Page 25 of Light Magic

“All right, and what happened after that?” Abbie asked.

I left. Like a coward. I sat up straighter. “I heard Raika, his daughter, was able to absorb his magic, and she got the dragon’s powers … and everyone else’s he had absorbed before that.”

“So, Raika has all this power?” Lacey asked.

I shrugged. “I don’t know. When she had only half of it, the dragon magic proved too much for her. I can’t imagine she survived after taking it all.”

I thought about calling, to know what had happened to her. Hopefully, they found a way to help her and she was still alive.

“Is there a way for you to call them and find out what happened?” Abbie asked. “Maybe they discovered something that will help us.”

I hesitated. “Phones don’t work in here, right?”

“Oh, they work in here,” Maggie. “In the library.”

I fished my phone from my pocket and checked. Sure enough, it had signal. “How?”

“Magic! But it’s only inside the library. It doesn’t work anywhere else.”

“Hm … I could call them,” I said, though that would open a line I wasn’t sure I was ready to deal with.

“You don’t need to do that right now,” Abbey said, probably sensing my hesitation.

“I say we start by gathering all the books about magic absorption and transference,” Lacey suggested.

“And all the books about dragons,” Maggie said. “Dragons are the most powerful supernaturals that walked this Earth, or any other known universe. They might have abilities that we haven’t heard about before.”

“That is a long list,” Abbie said. She grabbed a huge leather book from the corner of the table and opened it right in the middle. The book was empty. “Show me all the books, manuscripts, and scrolls about magic absorption and transference.”

The pages shimmered and words appeared on the large pages. Lots and lots of words that didn’t fit on those two pages but went on for several more.

I gawked at the book and once more I was amazed at how cool magic could be.

“That’s a lot of books,” Lacey said, her tone dejected.

“And that’s just one topic,” Abbie said. “I bet the list will be even longer when we get to dragons.” She reached into the book and her hand disappeared inside it! Then, she pulled out four pieces of paper and distributed them to us, one for each.

“What’s is this?” I glanced at the long paper in my hands and started reading the tiny words.

“A list of titles and authors, if applicable, also shelf number and placement,” she explained. “Let’s get to work.”

* * *

Two hours later, we had the table full of books about magic absorption and transference, and we weren’t done yet. At some point, Abbie stopped gathering books and stayed at the table to start skimming through them and selecting, so we wouldn’t have hundreds of books to deal with once we got them all.

We hadn’t even started on the dragon books yet.

It was tedious work, but the library kept impressing me. Since first stepping foot inside, I could see this place was huge, but once I started weaving through the bookshelves, I realized it was much bigger than I first thought. The shelves went on forever and ever, and if it weren’t for the labels at the beginning of each shelf, I would have gotten lost, just like I had with the rest of this place.

Following the numbers, I went to shelf 839 in the depths of the library. The farther we went, the less light came from the dome and the glass window, and we relied only on the few sconces and magical candles at the end of each long bookshelf.

Twice so far, I had been in the middle of a bookshelf, barely seeing anything—if I had had my light magic, that wouldn’t be a problem—when the nearest candle shone brighter, illuminating the numbers etched on the shelf under the books. When I still couldn’t find it, the book jutted out, as if someone stood on the other side and pushed it forward for me.

The first time, I was startled. The second, I thanked the hall’s magic.

If only this happened every time I went for books, maybe it wouldn’t take this long.

As I turned a dark corner into shelf 838, I had an idea. Maybe Abbie could cast a spell to call the books on the list. They would fly off the shelves to the table.

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