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“No problem,” I said, picking up the book, which let off a couple of sparks that made Roger jump backward.
“I know it’ll be tedious, so I don’t expect it overnight, but if you could get sections to me as you do them, that would be great. Oh, and it’s probably best if you do it by hand and not on the company’s computer system.”
I tried to keep my smile firmly in place. “Okay, but I’m not making any promises about my handwriting.”
It was frustrating knowing that I’d be making a copy of this book and had no way to smuggle any of it out. Did the scanners detect something as minor as paper? Couldn’t you make a grocery list at work and take it home?
On the other hand, I thought, as I started work deciphering the difficult handwriting, the very act of writing it down would mean I remembered more of it. I was mostly worried about those spells and what they might do. That’s where I needed to get them precisely. Change one little squiggle in a magical formula and something else entirely was bound to happen.
Trying to memorize as I wrote helped me remain conscious during the boring work. As I’d thought the day before when Roger was skimming the book, the plans didn’t seem all that earthshattering. There was nothing in here that needed to have been hidden away and magically protected. I suspected that the spells were the key.
I studied the first one carefully, committing it to memory like I’d have to recite it in front of the class. There were only a couple of symbols involved, and I pulled my watch aside to copy them onto my wrist, where the band would hide them. I was pretty sure I’d left the office with ink stains on my fingers before, so I hoped I could get away with it.
By the end of the day, I’d written out ten pages and my fingers were starting to cramp. I took those pages to Roger. “Here’s the first day’s work,” I said. “If you don’t mind, I’ll take a break now. I’m worried that I’m getting sloppy as I get tired.”
He flipped through the pages and said, without looking up, “Sure. These are great. Thanks.”
“I’ll get back on it tomorrow.”
“Mmm hmm.”
I had a feeling I could have added, “And I’ll use glitter ink tomorrow,” and he wouldn’t have noticed, so I slipped away.
In the changing room, I was careful when I removed the company watch and put on my own, then I held my breath as I left the room, terrified that alarms would start blaring, letting everyone know I was walking away with valuable information. But nothing happened. I didn’t even have to use my prepared excuse that I was planning to get a tattoo and those symbols looked cool.
As soon as I was home, I checked my traps and found that either no one had entered or they’d done a great job of not disturbing anything. Feeling a little more secure, I sat down to write out the spell that I’d memorized and copied the symbols from my wrist. Now I had to find a way to get it to Owen. I called Marcia. “Hey, are you up for dinner? I miss you guys.”
“Can’t handle it out on your own, huh? We got takeout since Nita’s off tonight, and we have enough to feed an army, so come on over.”
It would be difficult to talk freely with Nita there, but it would also look less suspicious—more like I really was getting together with my old roommates and less like I might be passing on valuable information.
Nita met me at the door with a hug. “I can’t believe you abandoned me!” she said. “How’s life on your own?”
“It’s quiet,” I said. “Sometimes that’s good, sometimes that’s bad. But it’s only been a few days.”
“You’ll have to have a party the next time I’m off in the evening. I’ll even make samosas. Now that Mom’s speaking to me again, she sent her recipe.”
As we gathered around the table and served ourselves from containers of Indian food, I asked Gemma, “How’s Philip doing?”
The tiny crease that formed between her eyebrows told me she knew at least something about what was going on. “He’s doing fine. He’s under a lot of stress right now, though.”
I nodded and hoped she knew that it wasn’t my fault.
Nita, oblivious to the tension, chattered happily about what was going on at work and compared the food to the way her mother made it back home. Soon, the rest of us got caught up in her good spirits, and it felt like old times, the group of us hanging out together at home.
After dinner, while Gemma and Nita were clearing the table, Marcia moved to sit by me and whispered, “I take it there was something you needed to tell me or give me.”
“Yeah, this.” I took the spell out of my pocket. “I want Owen to take a look at it. It’s from that book I’ve been having to read—he’ll know what that means. I memorized the spell and copied the symbols, so I’m pretty sure it’s accurate. I’m curious about what it does. That’s the only reason I can think of for this book to have been hidden the way it was. Everything else is hardly groundbreaking.”
She took the page and slid it into her own pocket. “I’ll get it to Rod. I was going to head over there later tonight, anyway.”
“Thanks.”
“How are you holding up away from Owen?”
“He finds ways to see me,” I said, feeling myself blush. “But it’s not like when I was able to see him every day, all the time.”
“Hey, maybe absence will make the heart grow fonder.”
