The Librarian's Daughter The Story of Abi VanHaven

By M.M. Gavillet

Not All Books Were Meant To Be Checked Out...

Magic scepters, enchanted wands, and poisoned darts aren’t usual implements used by librarians—unless you’re in charge of imprisoning bad wizards, renegade sorceresses and evil magicians into books that aren’t ordinary books. Keeping order among the enchanted community isn’t what nineteen-year-old Abi VanHaven had in mind of a career.
Finding out your mother was a librarian isn’t earth shattering. At least that’s what Abi thought. Everything changed when Abi received a letter from her mother that died before she had any memory of her. What was to end with her mother has now spilled into Abi’s life.
Now hunted by Victoria-a once librarian turned evil sorceress, Abi must find and secure a powerful scepter her mother took from Victoria. Abi isn’t alone on her quest. With the help of two eccentric witches, a drop-dead-gorgeous siren, a misunderstood gnome and the guardians—an organization devoted to protecting libraries that hold incarcerated criminals, Abi finds herself between good and evil and also the blurred edges between friendship and love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: M.M. Gavillet
• Release date: Sep 21, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301002948

M.M. Gavillet

My name is M.M. Gavillet and I'm an independent author of young adult urban fantasy novels. I'm a lover of antiques because of the stories they could tell,avid collector of old gaudy jewelry and consumer of frozen yogurt. I'm a child at heart and still find enchantment even in the most mundane things. Writing is my outlet and sometimes I wish I could escape to the worlds I build. I can watch movies over and over just as much a reading a good novel over and over.

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The Librarian’s Daughter

The Story of Abi VanHaven

Published by M.M. Gavillet at Smashwords

Copyright © 2013 by M.M. Gavillet

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of the book may be used or reproduced in any manner without the written permission from the author. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidences are the product of the author’s imagination, any resemblance to real events, locations, persons living or dead, are purely a coincidence.

Front and back cover designed by M.M. Gavillet.

Also by M.M. Gavillet

Blackbird Trilogy

Gathering of Blackbirds

Band of Blackbirds

Alliance of Blackbirds(October 2013)

Coming 2014!

The Librarian’s Daughter

The Story of Sage Greene

&

The Librarian’s Daughter

The Story of Meg Hawthorne

This book is dedicated to my loving family and fearless librarians everywhere!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I have to thank all of my village people-you should know who you are by now! I have to thank my husband who miraculously still puts up with my writing obsession and to Ashley for always being Ashley and to Kyle for always making me laugh! I have to thank Shani the proof reading-plot questioning-hair styling extraordinaire! And to my mother-in-law—you’re simply perfect! And to the lovely Sabina—a real librarian’s daughter! And as always—to my dad who I think still looks down at me when least expected.

Chapter One

I’m giving you one week, Jenna slid her eyes over to my half-filled boxes and then back at me holding up one finger to make sure I understood what one meant, to get your stuff out, got it? She crossed her arms and tapped her foot on the floor like a war drum.

Yeah, got it, I glared at her.

She tightened her perfectly pink lips, spun on her tiny feet twirling her perfectly pressed flower printed dress and left me in a cloud of putrid smelling perfume. But I guess there’s nothing strong enough to mask the scent of nasty.

Jenna went to join my other cousins in the kitchen where they had their powwow for their next plan of action since my Aunt Kathleen died. She had been my legal guardian ever since I was two when mother died and my father was nowhere to be found. She was the only mother I ever knew and she wasn’t much of one.

Looking back I don’t think she ever wanted to be a mother, she was simply stuck with me out of duty. No, she didn’t malnourish me, hide me in a closet or basement, or make me do all the chores by myself, Kathleen was simply an empty shell of a person.

I did miss her, like someone would miss a neighbor they seen every day, but I didn’t deeply mourn her, if fact, I thought to myself, I’ve never really mourned anyone deeply—not even my mother. I missed her greatly, but how could you mourn someone you never knew—I just mourned the memories and times I never got to spend with her.

I placed a few items slowly into the boxes glancing up at my cousins talking among themselves. Aunt Kathleen never had any children of her own, never married and all the time I was growing up I’ve never seen her with the company of a man ever. I was the only child she raised. There were three sisters, Kathleen, the oldest, Dorothy, the middle child who passed away about five years ago and Emma, my mother who died before I had any really good memories of her. Dorothy was the mother of my war-party-cousins that as far as I was concerned, were nothing but spoiled brats. They had money, looks and the arrogant attitude to go with it. I picked up my packing pace wanting nothing more than to get away from them.

Jenna glanced at me in even intervals to observe my packing to make sure I was doing my job.

I didn’t have much since most of the furniture, antiques and appliances were going to be auctioned off. Jenna stated over and over that she was the executor over the estate and that meant the control freak. I didn’t care though, I didn’t have any sentimental attachment to anything here, and only the few items I held dear to me were the few items that were my mother’s.

I always liked that hairbrush, Meg said looking down at me with her green eyes and brown hair that hung like silk. Remember we used to brush each other’s hair with it. She knelt down beside me.

Yeah, that was a long time ago. I glanced at her. She ran her fingers over the frayed bristles almost like she was trying to touch a memory.

Meg was the nicest of my four cousins. She played with me as a child and didn’t tell all the other kids at school that I was a leper when I had a bad case of poison ivy. Jenna came up with enough dirt for two people on me.

You know you’re still welcome to come and stay with Nate and me until you find a place of your own. Her voice was encouraging.

Meg was married to a budding lawyer that headed his way up the totem pole as if he were a starving shark. They lived about an hour away in Minton that was far from the small, slowly evaporating, nowhere town of Applewood. They lived in a large house that looked like it fell out of a magazine with a cloud of dust onto a perfectly manicured lawn that was mowed by I’m sure one of their many hired help. Meg and Nate had no children, but lots of money.

I shrugged my shoulders as she prodded for me to come. I could probably live there and if I stay of sight long enough, they would probably forget I was even there. I agreed, to Meg’s invite to stay temporarily—until I found my own place. Besides, any sane person wouldn’t decline the lap of luxury to sleeping in some cockroach infested motel.

When I left the two bedroom, white, ranch style house, I felt a piece of me was being ripped off like a skinned knee. I had to make a clean cut. I had to start my life—whatever that was, I didn’t know yet. I forced myself to look forward and not look back as I rode away in Meg’s black SUV with the three large boxes that contained clothes, personal items and a few mementos from my childhood. Jenna would be pleased I didn’t need the whole week.

Meg’s house was all stone and brick and pillars wrapped in perfectly trimmed shrubs and large pots of flowers exploding with brilliant colors. It was past midday and the sun shone behind the house etching it with a bead of golden light almost like it had its very own halo, but I knew it was far from a slice of heaven despite its deceiving looks.

The house was empty and smelled of lilacs from the cleaners that the cleaning lady scrubbed the house with. I looked around at all the tile, plush carpeting that looked like no one ever walked on, the golden stained oak trim and the graceful curving staircase that led to the upper levels. Above my head hung a chandelier of thousands of clear, black beads all glistening in the light that illuminated it.

Wow. Even though I kept my voice soft, it still managed to echo in the large room. Your house is beautiful. I smiled as I’m sure Meg had heard that statement a thousand times and smiled with a thank you I’m sure she has also done a thousand times. I can picture Nate bringing his bosses, clients or whoever he wanted to impress here and she would always get the same response. I watched her look around like we were in a museum and something flickered just under the surface of Meg’s eyes that was gone before I could put my finger on it.

Nate and I like it, she said looking around. Abi, let me show you to our guest room.

The guest room was nothing what I would call a guest room. My version of a guest room was a spare room with a pull out bed and filled with stuff that really doesn’t have a place in the house or a place where someone would store their artificial Christmas tree. I stopped in the doorway and felt like I had just entered a suite at some five star hotel.

Megs, I said with my eyes on the large bed and elaborate trim that framed the room. This is your guest room?

She laughed a little longer than someone would do in response to my amazement. She then sat on the bed and folded her hands in her lap. No one has called me Megs in…I don’t know how long. That something twinkled behind her eyes again.

I walked up to her and knelt in front of her trying to catch it before she let it go again.

What, what is it? I asked in a soft voice.

Meg turned her head to look out the window at the picturesque view that she has probably looked at hundreds of times and now just stared blankly into the beauty of all the greenness.

Remember how we used to play princess when we were little? She walked over to the window pulling back the gauzy sheer curtains.

I remember you and I starting to play it and then Jenna overthrowing us with Paul and Will as her two guards. She would always push us out of that rocker—you remember the one with all of the intricate carving that we used as a throne. Paul and Will were my other two cousins that the only way to describe them is as male versions of Jenna, only Jenna always had the upper hand on them.

I thought I was getting that Abi. I thought my life would be like… Her eyes fell with darkness of untold miseries that I could only watch as tiny pools of water formed in the corner of her eyes. She caught them before they fell as the footsteps and Nate’s voice calling for Meg came down the hallway.

In here. Her voice returned to its happy-go-lucky tone.

Nate stood in the doorway. His broad shoulders led to strong arms and his molded black hair curved into perfect waves that surrounded his olive colored skin. He was about thirty, but to me looked much older, a sort of forced mature look that encased him.

He was still dressed in his grey suit and stiffened upon seeing me.

Abigail, he smiled coldly.

Nathaniel, I returned his name in the same cool tone.

She’s just staying for a short while until she finds a place. Meg stood in front of him and spoke in a low voice. You know, with the sale and all… and Jenna…

Really, I will be gone by the weekend. I cut in to end Meg’s babbling excuse. I’m looking for an apartment tomorrow. I shook my head and used a warmer tone trying to cool Nate’s aggravated expression—for Meg’s sake.

Nonsense, you can stay until you find something. His words were forced with niceness and I really didn’t want to come here, but it was better than sharing a room with roaches. We have guests tonight, Barnabus Wynters and his wife will be coming so you have to fix something low fat and healthy with lots of vegetables, O.K.? His voice took the tone of how you would talk to a toddler not your wife.

Alright, Obediently she replied and shook her head as Nate kissed her on the cheek. Meg stiffened like Jack Frost had planted a kiss on her.

Nate left with a nod and a cool stare in my direction. Maybe he was Jack Frost.

Well, I’ve better get started. I might have to run to the grocery store. I could see Meg running through her recipe book she stored in her head.

I can go to the store for you if you need anything. I offered really wanting to say what the hell was that?

Meg went through her pantry and decided to make something simple: baked chicken with her special seasoning, steamed potatoes and fresh green beans. The only thing she needed was the green beans and I finally persuaded her to let me help her. I didn’t know how else to help her and I really wish I could.

Meg and Nate lived just outside the growing town of Minton along the Mississippi River. Minton had recently reopened one of the factories there that makes the large windmill blades used in the production of generating electricity by wind power. This brought in people from the surrounding area the much needed work to keep the small community afloat. It was a flashlight in the dark to many that struggled. I only looked at the factory as I drove by.

The spring air was cool that brushed across my face from the rolled down window of Meg’s SUV. I flipped the radio station and turned on the headlights passing by the tall trees of the state park.

Suddenly, a memory flashed in my head of my Aunt Kathleen and me going on a picnic there. She did like the outdoors and I did too. It was the only place I had ever seen her smile, I mean really smile, because you were happy, not forced to make good face. I let out a sigh as I came into town.

Minton had a small grocery store and a couple of gas stations. It was a neat town, clean with no bar to support the local drunks like it used to. I didn’t come here that much growing up, except to the park of course, but something didn’t feel right to me.

The parking lot was large enough to accommodate the gas station next to it. The windows were brightly polished with vividly colored store ads proclaiming their sales inside. I quickly went inside and found the produce aisle. Everything looked fresh except of course for the supposed to be fresh green beans. I hated green beans anyhow and picked through them the best I could. I didn’t want Meg getting a spanking from her husband. He was always belittling her and I shook my head just thinking about it.

There’s more in the back if you aren’t finding what you like, a voice said behind me. Do you want me to go and get you some?

I looked over and met the bluest eyes I’d ever seen. I started to reply with a friendly no thank you, but the words got caught and I stood there choking on them. He was gorgeous, not grocery store material, it looked like he should be working out in a gym recording a fitness CD or modeling clothes somewhere. His dark hair was short up the sides and in slight waves over his forehead framing his summer sky blue eyes. He was a little taller than me, which was nice because I’m five foot eight and he must’ve been at least six foot, if not over since I had to tilt my head up to meet his eyes.

In my awkward moment of trying to get audible words out, he smiled at me. I half expected a camera crew to pop out behind the tall tower of apples stating I was on a reality T.V. show having gorgeous guys catch girls off guard in unexpected places just to see their reaction. If it was, I would spend my fifteen minutes of fame looking like an idiot.

Oh, no, I don’t want to trouble you. I finally got words out and they sounded lame.

No, I don’t mind, that’s what I do.

That’s what he does, helps girls find fresh green beans. I tried to not let anything become of my curiosity of him because relationships, I wasn’t good at.

He came back with a crate of fresh green beans and I just grabbed a handful of them putting them into the plastic bag.

If you purchase a reusable bag, you can get five cents off. He raised his eyebrows at the proposed deal and smiled.

No thanks, I’m shopping for someone else. Maybe next time, thank you.

I pushed myself away like someone on a strict diet while resisting a dessert bar that was within reach. He nodded his head and we parted.

I purchased the green beans and went out into the parking lot. I reached in my pocket for the keys to find they weren’t there. I could’ve sworn I put them in there. I stopped under the lonely streetlight as dark clouds of a sudden spring storm blocked out the sun forcing the lights to come on prematurely. I searched my purse thinking I could’ve thrown them in there, I don’t know why I do this to myself and I don’t know why I can’t keep track of the simplest things. I can hear Aunt Kathleen scold me now.

Honestly girl, if your head wasn’t attached you’d be headless by now and someone would have an extra head somewhere. I mumbled my aunt’s saying under my breath hoping the few patrons in the parking lot heard me.

I wasn’t giving up and I didn’t want to call Meg telling