant his Baby had accidently, or purposely, ignored his text, or he had forgotten to text back. Which was why he decided to finish his cleaning another day, so he could come and possibly grab lunch with Ollie.
The witch blinked innocently, before looking away guiltily as he softly mumbled, “No…”
“Why don’t you go get cleaned up…” He showed Ollie the soot so he knew why he needed to. “Then we can head to the diner and grab a bite to eat. Hopefully this time the owner will be there, so we can finally get some answers. Or, at the very least, a name.”
“Fine…fine…” The man sighed, as if he was put out that he had to not only go out, but also eat.
While Noble had a feeling there was a reason to not trust George ‘Georgie’ Babs, he was struggling not to like the man the longer they talked, based on how he treated Ollie alone.
With stark-white hair that was cut short, and deeply tanned and lined skin, the older man was wearing a long-sleeved black T-shirt, blue jeans, and boots. He stood only a couple of inches under six feet, and looked to be in pretty decent shape, despite being nearly seventy.
“It’s lovely to meet you, Noble. You don’t understand how happy I was to hear that Ollie had met someone. Can’t say I wasn’t worried with how many years this boy of ours was alone in that big old library of his.”
Ollie huffed. “Now, Georgie, you can hardly say I was alone in the library, given the constant influx of people.”
“Bullshit. It’s not the same and you know it! You might as well have been alone with how useful that damn godfather of yours was growing up. I feel we all should be surprised the place didn’t burn down with how inattentive he was!”
Yep, Noble liked the man. Which would make things suck more if they turned sideways.
“Rowden…did his best.” Ollie cleared his throat awkwardly.
“Best, my ass!” Georgie snapped. “That?—”
Seeing that the man was about to go on a tirade that, even if truthful, would likely make Ollie sad, Noble cut in. “While I can’t say I’m a fan of the man, he isn’t who we wanted to talk to you about.”
