A Discovery of Witches

Diana gets her seat back in the Selden End of the Bodleian, but Matthew and another vampire, the chilly Dr. Miriam Shephard, sit at the front of the room to observe Diana. The reading room fills with daemons and other creatures, including Gillian. Followed by Miriam, Diana has lunch at Blackwell’s bookstore with Australian daemon Agatha Wilson. A little older than Diana, Agatha is beautiful and stylish. She implies that witches did something to Ashmole 782 and daemons were afraid they wouldn’t see the book again. Agatha insists that Ashmole 782 possibly tells the truth about the origins of daemons, who don’t know what their purpose is. She insists that the daemons need the book more than either witches or vampires.

Agatha shows Diana a sensational newspaper article about recent “vampire murders” of two young men found drained of blood. Agatha calls vampires vicious and “only a step away from animals” (58). She warns Diana that Matthew wants Ashmole 782 and makes Diana promise to share the secrets of the book with the daemons when Diana gets it back. Diana thanks Matthew for keeping other creatures at bay and suggests they call each other by their first names.