“I will come back to that. Third, they are leaving hints each time I time travel that I need to puzzle out and put together. And last, my parents said I am being hunted. And it is pretty sure I am being hunted by some magical monster, and though I have only seen it a couple of times, it is terrifying.” He paused for breath. “What do you think?”

“Wow,” Amelie said. “That’s quite a lot.” She stood up and paced across the room and back, her hands on her hips. “Well, Kat is brilliant at puzzles. When she comes back, we need to fill her in. And Leo is cleverer than he acts. He’s just got no self-confidence. He wants to impress his dad, who I gather is a bit of a tosser.”

“A . . . what?” Isaac interrupted.

“Stuffy,” Ame said. “Not very nice. But Leo reads a bunch, and he loves history, and he can see the future. And Colin”—she paused and smiled—“Colin’s sensitive. Plus he can speak to animals, which is more useful than it might seem.” Her smile faded. “The only thing is, Colin went through that time when I did a couple of years ago, maybe even worse because he was under the spell of our monster for even longer. So, he’s a wee bit fragile.” She paused again. “Sorry. I chatter out loud while I think.”

Isaac nodded, waiting.

She stopped pacing and looked up at the bookshelves. “Since my specialty is magical creatures, why don’t we start with them? Maybe we can figure out what it is that’s hunting you, as you called it. Can you describe it?”

He nodded. “It is big, as big as a very tall man. Black wings. And red eyes that are . . . how do you say? . . . creepy. One of the times I saw it was in Orkney when I was on my way to catch the ferry, just at dawn. The farmer who drove the lorry repeated words over and over, and he seemed afraid. But I could not understand his words.”

“Huh.” She moved across the library and pointed to a high shelf. “See that book with the red binding? Can you fetch it down?”

Isaac pulled the ladder along the wall and climbed up and ran his hands over the old volumes. He tugged out the book and brought it down, placing it on a table, next to several other books Amelie had stacked there.

She picked up Isaac’s book, and he read the title on the spine: Folklore and Legends of Scotland with Particular Attention to Magical Monsters. Isaac shivered as Amelie opened to the index. The pages were thick vellum, crinkled with age and illustrated with images that reminded Isaac of gargoyles—leering faces, animals with fangs and claws, slithering dragonish creatures.