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“It does.”
“Then I’m with you.”
We were almost to the stairs, where I was pretty sure they’d put up extra wards to keep the outsider wizards and creatures out of the main part of the building, when one of the harpies noticed us. She swooped in our direction, claws out and body flat. “Run!” I told Trish.
She put on a good sprint, and I was right behind her, but I was afraid we weren’t going to make it. Magic might not have been able to hurt us, but talons would, and I’d seen what those talons could do to a person.
“Sam!” I shouted, hoping the gargoyle could hear me over the ruckus. He was probably my best bet for intercepting the harpy before she could reach us. Sure enough, he wheeled around and zoomed toward her. I put on a burst of speed and quit looking behind me, trying to narrow the gap between me and safety. But I couldn’t resist a peek over my shoulder once or twice so I’d know whether I needed to hit the deck.
That was when I saw that Sam wasn’t going to make it in time. I threw myself flat on the ground, making myself a harder target to hit. The harpy was now so close that I felt gusts of wind coming from her wings, and I could smell the stench that surrounded her. I curled up in a ball to protect my vital organs. I was just about to bend my head to protect my face when the harpy suddenly flew backwards.
I didn’t think that was possible, but I wasn’t about to complain. I looked around and saw Owen, his arm still outstretched from whatever he’d thrown at the harpy. I sat up, blew him a kiss, and got back on my feet to run the rest of the way to the stairs. I didn’t know if Owen knew what I was up to, but I figured he was okay with any plan that put me on the other side of a magical barrier that kept the bad guys out.
Trish was still waiting on the landing in the middle of the grand staircase. I reached her and said, “Come on.” She joined me in running the rest of the way up the stairs. The tingle of the wards as we passed through them was a welcome relief. I stopped and caught my breath, bending over to brace my hands on my knees until I stopped shaking.
“This is nuts. You know that, right?” Trish said.
“You get used to it.”
“I take it the dark-haired hottie is your boyfriend, or something?”
“Actually, we’re engaged.”
“If there are any others like him here, are you hiring?”
“They’re always hiring people like us. We’ll talk after we survive all this.”
In my time at MSI, I’d had a few thorough tours of the building, and I’d frequently had to run all over the place to get my job done. I’d only seen the control room once because I didn’t have much business there. I thought I might be able to find it again, though it was easy to get lost in this place. It might not have had hallways that were portals to other buildings in other parts of the world (or did it?), but it was still a confusing maze.
I’d thought we’d left the danger behind once we crossed the barrier, but I’d forgotten that the Collegium had plants within MSI. Some of them appeared to be showing their loyalty by rushing to their allies’ aid. I didn’t think the barrier would let them through to join the fight, but we were still left to face them.
“Wait a second, is that Shrek?” Trish blurted, her face twisted with disgust.
“It’s Gregor. He’s not always an ogre, but he must be really agitated.”
Fortunately, I still had my purse with me, and that meant I should have a canister of pepper spray somewhere in there—a concession to my mom, who was worried about me living in New York. I fumbled in my bag, not taking my eyes off the people moving toward us. My fingers closed on the canister, and I pulled it out of my bag. The Collegium plants were almost upon us. There were only a few of them, not nearly as many as my research had suggested there would be. I guessed that not all of them were willing to out themselves. Showing up like this was a big risk and a firm commitment to their cause. I wondered what they’d do if they realized that their boss was now a frog—or were these Roger’s people who were personally loyal to him?
Trish dropped into a defensive position that suggested she’d had martial arts training, and I allowed myself to glance away from the approaching wizards just long enough to make sure I was pointing the pepper spray in the right direction. There weren’t a lot of them, but even with us immune to magic, we wouldn’t be able to fight them.
But then it occurred to me that these people probably didn’t want a fight with us. They were trying to join their comrades in the bigger fight, and would probably only attack us if we tried to stop them. I grabbed Trish’s arm. For a second, I thought she’d hit me, but her reflexes were good and she pulled back in the nick of time. “Let’s just get out of their way,” I suggested.
She glanced at the oncoming traitors, then back at me, then shrugged. “Worth a shot. And I’d rather have my back against a wall, anyway.”
We moved to the far side of the passageway, clearing the way for the oncoming group. I kept my finger on the pepper spray button, and Trish kept her defensive stance, but they walked right past us. I didn’t want to be there when they discovered they couldn’t join the fight or when they figured out that we might be a threat to their allies, so as soon as they were past us, I whispered to Trish, “Run!” We hurried out of that passage and around the corner so that they couldn’t see us.
“What is this place, anyway?” Trish asked when we’d stopped running. “It looks like some kind of castle mixed with a university, mixed with an old office building.”
“It’s Magic, Spells, and Illusions, Incorporated. Think of it as kind of like the Microsoft of magic. They create most of the spells magical people use. I guess you could say they’re rather traditional, but that probably comes with the territory when Merlin is the boss.”
“Wait, the old guy in charge is Merlin?
The Merlin?”
“Yep. It’s a long story. Now, we need to go turn the magic off.”
“You can turn the magic off?”
“We can cut off the extra juice they run through this place. That should put our guys at an advantage. It has to do with how they process magical energy. Ask Owen for a lecture on it later. He’ll be more than happy to oblige. Now, I think it was down this way.”
