Page 51 of House of Malice
“Anything that could explain why he might be acting this way towards our House,” Jolene said over her shoulder. “Keep an eye on documents that might explain where the Dean was during those few years after Venefica. Also, let’s find out the names of all the galleries where he showcased his art.”
Blaze nodded.
“Oh, and if you see any sort of artwork explained in detail, remember the name and its location,” Jolene said. “It might be that he uses the most precious artwork to store the magic.”
Blaze snorted. “That would be so predictable and vain.”
Jolene glanced over her shoulder with a smirk. “Witches are nothing if not vain at the very core.”
Blaze chuckled.
Finally, the bumblebee settled, whizzing around a large leather-bound tome on the middle shelf on their left.
Jolene took the tome out. Despite the age, the cover had been kept nice and clean, but there wasn’t any title on it.
With quick fingers, Jolene flipped the tome open. The cream-colored pages were filled with handwritten text, from the very top to the very bottom. Barely any space was left blank.
“Someone had many things to say,” Blaze murmured, trying to read what was written.
Jolene sighed and lowered herself to the floor. She crossed her legs and placed the heavy tome on the ground in front of her.
“This is how they used to keep records about student activity back in the day, before they had better systems in place at the administration,” Jolene said. “I’ll try to find what’s inside about the Dean. Follow the bumblebee to see if there is more.”
Blaze nodded, leaving Jolene to her devices while he followed the buzzing insect farther down the aisle.
The bumblebee made a few stops at various places, and Blaze quickly flipped through papers and folders, looking for the Dean’s name. Some were simple recollections of events, and others were descriptions of his extracurricular activities at Venefica. But nothing of importance, like mentioning his artwork or his mysterious disappearance.
To Blaze’s surprise, he reached the very end of the book aisle, where the wood merged with the stone wall seamlessly.
The bumblebee whizzed around the bundle of old catalogs on the bottom shelf, at the very corner.
Blaze squatted and pulled the three catalogs out. They were dusty, and the paper was crinkled. Immediately, the bumblebee vanished as abruptly as it had appeared.
“The Artist’s Way,” Blaze read to himself.
It was volume sixty-seven to sixty-nine in his hands. He flipped through the first volume, scanning the text and looking at the drawings of various art pieces, from statues to paintings to rare and magnificent one-of-a-kind leather tomes.
Finally, the Dean’s name caught his eye. There was a two-page spread written about an upcoming art expo in Darly that featured his art. Blaze dropped the volume on the ground next to him and started flipping through the next one.
The other two volumes each had two-page features on the Dean and his art expositions. One was even in the Avalon Hills. Blaze lined up the spreads on the ground and fished out a little notebook from the inner pocket of his leather jacket.
He ripped out the pages one by one and covered the catalogs with them. Once every feature was covered in the notebook pages, Blaze took his bones and whispered, “Levior.”
Slowly, the text and the drawings from the catalogs appeared on the blank pages. When the ink had dried, Blaze gathered the pages and inspected the text, comparing it with the original. Everything seemed to match up.
Blaze gathered the volumes and put them back where he’d found them. Then he walked back where he’d come from, hoping Jolene still had some more reading to do.
It was time for the hunt.
23
Alecto had settled comfortably on one of the large tables in the reading nook. She had stacks of heavy tomes about Mistress Venefica and the history of the academy stacked next to her. It was comfortable, even in this strange and scary place, and the only thing she wished she had was a cup of strong black coffee.
She leaned her chin on her hand as she read the court transcripts from Mistress Venefica’s trials. It was just as fascinating as Alecto had thought it would be, and she wished that this were the only focus of today’s trip to the archives.
The space around her had been quiet since she’d found it. Only one Crahen had passed her, carrying a bundle of rolls and a few books.
Alecto lifted her head when she heard feet shuffling somewhere in the distance. Her heart picked up its pace, and her stomach filled with flutters.
