“Hey Nina, you aren’t the only one on duty, are you?” I asked her.
“Sure am,” she said. “The others left early since there’s a staff meeting tonight. Did you come to keep me company?”
“I came to tell you that Anya was just looking for you,” I lied. “Want me to keep an eye on the place while you go chat with her?”
“I’ll go see her after my shift,” Nina said. “Unless you think it’s urgent?”
“She did seem kind of upset,” I confided. “Go ahead, I’d feel better if you did. And I seriously have nothing to do.”
“Really?” Nina asked.
“Of course,” I told her, feeling rotten. “Glad to help.”
“You’re a life saver,” she told me as she jogged out of the room.
Okay.
Okay, okay, okay.
I had maybe ten minutes to get the book and get out of here before Nina came back wondering why I had lied to her.
I opened my backpack and pulled out the school gown I had been wearing this morning.
Professor Batts had told us that the parts of a thing want to come together to form the whole. I had failed at nearly every spell I had attempted. But this was my last shot. And it sounded like the subjects of my spell would be inclined for it to work too.
I held the gown out in front of me and approached the mighty oak at the center of the library, murmuring the words of the spell.
At first nothing happened.
I closed my eyes and willed myself to breathe slowly. I pictured the dress and the button, back together again. It had seemed so easy when Lark put the pieces of her ring back together.
I spoke the words once more, slowly and clearly.
The dress began to twitch and wiggle in my hands.
I was so elated that I almost dropped it. But it seemed the dress was too heavy or the button too small for this to work.
In desperation, I held the dress out in front of me instead of piled in my hands.
One of the arms lifted and began gesturing toward the tree, as if the dress had an invisible wearer that was trying to tell me where the lost button was.
“Yes, the tree,” I said. “I know that part. Where in the tree?”
But that was obviously too big a question for the poor thing to answer.
I gazed up into the huge canopy. I was going to have to start climbing. But if I did that, I wouldn’t be able to hold the dress out in front of me, I’d need my hands to hold on.
I bit my lip and tried to think, blinking a bit to test my vision. As far as I could tell, the colors were all staying in place. I had been mentally preparing the spell all day, and it seemed like the impromptu meditation was enough to cover the cost of the magic.
That was a good thing, at least.
Once I had a sort of plan, I got right to it.
“I’m going to sort of wear you,” I told the dress, hoping it wouldn’t be offended. After all, I had worn it only this morning.
It didn’t move, so I wrapped it around my shoulders, like a fraternity boy in a fifties movie.
Trying not to overthink it, I shoved one of its sleeves into the top of the replacement school gown I was wearing and wrapped it around my bra strap a couple of times, so it wouldn’t fall off.
I left the other sleeve free to point the way.
“See?” I told it. “I’m giving you a piggyback ride.”
It just kept pointing at the tree. I figured that was the best I was going to get.
The tree didn’t look too hard to climb. There were branches at intervals, and even little steps carved into the bark. From where I stood, I could see a clear path to get all the way up. But for a moment I stood there, frozen. Ever since my fall, heights and I hadn’t really been on good terms.
“Come on, Bella, this is for Jon,” I reminded myself sternly.
A moment later, my hands were wrapped around the trunk and I was gingerly beginning my ascent.
The dress kept pointing upward, so I followed its instruction.
After a few minutes of climbing, I made the mistake of looking down.
I wasn’t even terribly high up. Climbing a tree in a dress and slippers wasn’t exactly an Olympic event I would medal in.
But fear closed around my heart like an icy hand.
Suddenly, I was back in high school, Lisa Stephonowski was throwing a pebble at my window, I was climbing out, trying to lower myself to the ledge below, and instead I was slipping, and then falling, falling…
I closed my eyes, willing my heart to stop pounding.
Think of Jon. Think of what this means.
I managed to steady my heartbeat and keep climbing. Up and up I went, certain that Nina would be back before I reached my goal.
At last, the dress began gesticulating excitedly to the side, pointing at one of the branches. The branch was thick and stout where it met the tree, but two thirds of the way out, where it narrowed to the thickness of my wrist, there was a knot in the branch about the size of my fist.
The knot was sealed around the book Eve had been holding today. The book with my button in it.
The book with the healing magic that could save my brother.
“Okay, dress, I understand,” I told it. “Hang on tight.”
I pulled myself onto the branch. It bounced, but didn’t creak or groan, that was a good sign.
Slowly, slowly, I eased myself farther out.
The dress was wiggling frantically now as we drew closer to the book.
I sucked in a deep breath as we moved out a few more inches and the branch began to sag.
Someone put this book back today, I told myself. If Eve can crawl out on this branch without it ripping off the tree, so can I.
At
