“Do you think your books will tell us how to close the puncture to the Dark Place?”
“I don’t know. Honestly, some of these books I haven’t read in a while. But if I can’t find it, I know where to go.”
“Where?” Katie asked.
“There’s a store three not far from my house that sells potions and elixirs to witches. It was one of the first places I found when I got to town. Sold a couple of my favorite books there to raise the rest of what I needed to get the car.”
“Can we help?” Katie said.
Samantha pulled a book from the shelf and tossed it to me. “Get reading. Look for anything that can help, no matter how small.”
Chapter 19
“This is so boring,” I groaned after reading through my seventh witchcraft textbook in an hour. “It’s like they don’t even know how to write.”
“What do you expect?” Samantha said. “It’s not like a Nancy Drew mystery.”
“Nancy Drew mystery?” Katie gave Samantha a sidelong look.
“What? Don’t act all high and mighty. They were super fun to read. Don’t hate just because I know good writing.”
“I’ve just never heard somebody admit they read Nancy Drew is all.”
I laughed to myself, hearing Katie rib Samantha. There was a time before Katie was sick when I would hang out with her and her friends. Being in Samantha’s room felt very much like I was with friends, and nothing was wrong with the fact that a ghost, a witch, and I were trying to close a hole in the universe.
Samantha slammed her book closed. “I think we have to admit that my extensive library doesn’t have the information we need.”
“I think it’s fair to assume that,” Katie said. “Even if the information we need was here, I’m too bored to find it.”
Samantha pushed herself up from the floor. “I think it’s time we took a field trip.”
We piled into Samantha’s car and drove to a small shop in a strip mall a mile from Samantha’s house. It was small and nondescript. I wouldn’t have noticed it if Samantha didn’t pull up to the front and point to the sign which said “The Witch’s Brew,” the words wrapped around a black caldron with a black cat perched on it.
“I think you should stay in the car, Katie,” Samantha said as she put the car into park. “I’ll be too distracted trying to explain a ghost to the owner.”
“Screw that,” Katie said. “I’m not waiting in the car for you like a lap dog.”
She flew out of the car, and I followed her. “I guess she’s spoken, huh? And once Katie makes up her mind on something, you should just go with it.”
“Whatever.” Samantha took a deep breath and then joined us. A bell jingled when I pressed open the glass door. Inside, the shop was quite dark, and every inch of it was filled with metal shelves with long glass barriers in front of them.
It was far from what I expected. In the movies witch’s shops were rustic and cluttered, with weird objects on every wooden surface. There was none of that in the Witch’s Brew. It was clean, sterile, and all business. You couldn’t touch anything without pushing open the glass doors, and there was no way to open them without a key. It wasn’t hard to guess that the person with the key was the tall man in a three-piece suit standing behind the counter.
“May I help you?” The man had a thick, low voice that elongated every word out of his thin lips.
Samantha walked up to the glass counter. “Yes. You’re Frank, right?”
“That is my name,” the man said. “Unless you want to put a hex on me. Then, it’s Humberto.”
“Nothing like that. I was in here a couple weeks ago. Sold a couple of books. Herbs, Lore, and Wisdom of Witches and Brewing Potions and You.”
“Ah yes, already sold them both. Have you brought me others?”
Samantha shook her head. “No. I came because I need your help.”
“Ugh. Do you think I just give away my knowledge for free? I’m a very important man, you know. I could charge a lot for what’s in my head.”
“I’m sure you could,” Samantha said. “But I’m not swimming in cash. So how about I ask you my question, and then you can tell me how much you would charge to answer it?”
“Hmmm…an interesting proposition. I accept.”
“Have you ever heard of a spell that could repair a rift between life and death?”
“Like, to make you immortal.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “Not like that. Like, imagine the universe popped like a balloon, and there was a big hole that led right to death.”
“Ah, you mean the Dark Place, what we in the business call the immortal realm of death. The Dark Place, where we shall slumber forever once our work is done on Earth, and where my beloved waits for me.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Samantha said, dropping her head.
“Death will come for us all, that is one of the few truths of life.”
“True that,” I nodded. “So, imagine there was a hole that led from Earth to the Dark Place. Do you know how to repair a hole like that?”
Frank stroked his chin for a moment. “Possible, but you are asking for very old magic. Very dark. Very powerful. I fear you are not strong enough to wield such a spell without burning alive.”
“How about you worry about you, Frank,” Samantha said. “And let us worry about casting a spell.”
“I would, but I’m afraid I cannot, as I only know the name of the spell, and two of its components, but not the whole thing.”
“How is that possible?” I asked.
“It’s a closely guarded secret. Only a small group of witches knows how to cast that level of magic, and I have not yet been able to infiltrate their ranks.”
“He must not be a very powerful witch, then,” Katie said with a chuckle.
“I most certainly am,” Frank snapped, looking
