“Kelcie, we will not bother the Falconers over this. We can handle this ourselves,” I said firmly.

“You’ve been saying that a lot Rachael, but I’m not sure you’ve quite realized the scope of the problem,” Kelcie said.

“It’s just some missing books, Kel,” I said confidently, striding over to where Karen was sitting, an unused study room. It was a quiet Tuesday afternoon, I was grateful for that much. None of us seemed to quite have our head in the game when it came to keeping up the charade. “We’re librarians, we can find the books without interrupting the Falconer’s retirement.”

“We should at least let Kinder know,” she said, trying to keep up with me. “He’d-”

“He’d be obligated to let the Falconer’s know,” I finished for her. “No, we can handle this. Come with me.”

She grumbled but followed me anyways as we approached the slight woman. Karen wore thick, black glasses and her short hair was dyed a vivid pink. The kids at the library all loved her, and she’d let them picking the colour of her hair as a prize for our March break read-a-thon. She was also our specialist on the creatures of nature.

“Rachael!” she said when I came close, her voice a mixture of panic and fear. “I’m so sorry, I can’t believe that I fell for that trick! I totally understand if you want to fire me.”

“If I fire you, I need to get a whole new order,” I sighed. “They managed to hit all of the primaries.”

“All of us?” Karen asked, glancing around the room at the other librarians.

I nodded. “I only noticed because one of the books got returned.”

“One of th… How many books are missing, Rachael?” Karen asked, wringing her hands.

“Twenty five.” I’d gone back and counted while I waited for the off-duty librarians to show up. Twenty five out of forty nine books missing before I’d even noticed a problem. I’d had Kelcie check me for glamours too, but unfortunately I didn’t have a convenient excuse for my oversight. Although I had noticed that the orange books were nearly entirely missing as well, in particular Alchemy and Wands. Some of the things in that book could have easily created a compulsion to stay away from that section.

Karen mouthed the number twenty five back to herself. “Did you tell Kinder yet? Or the Falconers?”

“No,” I replied. “And if we’re lucky, we won’t have to.”

“Won’t have to… Rachael, are you crazy?” Karen said, standing up.

“That’s what I said,” Kelcie muttered.

“I think you called me dumb,” I corrected out of habit.

“That too,” Kelcie retorted.

“Either way, I’m not dumb or crazy,” I said, pulling out the paper towel. “Both of you, rack your brain and tell me if this looks familiar.”

I handed the paper towel sketch to Karen and she gave it a quick glance. “What is it?”

“According to Amber, the person she saw was wearing it,” I said.

“And how am I supposed to know what it is?” Karen asked.

“It’s a leaf sigil,” I said, “A leaf that was probably worn by a fae. I’m sure you two must be able to work out something.” Karen gawked at me while Kelcie spluttered. “That… That’s not how it works, Rachael!”

“Why not?” I pressed, putting my hands on my hips. “You are the expert on Fae, aren’t you? It looks like a clan symbol to me.”

“Yes… And yes but…”

“But what?” I demanded.

“But Fae don’t work like that! They change alliances like you and I change clothing! Even if this was a clan symbol, it doesn’t mean it’s a current one!”

“Creatures in the books can’t switch alliances, Kelcie” I said, tapping my foot. “That’s why they’re in the books. To be contained.”

“Well clearly, some of them aren’t contained.” She was getting loud now, and trying to make herself taller. It might have worked if she wasn’t the shortest librarian we had. “And if those ones aren’t contained, they may well have created a new sigil. Or combined two older ones. Or revived one that we already captured. Or even just picked one that belonged to another guy to settle a grudge!”

“You should at least know enough to know if it’s in the book,” I said, miffed.

Kelcie scowled. “Have you memorized every rune and sigil in your specialization?”

“Yes,” I said, begrudgingly. Kelcie scowled more.

“Even then, it’s not the same,” Karen said gently. “There’s at least a dozen creatures that might have used a feather or oak leaf in my field alone. Then you add in Kel’s-”

“So get me a list of possible suspects then,” I said, throwing up my hands. “At least give me something to work on.”

Kelcie sighed. “You know there is another copy of the books…”

“Let’s at least exhaust all possibilities first,” I said firmly. “Maybe get Amber in on this, maybe she can help with the feather.”

“It. Doesn’t. Work. Like. That,” Kelcie growled, but I was already walking away towards the back room. The other librarians turned to look at me as I walked through the lobby. We’d had them separated while we broke the glamours, but now they were all slowly emerging from the rooms. Presumably to discuss how collectively fucked we were.

“Where are you going?” Karen called, following me out of the study room. Kelcie just shot daggers at my back.

“I’m going to get suited up,” I said.

“We don’t even have a target yet!” Karen yelled, stopping in her tracks. I saw Mark walking towards me from the far side of the library, but he would only try to talk me out of this. I added a bit more speed.

“Then find me one!” I yelled. “Because if you don’t, then I need to start looking for one.”

I pushed open the door to the backroom and slipped behind the rows of used books and extra chairs. There, nestled in the back, was a massive wrought iron gateway. The gate was solid, backed with thick, black wood. The iron designs etched out a seven pointed star, with runes and sigils marking every point. I did know what they meant, even without having to look them up. But then, these runes were easy. They were one of the first secrets any of us learned.

I reached into my blouse, pulling out an ornate key on a long chain necklace. The key was black, just like the gate, and held a large, indigo gem in the bow. Even in the dim light, I could see that it swirled with reds and blacks in it’s core. Before Mark or Karen could catch up, I fitted it into the keyhold in the centre of the star, turning it with a satisfying click.

“And if I need to start asking questions,” I whispered, “I still want to be armoured up.”

“Why did you bring your sister?” Opi asked.

Syra shrugged, “When I told her what we were doing, she wanted in.”

“You wanted my class ring!” Rou said, “I’m not going to let you trade away my class ring for magical powers without at least getting in on this.”

Syra rolled her eyes. “I told you, it’s not going to work anyways. But they wanted a tourmaline for this.”

“And lucky you, I own one,” Rou said, plunking herself down in the corner of the clubhouse.

“Still think it’s an ugly stone,” Syra muttered.

“Luckily, no one asked you,” Rou said, working the ring off her finger. She passed it to me and I inspected it. It was a silver ring, with our school’s crest stamped into the side. The other side had the year 2013 imprinted in it. In the middle was a large, orange starburst stone. It was one of the school’s colours, but Syra was right, it wasn’t a terribly pretty colour. Although looking at Rou’s electric blue hair, I thought maybe it suit her perfectly.

“Thank you for letting us use it,” Sam said, smiling at Rou.

She squirmed uncomfortably. “Only if you let me join in the ritual,” she reiterated.

“Of course,” Sam said. “You know you’re always welcome to hang out with us, Rou.”

She’d gotten the nickname years ago, back when she used to hang out with us more. Before we had met Opi too. She’d been the best double-dutch player on the school yard, and everyone knew it. In a jump-a-thon for heart disease, she’d gone for 6 hours straight and earned a ice cream day for her entire class. Of course, then she’d gone off to high school two years earlier than we did, and by the time we got there too, she was too embarrassed to hang out with us ‘Minor niners’. Personally, I’d always thought it hit Sam the hardest out of any of us. But Sam didn’t seem concerned now.

On the other hand, Rou did seem uncomfortable. Well good, I thought nastily. Maybe she feels guilty about ignoring us.

“What about you Mary, did you get your components?” Opi asked.

I pulled out a small glass jar, filled with a few dribbles of water. “I hope you all appreciate how hard it is to collect dewdrops at sunrise.” I said, plunking the jar into the middle of the room. I’d had to get up at 5 AM to do it, just to get out of the house on time. It had looked pretty, at least, with all the grass sparkling when the sun hit it.

“Is that going to be enough?” Opi asked, tilting the jar.

“It better be,” I replied. By the time I had to leave for school I’d just barely got enough to wet your fingers, and my pyjamas had been soaked through. “What about you?”

“I couldn’t convince my parents to start a fire last night,” he complained. “They said it was too warm.”

“So what, this was for nothing?” I asked. We’d assigned Opi to the component to collect ’a spark of rebirth.’ We’d all agreed that an ember that could be used to rekindle a fire would be the most effective. Opi had promised that he’d get his parents to set up a fire last night, then grab one of the embers in the morning.

“I grabbed these instead,” he said, pulling out a book of matches and a box of birthday candles. “When I called Sam she said maybe they would work instead.”

I looked at Sam and a quick explanation poured out of her mouth. “Well, I thought maybe since birthday’s are like, the day that you’re born, and we blow out the candles to signify that you’re a year older, maybe it would work? I know it’s not really rebirth but it’s kinda on the same themes…”

“I don’t know…” I said.

Syra scoffed. “Mary, if this doesn’t work it’s not going to be because he didn’t get the right kind of spark. It’ll be because magic isn’t real and this is dumb.”

“I’m going to laugh if this works for everyone except you, because you didn’t believe in it,” I said, sticking my tongue out at her. “Fine, close enough. What about you Sam?”

Sam opened her hands to reveal a handful of milkweed fluff. I counted the dark seeds to ascertain she had seven. They were there.

“And all of them were caught out of the air?” I asked, “The book was clear that they had to be plucked from the sky.”

“Yup!” she said proudly. “My mom always called these ‘wishies’. If you caught them you were supposed to make a wish then let them go. If they touched the ground, it wouldn’t come true.”

“I wonder if that’s relevant,” Rou said. “Can I see the book?”

I passed it over to her, pulling some stolen chalk out of my backpack. “You should draw the runes too,” I said.

“Why me?” Rou asked.

I shrugged. “Sam collected the milkweed. I collected the dew. Opi got the candles and Syra sort of got the tourmaline. So if you draw the diagram, we all contributed.”

Opi nodded and Sam added, “Plus, you were always the best artist. I still can’t make a circle.”

Rou took the chalk, studying the book. “Yeah, I can probably draw this. Sam, make sure you don’t put that milkweed down though.”

Sam nodded, sliding back into the corner of the clubhouse as Rou began to draw.

“Were we supposed to say something while we draw this?” I asked, “Or maybe sing something?”

“I didn’t see anything in the book,” Rou said. “But I guess you can if you want.” “What would you even sing for something like this?” Syra asked, stepping back so Rou could finish her circle.

“Hocus Pocus by Focus,” Sam said. We all giggled nervously as Rou drew the lines.

In the corner, Opi started humming a quick paced tune. I wasn’t sure what it was right away, but suddenly it clicked into place. I wasn’t sure why he’d jumped to Offspring, but I hummed along with him.

“You guys are weird,” Rou said. She leaned back again, comparing the sketch to the book. “Does this look right?”

I looked over her shoulder and couldn’t spot anything that seemed out of order. “I think that’ll work?”

Opi leaned over as well, inspecting the lines carefully. “You missed a line here,” he said, pointing out the missed rune.

“Good catch,” Rou said leaning over to fix the drawing. She and Opi pored over the tomb for a bit longer before agreeing it was complete.

“Who goes first?” I whispered, staring at the lines.

“I will,” Sam said.

“They got Karen too,” Kelcie whispered in my ear. She’d come in, arm cast and all when I called. So had most of the other librarians.

I groaned, writing another name on my list. “At this rate, it might be easier to name who they didn’t get, Kelcie.”

“Uh… Well, they didn’t glamour me, so far as I can tell,” Kelcie replied. “And Mark seemed clean too.”

“Okay, that’s good information,” I said, turning the list over and writing the names upside down.

“And they didn’t glamour you either,” Kelcie added.

“Of course not,” I muttered, “Faeries hate salt.”

I heard the woman snerk under her breath and I grinned at her. “Did you figure out anything about who took out the rest of the books, Kel?”

“Beyond that they were fae?”

“Well yeah, if they’re casting glamours then obviously we have fae,” I replied. “I meant something useful that could track them down.”

Kelcie snorted at me, making her dark bangs fall over her eyes. “I appreciate your faith in me, but even other faeries have trouble spotting glamoured faeries. Your best bet is probably in that brooch that Amber described.”

I flipped up the top sheet of my clipboard, looking at the paper towel doodle under the list. It was loose and sketchy, but still better than the other reports we had gotten. “An old woman” according to Jeff. “A blond boy” according to Nate.

“Did Karen say who she lent the book to?” I asked, “Any descriptors would help at this point.”

Kelcie shrugged. “She said they smelled like rain and wanted one of the blue books. “Haunting Melodies” she thinks.”

I wrote that down too, she was the first one to remember the book title. “Looks like Jeff and Nate got hit the hardest out of everyone so far. Do you think they could have been the ones to loan out multiple books?”

“I think you’re making assumptions we can’t afford to make, Rach,” Kelcie replied. “They might have just been generally less observant than the other two. Most men wouldn’t notice a perfume or brooch on a good day.”

“Well give me something, Kel!” I snapped. “So far, I’m cruising the city looking for a boy or woman wearing a brooch who smells like rain. I think most people would agree this isn’t feasible, and that I need more to go off.”

“You have the design of the sigil,” Kelcie retorted. “That’s probably enough to identify which house the faeries hailed from, and potentially what they were looking for.”

“Which would be great,” I said, rolling my eyes, “If they hadn’t stolen the reference to the house sigils as what I can only assume was their first act.”

“Sometimes, Rachael, you act really dumb for smart person,” Kelcie said, rubbing the inner corners of her eyes.

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“Yeah, we’re missing the books. But we aren’t missing the book’s source.”

“If you tell me to just go ask the fae, you’re pretty dumb as well,” I retorted. Not my wittiest moment, granted, but in that moment Kelcie was shaking her head.

“Just go to the Falconers. See what they remember.”

“Where did you say you got this?” Syra asked, running her hands over the tooled leather cover. The vibrant orange leather seemed to glow in the dim light of the dusty clubhouse. We were getting a little too old for the clubhouse, but it was still the best place to go for privacy in Sam’s house. Her parents were nice enough, but they could be a little over-bearing at times.

“It was in a garage sale that my parents took me to,” Opi said, leaning over the book. “I found it in a stack of lame romance novels.”

“But what is it?” I asked, grabbing at the leather book. There was an golden ribbon tied around the book and knotted near the front. I tugged the ribbon open and the book bounced up in my hands, barely held shut by the weight of the cover.

Opi shrugged. “I dunno Mary, I hadn’t opened it yet. I was waiting until I could show you guys.”

“So you don’t even know what’s inside?” I teased. “What if it turns out to be like, some dumb romance story with a fancy cover?”

“That could be cool too!” Syra said. “It might be like, ‘Avery grabbed Henry’s throbbing member, stroking it gently…’”

“Eww, Syra, why is that where your brain goes?” Sam said, cutting her off. Her face had gone so pink her freckles had nearly vanished.

Syra shrugged, “I just think it’d be funny if it was all porn.”

“Well, no luck for that,” I said, peeking inside the cover. “Opi was right, this book is cool.”

Sam leaned closer to me. “What’d he find?”

I spread the book wide on the floor of the clubhouse. “It looks like a book of magic spells.”

“What?” Sam said, craning her head around to look at the page. “Be serious, Mary.”

“No really, I think it’s a spell book!” I said, pointing out the runes on the page. “Like, read this bit. Locust of air. To cast this spell, you will need 5 wings of the mayfly, 7 maple keys, and the breath of a sleeping cat. You will also need to connect to a leyline of air.”

“That just sounds like gibberish,” Syra said, pushing aside her long, blonde hair, but Opi was leaning over now as well.

“I knew this book was going to be awesome,” he said, a smile creeping across his face to reveal crooked teeth and braced. I smiled back at him shyly.

Sam pulled the book towards herself, flipping back the pages. “What’s the first spell? Maybe we can try these.”

“Do you really believe these are spells?” Syra frowned. “It’s probably all nonsense and fairy tales.”

Sam gave her a sheepish look. “Maybe? If they don’t work, then no harm, right?”

I flipped through to the beginning. “The first spell says it’s some sort of initiation?”

Opi practically pushed me out of the way to look. “Seriously?”

“Yeah,” I said, moving back a bit to give him more room.

Opi started to read the book out loud. “One of the first things any new sorcerer should do is perform an initiation ritual. Such a ritual will allow them to see beyond the mortal veil and into the leylines that cross the globe. This initiation process is crucial to learning any further spells within this book.”

“Okay, that’s the spell we should try,” I declared.

“I don’t believe you’re taking this seriously,” Syra scoffed.

I stuck out my tongue. “If you don’t think it’s real, you don’t have to do it.”

“If she doesn’t think it’s real, it won’t really matter, will it?” Opi said. “We’ll just do it and nothing will happen and she’ll be able to tell us ‘I told you so.’”

“See, Opi speaks my language,” Syra said, leaning in towards the book.

“So, are we all doing this?” Sam asked, crowding around the book. I pushed my way into the circle as well.

“We should all do this,” I said firmly. “Otherwise, someone can just lie and say it worked and we can’t prove it.”

“That’s a really dumb reason,” Syra said, but it wasn’t a real protest.

“Are we all in?” I pressed.

“Yeah,” Opi said. Syra and Sam nodded as well.

“Cool. Let’s see what we need,” I said, looking for the steps.