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We don’t actually have to mention or even show him the entire the library, she said. The three spells books are sitting on the coffee table upstairs. He won’t see the others—they’re either in my room or in the storage unit.
“I get the feeling you two are having a whole conversation without me,” Monty said.
“That’s because we are.” My tone was bland. “But the upshot is, we might have a couple of books that could help our search.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Really?”
I smiled at the doubt in his voice. “Do you remember Belle’s gran?”
“No—should I?”
“Hell, yes.” Belle’s tone was indignant. “She was a rather famous cataloger, and not only had a huge library of all things supernatural, but a rather large collection of spell books.”
“If that were the case, why isn’t her collection in the national library?” he asked. “It should be, if it was that important.”
Belle shrugged. “I’m actually not sure why it was never gifted to the national library or even where the vast majority of her books went, but Mom did give me a couple of her old spell books on my thirteenth birthday. I still have them upstairs.”
Monty frowned. “And you think we’ll find something in one of them?”
“Look at the spells surrounding this place,” I said. “You commented on our unconventional mode of magic—where do you think we learned it, given we both left school so early?”
“We should go upstairs and start reading, then.”
He immediately picked up his coffee and strode for the stairs. We scrambled after him.
“Wow,” he commented. “Not a whole lot of room up here, is there?”
“No, and you can either sit on the floor or drag one of the chairs in from the balcony outside.”
He gave me the look. “I hope you’re not expecting me to sleep on the floor, because I’m telling you now, it ain’t going to happen.”
I grinned. “Don’t worry, I’m well aware you’re far too soft to be sleeping rough. The sofa pulls out into a double bed.”
He gave the sofa a somewhat dubious look, then walked over to the coffee table and picked up the first of the three leather-bound books sitting there.
“Wow.” He turned the book over almost reverently. “These really are old.”
“Yes, so I’ll ask you to be careful with them when you’re reading,” Belle said.
He nodded, grabbed a couple of cushions from the sofa, and then propped on the floor. Belle and I grabbed a book each, then plopped down on the sofa and began reading.
It was a long and rather unfruitful night.
Eventually, Monty snapped his book shut and yawned hugely. “The spells in here are quite fascinating, but in this one, at least, there doesn’t appear to be anything resembling a heat or spirit tracker.”
“Ditto, but that doesn’t mean it’s not possible to make one up.”
He frowned again. “It’s never wise to be fiddling with the nature of spells. It can lead to unforeseen consequences.”
“It might also lead to the soucouyant.” I glanced at him. “What have we got to lose?”
“You mean other than our lives?”
“A heat-seeking spell isn’t likely to backfire badly enough to kill us,” I bit back.
Monty’s been in cataloguing for a very long time, Belle said. This is all very new to him, and we need to give him time to adjust.
Except we don’t have time, Belle. And neither did Monty.
