Chapter 1
The clear tape flew over the packed box and actually mostly lined up with the closed flaps. The scissors needed some alignment help too, but they cut the tape and sticky adhesion sealed the box. Lily gave a self-satisfied smirk that her series of parlor trick spells had actually resulted in functional Sleeping Beauty-style magic show. It wasn’t overly practical and had taken far too long to apply runes properly in her spell circle, but it was preferable to the tape taste she had from using her teeth on those first boxes, or the clumsily slow pace cutting with actual scissors presented for the next ones.
It was not very neat and tidy, mind you.
She stared at the closed box resisting the urge to de-tape and re-tape at perfectly 90 degree angles, but decided that the effort wasn’t worth it for these last 5 boxes. It must be near midnight anyways and she heard her bath and bed calling her name.
Sliding the book cart in front of another empty box, she picked up one book from it and ran fingers over its spine reverently. It was the annual end of year clean-out of unpopular titles that were to be traded with other libraries, but for any lover of books it was difficult to see them hidden away in boxes. She placed it and others in the box, resisting the urge to kiss them goodbye.
Her fingers next grabbed yet another book about European botany that was never checked out. She fingered some pages in true Bibliophile fashion and found the page with a pretty helmeted purple flower. “Aconitum napellus.” she read aloud.
A grey head with white tipped ears popped up from one of the small empty boxes to her right. “Wait, are you concocting another spell? I thought we were finally going home? We would have been there by now had you not wasted so much time with those ridiculous scissor rules.”
She shook her head, her disheveled bun now wispy around her face. “Would you like some cheese to go with that whine?” she teased her moody talking cat Sir Edgar Allan Kipling. “All wizards must take extreme care with altered spells, else I cast a spell that cuts the entire building in half instead of a single piece of tape. Besides, it’s the name of a poisonous flower popular in many a good werewolf story, nothing magic about it.” She closed the book and added it to the box.
The feline huffed and hopped out of his happy place to stretch languidly. “If you keep reading everything we’re never getting home. I’ve missed my scheduled bowl of cream to keep you company, you know?”
She knew. “4 more boxes.” She packed the next two with speed to make up for the delay.
An old creaky door somewhere in the distance announced someone had bypassed the ‘Closed for Inventory’ sign. Another door to the room she was in opened and banged closed again confirming it. She rose from where she was awkwardly kneeling in her proper pencil skirt and tried to flatten her hair in readiness to accost the trespasser.
“It’s a little early for Spring cleaning, isn’t it Lil?” She frowned and screwed up her nose at both the interruption AND his insufferable continued use of that nickname.
“Mr. Blackwell, have you forgotten how to read in your many travels with fae and fauna? The sign said we’re closed.” His brown eyes sparkled with mischief and affection as he plopped down on a couple stacked boxes. “And STOP calling me that!” she added with a stabbing air finger.
Sebastian Blackwell may be the possible love of her life and a competent witch, but he was a right pain in the rear. He just chuckled and added frustration to her list of already overtired emotions. “Well, when you didn’t answer your celly I figured you must be engrossed with that pretty nose in a book somewhere. Lucky guess that you were here!”
Sir Kipling casually licked a white tipped paw, magical golden letters appearing above his head for Sebastian’s benefit in muttered commentary.
THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS LUCK.
Lily smirked at the cat’s observation, but then frowned when the phone she grabbed from a nearby stool proved to be nothing but a paperweight. “Dead.” she said aloud. Tossing it back on the same spot she shook a finger at Sebastian. “Doesn’t change that you’re trespassing. What did you need to see me for?”
He shrugged, rifling through one of the unclosed boxes. “Missed ya!” he said far too chipper for someone at midnight. “What are all these?” he asked nosily.
“Rarely checked out books. We trade with other libraries in the neighbouring states every year.”
Sebastian laughed and held up a pristine hardcover. “What, no one at a women’s college has read ‘100 Uses for Duct Tape’?”
Lily rolled her eyes. “Well, no one outside this room. My particular favourite is number 63.” She watched him flip to that page and knew he’d see a sketched image of someone with silver tape on their mouth. His own mouth widened in mock offense, but she just raised a single eyebrow hoping he got the hint.
“Oh har-har! You love my mouth.” he said dryly and totally inappropriately, tossing the book unapologetically back in the box. “HEY!” he suddenly called, diving nose first into a different open box. He righted holding a large format children’s book with a tower and princess on the front.
She teased while scrubbing a knuckle into a tired eye under her glasses. “If you’ve forgotten how to read, that one is a good starting point. A is for Atlantis, B is for Beauty and the Beast...”
He seemed to ignore her completely, flipping through the pages excitedly. “Have you been to any of these?”
She stared, then narrowed her eyes with a mix of concern and confusion. He was holding a colourful anthology that included titles like ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and ‘The Fountain of Youth’. “I think you’ve had one too many Twinkies Sebastian. You know those things rot the brain.” When he continued flipping pages in obvious ignorance, she added “These are fairytales and myths, not places to visit.”
He lifted sparkling brown eyes at her with a wide Cheshire cat grin. “Can’t they be both?”
