The girl laughed so hard she snorted. “It’s a very special book. No amount of lock picking would have gotten them through that glass.”
He nodded. He set the book on the table between them. Just when he thought that nothing would happen, the golden arrows shimmered out of thin air. They undulated across the cover to reveal the hidden text once again. The vines twisted around the corners and the star at the center moved like a compass. This time, the golden light moved along the skin of his hands and traveled down his body. It was like touching exposed wire and getting a sharp jolt. Although not painful, it made Danny jump.
“Whoa!” the girl gasped. The light was reflected in her eyes.
“You can see it, too?” He marveled at his own glowing hands before the threads of gold vanished.
“I can. I mean, I used to,” she said. Danny thought he could glimpse something sad in her eyes. “When the book was first brought to the library, I could see the arrows more clearly. But it went away after a few days. I tried really hard to make them come back, but nothing worked. Until today.” She spoke entirely too fast, like she was sure of every single one of her thoughts and so she had to say them right away.
“Is that going to happen to me?” Danny asked.
“I don’t know, but I know someone who might. It’s a good thing you came back.”
“Wait, who are you?” Danny asked her, curious. “Shouldn’t you be at school?”
“My name is Glory Papillon.” She smiled like someone who was used to keeping secrets, and she took a seat at the wide desk. “I’m homeschooled. That way I can assist my auntie North and stay in the library after closing hours. She’ll be here soon enough. And you?”
“I’m Danilo Monteverde. My friends call me Danny. At least, they would, but I don’t have any friends.” He kept a hand on the cover of the book. Glory wasn’t trying to take it from him. He just felt possessive over it at the moment.
The sound of heavy footsteps made them both jump up.
“Oh no,” Danny whispered.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “I’ll take care of this.”
The first thing Glory did was call someone she referred to as Auntie North and tell her that she’d found the Ella St. Clay book. Glory recounted everything Danny had told her and what she’d seen. While she was on the phone, Danny tried to calm his nerves by peering around the office. Every book on the shelf looked just as old as his magical book, if not older.
He loved the sound of that. His magical book. If only Mrs. Contreras were here so he could prove to her that he’d been right all along.
“I’ll see you soon. Love you, too, Auntie North,” Glory said, then hung up. The sound of security guards and static on walkie-talkies was long gone. She looked back up to Danny. “Where were we? Oh, yes. Your friends call you Danny. Well, I’ll be your friend.”
A friend. He beamed at her. No one had ever wanted to be his friend.
“Thank you. I need help. I’m not sure what to do. No one else would believe me about—what we just saw.”
Why was he afraid to say it out loud? Did it have something to do with the fact that he’d kept his belief in magic a secret for so long?
“I happen to believe in many things,” Glory told him.
“You believe in—in magic?”
“Of course, silly. That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?”
“I’m not supposed to. Believe, that is. My social worker used to make me say that magic wasn’t real every day.”
She shrugged and had a skeptical look in her eyes. “I’m not supposed to eat ice cream for dinner, but I do it anyway.”
“Magic isn’t like ice cream,” Danny said.
“But ice cream is definitely its own kind of magic.” That made Danny laugh for the first time that day. Glory continued, “And so is this book. The arrows revealed themselves to you. That means you’re special, Danny.”
Special? No one had ever used that word to describe Danny. He was an ordinary boy without a family. A boy who always got in trouble because no one in the entire world wanted to take the time to understand him. Sitting in front of Glory Papillon, he finally felt seen.
“What do you mean by special?” he asked.
Glory spun around in the squeaky leather office chair. “What do you know about enchanted books?”
Danny shook his head. He’d heard about witches who had things they called books of cantos and wizards with books of spells, but nothing about enchanted books. “Nothing.”
“Some books hold secrets.” Glory leaned forward, her voice pitching high with excitement. “Sometimes the secret to making gold out of nothing, or how to cast spells, but the ones Auntie North specializes in are books that turn into maps. Like this one.”
“Cool,” Danny whispered. “But how does that make me special?”
“Because! The books only reveal their secrets to kids they choose. Kids who really, truly, completely believe in what’s inside.”
Danny sat back in his chair and gripped the armrests. Even though he wasn’t standing, it was like the ground was swaying under him. The room suddenly felt brighter. There was something he hadn’t had in so long—hope.
If Pili had also held this book, then that meant the book had also chosen her. He opened the book to the very last page and pointed to the library checkout card.
“What’s that?” Glory asked. The girl’s eyebrows perked up and she leaned in like she’d been waiting her whole life for an adventure.
“This is my sister’s name,” Danny said quickly, pointing to the familiar letters. “If you’ve had this book here, then wouldn’t you need a library card to check it out? You need an address for a library card, right?”
“Actually, no. The book isn’t logged into any one library. According to Auntie North, every time someone finishes their quest, that kid’s name appears on the card.”
The hope in Danny’s chest felt like it was punched out. “Quest? Then where is she?”
“Wait a minute,” Glory said. “You don’t know where your sister is?”
He felt himself inhale sharply. He knew she didn’t mean to be cruel. She didn’t know him or what he’d been through. After two years he could barely say the words: I don’t know where my sister is.
“She went missing. Everyone convinced me that she was another runaway foster kid. But when we were little, she told me that one day we would find a place where we could have a new home and start over. Somewhere magical.” He stopped before he uttered the words Rio Luna. “She just vanished. But this card is dated exactly two years ago from today.”
Glory picked up a purple pen on the desk and tapped it to her chin, her eyes narrowed in concentration. “How strange.”
Strange was one way of putting it. Danny would have said it was totally horrible that he hadn’t heard from his sister in two years.
“What’s strange? And what kind of quest?”
“Well, usually, the kid who borrows the book returns with it.”
“I don’t understand. Where would she have returned from?” Danny’s voice was louder than he meant for it to be. If she’d come back, she would have found him. Even if they couldn’t be in the same home for some time, she would have tried to make contact.