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I noticed as we entered the subway station that everyone looked wary. Not that New Yorkers were normally full of friendly good cheer to strangers, but they usually just went about their business while pretending other people didn’t exist. Now they were eyeing each other with suspicion. Even without knowing about magic, they knew that something was wrong.
Once we got on the train, I realized that something was different. The Spellworks ads running along the top of the car now promised protection from the magical crime wave, showing off charms like the keychain I’d seen the day before. The ad’s tag line said, “Stepping up to protect the magical world,” suggesting that they had to step up because MSI hadn’t. That took some nerve.
I nudged Owen and pointed to the ads. He frowned as he read them. “I want to get a look at those charms,” he said. “Maybe then I could reverse engineer to find out how those influence spells work.”
Fortunately, nothing else happened on the way to work. It was a relief to get to my office and find that things were reasonably quiet and calm. In other words, Perdita wasn’t in yet. I took advantage of the moment of peace to search the Internet for venues that could hold our conference.
“Whoops!”
The shout from the outer office told me that my peace and quiet were probably gone for the day. I went to the doorway and found Perdita on her hands and knees, an empty paper coffee cup on the floor nearby, and a widening brown stain on the carpet. She looked up at me and winced. “Oh, hi, Miss—I mean, Katie. Don’t worry. I’ll get this cleaned up in no time. I’m an expert on cleaning spells. I have to be because I’m always spilling things. I guess I shouldn’t have tried conjuring the coffee in midair while I was walking. This was going to be a peppermint mocha for you.”
“That was very thoughtful of you,” I said. “Maybe it would be best for you to conjure it up on my desk—on the side away from the computer.”
She waved her hands over the stain, which then vanished. “Good idea, Miss—I mean, Katie. I’ll get you another coffee in a second. On your desk.”
“Okay, let’s give that a try.”
She bounced to her feet and followed me into my office, where she snapped her fingers, whispered some words, and a coffee cup appeared on the end of my desk away from my computer. It wobbled and teetered for a second—and I grabbed my planner and notepad to get them out of the way—then it steadied itself.
Once I was sure it wasn’t going to tip over, I reached for the cup and took a cautious sip. “How do you like it?” Perdita asked. “I’ve been trying to duplicate all the seasonal specials so I can have them any time.”
“It’s perfect,” I said. “Thanks.”
She lit up. “I’m glad you like it. Now, what do we need to do today, boss?”
I gestured for her to take a seat, then I sat at my desk, took another sip of the surprisingly good magical mocha, and said, “We need to do the impossible.”
“That’s practically the company motto.”
“This time, we have to do real-world impossible. We need to find a place that will hold a couple of thousand people for an event a little more than a month away. Venues that size are usually booked years in advance. We may have to pitch tents in Central Park and then use magic to hide them.”
“That would actually be kind of cool.”
I leaned forward, resting my elbows on my desk. “Yeah, it would, wouldn’t it? And it might be less complicated. If we use a conventional meeting space, they’d get suspicious if we managed to put together an entire exhibit with no need for labor or catering, and I don’t see how we could hide that magically.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s true. I’m so used to hiding magic that I forget about what people must think about what they see.”
I chewed on the end of my pen as I thought for a moment. “So, if we used real meeting space, we’d have to hide parts of what we’re doing—maybe make it look like a software users’ group meeting—without hiding the fact that we’re having an event. But if we create something magical, whether it’s tents in the park or boats in the harbor, we could just hide the whole thing. Can we do that?”
“My cousin Edlyn had her wedding in the park, and it was totally invisible to outsiders. She didn’t want to get married while using an illusion to make herself not look like an elf, so we veiled the wedding and used a compulsion spell to make people not want to go near that area. A couple of my uncles were able to do it, so I’m sure this company could take care of it.”
“This could work,” I said with a grin. “Thanks, Perdita.”
My brief moment of triumph faded when my phone rang and I saw Kim’s name on the readout. After steeling myself with a deep breath, I answered the phone. “You need to come up to the president’s office right away,” she said. “It’s about the incident this morning.”
Chapter Five
I assumed that Kim meant the armored car incident, but I didn’t know why Merlin wanted to talk to me about it. All I could think of was that Merlin wanted to know about Owen and that time-stopping spell, which he wasn’t supposed to use.
“I have a meeting upstairs. Don’t know when I’ll be back,” I told Perdita as I left. Heading up to Merlin’s office, I felt like I was back in elementary school and had been summoned to the principal’s office, and even though I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong, I still got a sick feeling in my stomach. If this was about Owen, I wasn’t sure what I should say.
When I reached Merlin’s office, I was surprised to find Ramsay there. “Ah, there you are, Katie,” Merlin said when he noticed me standing in the doorway. He sounded friendly enough, so I let myself relax slightly. Merlin gestured and the door shut behind me. “Please, have a seat,” he added.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Far too much,” he said. “I’m sure you’ve noticed the many criminal incidents associated with magic use.”
“Yeah. It’s getting pretty wild west around here.”
