Page 91 of The Little Shop of Curiosities, The Music Box Part 2

She smiles and reaches for my hand. Lifting it between us, she turns it palm up. I watch curiously as she places her hand above mine. The space between our palms suddenly crackles with magic, with tiny little microbursts of brightly coloured fire and pulses of energy sparking.

“What the?”

“Magic, Harrison, is not as common as you’d think. There are plenty of witches in the world. They understand magic, they respect it, some of them even flirt around the edges of it, but there are very few who actually possess it. Even fewer who naturally have the kind of gifts we do. There is so much power inside you. It’s raw, undisciplined.” She studies my face. “You remind me so much of myself before I met Theo.”

“Who’s Theo?”

“My husband,” she answers. “Anyway, like I said, there are few witches with true power. Like it or not, you are part of a very select group, and trust me, we take care of our own.”

“Olivia?” I say, drawing her attention back to me. “What did you mean when you said you were a guardian? What’s a guardian? And what was that other thing you mentioned? Infernum? That’s a Latin word that means Hell, isn’t it?”

“It’s another long story and it’s getting late, but I’ll give you the short version if you like.” I nod. “Once upon a time, before the beginning of…well, time. There were five books. These were no ordinary books and no one really knows where they came from or how they came into being. But they contained within their pages power and magic beyond your understanding. The books were so powerful that they each developed an awareness. I don’t mean they were fully sentient beings, but they had a consciousness. Not quite fully developed, sometimes quite primal and almost childlike.”

“I’m not sure I understand.” I frown.

“It’s okay.” Olivia shakes her head. “I didn’t either, at first. Like I said, there were originally five books. Infernum, the Hell book. Caelum, the book of the heavens. Purgatorio, the song of purgatory. Spiritus, the book of the spirit realms, and lastly, Terra, the book of Earth.”

“What happened to them?” Sam asks, his eyes narrowing in interest.

“Well, that’s the question.” Her lips curve. “Infernum is mine. It came into the possession of my bloodline hundreds of years ago. My ancestors hid and protected it while it waited for its guardian to claim it.”

“Each book has a guardian, then?” I ask.

“It’s a triad,” Olivia replies. “There are always three. Each book has a guardian and each guardian a protector. Theo is mine. He was pulled through time from seventeenth-century Salem and literally dropped in the middle of the road in front of my car.”

“Are you serious?” Sam blinks.

“Oh yeah, damn near ran him over too.” She laughs. “A seventeenth-century witchfinder and a twenty-first-century witch. It wasn’t easy at first. Nothing worthwhile ever is.”

“Yeah, I think we can relate to that,” Sam says as he looks at me.

“Anyway, I’m getting off topic.” Olivia waves her hand. “The book chooses its guardian. I think fate has a hand in there somewhere too. But mostly, it’s the book. Infernum contains within it all the magic and powers and secrets of all the Hell dimensions, and it chose me to be its guardian. I share its power and knowledge, it shares my body. It’s a completely symbiotic joining. We’re not two individual beings. We are one. It’s as simple and as complicated as that.”

“What about the other books?” I whisper.

“Purgatorio was damaged, mutilated beyond recognition by religious zealots.”

“So, Purgatorio no longer exists?”

“We’ve managed to recover a few of the surviving parts to it, but it will never be what it once was. Spiritus and Terra we suspect were destroyed. Humans can be so destructive, especially when they don’t fully understand the power they hold in their hands. Infernum and Caelum seem to be the only two that survived intact.”

I stare at her. It feels like some part of what she’s telling me is important somehow but I can’t focus enough to really take it in.

“I think that’s enough for one night.” Olivia climbs to her feet and reaches down for my hand. “You need rest, Harrison.”

Sam stands, and between the two of them, they help me to my feet. My legs feel like jelly and I’m not going to lie, the room spins a bit. Exhaustion washes over me and I haven’t even got the energy to feel bad that I’m leaning so heavily on Sam. He wraps his arm around me to keep me steady as we cross the room and join the others.

“Harrison! Are you okay?” Tristan asks in concern.

“I’m okay,” I say quietly, really wishing for a bed to lie down on.

“We should get you to a hospital.”

“No need.” I shake my head, and another wave of dizziness causes me to sway again. Fortunately, Sam still has hold of me and tightens his grip to stop me from face-planting the floor. “Olivia healed me.”

“You did?” Tristan’s eyes widen. “You can do that?”

She shrugs. “I’m not as good at it as my great-aunt was, but I can manage the basics. Harrison will be fine, he just needs a few days’ rest.”