Page 45 of A Spark of Something (A Librarian’s Guide to Witchery #1)

J ahla’s left eye started to twitch as she sat there at Ollie’s kitchen table, staring at the two men who had just finished explaining what the hell she’d spent hours—no, days—worried about since Ollie had gone missing late Thursday night. It was now Monday morning, so it had been days, even if he had left her a message and they’d talked vaguely on the phone since Friday. It turns out, she had every reason to be worried.

“Ollie,” Red, who was sitting on the table, said, before she had a chance to really dissect all she'd just heard, to even ask anything. “I did not raise you to make stupid decisions. What on earth made you decide it was a good idea to wander off to meet up with STRANGERS, while asking about a dead man?!”

It was a good question, yet at the same time, Jahla felt Red was overlooking the fact that Ollie made rash and questionable decisions all the time. Or maybe the familiar didn’t see anything wrong with the man meeting up with people who were definitely criminals, just to appraise their old shit.

Ollie’s face pinched and he looked rather pale, even for him, which just had her worrying even more about his blood pressure. “Well, you see, my book told me to ‘figure it out’.”

“Your book told you to what?!” Red hissed.

Noble answered this time. “When he asked his grimoire how he could help the ghost, it told him to ‘figure it out’ on his own.”

Ollie’s brow oddly rose. Since he was on the table facing away, she could only guess the expression on Red’s face, as when he spoke next, his voice was a deep growl.

“If you’ll excuse me.” The familiar jumped off the kitchen table, heading for the front door.

“Where are you going?!” Jahla cried, her gaze following him.

“Lecture away!” Red snapped, and then shockingly, the door opened and closed on its own behind the cat.

She looked back to Ollie when he asked, “Can cats do magic too?”

“Familiars can. How strong they are depends on their age. Though that was more just a parlor trick,” Noble explained to the man, almost gently.

Crossing her arms, she eyed the two narrowly. “So you know now too?”

Ollie cleared his throat. “Noble has met a few witches.”

“Ain’t that just nice,” she said sweetly. “Ollie…”

The man’s eyes began to look like a deer in headlights. “Yes, friend of mine?”

“Sounds as if you had quite the adventure. Almost got murdered. You know, after you turned up at a stranger’s house in the middle of the night. You even got some experience in burning a body. The body of a man who turned out to be a serial killer. Wow.” She clapped. “My friend, did you even once consider the possible ramifications of running around without telling anyone, while meeting up with strangers?” Jahla asked with a bright, fake ass smile.

“I…didn’t think that far?”

“Mm, you didn’t?” She laughed. “What a surprise.” Jahla dropped the act. “If you ever, and I mean ever, do something this dangerous again without talking to or telling anyone, and LIVE through it—as I feel it’s up in the air on whether you will—I am going to burn five of your favorite books.”

Ollie gasped in horror. “What?!”

“And not just your favorites reading-wise, oh no!” she chimed cheerfully. “Your favorites out of your expensive books!”

The man started to sputter. “J-Jahla, y-you can’t! Those are part of h-history!”

She threw her head back on an evil laugh. “Oh, ask me how much I care?!”

Ollie let out a whine, but didn’t respond.

Her gaze flicked to Noble, who looked slightly amused. “You,” she said.

Noble’s brow rose. “Me?”

“I have so many questions for you right now.”

“Jahla, he has worked for the mob before while bodyguarding. That’s what he is…a bodyguard. Though he doesn’t have an assignment right now. Either way, he helped me, and I feel that help warrants us leaving it alone,” Ollie stated earnestly.

Jahla couldn’t stop her face from twisting as her bullshit alarm started going off. Oh, God, Ollie could be so na?ve…

Noble still looked slightly amused, but it had changed just a bit…as if it were a mask now, and not really what he was feeling. The majority likely wouldn’t have noticed, but she did.

The one thing Jahla loved about Ollie was how real he was. He had been less normal lately, with the whole witch thing, but he was still very much real in his actions and emotions.

Noble, however, was like her family—the one she had barely gotten away from. Fake as can be, with eighty percent of what they said being lies. So, she knew all about masks. She knew the signs. Jahla knew when people spoke and it wasn't the truth coming out. She knew when someone was hiding something, even when they hadn’t done anything to suggest they were. Which is why she was positive that Noble was hiding a hell of a lot.

Jahla just had this feeling, and that part of her said that whatever it was, it would hurt her friend.

But until the truth came out, Ollie wouldn’t see it. And until the facts were right in front of his eyes, she doubted anything she said would change that. A big part of her really hoped she was wrong though, because the only time Noble seemed real was with how he treated Ollie. And to be honest, she had no complaints there. Which was saying something, as she wanted only the worst for all the other people Ollie had dated—the bastards…

With a groan, she said, “Fine.” She narrowed her eyes at Noble. “Congrats, Noble, you’ve been voluntold to make sure he gets around safely today, and well, really for the rest of the week, until I say so. We have wheelchairs available, so use one.”

“Jahla, you can’t just?—"

Noble cut Ollie off. “Ollie, it’s fine. I’m happy to stay.”

Her friend tried again. “But?—”

“Then it’s settled,” she sang with a fake smile. “Oh, by the way, I will be calling my doctor friend to come check you out.”

“What if she asks questions?!” Ollie whined.

“Lie? She probably won’t be in until the weekend anyway, you will have plenty of time to make something up.”

“I hate lying.”

“I can lie for you,” Noble murmured.

Oh, I just bet you can , she thought snidely.

Red sped down the stairs, his body starting to change shape as he reached the first floor. By the time he was at Ollie’s office door, he was a tall, statuesque human, with trimmed black hair and oddly shaped yellow eyes.

Unlocking the door with his mind, Red pulled it open with an angry hiss and lunged towards the desk. He slammed his hand down on Ollie’s grimoire, pinning it in place before it had a chance to flee.

“YOU,” Red growled. “If you ever purposely put him in danger like that again, I will burn you until you reform into something useful!”

The book that had been pressing upward against his palm, trying to get away, or perhaps to respond, began to feel clammy to the touch.

“Waiting has made you forget yourself. Well, here is your reminder. You are his grimoire! I do not care about the grudge you are holding! You exist only because he does! You serve him. Make this mistake again, and it will be the last thing you do.” He let out a threatening roar, before releasing the book and storming away. Once again reshaping, Red returned to the small cat he normally was.