Page 20 of A Spark of Something (A Librarian’s Guide to Witchery #1)

O llie smiled shyly at Noble as he leaned against the open library door, his hand on the knob. The sun had set hours ago, and lamps were now lighting up the parking lot.

“Thank you for staying for so long.”

“No problem,” Noble rumbled. He hesitated for a moment, before leaning down and kissing him on the cheek. “Goodnight.”

“Ni-night,” he sputtered, his face heating. He barely held back his happy sigh as he watched the man leave. When Noble’s truck pulled out of the parking lot, he slowly shuffled back into the library.

The minute the door was closed behind him, he let out a happy giggle and did a slightly uncoordinated dance. “A man may like me!”

Clearing his throat, he shook his head. “Calm, I will be calm about this, and not weird.”

Looking up into the library, his expression tensed as his apprehension grew the longer he stared.

“No!” Ollie gasped. “I will not be afraid. I don’t believe in ghosts,” he said firmly to himself. “I saw ghosts, but I don’t believe in them.” He snorted. “Look at me…denying someone’s existence… Not a cute look.”

It was fine. He was fine. Everything would be fine. Even if ghosts…could be real. Sighing heavily, Ollie started up the steps, frowning on spotting Red sitting at the top, waiting for him.

“Red, you were very bad today, you know that?” he chastised. “Like, I know you love me, but come on, this is my chance. And considering the man doesn’t seem to mind that I’m going crazy, it may be my only chance. Also, like, have you seen him?!”

Meow.

“You know what, I’m taking that as an apology, and as you saying that you will now support my budding romance with Noble,” Ollie said in full delusion on reaching the top.

When Red started to paw at his pants leg, he bent down to pick him up, but the cat avoided his hands each time he tried, while still managing to paw at him.

He giggled. “What do you want, you silly cat?”

Red started walking away, but then stopped to look back.

Ollie frowned. “I…really hope you aren’t trying to take me to the desecrated corpse of a mouse again. Not to sound unappreciative, but your presents kind of suck, Red. Dead things aren’t my thing.”

They really weren’t…and last time the cat had taken him to one, all that had been left was a disembodied head and tail. He knew where the rest of the body was, but really didn’t want to THINK about where it had gone.

Meow, Red said, before he slowly started to walk again. The cat kept looking back before stopping near the foot of the stairs to the second floor and just staring, waiting…

“Fine!” He sighed. Quickly flicking off the lights above the circulation desk, he followed his cat, who headed up the stairs as soon as he reached them.

Red took him all the way up to the third floor, stopping in front of the locked doors of the Rare Books section, where he sat and looked up expectantly at him.

“Really?! You left a body in there?! Couldn’t you have done it in a place without expensive books?” Ollie complained, as he sorted through his keys and found the one for the doors. Unlocking it, he waved the cat on with a huff.

He followed Red inside. The cat weaved around the shelves, and on reaching the far back, Red sped off into the small hallway, which held the only separate rooms in that section.

Walking into the hall, he frowned on finding the double doors to the room on the right closed, when they hadn’t been earlier, and shouldn’t be now. The room off to the left, however, while one door was closed, the other was cracked open, but not enough to see inside.

Ugh—the cat had to pick the one room with carpet…

“Red?” he called out. Slowly walking over, he pushed the door the rest of the way open and stepped in.

As he entered the small room, he eyed the bookshelf directly across from him, his gaze catching on a thick red volume in the middle of it. Appearing to be bound in red leather, the clearly handwritten words on the three-inch-thick spine was… Well, the language wasn’t one he knew, and the letters were more symbols than anything.

Tall and thick…he could tell the book was old. While the spine looked unfrayed, with no signs of ageing, everything in him was screaming that it was much older than any of the books on these shelves should be. And it was not one he had ever seen before. Yet, he had been in this room too many times to count. There was no way he wouldn’t have noticed it before now.

But that oddity wasn’t what had him stopping to stare. What had him stopping, what had his heart racing…was the dim yellow glow that seemed to emanate from the volume.

Because the overhead lights on the third floor, that he had yet to turn off, didn’t reach these two back rooms, the glowing book was the only bit of light in the area. His heart pounding away, Ollie’s eyes never left the book as he blindly reached over and flicked on the overhead light. His stomach did a nervous little flip when he spotted Red sitting right underneath the book, looking up at it.

His gaze flicked back to it as he slowly approached. More than fear, curiosity started to fill him. “How…on earth is it glowing? Perhaps…some sort of fungus?” Which would be a whole new worry.

More importantly, how had it gotten there? A smile spread across his lips, but he hesitated. It was old…and the glow could be a warning sign that it was dangerous to touch…yet…

After hesitating for a second more, Ollie carefully pulled the book from the shelf, and gently set it on the table in the room. The glow hadn’t lessened any, but once it was on the desk, he saw that a silk bookmark hung out of the bottom of the book. Oddly, when he touched it, the cover felt warm. Almost as if it was heating under his fingers, but he was, for some reason, sure that it wasn’t.

The book looked almost brand new, yet he just knew it wasn’t, even though the clear raised bands on the spine could just mean a skilled binder. His smile widened as Red jumped onto the table to look too.

“Well, I can see why you wanted to show me this, Red. Very worth investigating. And…odd…” Ollie mused with a hesitant laugh.

Feeling a thrill of excitement, Ollie fought back his urge to wash his hands, and carefully opened the volume. The strange glow remained. And flipping the pages over, he found the same unreadable, handwritten symbolistic language inside as he had on the spine and cover.

Tsking, he flipped another page. “Where, oh where, did you come from? And…what are you hiding inside…?”

Feeling eyes on him, Ollie glanced over, finding himself almost falling into Red’s yellow gaze. The look his cat was giving him sent a shiver running down his spine. Too intelligent… Red’s eyes were too deep…

“R-Red…what’s…”

“It is time, Oliver Wisteria Cross. Time to claim your birthright. Tim?—”

Whatever else the creature meant to say was lost as the world around him went dark.