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Both of us cleaned up with a few quick spells and got dressed again. It wasn’t enough. I wanted more of her—all of her. I had to resist, though. The spell that was keeping her from me was my idea, but I couldn’t go back on it.
“I’ve never done that before,” she said, pushing her hair out of her face.
“I haven’t, either.” I pulled out a chair for her at the open table, and she sat. “But it was a good break, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah, it was. At least it took some pressure off the valve.” She smiled and looked back at the books. “How do you want to do this?”
“Divide and conquer?” I looked around the stacks for the bookmarks I’d requested as well. “We can just go stack by stack. They’re arranged by topic, so all the books in one stack are related to each other or reference each other.”
Arden took a deep breath and let it out. “I guess that sounds good. I can’t think of another way to tackle it.”
I grabbed a stack of books for her and a stack for myself. We dove in, skimming through the table of contents and thumbing through pages.
It wasn’t riveting reading. Genealogies, historical records written in the driest way possible, journals with nothing interesting in them. I sighed, going through my next stack.
We only spoke a few words every once in a while if one of us seemed to be excited about something. But usually, it was a false lead. I put aside a few books to come back to later, though none of them were strong leads.
After an hour and a half, Arden slammed the cover of a book shut and groaned.
“None of this is relevant,” she said. “Her last name is mentioned, then I go to where it was referenced, then I come up with a dead end. I literally have nothing!”
I sat back in my seat and ran both of my hands through my hair. “I haven’t come up with much more than that, either. It’s the same deal—mentions, and a sentence or two, but nothing substantial.”
Arden leaned forward, resting her head on her folded elbows for a moment. She gathered herself and sat up, rolling her shoulders to stretch.
“I’m drained, honestly,” she admitted. “But I want to go through that stack of two books over there. Want to split it?”
She pointed to the smallest stack. I got up and grabbed them for us. One was very old. Magic held it together. I gave Arden the newer one and sat down with the old one. She flipped her book open with ease, but I tried with mine, and it refused to open.
“Sealed,” I murmured.
I rested my hands on the book’s cover and closed my eyes, pushing magic through me to undo the protection spells. I’d done it countless times, but the book didn’t open. I frowned.
“What’s up?” Arden asked.
“This book is sealed, but I can’t open it.” I tried again. Still, nothing. “This shouldn’t be possible. I have access to everything.”
“Why wouldn’t you be able to open it?”
“I don’t know. Someone put a spell on it, probably one that requires a certain person to undo it. Or maybe a potion, I don’t know. Books like that are rare.” I smoothed my hand over the plain cover. It was probably a journal of some kind.
“Can I give it a shot?” Arden held her hand out. “I’m pretty handy with cracking spells.”
I gave it to her. “Sure, I guess.”
She did the same thing I did, putting her hands to the book’s cover and closing her eyes. She frowned, almost as if she were in pain. The book audibly popped, the magic around it dimming. Arden looked at me, wide-eyed.
“Maybe this is a good sign?” she asked.
She tentatively opened the cover, as if the book was going to hurt her. Who knew? Maybe it was capable of causing harm, since whoever had enchanted it didn’t want anyone getting in. Besides her, apparently.
“This might be it,” she said, running her finger down the page. “It’s a history book, not a journal.”
“Then why didn’t it have a cover?”
“Don’t know. But it’s about this family, the Aridunns. Maybe they’re connected? Like Hardy was my mother’s married name?” She flipped through the pages until she landed on one and gasped.
“What is it?” I reached over to slide the book between the two of us, but the moment I did, everything on the page vanished.
