Page 46 of Of Magic and Murder

“Maybe I can convince you.”

Maybe he can stop flirting with me before I combust.

I turn it over, studying the worn leather cover. Garnet’s name is written inside, but nothing on the outside marks it as hers. If it hadn’t ended up mixed in with the library books when my spell tore everything off the shelves, I might never have noticed it.

Maybe Riordan is right. Maybe Garnet forgot it.

She did leave suddenly. Ash found her note on the circulation desk saying he was taking over the library, and when he called the coven house, Delilah told him Garnet had been planning to relocate for a while. A position opened in another coven’s spell archives, and she jumped at it.

It’s a witch’s journal. Of course that would interest me. I’d love to know what Garnet was working on before she left⁠—

The book flies open in my hands, pages rustling as though a windstorm was running through them. While I gape at it, Riordan growls under his breath, the two of us stunned until the sudden spurt of magic stops, leaving it open on a pair of pages.

Even if my magic’s never worked the way it was supposed to, I’m a born and trained witch. This book is obviously telling me something, and when I glance down at it, I instantly know what that is.

“Oh, Hecate,” I breathe out. Excitement rising up in me, I tap the page with my fingernail. “Do you know what this says?”

Riordan shakes his head. “Do I know what the obviously cursed book you’re holding says? No, Pen, and I repeat: you’re still holding it. You should put that down.”

“I can’t, Riordan. I have to read this. Look!” I twist it around, using my finger to underline a word that’s already been underlined by Garnet’s pen three times. “Lodestone,” I squeak. “According to Garnet’s notes, she thinks there’s an honest-to-Goddess lodestone buried in Moonburrow!”

Buzzing, I turn forward a couple of pages. There are dates in the margins. Names of old texts. References to historical records in multiple covens. There are maps, too. Loads of maps. One in particular is labeled so I know that it’s the current borders of Moonburrow, but there’s a similar shape with similar landmarks titled ‘Avalon’.

Avalon.

The legendary witch settlement that was the first to arrive in the new world before the witches who ran it vanished the same way as the lost colony of Roanoke did. Only, in the case of Avalon, there was a magical excuse for the end of their community. It simply was too powerful to exist, taking all of its secrets—and its artifacts—with it.

If Garnet’s notes can be believed, the supernatural town of Moonburrow was built three centuries later on the remains of Avalon.

And if that isn’t enough, she seems to think there’s a real lodestone here.

But if all that is true… then why did Garnet leave Moonburrow if she seems so interested in Avalon and its hidden artifacts? Where did she go? Why did she not bring this with her?

I don’t know, but if there is a lodestone here, I have to find it. Not for me, of course. No. I can’t imagine the kind of havoc I’d wreak with one of those. But if I gave it to Serena and the national coven council? That should be enough to protect every witch in America. More than that. If used properly, it can do amazing things.

After all, isn’t that what this investigation is about? Stopping a witch killer and making sure the witches in Moonburrow are safe?

With a lodestone, I can make sure we all are.

CHAPTER 13

ROLLING PINS ARE A WITCH’S BEST FRIEND

gus knows how to finds things.

gus also knows how to hide them…

— gus

It takes a lot of explaining for Riordan to understand that this is a good thing. I know I have a tendency to start using technical jargon when it comes to witchcraft, and though his eyes seem to cross a little, he listens intently to every word I say before reaching out, caressing the edge of my jaw with his fingers, and telling me that he’ll do whatever it takes to help me find the lodestone if that’s what I want.

Any witch worth her salt would love to get their hands on a true lodestone. The promise of power alone, and the history tied to it… yes, I want to find it. And, I realize with a start, there’s no one else I want with me when I go off in search of an ancient witch artifact that, like Morrigaine’s mirror, I won’t use… but, Hecate, do I want to at least hold it and feel the power thrumming off of it at least once.

And doesn’t that just go to show how quick your world can change?

A wolf. I’m willing to walk into the woods with a wolf.

Only he’s not just a wolf. He’s Riordan, and he means it when he says he’ll pin his chief deputy badge on to lead me around Moonburrow and help me pick out one ordinary-looking rock (that’s not as ordinary as it appears) that might be buried anywhere.