The Book of Magic

Kylie reads The Book of the Raven on her flight to London. She wears gloves so that the book doesn’t burn her. The text glows slightly, and the book smells like sulfur. It’s written in Italian, which Kylie struggles with; she took only one course in the language, and the Italian phrasebook she bought at the airport isn’t particularly helpful. She gets a general sense of the kind of spells in the book: to harm enemies, to conjure demons, to destroy things. The sections of the book are dedicated to gaining desires, obtaining love, protection, revenge, cursing, and removing curses. However, the pages of the last section are glued together.

Kylie gets a cheap hotel room in Bayswater. She tries a spell to summon Hecate, starting with drawing a pentacle on the floor and burning herbs. Then, she adds her own blood. The smoke turns red and stains the ceiling.

After finding it in a directory, Kylie goes to Helene’s House of Magic. She asks about left-handed magic. Helene knows that this is never discussed publicly, and says aloud that she doesn’t know what Kylie is talking about. Another clerk named Edward takes a cigarette break when Kylie is leaving. Outside, he tells her he can help her for money. She offers jewelry, and he demands cash. She gives him a 20 and assures him that she won’t hex him. Internally, she thinks about how he’ll end up with hives from working with The Book of the Raven. Edward tells her about a private library near Lancaster Gate.

It’s called the Invisible Library. Its collection began in 1565, and it has been in the same building since the mid-19th century. It has a drop box that anyone can use to donate magical texts. Kylie knocks, but there’s no answer. She finds a spell to open doors in The Book of the Raven and uses it successfully. Once inside, she meets a librarian named David Ward and shows him her book. He thinks she’s going to donate it, but she adamantly refuses to, and asks for information about its author and the Owens family. She admits that she’s cursed.

David pulls books that reference Amelia Bassano. However, they struggle to find information about Faith Owens. Kylie cries black tears, and he notes that she’s a witch. She says her family is made up of healers. David explains the difference between hereditary magic and the Nameless Art (or Unnamed Art), which is green, healing magic learned from books. Kylie tells David what the curse is, and he suggests that she go to the hometown of the witch who created it.

David makes tea (in the British sense, with food). Kylie admits that she can see auras and predict the weather. He’s internally jealous because he has only studied magic; he has no hereditary skill. David practiced left-handed magic when he was younger, and Kylie can see it in his dark blue aura. Eventually, they find records of Hannah Owens, who was from a village called Thornfield. She was killed by a man named Thomas Lockland. The Lockland family seems to be cursed as well, and Kylie decides to find a living Lockland in Thornfield.

David suggests that she stay the night in the library’s guest room and look through their extensive collection of books about breaking curses. However, she doesn’t think her curse is in those books. David gives her money for the train. Thinking about his daughter, who died when she was about Kylie’s age, David warns Kylie not to trust anyone who practices left-handed magic, and she assures him that she doesn’t plan on it.

Antonia has a dream about walking through mud and into water. A red-haired woman is face down in the water, and Antonia begins to drown. When she wakes up, she spits out water and discovers that the open window let in the rain. She goes to visit the Reverend, but on the way, a client of Jet’s asks Antonia to look at her father. Using her medical experience and magical ability, Antonia diagnoses the man with pneumonia and convinces the nurse to administer IV antibiotics.

When she gets to his room, Reverend Willard complains that the cookies she brought are from the store, and she says she can’t cook. He says she’s nervous about being a mother. She says being a good cook doesn’t make you a good mother. He says she’ll love her child more than her husband, and she clarifies that she’s a lesbian. The Reverend asks if she has a girlfriend. She says she’s single, and he acknowledges that this is wise, considering the curse. Antonia still doesn’t believe in the curse. He asks her to bring a homemade chocolate cake the next time she comes. On her way out, she asks a nurse to give the Reverend an EKG.

Antonia finds Post-it notes stuck to the front door of the house on Magnolia Street asking for magical assistance. She wants to help people via science, as a doctor. Partly, this is because she had to be the practical one around Kylie when Sally was absent. Antonia finds a letter for Franny from a lawyer named A. S. Hardy: Someone needs to review Jet’s will. A. S. turns out to stand for Ariel Samantha. Antonia finds her incredibly attractive as she reads the will.

The house and the library are in a trust, and the house must stay in the family. Bridget Owens’s belongings go to Sally and Gillian. Jet’s personal library and correspondence go to Rafael. Ariel shares gossip about the house being haunted, the curse, and the Owens family witches. A locked box contains Maria Owens’s papers, and Ariel gives Antonia the key. Antonia is hungry, and Ariel offers to order sandwiches. Antonia wonders if this is what it’s like to fall in love.

At a pub called the White Bull, Franny, Vincent, Gillian, and Sally draw straws to see who will speak to Ian Wright. Sally gets the short one and leaves. While Gillian gets drinks and food, Vincent says Franny made this happen. The bartender has a crush on Gillian and gives her the meal for free. She tells him she’s taken and wishes she had Sally’s magic powers instead of being physically attractive to most men. Just then, Gillian has a vision of Sally walking in an alley with rising water and fish, which symbolize love. Gillian then sees Sally’s face in her teacup and warns the others that Sally isn’t safe.

Sally goes to the end of Rosehart Mews in Notting Hill to find Ian’s office. He was a professor at Oxford but was fired for being too unorthodox. For the last 20 years, Ian has been authoring his book, The History of Magic. Ian’s mother, Margaret, instilled the love of books in him and kept him away from the Nameless Art that she practices. The two rooms of his office are covered in books. He collects dangerous texts, like the Red Skin, and locks them in a cabinet, away from people who would use them for harm. He also has many occult texts that aren’t dangerous, like The Magus, which Vincent studied. To pay the bills, Ian removes black magic.

As a teen, Ian left his home in Essex and became a thief. He was arrested and spent 18 months in prison. While he was in prison, Margaret brought him magical texts to read, including The Magus. After reading each one, he would get a tattoo from another inmate. He has 19 tattoos that are occult symbols, including a lion for courage, a magic circle from The Book of Solomon, and a large crow. After getting out of prison, Ian got a degree in history from Oxford. He considers himself “an investigator of the Dark Art” (169), not a practitioner.

The previous night, Ian stepped in some ashes left on his floor and became hexed. He wakes up in his bed, unable to move and barely able to breathe. When Sally arrives, Ian’s door is unlocked, so she goes inside when he doesn’t answer. She finds him naked on his bed, and he spits out water. His hands are covered in red powder, and Sally can suddenly see the color red again. The red substance is also on the ceiling, and a poppet (doll) is on the bedside table next to a bird’s heart. Sally recalls a line from the family grimoire: “Save a life and a life will be saved in return” (173), and thinks that saving Ian will save Kylie.

She recites a healing spell, which lessens Ian’s pain. His tattoos inspire her to say that he’s been bad. She writes a charm for banishing evil that includes “abracadabra.” Ian is still paralyzed, and Sally tells him she’s going to get help, but he must swear to help her save someone. She cuts her hand and his. He sees that she has the black blood of a witch, but is happy to be hers. He wonders if this is what it’s like to fall in love.