Page 39 of Girl, Unseen

‘No shortage of places to search. Maybe he was working out of one of the barns or outhouses?’

‘Doubt it. He wouldn’t risk his dad finding it.’

‘True,’ Luca said as he went back to the books. He and Ella attacked the shelves with federal efficiency. Ella worked left to right, scanning titles and checking mental boxes.Introduction to Mineralogy. Basic stuff.Principles of Geomorphology. Standard college text.Earth Materials. Nothing special.

‘What exactly are we looking for?’ Luca asked.

‘Anything that mentions alchemy. Medieval science. Mysticism.’ She pulled outPhysical Geologyand flipped through it. Clean pages, heavy highlighting. Normal student stuff. ‘Ancient philosophy. Hermetic texts. That kind of thing.’

‘Am I supposed to know what they look like? Because I don’t.’

‘Me either. Basically, if you see symbols, or it’s written in another language, put it on thekeeppile.’

Next shelf.Historical Geology.Sedimentology.Structural Analysis of Metamorphic Terrains.

‘Well, all I’ve got down here is romance novels. Our boy Felix has a thing for shirtless cowboys.’

‘Me too.’ She moved to the next row.Environmental Geology.Plate Tectonics.Introduction to Geochemistry. Book after book, shelf after shelf, nothing but standard university texts. The kind of thing any former geology student would own.

Her legs protested as she crouched to check the bottom shelf. More textbooks. More highlighting. More dead ends. She found a few philosophy texts – basic stuff about Plato and Aristotle. Nothing about transforming elements or sacrificing professors.

‘This is useless.’ She pushed aside another stack. ‘No alchemy texts. No ancient grimoires.’

‘Well, I foundHarry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone. And there’s a bookmark in it.’

‘Let’s just leave it. We’ll go talk to Felix at the precinct, see if we can coax something useful out of him.’

And that was when a slim volume caught her eye. It was wedged between a calculus primer and an ancient copy of 'Dune', so nondescript she'd almost missed it.

But something about it made her pause. Maybe it was the cracked leather binding, or the way it seemed to retreat into the shadows of its shelf-mates. Like it was trying to avoid notice.

She worked it free, taking care not to tear the brittle pages. The cover was unmarked save for a single line of text etched into the leather.

Hermetic Order of the Quinta Essentia.

Ella flipped to the first page. It was filled with dense, cramped handwriting. Not printed off a computer. Entirely handwritten. Ella skimmed the first paragraph:

Man's connection to the elements transcends mere physical existence. We are born of earth, sustained by water, moved by air, and ultimately consumed by fire. The cycle is eternal, unbreakable.

She turned another page. More philosophical ramblings about nature and death. Crude drawings of human figures merged with trees, with waves, with flames. Prayers or incantations in what looked like bastardized Latin lined the margins.

Death is not the end, but a transformation. The physical form returns to its elemental state. Only through sacrifice can the truth be revealed.

Static electricity danced across her forearms. The room felt too small, too dark, like the walls had inched closer while she wasn't looking.

‘Hawkins?’

Her partner rose to his feet and spotted the book in Ella’s hands. ‘What’s that?’

‘Remember how I said cults don't exist?’ The words scraped out of a throat gone desert-dry.

‘Yeah?’

She held up the notebook. ‘I think I was wrong.’

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

The 23rd Precinct's interrogation room looked exactly like every other box they stuck suspects in – bare walls, metal table bolted to the floor, and the kind of strip lighting designed to make everyone look guilty. Felix Blackwood sat inside, staring at his reflection in the two-way mirror like he was trying to memorize his own face.

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