Page 37 of Monster's Mystery

I opened my mouth to answer, and realized I didn’t know. “I assume further in, since the edge is decaying all along the border. But we’re not allowed in the forest.”

“No?” The portrait’s eyes twinkled. “We weren’t either, but that didn’t stop us. And this seems like a much more urgent reason than drinking spirits until the wee sma’s. What’s stopping you, lass?”

I giggled. “You’re right, as usual. I’ll try to find where the magic is going. Any suggestions on a spell to tell me the direction of the flow of magic?”

Darragh raised his bushy eyebrows. “If there isn’t one in the grimoire, perhaps you can design one. You’re in your third year now. You’re old enough to design your own spells.”

“Thanks. That’s a great idea.” I hoped there was one in the grimoire; I wasn’t sure I’d be able to designandtest the spell in time. “Okay, I’ve got to run. Thank you so much for your help!”

“Come back soon. I’ve missed our little chats,” Darragh replied.

I frowned. “I thought you went dormant when nobody was in the room to interact with you?”

“Oh, I do. Some things are a habit to say.” He beamed at me.

“Love you.” I blew him a kiss and left the room. It was so nice to be able to interact with my ancestors. I wondered if Grandfather had plans to make a portrait. I hoped so, even though I didn’t really want to think about the gross way that the portrait had to be made. I shuddered as I walked quickly through the dimly lit restricted section.

Hushed voices made me pause and press myself against one of the stacks.

“Are you willing to help me?” a quiet voice whispered.

“I’m not sure I can leave my studies at this point,” another voice replied, just as quietly. “There’s so much going on at the beginning of the school year.”

“That’s all right, I understand,” the first voice replied. “I would never force anyone to help me out of their free will.”

“I’m glad you understand. I really wish I could help, you know.”

“There’s something else that would help, and wouldn’t take as long. Come with me.”

“I have class...”

“You’ll be back in time.”

“Okay.”

Footsteps met my ears, moving away from me, and I hurried to the end of the stack to peer around it.

There was nobody there.

I frowned, wondering what all that was about. I couldn’t even tell if the voices were male or female, they had been talking so quietly.

Glancing at my watch, I saw that I only had two minutes to make it to my Herbology lab. I ran the rest of the way, grateful that the greenhouse was closer to the stairs than the classroom.

“Ah, now that Miss Doyle has arrived, we can begin,” Professor Calderwood said, his brows twitching. “Oral presentation of your findings. Who would like to begin? No, just stand at your seat, don’t bother coming to the front of the room. If anyone has anything to add, raise your hand and we’ll go from there.”

Most of the students had actually tried to do the research. I was impressed. I guess the professor had managed to get the seriousness of the situation across to them.

When it was my turn, I stood up and cleared my throat. “In my time in the library, I discovered that we need to find out where the magic is disappearingto. We know that it is being sucked out of the border, and perhaps if we can triangulate the direction it is heading, then we can stop what is drawing the magic away.”

Professor Calderwood nodded thoughtfully. “We will work on that problem for the rest of the class. Nothing else that was presented was all that surprising. We’ve got more accurate readings at this point, thanks to an extra day of data. Please split into groups of two and choose a point along the border.”

He cast an image of the border up in the air and flagged points along the edge where samples had been taken.

I looked around the room, trying to find a person to pair up with. Hazel had been my lab partner last year, and I hadn’t really made friends with anyone else.

Unfortunately, Paige met my eye and made her way over to me.

“I didn’t know you took this class,” I greeted her frostily.

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