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That Friday, Gimble assembled everyone in her home. Again, the warmth of baking cookies floated through the house, as well as pizza. The pizza wasn’t freshly made, but it was plentiful, coming in a stack of boxes from the local big box wholesaler. Ty carried them in, a door created just so she could transport them without having to use the ferry, and Elliot watched hungrily, idly entertaining the idea of getting to take a whole box home.

They gathered in Gimble’s living room, sitting on overstuffed couches and cushions on the floor, eating and talking about the week. Meryl arrived with Ty, bringing barbecue from a place in the International District, a Chinese restaurant that had long become part of the fabric of “Seattle.” Cassie arrived soon after, whom Elliot was surprised to see, but happy all the same. She set a bottle of wine down on Gimble counter, and she and Gimble gossiped about the other covens in the area. Z came last, carrying a pack of local craft beer in one hand, and a case of diet cola in the other. She hugged Elliot as soon as she could.

“I’m glad you came,” Z said. “These are nice. After a week of work, it’s nice to be social for a while.”

Elliot nodded absently. She was watching the edges for the ghosts. Despite her anxiety, they kept visible the entire time, socializing with people as they arrived. Meryl even happily hugged them, somehow, like they were old friends.

Elliot found a spot on a couch, not too far removed from the socializing, pulling her legs to her chest. She quietly ate her pizza, entertaining the idea of one of the beers Z brought, except that she hated hipster beer — if she could describe the beer as being ‘beardy’, she would. It’s a beardy beer — and anyways, she didn’t want to feel tipsy right then.

Meryl flopped down on the couch with her, and Elliot’s ears dropped to the side of her head. The whole point of sitting over there was to be out of the action, and yet…

Meryl gave her a crooked smile and offered her some of her Chinese. “How have you been?” She asked. “I feel like it’s been forever.”

“Uhm…” Elliot said. “Fine? I’m still processing a lot.”

“Yeah…” Meryl said. “You opened the floodgates huh? But you’ll get there, and we’ll help you.”

Elliot looked down at her pizza. “Thanks.” She thought a moment. “I don’t get why you guys are nice to me, but I appreciate it.”

Meryl smiled and let her eyes drift to the ceiling. “Yeah, we’ve all be there. Some day you won’t have to guess why we care. We care because we’ve all been baby witches and we all needed support. Things can go really badly if you don’t have the right support.”

Elliot’s ear twitched in thought. “How do I know you’re the right support?”

Meryl looked over at her, locking eyes, and for a moment, she felt as though Meryl was trying to grab her soul from her. And then she gave Elliot a broad, wild smile. “Because we’ve been on the wrong side of bad support.”

“Wha-?”

“You wanna see a really cool scar??” Meryl grabbed the rim of her shirt and started to lift it up.

“Meryl!” Ty called from the kitchen. “Cassie wants to know about your costume for Emerald City ComicCon.”

“Oh!” Meryl said. And she was gone, like she had never been there to begin with.

Elliot sat stunned for a moment, and then finished her slice of pizza.

“I’m glad you made it,” Gimble said. She sat down next to Elliot, holding a glass of red wine.

“Thanks,” Elliot said softly.

“Have you had enough to eat?” She asked. “There’s plenty more in the kitchen. Please take all you need.”

“I’m fine,” Elliot said. “Thank you. This is…” Elliot thought a moment. “I didn’t really had a lot to eat for a long time, so sometimes my body doesn’t want me to stop eating and I have to be careful.”

Gimble nodded thoughtfully. “That’s really good to know. I’m glad you told me. My family saw starvation in its recent history, so feeding those we care about is incredibly important. I will, however, trust that you have what you need.”

“You guys are all so nice.”

Gimble patted her arm. “So, are you ready to learn more?”

Elliot looked up at Gimble. “Yeah, totally. I’m ready to learn. What…” She looked around, feeling silly. “Are there, like, spells? Do I get a wand? Are there wands?”

“Oh, absolutely,” Gimble said. “We’ll work on spells and divination too. All the things you need to know to get started. We can talk all about that this weekend. But first, I have homework for you.”

“What? What am I, 12?”

“I want you to be looking for magic around you.”

“Oh, okay.” Elliot said. “I’ll just look for magic.”

“It’s there, if you know what to look for.”

“But I don’t-”

Gimble smiled. “I want to see if you pick up on it first. After that, we’ll talk all about it.”

Elliot nodded. “Okay. I think I can do that.”

“Good. Do you have a grimoire yet? That’s the perfect place to write it all down.”

“Yeah, it’s just a notebook but…” She wandered if she should tell Gimble about Right Determination.”

“A notebook will do,” Gimble said. “As long as you can write in it. But I do think you should take Right Determination up on her offer.”

“Did you just…” Elliot leaned closer. “Did you just read my mind, because I’m not okay with that.”

Gimble took a thoughtful sip of her wine. “Z mentioned a demon had offered you a book. I made an educated guess that it was her.”

“You know her?” Elliot’s ears perked. Gimble let out a low laugh.

“She’s somewhat known among the covens. And it sounds like she’s happy to help you out.”

“Yeah…” Elliot didn’t know what to say. She looked around. Everyone else had made it into the living room, and they were talking about what movie to watch. Meryl sat down in between Elliot and Gimble and fixed her eyes on Ty.

“But it’s almost Halloween!” She said. “We have to watch a scary movie!”

“We’re not watching Dead Alive,” Ty said.

Meryl turned to Elliot. “You’ll love it, it’s so gross!”

“Yeah, that’s why we’re not watching it. I would like to sleep tonight.”

“I’ll help you sleep!” Z said.

“You wish,” Ty said. “The current leader is Alien.”

“I’m just saying, Sigourney Weaver,” Cassie said. “Just like, all of that on the screen.”

Elliot leaned over to Gimble. “Can I learn how to defend myself? Like, is there a spell for that?” She asked, her voice just above a whisper.

“Is this about the boy that’s been following you?” Gimble asked.

Elliot hesitated. “…Yes?”

“It might be best for now to avoid confrontation. At least until we can figure out what’s happening.”

Elliot nodded. “Okay.” She sank back to her spot and listened to the argument. God, it couldn’t be that hard to pick a movie.

She sighed and remembered the beverages in the kitchen. She quietly excused herself and wandered away. In the kitchen, she leaned against the counter, folding her arms over her chest, and let the noise of the other room fade. She thought about more pizza, and even the beer. It’d be nice to calm down for a bit. And didn’t have to drive anywhere…

“Hey.”

Elliot looked up. Meryl stood just inside the kitchen, like she was making sure she was keeping an appropriate distance. She watched Elliot carefully.

“Sorry, I was just…” Elliot started.

“No worries,” Meryl said. “It was getting loud in there, wasn’t it? If I had, like, anxiety issues, I would have hidden an hour ago.”

“Ha,” Elliot said. “Yeah…”

“I heard what you asked Gimble,” Meryl said, taking a step closer. “Is a guy harassing you?”

“Yeah,” Elliot said. “He’s this nerd who saw me on the train once, and now he keeps appearing where ever I go.”

“Creepy,” Meryl said. She took another step closer, until the tiled island stood between them. Meryl put her hands on the counter. “I can teach you how to defend yourself.”

“Yeah?” Elliot asked. “What about what Gimble said?”

“Just some basic things,” Meryl continued, “but it’s important and I think you shouldn’t have to feel worried and afraid when you’re out in public.”

Elliot nodded slowly. “Yeah. Yeah, thanks.”

“Let’s hang out tomorrow. We’ll get some coffee and then go out into the woods and wreck shit.” She stepped around the island and took Elliot’s hand in hers, looking up at her, her eyes almost sparkling.

Elliot pulled her hand away. “It always feels like you guys are hitting on me.”

Meryl laughed. “I think you’re not used to affection from friends,” she said.

“I’m not used to friends,” Elliot said.

“But also, that does sound like a rad date, huh?”

Elliot pulled her arms over her chest tighter.

Meryl laughed again and hit Elliot on the arm. “You have nothing to worry about. Just a friend teaching another friend how to use magic to fuck someone up. Normal friend stuff.”

Elliot let out a little laugh. “Okay. Tomorrow.”

“Be at Z’s at seven!” Meryl said, and flitted out of the room.

“What, in the morning?” Elliot asked back. “Hey! Come back! In the morning??”

When she got back to the living room, Meryl had snuggled up next to Ty, like nothing had ever happened. Z caught her eye, and patted a spot next to her. Elliot’s shoulders dropped. It was as good a spot as any, and when she sat down she wasn’t at all surprised that Z put her around around her.

Affection. Huh.

Elliot decided she could get used to it.

Back to Part 14 — Chapter Index — Forward to Part 16

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Back to Part 13 — Chapter Index — Back to Part 15

R.D. Booksellers announced itself with a sign by a stairway in the sidewalk. It said, “R.D. Booksellers, downstairs,” with an arrow pointing down, and accompanied by “Elevator located in lobby of building during business hours.” Above the stairs was a lamp, shining light down to the door below, another on the concrete wall. As the sky grew darker, light from the shop itself gave the stairs a warm glow.

Elliot pushed open the door, stepping into a little lobby area, complete with alt weekly newspapers and fliers of every kind of book event she could imagine. The door closed behind her, and in front of her the other door popped open. She guessed they took their security seriously.

The store itself was awash with warm light, the space larger than she expected, but cozy all the same. Somehow, the dark wood that lined the walls, that the bookshelves were made out of, only helped. In the middle of the shop, books sat two or three on a pedestal, some of them were opened to show the contents inside. There was a table near the back, a few books stacked on it, and a tea set made of silver.

Elliot’s jaw dropped a little. What had she gotten herself into. At any minute she expected a stern man in a tuxedo to swoop in from the back to shoo her away.

Her eyes scanned the room, and she caught a map of Seattle on the wall. She quietly padded on the worn rugs over to it, the floor creaking under her ever so slightly.

The map, as far as she could tell, was from the late 1800s, back before the engineers of the city decided to blast away the hills with water. She looked over the map, letting her eyes trace the familiar parts of the city she knew — Pike and Pine, Broadway, the University, Yesler, Beacon Hill. She realized, though, that all of the locations she spotted were captioned in English, and script. It was like none she had seen before, looking ancient, bold, a language that could have been spoken for millennia. She re-examined each landmark again, noticing these captions, until her eyes fell on one marked “New Gehenna.” She had never heard of that neighborhood. It sat on a hill that was no longer there, and Elliot realized it was the center piece of the map.

“Hello,” a voice said.

Elliot looked up, her tail poofing up in surprise. By the table, at what was decidedly a checkout counter, a wolf sat. He was pudgy, like the nerd, but thankfully not at all threatening. He had stubby features, a short muzzle, small ears, and wore a pair of glasses that disappeared behind his chin-length white headfur when he turned his head. He gave her a quizzical, professional smile.

“Um…” Elliot fished Right Determination’s card out of her pocket. She carefully joined the wolf at the desk and showed him the card. “I’m here to see Right Determination?”

The wolf looked over the card. “Of course,” he said. “I’ll be right back.” He strode out of the room.

Elliot’s heart was racing. She didn’t belong there, and she began to plan her exit, weaving a path around books to the door. Maybe she could…

“You’re here!”

Elliot spun around. Right Determination stepped out from the back of the shop, looking as human as ever. She wore what she had the day she and Elliot met, or some variation there of, except without the hat. She smiled at Elliot, genuine joy at seeing the raccoon before her.

Elliot felt herself blushing, and was certain that she’d burst into flames right there. “Hi,” she said softly.

“Thank you, Bryan,” Right Determination said, nodding to the wolf. “I will be meeting in the back with Ms. Elliot. I trust you can handle things on your own.”

The wolf nodded. He returned to the counter and began to take notes in a ledger.

Right Determination motioned for Elliot to follow her into the back of the store. Elliot followed.

The demon’s office, despite Elliot’s expectations, was tidy, orderly even. It was smaller than she expected, though, just enough space for a desk, a few chairs, and a generous bookshelf. Elliot looked, but didn’t see a computer anywhere.

Right Determination sat down at her desk and motioned to a chair for Elliot. She poured a cup of tea for herself, and set one down in front of the shocked raccoon. “From Market Spice,” she said. “I’m always thankful they exist.”

Elliot nodded, and tried the tea. It was wonderful, spicy, as the demon had suggested, a little sweet even. Elliot felt it wash over her.

Right Determination set her cup down. “You came.”

“Yeah,” Elliot said. She didn’t know where to look.

“Oh,” Right Determination said. “Do you mind if I drop the disguise?”

“No, it’s fine.”

Right Determination shook her head, and her horns appeared, her eyes went black. She stretched, as if she had been constrained by a human suit, and then looked at Elliot again. “Better. Thank you.”

“Does…” Elliot searched for his name. “HE know?”

“Bryan? Yes, of course. There’s a few males out there that can see magic. More than you’d expect, actually. Bryan is happy to keep my secret, and in exchange he apprentices with me to learn book preservation and archiving, and how to make magic books.”

“Oh…” Elliot said, looking down to the corner of the room. “That explains a few things.”

Right Determination folded her hands thoughtfully on her desk. “You have seen them.”

“And at least one of them as seen me…” Elliot said.

“What did they look like? I’ll keep an eye out.”

Elliot described the nerd.

“He sounds like half the men walking around South Lake Union,” Right Determination said. “Why has he taken an interest in you?”

Elliot shrugged. “He saw me one day and he’s been a creep about it ever since.”

Right Determination let her eyes drift to the ceiling. “Something to keep an eye on for sure.” She looked down at Elliot and smiled. “But enough of creeps. Have you have dinner yet?”

“Oh,” Elliot said. “I was going to have some left overs at Z’s…”

“Would you like to accompany me to happy hour? I know a good place.”

Elliot’s ears dropped. “That sounds nice.”

Right Determination motioned for her to follow. At the front counter, she turned to Bryan. “I’m stepping out with Miss Elliot. I’ll let you know if you’ll need to lock up. Call me if anyone big comes in.”

“Absolutely,” Bryan said, and watched them leave. As they exited, Right Determination held the door open for Elliot. She looked back, meeting the gaze of the demon’s human disguise. Right Determination encouraged her on, nodding to the night before them.

For the better part of a block, Elliot was silent. She didn’t know what to say, her mind racing. She couldn’t help but notice that Right Determination moved with purpose and conviction, like every step meant something. But there was another thought too, one that made her feel underdressed. She considered the sweater she had put on, the one a size too big, the denim shorts and torn leggings. God, she was embarrassing.

The restaurant only inflamed her fears. It was the kind of place you went if you had money, the kind of place that brought you water in corked green bottles, and made you purchase bread and butter. The wait staff, like all of them, almost came to a complete stop when they entered. The host approached them, dressed in a smart button down shirt and a vest, and when they saw Right Determination, they lit up.

“Ardy Book! It’s been too long!” The host said.

Right Determination waved that away with the back of her hand. “I’ve been busy lately.”

“But you’re here now!” The host said. “Come, your booth is ready.”

The booth was down a hallway, past the bathrooms, and through a set of double doors that lead to a back room. The lights were low, illuminating the intricate wallpaper that covered the room, and the wooden floor that must have been as old as the building itself. The room had enough space for the booth, and maybe a dozen people to mill around in. The host bowed, and backed out of the room, closing the doors behind them.

Right Determination guided Elliot into her seat, and sat across from her. Elliot looked around the room, her ears witching in thought.

“So you just have a whole room to yourself, huh?” Elliot asked.

The demon smiled. “I am… known.”

“Also,” Elliot said, “don’t think I didn’t hear Ardy Book, because I super did.”

The demon laughed. “I needed a name once and I panicked.”

Elliot felt herself smile. “You got flustered? When did that happen?”

“1937.”

“Uhm… How old are you?” Elliot winced. “Sorry sorry sorry, that was rude.”

The demon laughed. “You’re curious. I’m not offended.”

“You’ve seen a lot here, though,” Elliot said. “Have you always been here?”

“Since I came to this realm, yes.”

Elliot considered this. “So did you like crash with Nirvana and Soundgarden?”

“And give Pearl Jam their name?” The demon smiled. “You have a lot of faith in my coolness. I hope you can look past the fact that, no, I did not know any of them and I have never been cool.”

“That’s okay,” Elliot said absently, letting her eyes wander the room again. “Me neither.”

A waiter came in to deliver a cutting board, on which was arranged meats and cheeses and expensive crackers. Elliot hungrily watched them set it down, and waited for the waiter to leave. Right Determination ordered a bottle of sparkling wine to go with it, and in no time the waiter returned with the bottle and glasses. And finally, they were alone.

For a moment, the demon was content to fiddle with the crackers, to pour Elliot a glass of wine, and then herself. She slid the glass to Elliot. “You know a little more of my story. Tell me more about you.”

Elliot blinked at the wine glass. She tried a sip, and was surprised at how much like a cola it tasted. She wondered if the demon was putting training wheels on for her.

“I…” she started. “Wait, what could I even tell you that would be interesting? You were alive when the city burned down.”

Elliot caught the slightest of frown, but Right Determination was quick to correct herself. “You don’t even know what I find interesting. Cute witches tend to be very much in that Venn diagram, thank you.”

Elliot cracked a smile. She looked away, looking at the texture on the wallpaper. Who had textured wallpaper?

“The most interesting thing, I guess, is that I just lost my job?”

“What did you do?”

“Okay so, you know smart phones right?”

“I had one of the first hundred phones in Seattle.”

“What? That’s not true! What was your number?”

“273,” the demon said. “Ten digit numbers have been an adjustment.”

Elliot weighed if this was a joke or not, and ventured a laugh. The demon looked pleased.

“So Kingway makes smartphone games. My job was to go online and find out what people liked or were excited about, make a detailed report, and present it to our designers and engineers, and they would turn around and make a copy cat game.”

Right Determination considered this, letting her eyes drift to the corner of the room. “That sounds…”

“Soul crushing?” Elliot offered.

“I was going to say one kind of job, but yes, sure.” She took some cheese from the tray. “But they made money. What happened?”

“We made the most money the company had ever made, ever,” the raccoon said. “And then they fired us. Literally at the same meeting.”

The demon cocked her head. “How could they justify that?”

“It wasn’t enough,” Elliot said. “It wasn’t what they had promised shareholders. So they thanked us kindly, gave us our pink slips, and a download code for Chicken Road 2.”

“That’s awful.”

Elliot shrugged. “Business, right?” She took another sip of the wine and considered the glass. “Anyway, Z helped me get on Unemployment, I get to spend time on the Lockesmith forums,” she laughed to herself, “and I’m learning how to be a witch. They taught me how to fly…”

Right Determination smiled. “That must have been quite the experience.”

“It’s exhausting!” Elliot said. “But yeah, it was amazing…”

“Maybe you can take me flying one day.” The demon rested her head in her hand.

Elliot felt her face flush. She took a long drink of her wine.

“So, Miss Lockesmith. What do you think happened?”

“I had always thought he entered the emergency tunnel, but I know no one saw him do that. And it doesn’t explain why he disappeared.”

“It wasn’t the transdimentional Sasquatches?”

Elliot laughed. “That’s one of my favorites.”

“The thing I think about the most,” Right Determination said, “is that the tunnel boring machine hit something and everything had to shut down.”

Elliot sat up straight. “Yeah, yeah, that’s a huge thing isn’t it? Like, people on the forums don’t think it’s anything. I’ve been trying to say it’s huge for a long time. What happened?”

Right Determination leaned forward. “I think it was something much, much bigger than a misplaced pipe. Don’t you?”

“But what does that mean?” Elliot asked, her ears perked.

“I don’t know. But that’s the fun of a mystery, isn’t it?”

Elliot’s ears twitched in thought. “I have to tell you something, but I need you to promise to keep it quiet.”

“Of course,” the demon said. “You secret is my secret.”

Elliot started to talk, and faltered. She dropped her eyes away. “Can I call you Ardy?”

The demon smiled again. “You can call me whatever you want.”

“Okay,” Elliot said. She took a deep breath. “So there’s this cop…”

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