Page 44 of Death and Do-Overs

Her stature loosened and a smile spread over her face. “Good, that’s what I want.”

“Me, too.”

She was staring at me, wide grin, eyes searching for approval.

I shifted in my seat and changed the subject. “Tell me about the shelter.”

With the energy of someone who’d already downed three cups of coffee before arriving in town, Imogen regaled me with tales of flood-control efforts and updates on all of the animals. The water was no longer causing new damage. Everyone was safe.

It was no surprise that Wendy had everything under control, but hearing about it was still a relief.

“Did you know that Nevermore is one of only three towns in the entire world that’s off limits to The Library? Like no librarian justice can reach this little blip on the map. The librarians can’t even come here.” Imogen spread books across the tabletop.

The change in subject gave me whiplash.

“How would I know that?” I took a long drag of my coffee. The bitter black liquid burned a little on the way down.

Imogen shrugged. “You know now. I actually just found out, too. I’m sure Lily would have told me, but she’s away on a mission, so she’s unreachable. I actually found Nevermore in one of the books I borrowed from The Library the other day. How lucky is that?”

It wasn’t luck. Imogen spent all of her free time borrowing books from The Library and learning everything she could about all topics even tangentially connected to magic.

“Good work,” I told her. “But I thought we were waiting to contact Lily.”

I said the words as gently as possible, completely without accusation.

“I mean, Rose said no Library, and I said yay to The Library,” Imogen said. “And um, well, I called Lily, not so I could tell her the details of your situation, but just to see if she’d be around. She can be hard to get ahold of. When she didn’t answer, I called Madison.”

Calm, non-judgmental, no snarl, I reminded myself. “Who is Madison?”

“She’s another friend at The Library.”

“Mmm,” I said.

“Don’t worry, I swear I didn’t tell her anything about what’s going on with you. I was totally chill and aloof and didn’t tell her anything.”

Imogen was repeating herself.

When I didn’t respond, she licked her lips and continued, “I think I told you about the jackalopes, with their humming antlers and the cause of death toe tags. I did, right? Yeah, I definitely told you. Well, they can tell you how someone died. I wasn’t sure if they’d help since we don’t have Nie’s toe, but I asked Madison if it would be possible for me to use them for a personal matter.”

That would be helpful. “What did Madison say?”

“She said no.” Imogen wrinkled her nose and frowned.

“That’s unfortunate.”

Imogen nodded.

I’d have to make the most out of the knowledge Imogen had accrued from The Library. I thought back to what Levi had said about Nie, that her injuries were frozen.

“Do you think Wendy’s magic could have frozen Nie’s injuries?” I asked.

“You mean like being undead keeps her from decaying? Sure.”

“What about the fact that her wound is so clean? There’s no blood at all.”

“That happened before Wendy touched her.”

True. “Could that be caused by a curse?”

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