“Naida, hi. You left me a message?”
“Yes, I wanted to talk to you about the dispersal of the furnishings…”
A crash sounded down the stacks and I jumped. “Hold on.” I stood up and went to the center aisle, peering toward the back. “Are you all right?”
Silence.
“Hello?”
The customer poked his dark head around the end of the farthest shelves. “Sorry, I dropped a book.” He held up a thick tome covered in embossed leather. “The book and I are both fine.”
I nodded, smiling, then returned to the front of the store and my conversation. “I’m back, sorry. Yes, I know we’d discussed selling all the furnishings with the house…”
Fifteen minutes later, my task complete, I disconnected and realized I hadn’t heard any more from the customer. I headed toward the spot where I’d last seen him, intending to ask if he was doing okay.
I didn’t find him in the expected aisle, or any other aisle for that matter. But I did notice something that made my eyes go wide.
I stood over a chalky circle on the carpet, frowning. Why would someone have drawn a circle on the carpet?
But worse, there was a slightly burnt smell hanging on the air. And a tinge of…rotten eggs?
My gaze slid to the framed picture lying face down on the rug. I walked over and picked it up. It was a picture of Alice with Fenwald clutched in her arms, standing in front of the Eiffel Tower.
A terrible but familiar stench wafted past, making my nose wrinkle with disgust. Those bangers were never going to go away.
My gaze slid to the wall where the picture had been hanging, and my fingers went numb.
The picture crashed back to the floor.
I took a step back. But I forced myself to stop. “Holy fish fingers!”
What I was seeing wasn’t right. And I was pretty sure it was my job to look into it.
6
That Sealed It…I’m Definitely Losing My Mind
“Alice!!”
I stared at the whirling circular hole in the wall, the magic spinning velvet black with pink, purple and vivid orange streaks mixing in from the edges to meld at the center. The spinning vortex pulled on me, tugging me forward. My eyes were wide and unblinking, my peripheral vision filled with the same swirling magic reflected in my pupils. Before I even knew I’d moved, I was standing in front of it, one hand stretched toward the whirling, addictive energy.
Pain flashed through my mind, and I blinked as something thumped to the floor.
I looked down at the slender book of spells, entitled Creative Spell work for Protection and Comfort.
As I looked at it, the book flew back off the floor, danced on the air in front of me as if giving me a piece of its mind, and then flew back to its spot on the shelves.
I swallowed hard.
“Okay…” That had been close. I reached out and slid a fingertip down the book’s spine. “Thank you.”
It hopped in its spot and settled back to inactivity.
“Alice!!” I yelled again. I didn’t know what to do. I was afraid to leave the vortex unwatched long enough to go fetch the Keeper. But she wasn’t responding to my shouts. Then I remembered she’d mumbled something about a nap earlier. There was no way she’d hear me all the way upstairs in her apartment.
I’d have to open the connecting door and shout up to her.
But something told me I needed to keep an eye on the vortex.
I backed slowly toward the door, through the narrow space between the ends of the shelving and the wall. My hand reaching blindly for the door handle, I found the knob and turned it, yanking the door open. I quickly stuck my head through and bellowed for Alice as loudly as I could.
A warm, furry form slipped past my legs and trotted toward the vortex, raggedy tail waving lazily behind him.
“Fenwald, no!” I hurried after him, terror making it hard to breathe. “Stop, you crazy cat! Don’t go near that,” I told him.
He stopped just in front of the vortex, dropping to his wide haunches and cocking his head as he examined it.
Some of my fear leached away. He wasn’t getting too close. Maybe he had more sense than I thought…
Fenny turned and gave me a look. With narrowed gaze, he told me what he thought of my warning, “Yeow!” And then he leaped toward the hole, disappearing inside.
“No!” I dove at him and missed, hitting the carpet and skidding painfully over the empty spot where the big feline had been.
My knees and elbows stung with rug burn, and I’d bitten my tongue when I landed. I crawled painfully to my feet and stared at the hole. “Fenwald,” I muttered, completely overcome.
Alice was going to kill me.
I sucked in a breath and forced myself to move closer to the whirling energy. It was flat against the surface of the wall, like an animated photo stuck to the plaster. I couldn’t tell by looking at it that it was open. But I’d seen Fenwald fall into it, so I knew it wasn’t what it seemed.
Taking another deep breath, I closed my eyes for a moment, tried to draw my Keeper magic around me, and then reached a hand toward the whirling energy. The energy grabbed my wrist and tugged hard, yanking me inside the terrifying whirlwind of magical energy.
Energy bit my skin like fire-ants, the sensation overpowering, swift, and terrible.
I had just enough time to panic at the idea that it might never let me go, and then it spit me out into a well-lit space with a concrete floor and lots of shelves. I hit the floor running and rammed almost immediately into a long table, covered in a jumble of items.
The artifact library.
“Ow!” I mumbled, whether in memory of the stinging bite of the vortex’s magic or from my pubic bones slamming into the table, I wasn’t sure.
Fenwald looked at me and meowed as if to say,
