Page 45 of The Vanishing Bookstore
Sephy shook her head. ‘Not really, it’s a mess and Lenny has gone back to London so we’re not even together.’
Ambrose felt a kind of relief that it was Lenny who the bird was talking about. ‘Why?’
‘Dora’s friend is missing, and her flower shop has been broken into. There is blood in there apparently and the police told her they needed her help, but we couldn’t let her go. So Lenny has gone in her place, but it all feels wrong and off kilter.’
As Sephy led him down to the kitchen, they passed the cat sitting on the bottom step who reached out one paw to claw at his leg, but it was only a feeble attempt. Ambrose absentmindedly bent down and scratched her on her favouritespot behind her ears for a few seconds then followed Sephy into the kitchen where the table had rows of black salt on top of it.
‘I’ll find Dora…’
Ambrose reached out and hugged Sephy, who smelled like the sweetest vanilla essence with a tiny bit of lemon thrown into the mix. She held onto him for a few moments, then let him go. She picked up one of the jars of salt and handed it to him. There were dishes containing crystals on the dresser and from them she grabbed tiger’s eye, selenite and large chunk of jet, wrapped them in a tissue and gave them to him.
‘Keep those in your pocket to protect you and the salt might be enough to help keep him a safe distance away if you find him or he finds you. I gave the exact same ones to Dora.’
He pushed them into his pocket. ‘Thank you.’ He didn’t want to find his Uncle George but he would be ready if he did.
Then he turned and found himself running this time. He thought of his old bookstore. The one that had vanished all those lives ago. Was she there? Had she finally found it? He’d loved Dora for all of his lifetimes and always would. Dracula may have crossed oceans of time to find his love, but Ambrose had lived through centuries of lives to find his true love and that was and always would be Isadora English.
27
Lenny drove to Boston in record time, the highways were clear and before long the signs for Logan airport were directing her to the departure terminal. Dora hadn’t spoken much before she left, and she knew she was worried for her friends, Lenny got that although she herself tried not to make friends and get too close to people. They either left, died or turned into huge disappointments. Family was what mattered and Ambrose, too – that poor kid had got dragged into this a long time ago and all he’d done was help Dora. Lenny supposed none of them had expected this to happen, but it had and here they were. She’d long given up trying to understand how they could be born again and again with the same memories, they didn’t always look quite the same except for their black hair that turned silver by the time they had to prepare to battle Cowrin and emerald-green eyes, those were the two constants every lifetime.
She needed a drink and walked into the departure terminal where she spotted a cocktail bar.
Lenny was seething with anger. She’d done her best, had given up her family, her life to keep Dora safe and for what? Here they were, Dora had a head full of mixed emotions after meeting her aunt and her dying mom, she was in mortal dangerand had been about to rush headfirst to the very person Lenny had spent the last quarter of a century keeping her safe from. She sat at the bar and ordered a double bourbon on the rocks. She took her drink to a small table tucked away in the corner, a part of her hoping that there were no flights today, she didn’t want to go back to London so soon.
Her phone rang and she answered, hearing Dora’s voice. ‘Are you angry with me?’
Lenny shrugged. ‘I don’t know what I am, Dora. Tired is probably a good enough word to describe how I’m feeling, weary is another.’
‘What am I supposed to do, Lenny? I can’t ignore that my best friend in the world is missing and Mabel my other friend might be being held hostage in her own flat.’
‘I wouldn’t expect you to.’
‘Good because I can’t.’
Lenny took a large sip of her drink. ‘I’m sorry about your friends, I really am, but me rushing off to London is putting everyone in danger, I need you to be aware of that. I’m not saying I won’t go because I will, but you need to know that this is serious.’
‘I do know that and I’m very grateful to you for going, but I’d rather go myself. I can get an Uber and come there now.’
‘No, Sephy would kill me if I let you go. She may look all sweetness and light, but she has a wicked temper. You need to find the missing book.’
‘I know, I’m looking for Ambrose now to see if he can help me.’
‘Thank you. I should have given you some of this information before, some little life hacks to help with the day-to-day stuff. But I didn’t so here they are: when you get back be sure to pop a rose quartz in your bra, always keep tiger’s eye in your pocketand some citrine in your purse. If you have no citrine a condom will suffice.’
‘What?’
‘It’s simple magic, Dora, the simplest any fool can use. Rose quartz encourages self-love and other kinds of love, it will keep your heart open and warm, you need that; tiger’s eye provides protection, which you almost certainly need, to be fair you need a chunk the size of the Eiffel Tower but you’d never be able to fit it in your pocket; and citrine attracts abundance. A condom will save you against expensive life choices so it’s basically the same.’
‘Are you being serious?’
‘I never joke about love, wealth or protection, Dora. Inside that pouch Lucine gave you earlier are some of the strongest protection crystals along with the black salt. They should help if for some ungodly reason Corwin finds you before we’re ready. Don’t be afraid to use them, they could just save your life.’ She stared into space over the top of the heavy crystal bourbon glass.
Dora didn’t bother asking her aunt how she knew about the pouch, Lenny always knew everything. ‘Are you insane?’
Lenny laughed, tipped her head back and swallowed the amber liquid then clicked her fingers at the barman for another. She continued, her voice no longer a whisper.
‘You have to believe what you will. When you’re finally up for an intellectual discussion on the basic principles of magic then come and see me when I get back.’
