the room here to store even a quarter of them.
To that end, Belle had asked a techie friend of hers to help catalog and then convert them over to an easily accessible electronic format. One that would not only provide a backup in case the High Witch Council ever discovered we had Nell’s library—which should, for all intents and purposes, have been gifted to the National Library on her death—but also protect us against a natural disaster destroying part or all of the library. Castle Rock might not get much in the way of floods, but it was in an extremely high-risk fire zone. And while I’d recently added a fire protection spell to the multiple layers protecting them, there was no guarantee that what worked against unnatural flames would work against real.
“How much of the library have you and the lovely Kash managed to convert?”
“About a third, I think. It’s slow going thanks to the age of some of the volumes.”
“I’m thinking you’re not overly worried about the length of time it takes.”
My voice was again dry, and she grinned. “Indeed no. I am, in fact, due over there this afternoon for another session.”
Amusement twitched my lips. “And will this ‘session’ actually include any scanning or text conversion?”
Her grin grew. “Once we’ve satisfied other hungers, quite possibly.”
I chuckled softly. “Then you’d better go get ready. I’ll go through your gran’s index and see what I can find.”
She raised an eyebrow. “You don’t want me to help with the rest of the food prep?”
I shook my head. “I’ve only got to decorate a few remaining cakes and slices, then get the scalloped potatoes ready and I’m done.”
Besides, Belle had covered for me often enough in the kitchen. It was about time I returned the favor.
“Awesome—thanks. But you will contact me if that specter makes a reappearance, won’t you? The sooner we get to the bottom of that, the better.”
“It’s not likely to make an appearance during the daylight hours—is it?”
She hesitated. “Generally no, because most of them simply haven’t the strength to project their form in sunlight. But this one is capable of magic, which means anything is possible.”
“Have you ever heard of or seen a concealment spell whose threads are silver?”
She raised her eyebrows. “We went to the same school, remember? If you didn’t recognize the spell, I sure as hell wouldn’t.”
“Yeah, but you did make a habit of reading through your gran’s spell books before you went to sleep.”
“Only to find innocuous old spells to fling at our classmates when they annoyed us.”
Like the ‘shoelace constantly undone and tripping you up for a day’ one she’d used. While the whole ‘do unto others, because it will come back threefold’ rule did generally apply to spells, it couldn’t actually be enforced if you didn’t wear laces. It also didn’t apply to spells cast by dark or blood witches—maybe because such witches were already bound to hell or had their souls so stained by their evil that they were irretrievable and little else could be done to them.
“But you do know a whole lot about ghosts and specters,” I said. “How usual is it for them to be able to perform magic after their death?”
“It’s rare, but there are some who can interact with our world, so this may just be an extension of that.”
If that were the case, then I could only hope that she didn’t start aiming her magic at us. “Are you driving the SUV across to Kash’s?”
She shook her head. “It isn’t that far away, and it’s not too hot to walk.”
“For you long-limbed types who don’t burn after ten minutes in the sun, maybe.”
She grinned. “I burn. I just don’t go flame-red and then peel afterward. You want me to bring something back for dinner?”
I raised an eyebrow. “You’re not staying overnight at Kash’s?”
She shook her head again. “His bed is too damn uncomfortable, and he refuses to get another, so he pays the price by not being able to sleep with this luscious bod.”
“So, despite high intelligence, he’s not actually that bright?”
“Indeed. But it doesn’t matter, given neither of us are looking for anything serious.” She pushed away from the bench. “I should be home by about eight.”
I nodded and continued the prep. When that was done, I grabbed another coffee, a thick slice of freshly made caramel shortbread, and then headed upstairs to go through the index and jot down the numbers of any books that might contain information about flesh-stripping demons or