signingbooks Episode Two Hundred and Thirty-Eight: Fate Bound Books
Episode Two Hundred and Thirty-Eight: Fate Bound Books
My stomach growled just thinking about the order, and I turned toward the kitchen. I could prepare drinks to bring upstairs, and once the order was here, I could wake the Cat. Or just try to feed him some while sleeping.Light trickled out of an archway that hadn’t been there before on the right side of the shop.
“Betty?” I asked with a whisper, as I couldn’t help but move around the counter.
Warmth came from beneath my feet, urging me to investigate.
As I moved closer, I recognized the room beyond. It was the Cat’s workshop, or library might be a better word. The walls were covered with books, not organized in the best order. The wooden table in the center held the glowing golden book that hadn’t provided any help recently.
The shield over the fireplace drew my attention as I stepped inside.
That shield had introduced the question of who the Cat had been before he became the Cat. Yet, despite his imprisonment and form, he was still a Feylord, and his people needed him. His children needed him.
The book sat open, the light having gotten me to step inside his private space.
He didn’t want me here. He didn’t want me to read the book. The magic inside might be dangerous, and could hurt me, he’d said.
I stepped closer, pressing my lips together. Betty brought me here for a reason, so I ignored the magical tome. This room needed to contain something that would help break him free from the curse.
The wooden table trembled, but not like normal when Betty messed with something. Then the pages in the book began to flip. Not to the next page, but backward, to the beginning.
It snapped shut.
Warmth from the fireplace pushed against the sudden chill that ran up my spine.
“Betty, why am I here?” I asked quietly.
The table rattled.
I wanted to reach out and touch the book. It might hold the secret to freeing the Cat. Yet, he’d asked, no, me to stay away from it.
“Oh, honey,” I said with a whisper. I set my hand on the table, but didn’t move any closer to the other side. “As much as I want to help him, I won’t break his trust. The Cat will show me the book, when he’s ready.”
At least, I hoped he would.
A small voice in the back of my head warned me that this was my chance. The one time I could check it out.
But I held back. The Cat needed to trust me, as I trusted him.
I patted the table. “I appreciate the gesture, and after dinner I’ll talk to him. We’ll ask if I could safely look at the book and see if my fate magic can make it work again.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The table trembled again, but this time clarity came from it.
“It will all work out, Betty,” I said, as I turned away from the book. It was harder pulling my eyes away from the cover then I’d like to admit. Yet, as I stepped away from the table, a gentle knock at the door drew my attention.
“Oh, dinner!” It felt like that had been fast, but Betty could mess with time and location, and it felt like maybe she had.
I hurried over to the door and cracked it open, yet a short elderly lady stepped inside before I could say anything.
“Oh, you’re open!” she said, clutching her purse as her eyes wandered around the shop. “You might have a package for me. The tracking stuff said it was delivered here for Flora’s Gallery.”
“A package?” I asked, still shocked she’d just nudged me aside and into the shop. “Wait, from the robot delivery?”
She nodded a few times. “Yes, that new fangled horrible service. My poor normal delivery guy only missed a week before they replaced the robot, but I’m still missing the package.”
I hurried to the counter, but slowed down to make sure she didn’t follow me.
“Wait here,” I said, holding up a hand. “It should be in our stock room.”
It took only seconds to dart into the room and find the package, right next to the door. The cardboard and tape was still intact. I hadn’t opened it, since I didn’t know how to get it to the actual recipient, but it wasn’t for me.
“Oh,” she said as she held her hands out to me. “You did receive it! It wasn’t lost to the echoes of time.”
“What is it, anyway?” I asked before handing it over. While Betty didn’t make mistakes, you never knew what could happen across the worlds. There had to be a reason it’d showed up here.
The old lady smiled as she pointed at it. “That is a new sculpture for an exhibit called the Folly of Felix.”
I handed the box over as I repeated the name inside my head.
“I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get it back, and it isn’t something replaceable,” she said, pulling the box close. She slipped her purse over her wrist and turned to leave the shop.
“Well, that’s one less thing I need to worry about,” I said as she turned to leave, making my way back around the counter. Food should be here soon, and I wanted to re-lock the door.
“Oh, my!” the old woman exclaimed as stumbled over something on the floor.
I rushed forward, reaching to grab her elbow. “Are you okay?” I asked.
She didn’t drop the package, but she bent down and picked something up off the floor.
“Oh, I can get it,” I said, without being able to see what it was. Probably just the rug under the center table.
“You need to be careful about leaving books around,” she said, turning in my direction. “Especially books like this.”
I reached out to take it before my brain caught up with what she was holding. Golden light shimmered along the end of it as my fingers took it from her.
“This–” my voice cut off, as more golden light spilled from the book from the Cat’s room.
“Is a sign from the fates.” This time her voice echoed out of her body with three voices. “It is time for you to approach your destiny.”
A shiver wrecked my body as I yanked my gaze away from the book and to the woman. Except it wasn't just a woman any longer. Three shimmering golden shadows stood behind her, and her eyes blazed white. The voices came from them.
“You!” I pointed at them. “You cursed the Cat.”
“He needed to fix that which he destroyed. Fix the ripples across the universe, before it was too late.” Again, the voices came from all directions, but all three of them were saying the same thing.
“Hasn’t he done enough?” I asked, still resisting looking down at the book clenched tight in my fingers.
“Yes,” the whisper came from one of them, before the two others said the same thing. “He clutches too tight. Must let go…”
#
Something jerked me awake; a warning. The windows rattled as both my eyes snapped open. The ceiling overhead went dark.
My energy lagged as I fought to get to my paws, and failed. Where was Sable?
I blinked as another pulse of energy rattled through the room.