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"Most days. I don't like how crowded the other libraries get." He shudders, as if thinking about it is enough to repulse him.
"Have you ever been caught?"
He shakes his head. "I came close once, when I was leaving. I'm more careful about it now and make sure I time leaving and arriving while everyone is in class. Or when others are likely to be at dinner."
"Smart." I can see how that helps him remain undiscovered. "So, what is it we came here to find, and does it help?" I don't want to be rude, but I definitely do want to get to the point. There's really no point pretending we're here for anything else.
"I was in class the other day, and my professor mentioned a woman from the sixteenth century who came to Grimalkin and then discovered she couldn't use her magic. She was called Madeline Blackburn, if it rings a bell for you?"
"No." I can safely say I've never heard the name before in my life.
"Anyway, I recognised the name, but couldn't work out where. Then it hit me, it was in one of the old doctor's notebooks I'd read after finding them here. It's taken me a couple of days to find her, but here she is." He turns one of the open books around and points out where the woman's name is.
"Why would they keep doctors' notebooks here and not in one of the other libraries?" I ask, scanning the page and trying to make sense of what I'm reading. It doesn't sound like she conjured kittens when she tried to do magic, but the rest of what she went through sounds eerily familiar.
"Some of these are the original copies, I believe. They don't want them falling into the wrong hands. For others, I think it's a matter of subject."
I cock my head to the side, wondering what he's talking about.
"Look at the treatment," he suggests.
My eyes flick to the bottom of the page. "None of the normal courses of action have helped Madeline Blackburn regain use of her magic, I suggest we perform an Unleashing," I read from the journal. "What's an Unleashing?" I ask, looking up at him and meeting his eyes.
"That's what I didn't know. And I couldn't find anything in any of the rest of that journal that refers to it. Or any of the other sixteen this doctor wrote in his life. It wasn't until I thought to look up if he'd written anything else that I worked it out." He gives me a triumphant smile.
"And..." I prompt. While I'm happy to give him his moment of pride, I can't stand the suspense and need to know what he's uncovered.
"There is another book he wrote. This one." He taps the cover of the green book he'd shown me pictures of.
"Is there something about the Unleashing in there?" I ask.
"There's lots about it in here. And I think it might work. There's only one problem..."
"And that is?"
"It's black magic, Mona. Which means it's illegal."
I sigh and lean back in my chair. "Well, that's that then. I'll just resign myself to not being able to use magic." There's a twinge in my gut ever as I say it. I don't want that to be my life, but if it has to be, then so be it.
"I think it depends how you feel about it. No one actually gets hurt during this one."
"But in other black magic, they do?" I ask.
He nods. "I've only flicked through this book, but there's a lot of information about some very dark stuff."
"Which means it never leaves this room."
"No, it does not. But that doesn't mean we can't take pictures of the pages we want."
I smile weakly at him. "Thank you for looking, but I don't think there's any point. If it's black mag
ic, we can't do it. We should just put the book back and pretend we never uncovered it."
Disappointment flickers over his face. I don't think it's because he particularly wants to do black magic though. I think it's more because of his academic curiosity. He wants to see what the Unleashing would do, and if it would work.
"That's probably just as well. We'd need three more people to do it," he admits.
"Well, we're screwed. I don't think there are even three people who like me enough to put their lives at risk doing black magic." If I'm honest, the only person I think I can count on is Daphne, and even she'll think twice about doing something that could damage her future career. Which means I can't ask this of her, no matter how much I may want to unlock my powers again.
