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He sounded so upset that I figured it wasn’t worth arguing about. With a shrug, I reached into my pocket and found a folded piece of paper. “Oh, that’s probably what I’ve forgotten,” I said as I pulled out the paper. “It must be my to-do list.”
When I unfolded the paper, I saw that it was covered with my handwriting, but it wasn’t a to-do list, and it wasn’t anything I remembered writing. “My brother Dean figured out he was a wizard, and he used his powers to break into all the stores on the Cobb town square,” it said. That was not was I was expecting to see, but even so, something clicked in my head, then everything went hazy and cleared again. As soon as my head felt clear, I started shaking violently in the aftershock. I looked at Owen and whispered, “Whew, that was a close call.”
“You’re okay now?” he asked. “You remember?”
“That we’re being held in some wacky elf prison? Yeah, I remember.” I sank into the nearest chair before my legs could go out from under me. “It’s a good thing you made me write that down. But why didn’t the kiss work? Isn’t that supposed to be what works in fairy tales? It worked before.”
“It may be that our relationship is now the same in both worlds, so it’s not enough to do the trick anymore. A memory from your family involving magic was a great idea. It has nothing in common with this reality.”
I studied the life-saving piece of paper in my hand. “Do you think I’ll need a new one?”
“I hope we don’t need it again.” Even so, I refolded it and put it back in my pocket. I looked up to see that he was still frowning at me. “I take it Josh really was here?” he asked.
I rubbed at my temples. Snapping out of the spell had given me a headache. “Yes, and it went just like I told you, only he must have hit me with the whammy when I didn’t fall under his sway. He seemed convinced I’d give up and go back to him. And maybe I should have.”
“What?” It was an outraged yelp.
I hurried to reassure him. “Not for real, but if I pretended to be with him and to ignore you, then he’d never suspect that the spell had broken, and if he’s in on it, maybe I could have learned something.”
He shook his head. “No, it would have been too hard to stay convincing.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah, that’s how I rationalized it, too. I’m not sure my stomach is strong enough to pretend to be into that guy. There is one thing I noticed, though. One of those gray guys was watching him, and Josh seemed to consult with him a couple of times. Now I’m sure we’re not supposed to be able to see them. When I went back under the spell, I didn’t see him there anymore, and I don’t think he just vanished. So if you run into one, don’t look at him directly. I wonder if the gray suit is a uniform, like the enforcers in black.”
“It’ll make our lives easier if it is. Do you think Josh will be a problem?”
“Probably not. I still liked you when I was under the spell. I still sent him away after he put me back under the spell. Nothing changed other than knowing who I really am. Maybe they’re satisfied that the spell is holding now that he’s reinforced it. But I wonder why no one’s working on you that way. You’re usually the real danger, and they have to know by now that you’ve got magic back, since this place worked on you.”
He frowned. “Maybe it’s because you’re the one who’s resisting and going against their plans, so they know they have to work harder to keep the spell going. If you hadn’t resisted their plans for you, I don’t think I’d have ever snapped out of it.”
“So losing my powers is actually a good thing. That’s nice to know.” I said it sincerely, but it came out sounding sarcastic. I supposed I had mixed feelings about it.
“Do you feel up to our perfume-commercial recon mission?”
“Should we do it, or should we lie low after that close call?”
“If we do it right, it should look like we’re lying low. They’ll expect us to go on some kind of date. But you may have to prompt me for what I should do.”
We made one last pass through the store and made sure the evening shift was up and going, and then we hurried out the front doors. He surprised me by picking me up with his hands at my waist and spinning me around. I laughed, and then when he set me down, I leaned my head against his shoulder. “I guess you have seen a perfume commercial,” I whispered.
“Nope, but I have seen a few movie trailers.”
“Good move. Very convincing.” Then as I looked over his shoulder, I saw that we weren’t alone, and this time it wasn’t just an elf in a gray suit. It was McClusky, who was harder to spot without his usual black enforcer uniform. “And it looks like we have an audience,” I whispered.
“Another gray guy?”
“No, McClusky. I guess Mac broke the spell on him.”
He groaned. “What do they think I’m going to do, try to take over this world with my evil magic?”
“I don’t see Mac, so maybe it’s just McClusky’s paranoia. You don’t have anything to hide from him. We’re doing what we said we would do.”
He let out a deep breath in a long sigh, and I felt his muscles relax ever so slightly before he released his hold on me. He took my hand, and we ambled down the sidewalk. “So, flowers next?” he murmured. At the next corner store, he paused to buy a bouquet, then presented it with a flourish. I didn’t have to fake my delight. As cheesy as it was, it was also really nice. I buried my face in the flowers and had to fight off a sneeze when I accidentally inhaled some pollen. The near-sneeze made both of us laugh. I wasn’t sure if we were acting out a romantic comedy movie trailer or the opening credits to a television situation comedy.
It sort of killed the mood when Owen then went back into spy mode, whispering in my ear, “Since this neighborhood seems to correspond with the Upper West Side, we shouldn’t be able to walk too far across town without reaching the river. By my calculations, we’ve only got a couple of blocks in this direction before we hit Riverside Park.”
“You know just what to say to a girl,” I whispered back. I was beginning to fear that we weren’t fated to have a time when there weren’t life-or-death circumstances. I was already cherishing the romantic moments we had before the spell broke.
My heart began beating faster as we neared the next intersection. There was the park across the street, and on the other side of it should have been the river. There wasn’t an easy way across the river from this point, so I suspected the river worked as the wall to our prison. The trick would be testing that wall without going for a really nasty swim.
