A Kind of Magic (10 page)

Josephine opened her mouth to protest, but stopped herself and stood. “Of course. Please keep me informed of your actions.”

“And we’ll need to know what you find.”

For a long moment, the two women held each other’s eyes in a staring contest. Josephine surprised Sophie by blinking first. “Thank you for dinner. It’s always enjoyable to catch up. I’ll be in touch.”

“I’ll show you out,” Athena said, bouncing to her feet and hurrying just behind Josephine into the foyer.

As soon as the door was shut and Athena had returned to the living room, Amelia said. “Can I get anyone a drink?”

“No, thank you,” Sophie said, sitting wearily on the sofa.

“You know the usual,” Athena said to her sister.

Amelia came over, handed Athena her drink, and took her own seat. “It would have been nice if you’d told us what you’d learned before you sprang it on her.”

“I didn’t put it all together until just then, when I heard what she said. I talked to Michael earlier and figured it out, and the only reason I could think of for someone to frame the fae was to give them an opportunity to save the day and take power. I wanted to see how she’d react.”

“She’s not entirely wrong,” Amelia said. “Increased fae activity calls for an increased enchantress presence. I suppose she could be taking advantage of the opportunity to gain power.”

“But we’re not hierarchical,” Athena said.

“Yet,” Amelia replied darkly. “And I don’t intend to let that happen.”

“But the fae aren’t a threat,” Sophie protested. “I don’t think Nana will let them get up to the kind of things you hear about in the old tales, like kidnapping children and demanding tribute. They may not even ride out, at least not in the cities where they’d be noticed. It’s not like there’s a regular queen on the throne. Nana’s more human than fae. But I suppose we can hardly tell the enchantresses that.”

“Probably not, or it would point to your connection, and we should avoid that if at all possible,” Amelia said.

“We should have known the magic would awaken,” Athena said, staring at the ice cubes in her glass as though reading omens in them. “The age of the last queen was the time of fairy tales—all of them, the ones about fairies and the ones just about magic. They weren’t all fiction. People were telling about things that happened. We may be on the verge of another magical age.”

“And humans have forgotten about magic,” Amelia said.

“Won’t that help, though?” Sophie asked. “Without belief, a lot of this stuff doesn’t work. There are selkies on the shore, and the cops are just laughing about naked women. No one’s stealing their skins to take a selkie bride. If no one leaves out offerings of food or cream, the fae won’t have power in our world.”

“Right now, I’m not worried about the fae. I’m worried about Josephine setting herself up as some enchantress empress and starting a magical dynasty. The fae being more active is playing directly into her scheme.” She turned and fixed Sophie with a hard stare. “You’ll have to take care of that.”

“Me?”

“We can’t go against a fellow enchantress.”

“And I can?”

“You haven’t been formally inducted. You’ve sworn no oath. We have.”

“It’s bad enough that we played a role in reviving the Realm and putting a queen on the throne,” Athena put in. With a wince, she added, “Two queens.”

“You’re the fairy princess. You’re the one who can deal with the Realm,” Amelia said. “Do so, or else the fae may find themselves facing enchantresses the way they never have before.”

“But try not to give away what you are when you do it,” Athena said nervously.

There went that hope of a normal life, Sophie thought.

Emily’s Apartment

Saturday, 10:00 a.m.

Emily could have sworn she smelled bacon. It couldn’t have been one of those fairy dreams that took her other places, considering she still had a bag full of herb bundles guaranteed to fend off the fae. If one bundle would protect someone, she didn’t know what a bag would do. She’d given Will one—well, hidden it inside his bag—but hadn’t yet passed out the rest. She wanted a test case. She’d been tempted to leave the bag in her dressing room and see what happened, but she had a matinee on Saturday, so it was a bad day for staying up all night.

Even if had been a fairy dream, they were into dancing, not bacon. It had to be real bacon, and the smell was still there. She rolled over and opened her eyes to find her sister sitting at the bistro table on the other side of her studio apartment, takeout boxes sitting in front of her.

“I thought bacon would make a good alarm clock,” Sophie said.

“Have you heard of knocking?” Emily asked, groping for a bathrobe.

“Would you rather wake up to the sound of a knock or the smell of bacon?” Sophie bent to feed a bit of bacon to Beau, who gazed adoringly up at her.

“Traitor,” Emily accused. “Some guard dog you are. Letting just anyone in.”

“I’m not just anyone,” Sophie said.

“I hope you brought coffee, too,” Emily said, taking a seat and pulling one of the takeout boxes toward her. Sophie often forgot that coffee was essential to life for other people. Without a word, Sophie handed over a cardboard cup. “Okay, you may be forgiven,” Emily said, lifting the lid so she could revel in the aroma before taking a long, reviving sip.

“I needed to talk to you, and it’s not the sort of thing you want to discuss in a diner,” Sophie said. “Since it’s matinee day, I figured this was the only time I was likely to catch you.”

Emily concentrated on inhaling eggs and bacon until her brain was fully awake. “It must be important and of the fairy persuasion if we can’t talk in public.”

“Are you still in touch with Eamon?”

Emily tried to will herself not to blush. In spite of her own fae blood, Sophie tended to be rather anti-fae, so Emily still wasn’t sure what her sister would say about any relationship between Emily and a fairy, even one who’d proven to be a staunch ally. “He came to the show the other night.”

“Oh?” Emily didn’t need to look at her sister to see the slightly arched eyebrow.

“Yeah, he’s a fan of the show—remember, that’s how all this started.”

“If you see him again, could you pass on a message for Nana?”

“Can’t you get into the Realm and see her yourself?”

“Not with enchantresses possibly watching. I can’t afford to let them know what I am.”

“Sounds serious.”

“It might be.”

“I can’t guarantee I’ll see him again anytime soon,” Emily hedged, even though she already had a plan brewing. “The other night was the first I’d seen of him since the last trip to the Realm, and he didn’t seem to notice it had taken any time at all. It could be weeks before he shows up again. What do you want him to tell Nana?”

“We need to see if she can calm the fae down a bit, just until the enchantresses get over the transition. They’re becoming alarmed.”

“I already mentioned something about that to him, so maybe it’s under control. Is it really that bad?”

“I don’t know. Amelia and Athena seem worried.”

“They’re always worried about something. Don’t let this distract you. Focus on the ballet right now.”

“You know me and my overexpressed responsibility gene.” Sophie attempted a smile that didn’t quite work, and Emily wondered what she wasn’t telling her.

“Your responsibility is to the ballet and all those kids who are going to love the Snow Queen. Villains are cool these days, you know.”

“Yes, and that rather alarms me,” Sophie said primly. Emily tried not to smile, but it did seem like Sophie was back to her usual self after a momentary lapse.

“You should also talk to Michael. He keeps running into fae kind of people.” As Emily expected, Sophie immediately turned a bright shade of pink. “What are you blushing about? He’s available now.”

With a sheepish glance upward, Sophie hissed, “Keep your voice down!”

“The floors are pretty thick here. I doubt he can hear me. If he’s home. See, that’s how poorly sound travels. I don’t even know if he’s home.”

“Well, it is rather tacky to move in on him so soon after he’s given up on his wife, especially when it was all my fault in the first place.” Sophie still kept her voice low.

“But this is business-related. That gives you an excuse to talk to him. Be friends now, and when he’s ready—”

“If he’s ever ready.”

“
When
he’s ready, you’ll be there.” As much as Emily was enjoying this, she had to admit that it was also a little unsettling to see Sophie so discomfited. Sophie was supposed to be totally in control of every situation. That was how the universe worked. Sophie being awkward, shy, and blushing like a schoolgirl meant something was seriously wrong. Or maybe it just meant that she was human and Emily didn’t know her as well as she thought. “Anyway, I think he’d want to be involved because this is affecting him,” she added. “He’s having to deal with some weird stuff at work.”

“True,” Sophie said with a nod so serious that it was almost comical.

“And maybe you could talk about it over dinner,” Emily couldn’t resist adding.

“
Emily!
And to think, I brought you breakfast.”

“You came into my apartment while I was sleeping.”

“With bacon.”

“True, true. And coffee. But come on, I didn’t get to tease you back in the day because there was nothing to tease you about. You’ve got to let me enjoy being the bratty little sister.”

“Just try to show a little discretion, please.”

The Upper West Side

6:00 p.m.

Although she’d chided her sister for teasing her, Sophie had been as nervous as any teenager calling her crush on the flimsy excuse of needing to talk about homework when she called Michael. Much to her surprise—though she wasn’t sure why she was so surprised—he hadn’t acted like he found anything at all odd about her call and had suggested they hit the park together that evening, when they were sure to run into either Mrs. Smith or some representative of the fae who could pass on a message.

Hoping her sister was out and not watching through the window, she took a long, deep breath to steady herself and pushed the intercom button for Michael’s apartment. True, she could easily let herself in, but she was trying to look normal, and she didn’t want to freak him out.

He answered a moment later. “Hi, it’s me, I’m downstairs,” she blurted, hoping the intercom distorted sound enough to hide the fact that her voice was shaking.
This is not a date,
she reminded herself. It was purely business, and they’d done things like this before.

“I’ll be down in a second,” he replied.

She was absolutely furious with herself for the way her heart rate immediately increased. She was a grown woman—a queen—for heaven’s sake. She and Michael had been through a lot together. She’d seen him just yesterday. They’d chatted while he played the piano.

Oops, it was a mistake to think about that. It made her want to swoon ever so slightly.
Get a grip!
she warned herself, just as he appeared behind the glass front door. He was dressed for the cold weather in a dark wool coat and one of those newsboy caps that made him look utterly adorable. Fortunately, he had Beau with him, so she could bend to pet the dog until she had herself under control before she had to face him directly. “How are you, boy?” she crooned, then she looked up at Michael. “Is Emily still sticking you with dogsitting duty?”

“Mostly just on days when she has two shows and doesn’t make it home in between. But I don’t mind. I enjoy the company, and it forces me to get out every so often.”

She straightened and forced herself to look him in the eye. “I really appreciate you doing this.”

“I’d have been out walking Beau anyway. And as I said, I enjoy the company. So, the park? Any particular spot?”

“Where have you been most likely to see things or run into your friend?”

“All over. I think it’s more a case of them finding me.”

“Then let’s hope I don’t scare them away.”

They headed down the sidewalk toward the park. She found that she didn’t have to adjust her usual fast walking pace because he not only had much longer legs, but also moved purposefully. They didn’t talk much other than a few remarks about the weather and the kind of winter that might lie ahead until they reached the park and were well down a path with no one else around.

“So there really is something happening, huh?” he asked. “I mean, I don’t think you’d have asked me for help with a meeting if there wasn’t, and it’s something you can’t take care of yourself. Were you right about it not being the fae who took the kids?”

“I don’t have hard evidence, but things certainly changed as soon as I very innocently mentioned the reasons I didn’t think the fae could have taken the children. Josephine was not happy about that.”

“That’s the one who looks like Cruella de Vil’s evil twin?”

She couldn’t help but snort with laughter at the image. “Yes, she seems to be trying to use the increased fae activity from the revived Realm as an excuse to make herself some kind of head enchantress. That’s why I need to get a message to Nana to see if she can find a way to tone it down until we’ve dealt with it from our side. The enchantresses stepping up isn’t necessarily bad, but I think them having a queen would be worse than the fae.”

“And you can’t talk to your grandmother yourself without revealing that you’re not just an enchantress.”

“Exactly.”

“So you’re in a bind here.”

She developed a slight lump in her throat at his understanding. He really was a great guy. She supposed if she had to develop a crush on someone, he at least was a worthy target.

Beau whined and strained at the leash, which was unusual enough that both of them noticed. Normally, they were more likely to have to drag the bulldog. “What is it, buddy?” Michael asked softly. The dog whined louder and barked once.

Sophie thought she heard a weak cry in the distance. “Did you hear that?”

“That whimper? It’s not just Beau?”