Page 33 of A Spark of Something (A Librarian’s Guide to Witchery #1)

O llie’s head was giving his heart a run for its money with how hard it was throbbing, as he slowly opened the door at the bottom of the stairway up to his living quarters.

Jahla stared at him quietly for a moment, her eyes narrowing. “What in the HELL did Noble do?! You look worse than yesterday!”

He scoffed. “Gee, thanks for the compliment. And Noble didn’t do anything. He is perfect. This is just the result of my life imploding further due to me being a witch. Yeah, I said it, I’m a witch. Lucky fucking me!”

She winced. “7am and already the F-word is being thrown around. What happened?”

“Oh, besides my entire life being a lie? From who I thought my cat was, to not even knowing who my godfather is. To realizing my parents and paternal grandparents were in fact not victims of a hit and run, but were actually murdered by bloodthirsty witch hunters, who are likely out there right now, wanting me dead?”

“Ahh…” Jahla hesitated before holding up a bag and a drinks holder. “I brought sugar and caffeine.”

Ollie eyed the Coffee Time Bake Shop bag. “Please tell me that’s full of apple cider donuts.”

“It is!” She chuckled.

“Thank everything!” he groaned. “Come in.”

He stepped back, letting her go up the stairs before him. Closing the door, he entered his home behind Jahla. They found Red sitting on the kitchen table, his grimoire gone from where it had been moments ago.

“Book deciding to hide?” Ollie asked snidely as he sat down. Jahla took the seat across from him.

The cat shrugged, which was such an unnerving thing to watch a cat do. “It does what it wants.”

“How nice for it that it can.”

Jahla groaned. “Yeah, that is still so very weird.” She opened the bag and held it out for him.

He pulled out two donuts. Breaking one in half for Red, he set it on a napkin, before starting to munch on his own. After placing one of the cups in front of him, Jahla started to eat as well.

As Red ate, he started making the cute little eating noises he always did. “I’m still miffed at you, but you are such a noisy, yet adorable eater, Red.”

The noise stopped as the cat looked over at him. “Thank you.” The noise started again instantly after that.

“Yep, so very weird.” Jahla sighed. “So, now what?”

Ollie quickly explained what he now knew about the ghost in his library, and what had followed that conversation.

“I’m so sorry, Ollie,” she said softly.

“Yeah, I am too.” He looked to Red, who had finished scarfing down both halves of his donut. He may not completely be a cat, but he was obviously still enough of one that he likely shouldn’t give him access to an endless supply of treats. “Red, can you see Annabel too?”

“I can, but that’s because I’m your familiar.”

“She wants to help me. Do you think it would be a good idea if I let her?”

Red nodded. “It would only benefit you if you did. I will say, she hasn’t lied to you so far.”

“What about the witch hunters?” Jahla asked.

Ollie sighed. “I don’t know.” He gnawed on his bottom lip, eyeing her pensively before saying, “But what I do know is that you should probably stop getting involved, Jahla.”

She jerked up straight in her seat. “What?! I?—”

“It’s dangerous. Being close to me is dangerous. It would be better?—”

“Screw that!” Jahla snapped. “I already made the dumb choice of stepping onto this crazy train, so I might as well keep going.”

“Jahla…” He swallowed hard. “My parents were murdered. There are likely people watching me even now.”

He looked at Red when the cat cleared his throat. “They likely aren’t anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s part of the reason Rowden bespelled me to silence. When you were a child, he bound your powers, which were already manifesting in infancy. Rowden was worried that me speaking would lead to them triggering sooner, as it had happened before. So he bound your magic for long enough that anyone watching would rightly assume, by most accounts, that the bloodline skipped you.”

His heart fluttered in hope as he had a thought. “C-could he bind them again?”

He drooped in his seat when Red shook his head. “No, powers such as yours cannot be bound forever. They are too strong, too unyielding. He was lucky he managed to do so for as long as he had, but then, Rowden Andraya Croft is no ordinary witch.”

“Yeah, I'd sort of already assumed that he was one,” Ollie scoffed, before picking up the coffee cup. Lightly blowing away the billowing steam, he took a sip and loudly groaned as the sugary sweetness of the mocha pumpkin latte hit his taste buds. “Jahla, you are a Goddess personified.”

His friend chuckled. “You know, it’s always interesting how you can so sweetly flatter everyone you are not planning to date, but stumble over yourself for those you want to.”

He let out a whine. “Don’t pick on me, I’ve had a trying time. Besides…things are going well with Noble.”

Red scoffed.

“Be nice!”

“I don’t like him,” his cat stated.

“I don’t either,” Jahla chimed.

“You two, leave my dating life alone! Noble is good to me, and sweet. Like, he took me to the Annual Antique Fair on our first date!? Which automatically puts him worlds above everyone else I’ve dated.”

“That isn’t saying much,” she drawled. “Not to mention, he also fucked you while you were in distress.”

Ollie wrinkled his nose. “No, he actually said we shouldn’t, and only did so after I convinced him to take full advantage.”

“Getting down with your slutty side, huh?”

“Shush!” he huffed.

“Please stop talking about Ollie and sex.” Red shuddered, his face scrunched. “As the one who raised you, you will forever be too young in my eyes.”

“I knew he left you to babysit me!” Ollie cried.

“Babysit?!” Red said with a huffy hiss, as if offended. “I was the parent. He was the one who babysat!”

“Raised by a cat…that explains so much,” Jahla mused softly.

“Hey!” He glared.

She giggled. “Anyway, back to the ghost. So you’re going to…?”

Ollie sighed. “Accept her help to do…something…in a few days.”

“A few days?” Jahla asked with a brow raised in doubt.

“Look, a few days is all I can handle at the moment, otherwise it’s just too much.”

Red sighed. “Slow progress is still progress, I suppose.”