A witch-librarian sees a young Black foster teenager come in to borrow books. She understands from a person’s smell what book they need on their visit, and she senses yearning for escape from this young boy. She starts giving him books that speak to him. One day, he comes in with a caseworker who pulls him to the nonfiction aisle and tells him he needs to face his problems and depression head-on. As he is leaving, the witch-librarian makes a book from the juvenile fiction section fall, by magic, onto the teenager. She continues to aid in his literary discovery with _The Count of Monte Cristo _and the first three Harry Potter books, but the book he would need most is off limits. One evening, the boy hides at closing time, and the librarian chooses to let him stay the night. This is motivated by an experience she had in the past, with a girl she could not save: one who got pregnant and chose to end her life. There was a book – a magic, off-limits book – that the librarian knew could have saved her, but she chose to follow the rules, and the young woman died. She didn’t want to make the same mistake again, though this risked her position as witch-librarian. As the young boy comes into the library one last time to say goodbye, totally hopeless, she slides the book he needs the most into the aisle he walks down. She knows the consequences, she will lose her witch-librarian status, but chooses to save the teenager. There is a rush of wind and the boy disappears to a “foreign fey country,” leaving behind his red backpack.