Blood Witch_ Book Three - Cate Tiernan [1]
I glanced at my watch. Eight o’clock. The movie theater was at least a twenty-minute drive from here, and the movie started at eight-fifteen. I swallowed. “I’m really sorry,” I said. “I just—”
“Morgan,” Selene said. She stepped farther into the room. For the first time I saw tense lines on her youthful face, so like Cal’s. “This is my private retreat. No one is allowed in here except me.”
Now I was nervous. Her voice was calm, but I sensed the leashed anger underneath. Was I in real trouble? I stood up at her desk and closed the book. “I—I know I shouldn’t be in here, and I didn’t mean to intrude. But I was walking along the hall, and then suddenly I just fell against this door, and it opened. Once I was inside, I couldn’t stop looking at everything. It’s the most amazing library. . . .” My voice trailed off.
Selene and Cal gazed at me. I couldn’t read their eyes, nor could I get any sense of what was going through their minds, and that made me even more nervous. I wasn’t lying, but I hadn’t told them the whole story, either. I had also been trying to avoid Sky Eventide and Hunter Niall, two English witches who were here tonight to take part in one of Selene’s circles. For some reason, these two guests of Selene’s filled me with inexplicable dread. When I’d heard them coming along the hall, I had tried to avoid them—and had ended up stumbling into this secret library. It had been an accident.
That’s right, I thought. It had been an accident. Nothing to be ashamed of. Besides, I wasn’t the only one who had some explaining to do. I had a few questions for Selene.
“This is Maeve Riordan’s Book of Shadows,” I found myself saying. My voice sounded loud, harsh in my ears. “Why do you have it? And why didn’t you tell me you had it? You both know I’ve been trying to find out about her. I mean . . . don’t you think I’d want to see something that belonged to her?”
Cal seemed surprised. He glanced at his mother.
Selene reached behind her and shut the door, closing us all inside the secret room. No one walking down the hall would ever notice the door’s almost invisible line. Her beautiful eyebrows arched as she came closer to me.
“I know you’ve been trying to find out about your mother,” she said. In the golden halo of the lamplight her expression seemed to soften. She glanced at the book. “How much have you read?”
“Not a lot.” I chewed my lip anxiously.
“Have you come across anything surprising?”
“Not really,” I said, watching her.
“Well, a Book of Shadows is a very personal thing,” Selene said. “Secrets are revealed there, unexpected things. I was waiting to tell you about it because I know what it contains, and I wasn’t sure you were ready to read it.” Her voice fell to a whisper. “I’m not sure you’re ready now, but it’s too late.”
My face tightened. Maybe I had been violating a private area of her house, but I had a right to know about my mother. “But it’s not really your decision to make,” I argued. “I mean, she was my mother. Her Book of Shadows should be mine. That’s what you’re supposed to do with Books of Shadows, pass them down to your children. It is mine.”
Selene blinked at my strong words. She glanced at Cal again, but he was looking at me. Once more my fingers tingled as they traced the book’s worn leather cover.
“So why do you have it?” I repeated.
“I got it by accident,” Selene said. A fleeting smile crossed her face. “Though of course most witches don’t believe in accidents. My hobby is collecting Books of Shadows—really, I collect almost any book having to do with witchcraft, as you can see.” She waved an elegant hand at the shelves in the room. “I work with several dealers, mostly in Europe, who have standing orders to send me whatever books they have of interest—any Book of Shadows, no matter what its condition. I find them fascinating. I take them with me wherever we go and set them up in a private study, as I did here when we moved in this past summer. To me, they’re