Royal Library

I was almost out of breath. At first I wasn't sure where Dee was taking us, but at about halfway, I got the idea. It was the royal library. No one was allowed in here. At least not since my mother passed. She loved to read, especially about the supernatural and magic.

I was only ten when she died, but I remember it and the days following her death like yesterday. No one ever told me what happened, but afterwards my father banned all supernaturals and magic from the kingdom. I can only assume it had something to do with her death. Now, anyone born with ancestral magic must either leave the kingdom or be slaughtered. It makes me sad to think about, because I remember a little about the time when magic was still allowed, and it was wonderful. Maybe I will never understand why my father banned it, but he can't stop me from learning about it. Even if he's had the door locked to the library.

Quite a few years ago when I was twelve, the girls and I discovered a secret entrance while playing hide and seek in the castle. That's how we always manage to get in, and that's how we've never been caught. We stay for as long as we can, until we start to hear the castle staff outside looking for us. Only then do we decide it's time to leave and make our presence known elsewhere in the castle.

"What do you think we should read about this time?" Sabina whispered. We never spoke above a whisper here. It's one of the rules we agreed upon when we first came here. It helps keep us from being discovered.

"I think we should look at the witch section," Haidee answered with a hint of excitement. "It's been years since we read from that area."

I'm not sure why, but when Dee said the word 'witch', I swear I felt a slight tingle somewhere deep in my soul. Like the small tug of string or a wisp of wind carrying a whisper to my ear, giving me the chills. I never felt anything like it before. "Sure, sounds good to me." I said while Sabina shrugged.

Sabina and I followed Haidee as she pranced ahead, leading the way. She's always full of energy.

After we each selected a book, we took our respective seats in the chaise lounges we pulled together from different parts of the library to form a circle.

"So what do you have Elle? I have The Politics of Covens, and I believe Bina grabbed Magic Through Blood." Sabina nodded to confirm her sister's guess.

I giggled at the thought of the title of the small, thin book in my hands. "I have How to Know if You Have the Power of a Witch." I declared with a smirk. The girls and I burst out in a quiet laughter.

"Oh boy! That should be SUPER interesting." Sabina snarked.

"HEY! You never know, maybe one of us could be a witch and not know it!" I joked playfully.

"Yeah ok. Why do I highly doubt that?" she quipped.

We settled into a comfortable silence while we began reading.

"Witches are hard to come by, and the only way to know if you are one is if you have the blood of one. Witch powers are hereditary through maternal lines. When unsure about one's ancestry, the undeniable sign of being a witch is the glow of the hands at the strike of midnight on one's eighteenth birthday."

What!?! Well that just gave me some unnecessary anxiety. I mean, my mother was by no means a witch. I would have known she was…right? But what if…

"Hey, guess what I just read!" Sabina quietly exclaimed. Without waiting for an answer she continued, "It says here that a witch's magic is passed through blood. Either hereditarily or by absorption. What do you think it means by that?"

"Hmm, that's what mine said. I mean, the hereditary part. Not the absorption." I stated.

"Maybe it means that you have to drink the witch's blood," Dee offered nonchalantly and continued to read her book.

Sabina and I stared at each other wide-eyed. You could see the consideration in her expression before also continuing her book. A little disturbed i decided to continue my book as well. As I flipped the page, I discovered a hole cut out of this small book and a small, black, flat disc the size of my palm inside. "What the…?" I mumbled as I pulled out the disc-like object.

"What? What is it?" Dee asked, looking up at me. "What is that? Where did that come from? Did that just come out of the book?"

"Woah, slow down Dee, one question at a time," Sabina scolded, while eyeing the mysterious talisman.

"Yeah, um, it fell out of the book, see?" I answered and showed them the inside of the book without taking my eyes off the object. The top half was a black disk-like stone with some sort of carving on top, and the bottom was some sort of black metal. It looked as if it split in half. The girls inched closer as I searched the edges between the two materials, and I found a small button. The discs split in half as if on a hinge opposite from the button, and we all gasped. I slowly opened it to reveal a mirror on the underside of the stone.

"Oh cool! It's a compact!" Haidee said excitedly.

"Yeah, for some reason, I don't think this is any ordinary compact, Dee." I responded, while Sabina chimed, "Hmm, I wonder what that symbol means."

"Wait, can I see it for a second?" Haidee asked.

"Sure, just be careful." I said as I closed it and handed it over.

"I think I saw this symbol in my book, or maybe it was just something really close. I could be wrong." She mumbled as she walked back to her chaise and flipped through her book.

"I'll go see if I can find a book on wiccan symbols." Sabina whispered as she walked off towards the witch section of the library, while I just sat there in disbelief, unsure what to do.

"Yeah, I can't seem to find anything. There's one symbol that's kind of similar, but it's not the same." Haidee said disappointed. "Hopefully Bina will find something. This is so pretty. I wonder who put in here. What do you think it's made of?" I just stared at the object as she rolled it over in her hands, too dumbfounded to answer. "Hello, Elle, you okay?"

"Huh?" I jerked, looking up at her. "Oh yeah, sorry. I guess I'm just a bit stunned. It's definitely not something I thought we were going to find today." Haidee nodded with understanding.

"Hey, I think I may have found something." Sabina said as she was rushing back to as quietly as possible.