A Kind of Magic (7 page)

“But dancers are more likely to dream of dancing. Is there anything I can do to protect people I know?”

“There are herbs that fend off fairies. I think we have some in stock. Just a moment.” She got up and scurried to the back room, returning a moment later with a basket full of dried greenery and some Christmas ribbon. “Here we go. If you make it look like a Christmas decoration, you can call it a gift and that gives you an excuse to give it to them without having to explain it.”

Leave it to Athena to use arts and crafts as a weapon, Emily thought with a smile. “Brilliant plan. I love it.”

Together, they shaped bundles into wreaths and sprays, binding them with the ribbon and adding other touches of greenery or berries for color. As they worked, Emily said, “Eamon mentioned something about them being in a dream state while they were dancing, like they weren’t physically in the same place I was. But I saw them, right there. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, does it?”

“Very little about the fae makes sense.”

Emily hesitated for a moment, working up the nerve to ask another question. “Eamon also said he could take me that way. Do you think I should, just to find out what’s going on, where they’re going? Maybe since I know what’s happening, I’d be conscious of it, and I can trust him not to hurt me.” She had to admit that she was a little more curious about the other kind of dream she’d mentioned to Eamon, if that might be a way for them to have a relationship that spanned worlds, but she wouldn’t dare mention that idea to Athena.

“For research?” Athena asked, her eyes twinkling.

“Totally. I mean, I can get him to take me dancing at any time. I think before I see about putting a stop to it, I ought to find out what it’s all about. And I want to see how many people I know are involved. For all I know, all my friends are partying without me.”

The bell on the door jingled, and they both looked up in surprise. Customers were rare in this shop. But it was Sophie, looking uncharacteristically tired and bedraggled. “Ah, there you are,” said Athena, apparently not at all surprised. “Let me give you a key. I’ve already told the doorman to expect you. Feel free to make yourself at home.”

“I’m going to have to just dump my stuff and run,” Sophie said. “I’ve managed to finagle a little studio time to myself, and I don’t want to miss it.”

“I guess this means you got it,” Emily said, raising an eyebrow at her sister. “You do remember that there are these things called telephones that allow us to communicate with each other.”

For a second, Sophie looked chagrined, but she immediately regained her usual aplomb. “I’m sorry. I suppose I just got so busy with packing and making arrangements, and I figured we’d have plenty of time to talk once I was here.”

“Wait, did you actually take the long way around, like normal people?”

“Well, I couldn’t exactly move to New York for more than a month without Mama noticing me leaving. I had to tell her, and she insisted on driving me to the airport.” Sophie gave a mischievous grin. “But I did book a horrendously early flight. I can always pop back through the Realm and sneak in if there’s something I couldn’t take on the plane.”

Athena handed her an envelope. “The key’s in there, and the directions. Your room is through the kitchen. And think of it as your home while you’re there.”

“Thank you so much. Now I have to run. My cab’s waiting.”

“This could be really good for her,” Emily remarked once Sophie was gone. “I always hated that she gave up dancing, and it’s even worse that she did it for me.”

“It wasn’t as though you asked her to do so.”

“No, not exactly. But I didn’t complain since it made it easier for me to leave home and come to New York.”

“Well, it’s all right now, isn’t it? You’re a star on Broadway and Sophie is dancing again, sure to be a star, and she’s right where she can be a full member of our circle.” Emily didn’t think Sophie considered that a bonus, but she kept her mouth shut for the time being. Athena grinned. “And she’ll be in much closer proximity to Michael.”

“Is that why you offered her a place to stay? Athena, you are a busybody.”

“It’s in the job description for enchantresses. Now, about this idea of you becoming a dreaming dancer. What would you hope to accomplish?”

“I just want to see it for myself. I want to know if it’s harmful. I want to know how to protect my friends.”

“You want to spend some time with that silver-eyed fairy.”

“Hey, it’s one thing for you to be a busybody with Sophie. I’ll never admit it to her, but I heartily approve. I have to draw the line at you playing matchmaker with me.”

Athena’s face suddenly went serious. “I wouldn’t play matchmaker there. I am merely making sure that you are clear and honest with yourself about your intentions. This is not a relationship you can or should let yourself just fall into. You know there’s no future to it. For you to be with him, you’d have to give up your life here. For him to be with you, he’d have to give up immortality. How long could you survive, caught between worlds? When you’re my age, he’ll still be the same as he is now, and you’ll have given up hope of having a life or a family in the human world.”

“Who says it has to last that long? What’s wrong with having some fun? None of my relationships so far have lasted more than a few months, so I wouldn’t expect this one to be any different.”

“You know what happened to you when you took one sip of fairy drink in the Realm. What do you think would happen if you partook of something far more intense? Humans who dally with the fae spend the rest of their lives pining.”

Emily couldn’t answer. She knew Athena was right. But she also feared that it was already too late for her. She wasn’t quite pining, but she had no interest in any other man.

Athena finished tying a fancy bow on a particularly large sheaf of herbs and handed it directly to Emily. “Take this one for yourself and forget about this scheme. It won’t end well, trust me.” Her voice had a catch in it, and her eyes grew bright with unshed tears.

“You?” Emily asked softly.

“You notice I never married.” Athena turned her attention to her work, moving quickly, but her fingers trembled and fumbled at the ribbon she held.

It was hard to imagine Athena ever being young, but Emily let her vision go out of focus so that the older woman blurred slightly. If her hair were blond instead of white, and if her skin were smooth and young, then yeah, she probably had been a woman who could have beguiled a fairy man. Obviously, he hadn’t been willing to give up immortality for her, and she couldn’t have given up her life’s work for him. Emily wondered who he was. Was he a fairy they’d run into in the Realm? Talk about a nightmare encounter! It was bad enough to run into an ex without makeup on a bad hair day. What would it be like to be old and wrinkled when running into an ex who was still young and gorgeous?

They both jolted when the bells on the door rang, but it was just Michael. Athena automatically filled one of the spare teacups on her tray. “Tea, Detective?”

“Sure, thanks. Making Christmas decorations?”

“Something like that,” Emily said, tying off a bundle. “Here, take one.”

He took the bundle, sniffed at it, and frowned. “What is it, really?”

“It should keep fairies from taking you in your sleep.”

“That’s something I have to worry about?”

“Probably not you,” Athena assured him. “They wouldn’t take one who’s been touched and who can see them unless you want to go.”

“Still, better safe than sorry, huh?” he said, tucking the bundle into his pocket. At the sound of his voice, Beau blinked awake and waddled over to collapse against Michael’s ankles. He knelt to scratch the dog behind the ears.

“And how may we help you today, Detective?” Athena asked.

He stiffened for a moment, then took a long, deep breath, like he was coming to a decision about something. “There’s some weirdness I need to look into. It’s getting bad enough that the other cops seem to know something’s going on. I’m pretty sure they’re seeing selkies around the shore. A guy in the park was attacked by something that sounds like a nixie. There’s that kelpie. I’ve also got a list of missing persons, including kids taken from their beds. It’s like all the folklore about fairies is coming true.”

“It does seem that way, doesn’t it? The enchantresses have taken note. There’s a lot of buzz on our Facebook group.”

“You have a Facebook group?” Emily asked.

“Don’t worry, it’s a closed group,” Athena assured her.

“Is the buzz good or bad?” Michael asked, steering the discussion back.

“Are you asking who the good guys and who the bad guys are?”

“Well, yeah, I guess.”

“The humans have to be the good guys, right?” Emily asked.

“That would be the party line,” Athena said.

“Humans are the ones writing the stories,” Michael said. “Naturally that makes the other side sound bad. But you have to wonder if the humans might have done their own bad stuff. Some of those selkie stories are pretty horrifying. I’m not up for kidnapping kids, but I’m also not crazy about the idea of forcing someone to stay in a shape that pleases you.”

“That is a very balanced argument, Detective,” Athena said with a nod.

“I feel caught between worlds, so I have to be fair to both.”

“All I can give you is the enchantress side of the equation,” Athena said with an uncharacteristically prim air. In fact, she sounded a lot like Sophie did when she got on her high horse. When Athena added, “You’d have to talk to someone else to get the other side,” Emily had to fight a smile. So, Athena had been deliberately channeling Sophie.

“Do you have any idea where I might find that someone else?” Michael asked. The slight twitch of his lips told Emily that he’d also figured out what Athena was doing.

“She said something about having some private studio time,” Emily said. She checked her phone. “She might be there by the time you get to Lincoln Center, depending on how long she took to drop off her stuff and run.”

“She got the part?” he asked.

“Yeah, isn’t it awesome? You’ll have to go see the ballet.”

 She watched his reaction carefully, trying to read it. She knew Sophie had a massive crush on him, but she wasn’t sure where he stood. She was gratified when he grinned, and for a moment he lost that hint of sadness around the eyes that he’d had ever since she’d known him.

“Yeah, I guess I will. And I’ll see if I can track her down.” He knelt and gave Beau one last scratch, patted the dog on the back, then straightened. “Thanks for the help.”

As soon as the door jingled shut behind him, Athena said, “Now who’s being a busybody?”

“I merely told him where he might be able to find her. Dancing. In a leotard. And then nature can take its course. If he can resist that, he isn’t into her. But why didn’t you help him beyond just hinting?”

Athena looked around the room like she was making sure the walls didn’t have ears. “We need to be very careful right now. Josephine is in town, sniffing around. It wouldn’t look good to the other enchantresses if any of us took the side of the fae.”

“Is it really that bad?”

“It can be, and for good reason. You may like Eamon, and he is a nice fellow, for a fairy, but remember what else you’ve seen in the Realm, and you’ll know why we’re necessary to protect mankind. That’s why you need to consider very carefully your dealings with them, especially if you let your heart get involved.”

“My heart isn’t the part of me that would get involved,” Emily said. She watched a blush rise from Athena’s collar and knew she’d effectively ended that discussion. She just didn’t know for sure what she thought about it.

Lincoln Center

2:30 p.m.

Michael followed the directions the woman at the front desk gave him and found the right studio. After one glance inside, he hesitated in the doorway rather than speaking.

Sophie danced alone. She wore what he assumed was casual dance workout wear, but with a skirt made of many layers of filmy stuff falling to just past her knees and a tiara on her head. She made a series of leaps across the floor, her legs in a full split as she soared at what had to be head height. As soon as she landed, she went into a bunch of leaping turns that made her skirt fly out around her like a fluffy cloud.

He’d seen her dance before, but not from this close and not in such a real setting. She’d always seemed so ethereal when she danced in the fairy world, but here in the harsh fluorescent lights of a studio, he could see the hard work that went into it. She’d once compared it to athletics, and that was obvious now. She was tiny, but she was solid muscle.

Abruptly, she stopped, scowling at something she’d apparently done wrong, though he hadn’t noticed anything that looked like a mistake. She repeated the move a few times, then stopped dancing and headed for the stereo near the doorway. That was when she noticed Michael. “Oh, hi,” she said, not sounding at all surprised as she stopped the music.

“Emily told me you’d be here. Congratulations. I heard you got it.”

“Yeah, I did, thanks. I’ll have to get you tickets. Have you ever been to the ballet?”

“Can’t say that I have, but yeah, I’ll come.” He was afraid he sounded a little too eager, despite his attempt to appear casual. He cleared his throat and added, “So you’ll be staying in town a while?”

“At least until after Christmas. We’ll see what happens after that. But you didn’t come to talk about my dance career, did you?” Up close, he could see that her face was beaded with perspiration. He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen her break a sweat, in spite of all the intense situations they’d been through together.

“No, not really. Is it safe to talk here?”

“Come on in.”

She shut the door behind him after he entered, and he sat on the bench of the upright piano at the front corner of the room. She remained standing, swinging one leg at a time back and forth. He found that a little distracting as he kept waiting for her to knock her knee against her nose when her leg swung to the front, and he was amazed by how much her back bent when she swung to the rear. “So, what is it? Some fairy-related weirdness?” she asked.