Page 23 of A Spark of Something (A Librarian’s Guide to Witchery #1)

“ J ahla!” Ollie cried out. He tried to grab hold of her when she started to drop, but let out a squawk as he was pulled down with her, his noodle arms not strong enough. He twisted while he fell, barely managing to not fall on top of her.

Wincing, Ollie sat up with a groan and eyed her, before pushing up his glasses and rubbing his face. Well, at least I’m not the only one fainting around here, he thought with a sigh.

His gaze flicked to Red, who sat there looking uninterested. He glared, but said nothing to…it?

Shaking his head, Ollie scooted closer to Jahla and gently patted her cheek. “Jahla?”

On hearing her name, her eyes fluttered open slowly, before suddenly snapping open wide as she sat up and sputtered shrilly, “Y-your cat talks!” She shook her head. “No…no, that’s…not right. DREAM! This has to be a dream! Yes!” She smiled. “A dream. Just a dream.”

He winced, grimacing when she abruptly slapped her own face. “Oh…that sounded like it hurt.”

“Ow…” she whimpered. “Oh, no. It’s… It’s not a dream.”

He sniffled sadly. “Yeah.”

“Nope…not a dream,” Red said with a sigh.

“You… You, shut up, whatever you are!” Jahla shrieked, glaring at the not-cat for a brief moment, before turning to him, looking all teary-eyed. “Oh, Ollie, what is going on?!”

He grabbed her hand, slowly helping her to her feet. “I really wish I knew…”

“You would know if you had kept looking through the book,” Red annoyingly commented.

“Ah, yes. Because my CAT talking to me would so make me want to keep looking through the GLOWING book that my CAT guided me to. Such a brilliant and safe idea! Surely that is what I should have done!” With a hard sniff, he wiped the tears from his eyes, finally moving past the panic stage into the angry one.

“Where…is this glowing book?” Jahla asked, before nibbling her bottom lip and saying hesitantly, “I mean, Ollie, your cat is talking, so at this point…maybe a glowing book would help?”

He stared at her, baffled. “How could a glowing book possibly help? What if he’s—” He pointed at Red. “—a demon?!”

“You don’t believe in demons,” she pointed out unhelpfully.

“Well, two days ago, I didn’t believe in ghosts, let alone talking cats, and you can see how well that is going for me!”

Jahla stared at him, her eyes slowly getting wider.

“What?!” Ollie rasped. “Is the ghost here?!” He quickly looked around, frowning when he found nothing.

“Oh, God, if you aren’t lying about the talking cat, then that means… NOPE!” Jahla shook her head. “I’m leaving. Leaving. My black ass is out of here! I can’t believe I even asked about a GLOWING book, let alone suggest we CHECK IT OUT!?” She shook her head again. “I will not become one of those dumb people who die in a horror movie because they followed their pale ass white friends to their deaths!”

Ollie grabbed onto her arm as she started to leave. “WAIT! WAIT! DON’T LEAVE ME HERE ALONE! Friends are supposed to stick together!” He was dragged a few feet before she stopped.

“Ollie, don’t do this to me,” she cried dramatically. “I don’t want to die!”

They both froze when they heard a loud, purr-ish-like sigh.

“You both are being…very dramatic.”

They turned as one to glare down at the not-cat. “Red, you know what?! You can fuck right off!” Ollie huffed, swearing loudly, even though he hated the word. “For years… You’ve been with me for YEARS, and yet, not a single peep until last night! What kept you silent?! Cat got your tongue?!”

Jahla snorted. “Proud of you for saying fuck, but that last part was bad.”

“It’s a well-used phrase, Jahla!” he whined. “Anyway, what’s your excuse, Red? Or whatever your name is! Like, you made me think that I was losing my mind!”

He sort of still thought that, but he was feeling a little better now that someone else had also heard his cat talk.

Red rolled his eyes. “Just follow me. The ghost here won’t harm either of you. And neither will I, nor the book, for that matter. As for your sanity…I’m afraid there was no saving that to begin with, for either of you.”

“Your cat’s a dick, Ollie,” Jahla mused.

“Yeah,” he sighed, before slowly giving her a sweet smile that had the woman instantly looking at him with suspicion. “Please, come with me.”

“Hell no!” she snapped without hesitation.

“Oh, come on, Jahla. Don’t make me go alone,” he whimpered, trying to look and sound extra pathetic.

“UGH!” Jahla groaned. “FINE! But I want a raise!”

“Done!” He beamed. “Lead on, demon cat.”

“Not a demon,” Red grumbled, but he started to wander back.

“Ugh…you gave in too quickly.” She rubbed her face, groaning again as she followed hesitantly behind him. “Hell, I gave in way too quickly!”

Jahla continued to complain as they trailed behind his not-cat, back to the room he’d fled from last night. Ollie couldn’t help but eye Red suspiciously.

When he entered the back left room, he came to a sudden stop. Jahla ran into him as he stared wide-eyed at the shelves.

“What?!” she gasped, before saying, “Well, that is a glowing book.”

It was still glowing, but the book wasn’t where he’d left it. The red leather volume was back on the shelf…and the spine… He could read it this time. Instead of some unknown language, written clearly in English was the title, A Librarian’s Guide to Witchery…

“Why are you looking at it like you’ve never seen it before?!”

“I…I had pulled it out…and well, before…I could have sworn… I mean…I swear, when I saw it before, I couldn’t even read the spine. It was in some sort of symbolistic language.”

Jahla looked from him to the book and back, seeming oddly confused. But he supposed that made two of them.

Taking a deep breath, Ollie walked over to the bookcase and pulled the book out. But jumped back with a squeak when the space on the shelf disappeared before his eyes, books now filling where it had once been.

“Oh, God!” Jahla cried, rushing out of the room. “Lord Almighty, oh, sweet baby Jesus, this fucking bullshit is not good for my atheist ass!” She continued to babble in the hallway.

It weirdly sounded as if she was jumping around, but eventually, her fear-filled words cut off and she began to peek in the doorway, huffing after a moment of silence. “Well?! Are you going to open it or not?!”

He cleared his throat. “Yeah, I’m going to open it.”

Eyeing the book, Ollie slowly approached the table. Once again, it felt warm in his hands, but this time, there was also this strange buzzing sensation that had started to spread through him on picking it up.

He set the book down. Ollie jumped back when Red leaped onto the table. And then suddenly the book slammed open on its own, the pages flipping rapidly while the light grew brighter. It became so bright that he had to shield his eyes as he listened to the fluttering continue.

“What the hell!?” Jahla yelped.

He didn’t answer her, but he slowly dropped his hand when the glow lessened. Blinking rapidly, with spots floating in his vision, Ollie swallowed nervously as he once again moved closer. What he found written on the page was impossible, yet…it was there.

Ollie rubbed his eyes, lifting his glasses up and down, yet no matter how he looked at it…it hadn’t changed.

With how far the book had flipped open, one would assume it would be on a random page, yet it said chapter one at the top. But worse than that oddity was that the chapter was titled: Librarian Oliver’s First Day as a Witch . Which was…impossible… No…improbable…

He rubbed his eyes again, letting out a fearful yelp on finding that the text had changed. Chapter One: Oliver the Librarian’s Stubborn Refusal of His Witch Heritage.

Ollie went to run his hand over the words, so sure that something must be off with the page…but as his fingers came into contact, he cried out, dropping to his knees as what felt like a bolt of electricity painfully surged through his body.

“Ollie!” Jahla shouted, his friend rushing to his side.

Shaking his head, a loud ringing sound echoed in his ears as his skin buzzed even worse than before.

“What…what happened?” she asked.

“I…I don’t know,” Ollie rasped while she helped him to his feet.

Shaking his head again, his vision swayed once more before righting itself. He looked towards the book again, his eyes widening on finding the glow was gone, and the buzzing oddly stopped with the realization.

Turning to Red, a surge of confusion and anger bubbled up inside him. “What the hell is going on?! ”

Noble quickly scrolled through the news article, frowning deeply as he read it aloud. “ Two generations of the local philanthropist Cross family have died after their vehicle entered a ravine Saturday night, in a suspected hit and run. Verrill and Ruby Cross had no other children, aside from their son, Cassity. Cassity and Amelia Cross are survived by their infant son. ” He scoffed. “Impossible.”

Noble rubbed his mouth. With how strong a witch Oliver would be, or was, based on the glow of the Seers amulet…there was no way a car crash would have killed any of them. Though, he supposed, two of them may not have been witches.

He didn’t know. But what he did know was that the organization didn’t kill children. Noble let out a harsh laugh. Or maybe they did… Maybe they just hadn’t tasked him to do it, knowing he would never agree to something like that.

What Noble did know for sure was that they would keep an eye on the surviving children of those they killed to make sure they weren’t witches.

He let out another bitter laugh. “Yeah, we watched to make sure we could kill them before they got strong.”

Fucking hell, how had he remained blind for so long? Scrolling back up to the top of the article, he stopped at the date, smiling as he read it. Ollie was thirty…

“Oh, thank fuck.”

That was… That was… Noble’s smile dropped.

That was beyond what was even considered a late bloomer magic-wise… It was unheard of for anyone to develop an affinity to any of the arcane past the age of twenty-five, not unless they already had a connection.

But maybe it wasn’t a natural delay? Maybe someone had purposely stopped his powers from manifesting. Whatever it was…if the organization had been watching…they wouldn’t be anymore.

Noble sagged in his chair with a relieved sigh. They likely would have stopped the year he turned twenty-six. Ollie was safe then, right? At least, for now. Unless…Noble somehow drew attention to him.

Fuck, he should stay away. And he would. Noble would stay away, when the time came. Just a little bit longer—he would stay in his life a little longer, and then let him go.

Noble glanced at the newspaper he’d been reading before booting up his laptop, once again eyeing the front-page article. A few memories couldn’t hurt. He’d make a few more and then…leave…