He Said We'd Be Stars

PENELOPE

Baz practically trips over himself running out the door.
"Micah," I call, "I'm going to the library!"
He walks out of the other room. "Cool. I'm coming." He grabs his coat. The one thing I love most about Micah is that he'll do whatever no mater what for me. It's a good thing that he's comings also because I would have gone nuts worrying about him.
We both run down the stairs to catch Baz, but he's already in my car (his is still by his apartment), looking impatient. Micah and I both climb into the backseat and Baz floors it. It takes about five minutes to get to the library from my flat, driving at top speed. Baz tears out of the car and in to the building. Micah and I have to run to catch up.
"Baz, you need to chill," Micah pants, out of breath from running down six rows of books. I was thinking the same thing. Baz isn't listening. He's pounding on a door to our left.
Before I can asks who's behind it, an old, portly man opens the door. "Baz," he says. "What a pleasure to see you on off hours. How are you?"
"Well, I have three days to save a life, so not well, I'm afraid. Can you help us?" Baz says, and I stare at him, incredulous. How does he even do that? Speak so calmly about all of this?
He sees my face and rolls his eyes. "Damian, This is Penelope Bunce and Micah Greenwood. They're here to help as well."
Damian ushers us into his office. It's somewhat cramped, and I find myself sitting in a corner by a stack of papers.
"Bunce, did you say? I worked with your father for twenty years before the holes formed and he dedicated his research to them," Damian says, sitting down in a large wooden chair. "So, how can I help?"
"Well, we need to respond to this," I say, pulling the note out of my bag, "without getting anyone killed."
Damian reads it and his eyebrows shoot up. "Well, we have our work cut out for us, don't we."
"We were thinking of checking his family tree, to see if we could find someone to use as a weakness," Baz says from the other side of the room.
Damian nods. "And who is this Q?"
"A man named Phil Quendon or Phil Lafayette," Micah responds. We caught him up in the car. Well, I did. Baz was silent.
Damian sighs and rubs his eyes. "Phil Lafayette. Never thought I'd hear that name again."
Baz sits up. "You knew him?"
Damian nods. "Knew him well, too."
"How did you know him?" Baz asks, clearly wanting to find a lead.
"Now is not the time for that story. What we need is to tell him yes. We need to give him an address we can control, otherwise he'll trap the place," Damian says, standing up and grabbing a pen and paper. "We'll tell him to come here. He doesn't know that this is a library. No one does, in fact," he says proudly. "To others, this place is a decrepit building that is in the process of being updated into condos. Tell him to meet us here, so that no one can overhear us. Penelope, you need to write it. He can't know that Baz is part of this." Damian's furiously drawing plans, and writing things down. Micah peers over his shoulder and his jaw drops. "No way. You're going to entirely transform this place!"
I finish writing the note, enchant it, and send it out the window. Then, I walk over to Damian, who is still drawing. He mapped out the entire place, then wrote spells on certain places. Some I know, like "A place for everything, everything in its place!" but some are unfamiliar, like "Look out below!"
"How much magic are you going to need for this?" I ask, tracing my fingers over the lines he's drawing.
"I have enough, if Micah here helps me."
Micah's eyes light up. "I would love to help!"
"And Baz, to answer your question, he has a daughter. Rachel. I would ask Jason about her."
Baz looks confused, but he nods anyway. "Let's go talk to Jason, then."