Page 2 of Hunter

Besides, if you finish your degree and get a job that pays more, you’ll be able to feed us more, Sora piped in. He was roaming the stacks and enjoying being a busybody, and had apparently also been listening in on the conversation.

Kana laughed. He rolled his shoulders to get rid of any last tension and placed his fingers on the keyboard.

Now, what should I write?

Chapter One

YOU SURE THIS is a good idea? Mika asked, sounding worried. His question unfortunately echoed Kana’s own thoughts.

Kana looked at the library building and swallowed hard. The place was only brown cement and glass, and it had fanciful pictures in most of the windows, thanks to the proximity of the children’s section inside. Kana had walked into the building dozens of times before without issue, yet somehow this time the building seemed to loom over him like an ominous cloud.

Ember asked us for a favor, Kana replied to both Mika and Sora. Mika was in his housecat form, tucked into Kana’s backpack where he would still be close while staying hidden. Sora was also in housecat form but had wandered off after they’d gotten off the bus. He would stay close in case of an emergency.

Ember was the alpha of the Tri-Cities werewolf pack. Kana had worked with him a few weeks ago to fight off a terrible vampire who had enslaved the pack for twenty years. Kana had no idea how anyone could recover from twenty years of hell like that. Ember had protected as many members of his pack as he could, and most of the children hadn’t even known there was a problem, but the vampires hadn’t cared who they hurt in their attempts to retain dominance. A couple members of Ember’s pack had been kept captive as blood slaves, their entire existence dependent on providing fresh blood to the vampires at all times. Ember had freed them, but even with the physical bonds gone, Ember had told Kana their minds and souls weren’t going to magically recover.

The worst cases weren’t able to sleep, their bodies constantly running on adrenaline the second night fell as the ingrained fear a vampire was coming prevented them from relaxing. They needed sleep or their bodies would start shutting down. Ember was in the process of hiring a therapist, but finding someone who could be trusted with pack secrets, and who also wouldn’t interfere with the pack dynamics, was proving difficult.

That was where Ember hoped Kana might be able to help. Ember thought Kana might know of a potion that wasn’t addictive, but would calm the worst-affected wolves enough that they could sleep. Unfortunately, Kana didn’t have any recipes for something like that in the spell books he had access to, and he didn’t feel comfortable making up a potion that could potentially cause harm. Herbs and spells that called for sleep were usually poisonous, and sleep sometimes was a permanent side effect that only ended in death. Without a proper, tested spell, Kana didn’t think it was safe to give anything to wolves who had already suffered enough. That meant he had to go searching for a book, and what better place to look than in a library?

The coven library from his childhood had serviced a town whose only occupants had been witches. They purchased books for their clientele, and therefore had a ton of spell books. The Schenectady County Library served a much larger city with a considerably more diverse populace. Kana regularly checked out fiction books, which the library carried a lot of, but hadn’t dared go near the magical section for fear someone might take an interest in finding out why he was there. He didn’t know if the library even stocked spell books, but he had no idea where else to turn. Kana only hoped the library had some books that might help.

Are you going to go inside? Sora asked, teasing him slightly.

Yeah, yeah, Kana replied. He always stayed under the radar, so being seen in public reading advanced spell books was definitely outside his comfort zone. Still, Kana had to do something to help those wolves. He took a deep breath, let it out, then gathered his courage and walked forward through the doors into the building.

The library was completely ordinary, as it always was. Kana didn’t know why he felt like there ought to be a fire-breathing dragon crawling along the tops of the stacks today, but all he saw were normal people going about normal library business. He kept walking, looking at the overhead signs until he found one in the nonfiction section labeled “Magic Studies.” However, as Kana started looking through the section, he realized it wasn’t what he was looking for at all.

He didn’t see a single spell book or even an herbalist. Every book appeared to be on simple, broad topics geared toward the everyday person. A Compendium of Eastern European Water Creatures, one title read. Another read How to Know if a Vampire Has Bitten You. People with no magic who wanted to learn the basics about the different types of magic out there used this section, not someone looking to expand their own magical abilities.

Maybe public libraries in normal cities didn’t have what he was looking for? Kana bit his lip as he reached the end of one row and turned down another, only to find the same types of books again. He still walked down the aisle, hoping he might eventually find what he wanted, but it dead-ended at a brick wall with no sign of anything useful.

Kana almost missed seeing a small plaque on the wall, off to the left near the shelves, until he started to turn around with a sigh. He leaned closer to read it.

Magic Users Only Beyond This Point

Proceed with Caution

Magic users only? What the heck did that mean? A wall stood in front of him, so with nowhere to go, what “point” could the sign be referencing?

Kana bent closer to the sign as if proximity might somehow provide an answer. And it did! A small circle no bigger than a doorbell was carved into the lower right corner. Inside the circle was a rune Kana didn’t recognize, and there wasn’t a pentagram, something Kana had never heard of.

Spell circles at their most basic were simple: a circle surrounding a five-pointed star. The circle bound the spell, ensuring no magic escaped. That allowed for protection of the surroundings and kept as much power as possible concentrated within the spell. The pentagram guided the spell, keeping the magic flowing evenly throughout every component. Once that base was established, Kana could add additional pieces to his spells, like runes, candles, and herbs in smudge bowls.

He had even cast spells without using a circle—the unlocking spell he was so good at was a perfect example—where he shaped the power to his will. However, he was only able to use very little power in such cases. Kana had never seen a circle that only bound a rune.

The intellectual side of Kana, which had relentlessly studied magic for so many years, begged him to find out more, and Kana really wanted to, but he was on a mission at the moment.

Kana pressed his finger to the rune as if it were a doorbell, then pushed through just a touch of magic. The rune shivered under his finger for a brief second as it activated, and then an archway appeared in the brick wall just in front of him. Kana walked inside before the magic faded away and the archway vanished, and found himself in an annex that looked exactly like the rest of the library.

“Hello, dearie. You’re a new face,” a wizened old…person…said.

Kana couldn’t tell if they were female or male, or whether they were even human. A crooked back and deep wrinkles hid any potentially identifying features, and some sort of otherness about them had Kana doubting gender even mattered to them. He could practically feel the person’s magic buzzing against his skin.

“I am the librarian,” they continued. “My sole task is to aid seekers in finding the books they want. How can I help you today?”

“Um,” Kana began. “I’m looking for books on spells or potions that can aid with sleep?”

The librarian nodded. “It is unfortunately not a common subject, but we do have a few books. Come and sit at this table. I will bring what we have to you in a few minutes.”

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