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They were all silent for a moment and Cassie took the time to breathe and look around. The sky was slowly turning a deeper blue in the distance as night bloomed into day. All around them they could hear the sounds of the city waking up: delivery trucks and people talking and the clatter of cups and saucers from inside the café. It was all absurd, she thought. Ten minutes earlier she had been fleeing from violence and now she was enjoying a coffee and a croissant an ocean away. This is what the Book of Doors should be, she thought, travel and wonder and delight, not violent men throwing furniture around.
“I want to help you both,” Drummond said. “But I know it’s a lot. All that has just happened. What do I need to do so that you trust me? So that you let me help you?”
Cassie considered the question. It was a cold morning, but she was wearing her old greatcoat, and her woolen scarf wrapped around her neck, and she felt warm and cozy in the chair, with the coffee in her stomach and the taste of the croissant on her lips. She asked herself how she could feel cozy so soon after what she had just experienced, but she had no answer.
“You need to answer some questions,” Cassie said.
“What questions?” Drummond asked. “What do you want to know?”
“The books,” Cassie said. “Tell us about the books. What are they?”
“They’re books,” Drummond said, shrugging loosely. He took a sip of coffee and sucked his teeth. “We don’t know what they are or where they came from. But people have known about them for a hundred years,maybe. They were myths and mysteries first, stories about people who could do unusual and incredible things, but eventually people realized it was the books. One book first and then another. And then over the course of the last century people began to understand that these books existed, that they could do things.”
“But whatarethey?” Izzy pressed. “And don’t say ‘they’re books.’”
“They are...” Drummond thought for a moment, trying to find the right words, his eyes rolling up to the sky. “They’re magic,” he said. He smiled as if embarrassed, his eyes sparkling, and in that instant, he was again handsome to Cassie. “I know how that sounds.”
“Magic,” Cassie said.
“I don’t like the word,” Drummond said. “It makes me think of bad variety acts. But there isn’t a better way to describe it. Each book grants whoever possesses it an ability, a power. Whatever you want to call it.”
“How many books are there?” Cassie asked.
Drummond shrugged. “Who knows? Some have been found, but there are probably others out there. There are rumors and stories about other books. Some of these stories will be complete flights of fancy, some will be based on truth. Like the Book of Doors. It’s one of the books that has always been spoken about, but until now nobody seems to have ever actually proved it existed.”
Cassie nodded, absorbing that and very aware of the weight of the Book of Doors in her pocket.
“Where did you get it?” Drummond asked.
“Hey, we’re asking the questions,” Izzy replied.
“Tell me about the book hunters and that man in the deli,” Cassie said, ignoring his question.
“What can I say?” Drummond wondered. “The books are extraordinary items, in every sense of that word. People who know about them will pay a lot to possess them. The books change hands for fortunes. Or through bloodshed. Some people, the wrong kind of people, want them for the wrong kind of reasons.”
“You said ‘people who know about the books,’” Izzy said. “So only a few people know about them? How come it’s not more widely known? This is crazy stuff. Magic is real and nobody knows?”
“You’ve answered your own question,” Drummond said. “Itiscrazy stuff. It’s magic. Those who know about it want it kept secret. It’s power. They suppress all knowledge to keep the power for themselves.”
Izzy gave Cassie a knowing look. “I told you,” she said. “No wonder it didn’t show up on Google. It’s all being suppressed.”
“What did you google?” Drummond asked, tilting his head to the side.
“I googled the book,” Izzy said. “The Book of Doors. And you know what? There were no results. No hits at all.”
Drummond pursed his lips thoughtfully for a moment.
“What?” Cassie asked, reading concern in his expression.
He hesitated to answer, and Cassie thought in that moment that he was trying to protect them. He was a man debating whether or not to reveal a worrying truth.
“What?” she pressed.
“It means people will know,” Drummond said. “People will be looking for you now. They’ll have traced your searches. They suppress all knowledge of the books. But they all watch for any signs that someone knows. When you googled ‘Book of Doors,’ flags would have gone up all over the world.”
Cassie glanced at Izzy and saw the shock dawning on her face. “They can track me from internet searches?”
Drummond nodded. “Yes. I’m sorry. They have ways of finding you. Law enforcement could track you down, so these people definitely can. They are motivated and wealthy.”
