Noah looked at Kizzy. “I wasn’t planning on an overnight guest. I just thought…”
“Yeah, I don’t need to stay overnight,” Kizzy said quickly. “I’m sure we’ll all go to a hotel, won’t we, Dad? I just wanted to get out of this place and…”
“I understand,” he said. “Why don’t you both come out to dinner with me?”
“No, Dad. I really need to see something at his place. I can meet you at a restaurant later.”
“That’s fine. Can you come to Elephant Walk at seven?”
“I should be able to be there by sevenish. I’ll call if I’m going to be late.”
“Good. And, honey?”
“Yes?”
“Forget what I said about Noah. If he kept you safe, he’s all right with me.”
* * *
Kizzy couldn’t wait to see the book, but she wasn’t going to rudely interrupt Noah as he showed her around his makeshift chemistry lab. She was right. He was kind of geeky, but in a sexy way. Whenever he walked by her, he touched her in some gentle way, like running his warm hand across her back. His touch made her shiver.
“So you thought the book was about alchemy?”
“Yeah. I still do unless…”
“Unless?”
“Unless you see something in there that changes the interpretation. You know your book. Maybe we can figure out how it fits with mine.”
“I won’t be able to draw any parallels…if I don’t see the book.”
Noah laughed. “Yeah, I guess I should show it to you.” He opened the closet and took the leather-bound book off the top shelf.
Once she had it in her hands, Kizzy knew this was indeed one of the companion books. She opened it and hoped it referred to certain pagan rituals. Then she might be able to piece together not only what this was, but also why the books were separated.
“Noah, this is a breakthrough. You have the ingredients of each spell, and we have the words.”
“It’s a spell book?”
“Yes. One of three.”
“And you know this because…you’re a witch?”
“Um, yeah.”
Noah laughed. “I just realized something. You’re a witch and a doctor. Does that make you a witch doctor?”
“Hardy-har.” She had to get back to the book. There’d be time for teasing later—she hoped. “I don’t know what the entity has, but most spells consist of certain props and particular words and steps that go with them. Maybe theirs is choreography, or a code breaker, or something.”
“So, you’re saying that my alchemy ingredients would probably never work without the wording that goes with it.”
“That’s what I’m guessing. Can I sit down and study this for a while?”
“Of course. Find a comfortable spot in the living room. Can I get you something to drink? About all we have is coffee and beer.” He laughed. “Ice water if you don’t like either of those.”
“After the day I’ve had, I think I’d like a beer.” Kizzy wandered back to the living room, gazing at the book the whole way. She found a comfortable chair, plopped down on it, and pored over the book in more detail.
What she saw was indeed some ingredients, but they were listed in an order she didn’t understand. She and her sister had been instructed to study their book backward and forward. She couldn’t make the ingredients go with the spells they had. For instance, the ingredients that would help turn lead to gold didn’t match up with their words for increased wealth in a different section of the book. That’s what made her think the third book might be an index. If she were creating this set of books, that’s how she would do it. Let each one contain only part of the information needed, but use a third one to decode everything, in case they fell into the wrong hands.
