Page 74 of Monster's Delight

“Follow me.”

The offices were completely silent. I wasn’t surprised; it was late.

Later than I realized,I thought, looking out the windows that were completely dark.

“This one,” Aiden whispered, stopping in front of a dark mahogany door. “How are we going to get in?”

“I copied his key ages ago,” I replied, opening my grimoire on the floor in front of the door. From the page on keys, I pinched at one, pulling it off the page. It solidified in my hand, becoming a normal looking key.

“Impressive,” Aiden said, eyes wide. “How’d you do that?”

I shrugged, trying to look modest. “It was one of my great-uncle’s spells, I think. You take an air impression of the key and store it on paper. Then, when you need it, you can peel it off and it will be the right size. The key holder doesn’t even know that you’ve taken it.”

“Fascinating.”

“Thanks.” I bent over the lock, hoping that the spell was accurate in its description. How embarrassing would it be if it wasn’t?

But the lock clicked open with the quarter turn required, and I pushed the door open.

“Perfect,” I whispered sarcastically as the key dissolved into thin air. “One use only. That would have been nice to know.”

“I guess I know what you’re going to add to the grimoire after we’re done with this mess,” Aiden said, chuckling quietly.

“Yeah, kinda important to know,” I replied. I scooped up the grimoire and we walked into the dark office. “Can you cast a light please?”

“No problem.”

Once we could see where we were going without tripping over any of the ancient artifacts that Professor Dunlop kept in his office, we made our way to Apollo’s mirror. It looked the same as it had the last two times I’d seen it and I breathed a sigh of relief. The teacher didn’t have any suspicions about what we were up to.

I held the copied spell up to the mirror and prepared to recite the spell that would show us the event.

“You two had better have anexcellentexcuse for breaking into my office,” Professor Dunlop said, his voice laced with anger.

I dropped the paper, spinning to face him with a squeak.

Aiden put his arm in front of me, trying to protect me with his body, which was already starting to smoke.

Professor Dunlop stepped into the room and closed the door behind him, turning the lock with a quietsnick. He glared at us. “If you damage any of these artifacts with a shift, I will take their value out of your hide, boy,” he snarled. “If you’re thinking of doing me harm, you’d better think again. I’ve got upward of fifty years experience on you, and you know our kind don’t slow down as they age.”

Aiden glanced sideways at me, but didn’t move from his protective stance.

“Oh, for Pete’s sake,” I said, tugging on his arm. “It’s not like Grandfather’s roommate is on our suspect list, Aiden. Maybe he can help?”

“He was close to them. Maybe he wanted Grandmother for himself,” Aiden snarled.

Professor Dunlop regarded us coolly. “What’s this about Declan and Bridget?”

“We think someone murdered her,” I blurted out. “And we came here to get proof.”

The professor blanched, his face going gray under his beard. He staggered against the door. “Murder?” he whispered. “She was a sweetheart. They were so in love. Who would—?”

“That’s what we’re hoping to find out.” I picked up the spell that had slipped half under the mirror. “Want to help us?”

“Anything to clear my best friend’s conscience,” Professor Dunlop avowed. He joined us in front of the mirror, and I recited the incantation.

The scene bloomed to life exactly as it had before. I tuned out the professor’s gasp at seeing his old friends at the age when he’d last seen them. I wondered where he had been on the fateful night only briefly before I focused on the beautiful Bridget. She wasn’t looking well, but she stood tall within the circle.

I heard Aiden muttering something, probably repeating the spell components as he counted them off.

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