Page 60 of Outlaw Witch

After what feels like hours of walking further along this nasty passageway, it eventually opens up into a space filled with shelves upon shelves.

It’s a cavernous space, about half the size of the regular library upstairs. Nothing seems to be labeled either. The books are shelved haphazardly and a lot of them are piled together on the floor.

“You think this is it?” Roscoe asks, squeezing my hand excitedly.

“Sure looks like it.”

The forbidden archives.

“How many books do you think there are here?” he asks, staring around in awe.

I grimace, staring around and trying not to gape at the sheer size of this place or the magnitude of the task in front of us.

“Thousands?”

Which means this is going to take a while.

*

THE TWO OF US SET TOwork, scanning the endless shelves for anything to do with vampires or blood curses. It’s dirty work and within minutes, I’m caked in a gross mix of spider webs and grime.

This place doesn’t seem to have a proper filing system and I have no idea how we’re going to work our way through the overwhelming number of books in front of us.

I start in one corner while Roscoe has a more haphazard approach of rifling through random shelves while taking a break to have a chat with Mindy.

Maybe we needed Fabian and Zeph for this. I’m not the most patient person in the world, and Roscoe’s attention span is a wild thing that can’t be tamed. Too bad it’s just the two of us down here since we left Zeph up in the main part of the library, keeping an eye on the door. He’s planning to be our first line of defense in case we alert anyone of our presence down here.

I’m on my tiptoes, reaching up to grab a green-covered book, when I hear it.

“Better not touch that one,” a voice says in my ear and I just about shit my pants. I twist my head, but there’s no one there.

A cold shiver goes through me, and my neck prickles.

Which can mean only one thing...

Dammit.

There are ghosts here. Ghosts that I shouldn’t be able to see or hear, but thanks to my necromancy powers, I can do both.

Illegally, of course.

Which means my day’s about to get a lot more complicated.

“I’m serious. That one’ll draw you in, but if you touch it, you’re never going to stop reading it.”

I turn to see the ghost hovering about two feet away from me. She looks to be in her thirties or forties, with a severe bun tied at the back of her head. She’s also wearing a neat skirt and blazer combo and thick-rimmed glasses.

Ghost librarian.

“Hey,” I whisper to her, hoping like hell that my instincts are right. “Did you used to work here?”

She sniffs, raising her head proudly. “For twelve years, I was a senior librarian upstairs before my untimely demise. I have to say, I’ve never seen anyone get past the arcane warrior guarding the door before.”

Relief surges through me and for the first time in a long time, I’m grateful for the random bag of tricks my magic has absorbed over the years.

“Do you think you could help me?” I whisper, my eyes darting around to keep Roscoe in my sights as I talk to thin air.

“We’re looking for stuff on vampires, especially stuff about blood curses. Any possibility you can help me out?”

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