Page 19 of A Spark of Something (A Librarian’s Guide to Witchery #1)

O llie gently set the books he’d gathered onto the table that happened to sit midway in the Rare Books section. Noble doing the same with his stack, they both pulled a chair out and sat down.

Tugging on the cord of the green desk lamp, he ignored Red as the cat hopped onto the table and plopped down to continue glaring at Noble, murmuring to himself, “Where to start…”

Ollie eyed his pile, while Noble picked up the top book from his own stack and started to flip through it.

Wrinkling his nose, he supposed it didn’t really matter where he started. Grabbing the top book, which happened to be written by Jonas Brickley in 1901, and was titled Banishing Unwelcome Guests: Cleansings and More .

Flipping it open, he skipped past the introduction, straight to chapter one, and started reading aloud. “ Standard rules when cleansing your home. Be sure to conduct all aspects of cleansings while your husband is away, as some actions taken could lead to agitation, or may inconsiderately interrupt his quiet time away from work. ”

He couldn’t stop his face from twisting in disgust as he read the next line. “The day after the cleansing, assure your husband, by deeds or words, that he was not responsible for the spirits inside your home, and that you will do better in the future to make sure such actions are not necessary again. ”

Closing the book with a huff, he glanced at Noble and found the man looking amused. “Well, I bet he’s written some lovely books for women on how to be doormats for their almighty husbands.”

The man’s smile widened. “I imagine so.”

Pushing the book aside, he grabbed the next one from the pile. This one was much thinner than the first, and was called The Handy Banishing Book .

Flipping to chapter one, he once again read aloud. “Jump…over a large wooden spoon, with the handle facing towards the south, while throwing grave dirt. ” Ollie scoffed. “Nonsense—just unbelievable nonsense. How would that help? And if beyond belief the author is correct, they were not specific enough in their instructions! Like, what size spoon? How large are we talking about? What part am I jumping over? How old is the dirt supposed to be? Would dirt from a new grave work, or would it have to be from an older one?! Which way am I throwing this grave dirt?!”

“You’re sounding a bit like a skeptic, Ollie.” Noble chuckled, his tone teasing.

“That’s because I am!” he groaned. “I’ve always thought all this supernatural stuff was garbage… Heck, I’m still struggling to believe ghosts are real, and I’ve supposedly come face to face with four.”

“Yeah, I sort of figured that out during our talk about those diaries.”

Ollie giggled. “And here I thought I kept my doubts to a minimum.”

“The air quotes were a bit hard to miss. To be honest, I was slightly surprised, as I had assumed, based on how you dressed, that you’d likely believe in at least some of it.”

He frowned. How he dressed? “I can’t tell if that’s a…compliment or not.”

“A compliment, I swear.” Noble smirked. “Your clothes are very whimsical. I like them.”

“Oh…good,” Ollie replied with a nervous laugh.

Meow , Red said, the sound very monotone and somehow judgmental…and he would have sworn the cat had just rolled his eyes. But he could be mistaken as his little furry terror was now back to glaring at Noble.

“Red, you are being exceedingly rude, you know that?! You little pain in the butt,” he grumbled.

“Why did you name him Red?” Noble mused, before adding, “I’d think mittens would be a more fitting—” But the man was cut off by the loud hiss Red let out.

Ollie couldn’t help but giggle. “You just saw exactly why I didn’t. You see, I named him when I was three.” He frowned. “No, wait, that’s wrong. I named his father Red when I was three, and this—” He petted his cat. “—is technically Red Jr, who I named when I was sixteen, though he is getting up there in age now too. I did attempt to name them both Mittens, but he, like his father before him, made it abundantly clear that Mittens was not an option. So Red it ended up being. It was also my favorite color.” He giggled again. “Still is, I suppose.”

“Good to know.” Noble smiled.

He beamed before looking back down at the book in his hands, and after flipping through a few pages, he closed it with a sigh. “This one is a no, I think.” He set it aside and grabbed another.

“How about this?” Noble said softly, before reading from his book. “ The majority of ghosts remain tied to our world by a single thread of connection. Sadly, due to our inability to understand them, it can be hard to remove that connection, and therefore, them from our environment. But fear not, as while they may frighten us, rarely do they have the ability to touch or harm us .”

“Well…I do like the part about not harming.”

The man grunted. “There’s a caveat to that, it says. There are, however, those with high emotions that can sometimes build up enough energy to cause harm. It is rarer still that they are successful. But if they are, luckily, the time it takes them to do it is extensive, while their window of opportunity to cause harm once the energy is gathered is brief. ”

“That…I don’t like.” Ollie pouted, before slipping off his chair to stand. “But…hold your place while I go grab a notebook from the nearest research desk so I can write things down.”

As insane as things sounded, maybe some of it would be useful.

Noble’s brow rose. “Will you be fine walking off alone?”

“Yes, yes.” He laughed.

Maybe—hopefully, he thought with a grimace as he walked away.

His smile dropped the moment Ollie’s back was turned. Noble looked over to Red, meeting the familiar’s yellow gaze as he pushed aside the book that he knew held at least a little bit of useful information. Not all of it was accurate, but he knew there was enough for it to be of some help to Ollie. The same could be said for the other books he’d grabbed.

No longer glaring, the cat did a big stretch. His eyes never left him as he arched his back, before Red slowly and softly said, “Whatever game you are playing, hunter, I assure you, it stops now.” The cat then plopped back down and relaxed.

“No game,” he stated, keeping his voice low, just as Red had.

The familiar laughed. “Do you take me for a fool?”

“No, but you are wrong. I have…no intention of hurting him.”

“Like I’d let you.”

The cat didn’t believe him, but it was the truth—which was shocking to him as well.

Why had he come here? To protect Ollie? That was laughable, yet at the same time, this animal saying he could protect him was just as funny, even more so in fact.

“I could have earlier. He was in my home. In my bed. He doesn’t…” Noble let out a dark chuckle. “He doesn’t know anything ! It would have been almost too easy. Some familiar you are. You left him helpless .”

Red’s hackles rose, and the cat let out a deep hiss. Yet, Noble felt nothing. Just angry. This being, who should be protecting Ollie, had done nothing, besides allowing him to run right into a witch hunter’s arms.

“Based on him having no family left alive, I can’t say I find your threat worrying. I’ve been coming here for a year, Red ! You knew what I was before I ever even came close to finding out about him. What were you thinking, letting me come and go freely, letting me get near to him?!”

If I had been someone else … He blanched at the thought.

Red glared for a few moments, before grinding out, in a voice laced with heavy emotions, “Do not speak on things you know nothing about.”

“I’m not here to hurt him. Nor do I want to, but?—”

“Then leave, and never come back.”

“I can’t…”

“Why not?”

“A threat is coming.” He meant for it to be a lie, yet as he said the words, he realized it most likely wasn’t one. Mikael would be a threat. And if they were still watching… What if Ollie was who they were meant to go after?

He cleared his throat. “I can’t yet… Because of that, and…I…”

Noble winced, rubbing his face. He, what? Wanted to get to know Ollie? Date him? The first, maybe. The second…impossible. At least, not for long. Not with what he was, and what he had done. But maybe…for a little while…he could be in Ollie’s life.

God…Noble couldn’t be what he was anymore. It wasn’t just because of Ollie…it was everything. The lies he’d uncovered… The truths he now knew. Soul already damned or not, he couldn’t continue blindly killing everyone the organization put a target on. He couldn’t.

I quit. I quit…I refuse to do this anymore! Noble’s eyes widened as he had the thought.

He’d danced around it for so long—the choice. Yet just thinking it now, it felt so…right. It felt like part of the weight was already being lifted—not that he deserved that.

What Noble deserved was to be crushed under the weight of his guilt, and his own actions…but…he didn’t want to kill innocent people anymore. Even the ones who deserved it didn’t make up for the lives he’d taken from the ones who didn’t.

Noble licked his dry lips. He wouldn’t kill for them any longer.

“Interesting,” Red whispered.

He met the familiar’s yellow eyes, his own widening, not only at them now glowing, but at what he saw in them. Knowing—Red was looking at him as if he knew what Noble had just thought. And if that were true, then he had been wrong in thinking that the familiar wasn’t a threat.

“Very interesting,” the cat repeated as his eyes went back to normal. “A hunter who no longer wishes to hunt.”

“Stay out of my head,” Noble growled threateningly, even though he now knew the familiar would not be an easy target.

“You should thank me that I didn’t.” Red chuckled. “I’ll leave you alone, for now, hunter . Besides…he’ll eventually find out. About you, about what you did. And when he does…” The cat smiled, not bothering to finish, as they both knew what would happen without it being said.

Once Ollie found out who he really was, the little witch would want Noble to stay as far away from him as possible.

Still, he really hadn’t needed the cat to point it out. “Mittens,” he sneered.

Red let out a loud hiss, just as Ollie returned with a notebook hugged to his chest, and a pencil in his left hand.

“RED! Stop that!” Ollie cried.

The little witch sent a glare the cat’s way, before sighing and looking at him as he sat, saying, “I’m so sorry about him, Noble. I’m also sorry that it took me so long. Apparently, Hannah and Eashaa, the librarians who are usually on this floor, decided to use up their supply of notebooks and not replace them. Though I suppose it could have been one of the many assistants and aids, but either way, I ended up having to run to the supply closet and…refill.”

Noble forced a smile. “Don’t worry about it, you didn’t take that long, and I’ve sort of gotten used to your grumpy cat.”

“Right, now, where were we?” Ollie chimed.