Page 47 of A Spark of Something (A Librarian’s Guide to Witchery #1)

O llie had no clue where the fluffy chair he was currently sitting in had come from, but he was seriously considering leaving it there, even after he healed up. For one, it was green, which fit his duck themed storytime circle well enough color-wise, and two, it was comfortable. Much more comfortable than sitting on the floor.

He did wish he had something to do beyond playing on his phone as he waited for the first storytime to start. This morning, Ollie would be reading two simple but fun classic stories; The Ugly Duckling and Make Way for Ducklings . All of the stories today would be duck themed. It had been a while since he’d read either of the books, and he knew he hadn’t read them to any of the children who’d likely show up this morning—which wouldn’t be many.

Most of the time, the morning sessions during the work week were small. But regardless of the crowd size, Ollie read four times a day. As long as there were kids, he would read.

The library had only been open an hour, and yet, almost every member of his staff currently there had found some reason to come baby him.

Librarians…security…assistants…even Elias! The question he kept thinking was how the hell had so many of them managed to make baked goods on such short notice?! He just knew his desk in his office was covered in them. Well, at least Jahla was no longer planning to call her doctor friend. Red had assured her that Ollie was healing fine, and that his ankle was in fact only sprained.

As, yep, they were trusting his cat to know best.

Noble had only stuck to his side for a little bit before he somehow convinced one of his three security guards to drive him out to Ollie’s car, so he could bring it back. Branston, Pierson, and Johnathan had been falling over themselves to help. Pierson ended up taking him after winning a Rock Paper Scissors game against the other two. They had played the game to decide who would go. But he supposed it was really an hour off work they’d been fighting for, so…

Ollie smiled, glancing up from his phone at the sound of people approaching. Slipping it back into his pocket, he said brightly, “Welcome back, Emily! Ms. Bramley.” He nodded towards the grandmother and little girl.

Emily would often show up for all four storytimes. Though for the afternoon sessions, the little girl would be brought by one of her parents.

He winced slightly when their eyes widened as they took him in, Emily’s filling with tears.

“Libearian Ollie, hurt?” the little one gasped, struggling as always to say librarian.

“Ah… Librarian Ollie had a little accident, but I’ll be fine in a week or so. Promise!” Ollie said with little doubt.

To be honest, the pain pills that Noble had him taking had helped a lot at first…but he hadn’t taken any since last night, as things hadn’t hurt too badly on waking up that morning. Ollie still felt the pain, but it was a more manageable dull ache, and he was at the point where he’d rather be clear-headed than dosed up on what Ollie figured was some very heavy pain pills. Not that the bottle had a label on it to tell, which he was not going to think about.

He still felt a bit lightheaded, and had since he’d been injured, even with all of the food Noble had made for him. Which, damn, Noble could cook. Like, Ollie knew how to also, but it was a nice surprise that Noble could too.

Emily nodded at his promise, but the older woman’s eyes narrowed a bit, as if she didn’t believe the accident part.

“Accident?” she asked, her gaze fixed on his arm, which was currently in a sling to keep it elevated, and so he didn’t have to strain and hold it up on his own all day.

“Ah, my arm isn’t broken, just cut. I tripped in my kitchen while holding a knife.” He repeated the lie that Noble had come up with for the doctor that was no longer being called. But then he supposed he had still needed the lie. What else would he tell people? He couldn’t exactly say a serial killer had tried to murder him after he stupidly walked in asking questions about one of his victims, and then was miraculously saved by a ghost.

“I see,” Ms. Bramley murmured, not sounding as if she believed him in the least.

Ollie barely held back his sigh. This was going to be a long week.

Noble stood just out of sight, smiling as he watched Ollie read The Ugly Duckling to the small group of children.

The man was so cute and animated. A few days on antibiotics and pain pills, on top of Noble stuffing the man with food as much as he could, had put some color back in his cheeks. Though, having checked the stitches before driving Ollie home a few hours ago, he did appear to be healing faster than humanly possible.

“Ahem!”

He jumped at the loud throat clearing to his right, eyeing Jahla.

She tsked. “Spying again, I see.”

“I’m watching, not spying.” He was definitely spying, but also, he was supposed to be here helping Ollie, so…

“Right, it's totally normal to stand out of sight and creepily peek at a man reading to children,” she deadpanned.

Noble chuckled. “Need something?”

“Besides for you to stop creeping? Nothing really, I just wanted to make sure it was clear, and that you know that I don’t trust you.” Jahla smiled. “Do you know what my gut is telling me, Noble Vincent?”

He smirked. “What is it telling you, Librarian Jahla?”

Her smile widened. “That something is off about you. That you are hiding something. Something big, something dangerous. You helped him…” She shook her head. “But something about you isn’t right, and I know, whatever it is, it’s going to hurt him. And that you don’t care that it will.”

Jahla was quite perceptive, but Noble also knew she didn’t know enough to figure out what he was hiding. Maybe, if it was something humanly criminal, she would, but Jahla was as much in the dark about witches as Ollie still was. Which meant, as right as she was, she had no way of exposing him for now.

“You aren’t wrong. You shouldn’t trust me, and I am hiding something.” He chuckled as her smile dropped. “That’s what you wanted to hear, right? But then, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you I wasn’t, would you?”

“No.”

His smirk spread when her obvious confusion did too. “I’m curious too though, about your reaction, or lack of one. Not your first body either, is it?”

Jahla’s confusion smoothed out to a blank, empty expression.

He chuckled again, but let it drop. Whatever secrets she had, they didn’t concern him. “You aren’t completely right though. I don’t want to hurt him, and I care enough that I plan to do whatever I can to make sure I don’t.”

At least, he planned to do whatever he could to minimize it. What he was…it meant that no matter what he did, Ollie would get hurt in some way. And since they were getting closer, even him choosing to walk away without telling him the truth would hurt him.

“Why are you admitting any of this?” Jahla asked, her expression still blank. “You are playing it off as a joke, but meant every word, except that last bit. Which either means that part was an outright lie…or you don’t really believe what you are saying, even if you want it to be true. Though the better question is, why do I have a strong feeling that it’s the latter?”

Noble’s eyes widened as he stared at her, and once again, in a short matter of weeks, he found himself looking at someone while searching for signs of more. “Ha…you’ve surprised me, Jahla. And to be honest, I can’t say why I’m telling you anything. Maybe out of guilt?”

But he was now not sure if telling her anything would be a good idea, if this was how easily she could see through him.

Jahla’s brow pulled. “Do you honestly like him?”

“I do.” His gaze was drawn to the man in question, as she relaxed a bit at his answer. “I’ll tell you one last thing, and then it would probably be better if I shut up. I think…Ollie saved me.”

“Saved you?” she scoffed in disbelief. “From what? Booklice?”

He snorted, eyes still on his little witch. “No, he woke me up from a long…long nightmare that I couldn’t find my way out of. Even when the answers had been simple, and right there in front of me.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better about you being around him.”

Reluctantly, Noble looked back over at her. “It wasn’t meant to.”

She rolled her eyes and then sighed. “I don’t like or trust you, but I need you to stay for now. So I’ll leave it alone. Mainly as what happened on Thursday will likely happen again. Hopefully, not the dead body part, but… He says he will be careful, that he will talk to someone, but he is too curious for his own good. Ollie is smart, but…he doesn’t always see beyond what his goals are. All it takes is the man hyperfocusing on one thing too much, for him to miss the obvious signs of danger approaching him, or that his actions could bring.”

“It’s that kindness of his that will get him into trouble. This world is full of cruel, vicious, greedy people, though I’m sure he’d argue otherwise.”

Jahla let out an exasperated groan. “You don’t even know the half of it. The only reason he kills bugs is because of his books. Even then, Ollie will get this horrified look on his face when he does it, and then sniffle and whine after, as if he just lost a pet!”

“Oh, he really is too kind-hearted.” Noble chuckled. “I’ll make sure he doesn’t go off alone like that again, as you are right, it will be recurring. Him wanting to help the ghosts he meets, that is.”

“It’s the least you can do.”

“True.”

Making sure the man didn’t get hurt on his quest to help others was the very least he could do.