“He didn’t know anything,” I said, ignoring Alex’s disapproving stare.
“It took that long to find out he didn’t know anything?”
“He wasn’t in his right mind, okay?” I snapped. “He’ll be better tomorrow when the full moon is gone.”
Alex didn’t say anything. For a while all we did was stare down the alleyway, trying to figure out what to do next. Wolf’s snarling face and crimson eyes kept jumping into my head. I kept pushing the image away. I hoped he would be better tomorrow. I hoped we could find him or that he would come back. I closed my eyes. Wolf was beyond me now. I had to try and help Marianne. We had to get in there somehow. We had to break whatever magic spell was around this place and rescue her.
“Bluebells…”
Alex looked at me. “What?”
“Bluebells. Marianne. For some reason I always think of bluebells when she’s around.”
“So?”
“So does Wolf. She said it was because she was born in a fairy ring. I think it means something.”
“Aw, look, Care…”
“We need to find a library or somewhere that has books. We need information about magic spells or magic flowers.”
“Care—”
I whirled on Alex. “Look. We know nothing about this place. Nothing. We’re wandering around stupid and almost getting eaten by giants and things, and now we find ourselves faced with magic, and we can’t fight magic without at least knowing about magic. We. Need. Information.”
I stomped off. Alex followed.
After asking a few people, we were directed to a large building that looked like it had stood there forever. The Book Depository, where they kept all the old books from the town. Apparently throwing away books was a no-no, so all unwanted titles ended up there until they fell apart. Inside, the place was like a library in overdrive with no librarians to tackle the mess. Books lined the shelves, sat in stacks upon stacks, many thick with dust and yellowed with age. If there were tables or furniture in the rooms, they’d long since been covered with books.
An old man appeared from around a stack of coffee table-sized books. “Can I help you?” He tottered over to us in a brown overcoat. His white hair fluffed around his head like it had a mind of its own. “I’m the Archives Master. I haven’t seen you two in here before.”
“We’re…visiting,” I said. “We’re looking for some information. Magic, to be precise. Primarily protective magic, maybe some summoning and, ah, banishment.” It felt incredibly weird to be asking these sorts of things. I half expected the Archives Master to look at us funny and ask us to leave.
“Indeed, indeed,” he said, touching a finger to his chin. “There’s plenty of that in here, though I daresay you’ll have to look for it.”
I glanced around at the stacks and towering shelves and tried not to get too dejected.
“Are they in any order?” I asked him.
“Some. I try, but after a while there are just too many so I set them wherever I can.”
“Great,” Alex muttered behind me.
I thanked him and made for a shelf.
“Caroline, how long is this going to take?”
I pulled out a book entitled Magical Herbs, Portents, and Sigils. “As long as it has to.”
We spent the rest of the day poring over dozens of books, making notes on the scratchy paper the Archive Master gave us with old fountain pens. My fingers were black with ink, the liquid seeping into the cracks under and around my fingernails. Every now and then, one of us would check the building to make sure it was still there. The sun was gone and the moon was out, full and white like a pure silver coin in the sky. So far, nothing had changed.
I worried about Wolf. But every time his face popped into my head, I forced it away and thought of Marianne instead. I had to forget Wolf. I had to focus on Marianne.
I’d made notes on everything from summoning powers to protective charms we might be able to get here in the village. Nothing talked about smoke demons or satanic werewolves though. A town like this probably wouldn’t carry any serious books about dark magic. I wouldn’t have been surprised if the residents had never even seen a book on dark magic. At least I assumed it was dark magic. It sure as hell didn’t look friendly.
“What have you got so far?” Alex said, sounding tired.