Spiral Bound Crossword Books Novels & Stories

Then I went to the spiral stair. The Bond section was where he said it was. I pulled three texts at random not at random, I never did anything at random, I selected the ones whose spines showed the most handling, which indicated usefulness over time and took them to a window alcove on the upper level where I could read with the growing light and a clear sightline to the stair and the lower floor below. The first book was a standard lycan pack reference text. Useful but not what I needed.

The complete volume of the World Almanac on the top row, varying books about business and commerce on the middle, and a compilation of untitled white leather-bound books on the bottom. The white books caught my attention quickly. Weird. It looked specifically custom-made. I was almost tempted to open one of them when I found a familiar-looking book placed singularly at the far corner of the shelf. It was bound using black lamb skin. The title written on the spine made me frown as I read it. ‘The God’s Emerald Eyes.’

She ran her fingers along the spines, the gold lettering cool against her skin. Drawn in by the sheer volume, she hesitantly pulled a book from the shelf, a slim volume bound in dark blue leather. The title was etched in silver: The Royal Grimoire of Sacred Oaths. She opened it, her eyes skimming the ornate calligraphy, the intricate diagrams filled with arcane symbols.

It didn’t feel like mine to touch. And then—just as I was about to turn away—a spine caught the edge of my gaze. Not with color or glimmer, but with its silence. It was tucked almost too neatly between two broader tomes, their gilded edges crowding it as if to hide its presence. The binding was dark, a shade between bruised purple and coal, cracked with age, and unadorned save for a single phrase impressed in thin silver serif: “The Quiet Cull: A Forgotten History of Hybrid Extinction.”

Not for them. For me. I stopped when something caught my eye, my fingers hovering over a familiar section of the shelf. The same place I had taken the herbal book from before. My hand moved without thinking, pulling another book free, the leather cover worn and aged like it had been waiting far longer than I had been here. I wiped a thin layer of dust from it with my palm, my eyes scanning the title slowly. Binding. The word alone made something in my chest tighten slightly. I stared at it for a moment longer before opening it carefully, the old pages shifting softly beneath my fingers. The scent of aged paper filled the air as I flipped through the first few pages, my eyes moving over the w

“do not read your own book—you might not like how it ends.” Glancing further up the case, the letter ‘G’ was carved in deeply. I scanned the books with my eyes and found myself reading the names that were painted on the spines of the books. Glenda Macon, Gregory Marsh, Gwyn Masters… Each book had a name embroidered on the spine. The books were all black, with names in a flat white. Very few books actually looked different from the others. The one named, Glenda Macon, had a rose with thorns dancing along the cover. I even noticed one that was a shade of slate grey.

The air was rich with the scent of aged paper and leather, a comforting contrast to the acrid smoke that haunted the streets outside. I moved slowly through towering shelves, fingertips skimming the spines of long-forgotten volumes. Titles embossed in faded gold hinted at lost wisdom: Histories of the Old World, Chronicles of Unity, Legends of the Phoenix. The last caught my attention—a striking cover depicting a phoenix rising from a blaze, wings spread wide.

Cut outs from home decorating magazines, information about new appliances, upholstery samples, and furniture. The more photos I look at, the older the contents of the binder look. Old scraps of paper that show names and abilities associated with each. Diagrams on how to connect spells. Notes about elements that don’t exist on the periodic table. The last couple show pieces of scrolls written in ancient languages with unusual symbols and charts. This must be the binder I threw in the fireplace before they could scan everything in.

the doctor says. I stand beside the bed, holding Maeve’s hand, forcing the nurses to work around me. Maeve tells Dr. Teresa about her nausea and not having had her period. “We’ve been so busy, I just didn’t think about it,” Maeve says to her. “Yes, creating a protection spell for our previous Luna, making lights for the sprites, mating an Alpha werewolf, saving our pack from witches, and then having a binding ceremony, not to mention moving into a new home and now moving your shop from what I hear, would keep you pretty busy,” she says, making me look at her.

I opened it and found myself entering a smaller version of the library downstairs. There was no swirling staircase going up, up, up, rather walls full of books, some of which were only accessible via the sliding ladder off to the side. With my stomach full and heart heavy, I waltzed over to one of the shelves and scanned them, intending to pick a book at random. One in particular drew my eye. The cover was made of dark leather, embossed with a swirling gold font that was a bit hard to read. Tendrils of flame, interwoven with threads of shadow, danced up the spine and around the back.