Page 36 of Witches of Dubious Origin
“She’s never going to forgive me for that.” I sighed.
“Freya? Not to worry. She doesn’t hold grudges, otherwise she’d never forgive Tariq for turning her into a hat.”
“He did not.” I laughed at the image despite my doubt.
“He most certainly did,” Jasper insisted. “He wore poor Freya all winter while he tried to figure out how to reverse the spell.”
“Is everyone at the museum a witch?” I asked.
Jasper pursed his lips as he considered the question. “Not the museum, no. Here in the BODO, however, I suppose the simplest answer is yes, we all have our own talents. Claire, who does not possess any magic, has chosen us each for our different skill sets.”
“She’s created a department of witches to deal with the dubious books.”
“Technically, women are calledwitcheswhilst men are referred to asmages. Because of the nature of our work for the museum, we tend to think of ourselves as academics first. Our mission is to be good stewards for the collection that Mabel left in our care.”
“Mabel Stewart, Thomas’s wife, the woman in the portrait in the hallway outside Claire’s office?” I glanced out at the many shelves of the collection and then back at him. “Was she a witch?”
“She was,” he said. “And she made it her mission to collect as much information as she could because she feared it was a dying art. She wanted to provide a place where witches and mages in future generations would be able to learn their craftbut also to contain those materials that could be dangerous if they fell into the wrong hands. The Books of Dubious Origin collection was built for people like you and me, Zoe.”
I felt the crushing burden of unmet expectations flatten me. I was failing spectacularly and was quite certain Mabel Stewart would be woefully disappointed in me.
“I’m making no progress.” My voice sounded positively defeated.
“I wouldn’t say that,” Jasper said. “You managed to bring Freya to you.”
“Against her will, no doubt,” I said.
“An even bigger achievement.” His eyes twinkled. “Your first intentional magic?”
“Not my first, but it’s been a really long time.” I squinted at him. “What I meant was I’m having no luck translating the grimoire.”
Jasper nodded. “Miles told me.”
I dropped my chin to my knees. I felt like such a fraud. Why couldn’t I crack this code?
“If you’re done beating yourself up, I’d like to show you something.”
“I’m not…That’s not what I was doing.” It totally was and clearly he knew it.
“Of course it was,” he said. “I expect you’re not used to being unable to find the answers you seek, and that has to be a bit of a blow to your ego.”
“This has nothing to do with my ego,” I protested. Although, truthfully, it positively chafed that I couldn’t figure out the meaning of the symbols in the grimoire. “I’m merely upset that I can’t help Eloise.”
“Zoe, it’s not just on you,” Jasper said. “We’re a team here. We’realltrying to help her.”
Miles and Tariq had said as much, but I wasn’t a group project sort of person, so I was adjusting to that as well.
“Is that why you’ve been gone?” I asked.
He nodded. “I was trying to track down an obscure text at the Bodleian that Miles thought would be helpful. Sadly, it’s on loan to a scholar in Sweden.”
“The Bodleian? As in the library at Oxford?” I asked. My inner librarian started to geek out so hard.
“Is there another?” he asked.
“I didn’t realize. I mean, I knew Tariq was calculating the age of the book, but I didn’t know you were working on it, too.”
“As I said, we’re a team, and that includes you.”
