Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 92460 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92460 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
I flip through a few pages, and the sketchbook falls open to exactly the spell I need for tonight. A chill flows through me as I read it over as if confirmation.
“She’d love this. Wouldn’t she?” I say beneath my breath.
It’s a spell that allows someone to feel what the writers felt while they were writing the book. It lasts as long as the candle is burning, and all you need to do is touch whatever book you want to experience. The spell awakens the spirit of the writer for as long as the flame still burns on the wick. She can experience the intensity of what the spirits wished to be known. Bringing them more to life for only a moment.
I could offer this gift to her. I could show her this side of me and see if she would enjoy this thinly veiled realm of life and death as I do.
If she desires more, I could give her so much more. I could give her anything and everything she could possibly want. Tomorrow night, I’ll see exactly what she thinks of me and exactly what she desires.
Chapter Four
Hazel
I’m late. I’m late! How am I running late for the only date I’ve ever been truly excited about in all my life?
Everything was going fine all day, except that I couldn’t sleep last night. My mind would not shut off, and my body was vibrating with excitement. My own anticipation of the very clear deadline I’d given the spell kept me up all night.
It made me anxious a bit as well, because that was bold, wasn’t it? Ordering the universe to show me the truth of his love in one single day? Bold but effective, I think.
What’s done is done, but that didn’t make it any easier to fall asleep.
Then, because I hadn’t slept, I woke up late, smacking the alarm like it had some audacity to pull me from my slumber. It seemed earlier than it was because thick clouds were covering the sky. It was the kind of morning that didn’t seem to know if it wanted to rain or not, so I drove to the shop instead of walking.
And then I spent all day losing track of what I was doing. As if my mind was preoccupied, unable to focus on a thing. I shelved an entire shipment of crystal necklaces in the wrong part of the store and in the wrong order and had to redo them. A group of women on a tour of the area came in while I was halfway through the sandwich I got for lunch, and I rang two of them up backward and had to start over.
It was like the store wanted me to call it quits and close early.
But then what would I do? Show up to the library and hang around in my car, waiting for it to close? I may be a touch obsessed, called to Finley in a way I can’t explain, but I don’t want that to be obvious. And if I wasn’t working I would be consumed with the idea of tonight. Throughout the day all I can think is how obvious it is that the spell worked. It’s as if the intention has woven itself around my being. Tightening as the day has gone on. Perhaps a piece of the spell has bound itself to me. Or maybe it’s a different spell, one from fate. I cannot know.
Since the library closes after the store, I made a point of staying open late.
And then, of course, a group from the paint-and-sip on the other side of the downtown area came in two minutes before I was ready to lock up, and I did my best not to rush them.
Half an hour. They spent half an hour browsing, which I knew was possible but really hoped wouldn’t happen. Late for my first date with Finley. My eyes closed with irritation but, at the very least, I am not desperately waiting for the library to close.
As soon as I closed the door behind them and flipped the sign, the clouds opened up and started pouring down rain. I could not believe it. The darkness that covered the sky and how the clouds seemed to open up.
And then the small light over my shop door flickered and went out. Sparked right before my eyes and the building across the street went dark at the same time.
As I drive down the cobblestone road to the library, I’m pretty sure the whole town is without power, which means the street lights aren’t working, either.
I ease into the intersection, checking all four ways a million times, and wave back at a guy who’s waving me through. Everyone has become very polite since the power went out, but that’s making the drive to the library slower than walking would have been. The temperature outside is suddenly just cold enough to make the street slick, so traffic is at a crawl, and I swear, everyone is out tonight.