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“He’s a gargoyle,” she said warily.
“Yeah, I’m absolutely amazing at surveillance,” he said.
“I bet you are.”
“She’s immune, like me,” I said, “and she helped me deal with all this.”
“Does that mean you’re finally comin’ aboard with me?” he asked.
“Yeah, I think so. I have to admit that I have the most fun doing stuff like this. I never liked doing marketing.”
“You know it’s not all big fights and undercover ops, right?”
“It’s also not sales meetings.”
“Are you sure about this?” Owen asked me, tightening his arms around me.
“Look, I keep getting into danger and trouble no matter what job I have, so I may as well be in a job where that’s the plan and I’m surrounded by people who know what they’re doing.”
“Whatever makes you happy.” He yawned and shook his head, as though he was trying to clear cobwebs. “I am beat. That fight really took a lot out of me.”
“You may still be suffering some from that sleeping spell. Oh, and we probably need to turn the magic back on.”
“The magic?”
“I had them shut down the extra circuits. I figured that would give you and Merlin an edge.”
He laughed and shook his head. “Yeah, you’re suited for security. I never would have thought of that.” He looked over to where Sam was perched on the guard’s station, talking to Trish. “Sam! Can you get them to turn the magic circuits back on?”
“Will do, kiddo.”
“I think I still could do with about twelve hours of sleep and one of your mother’s chocolate cakes,” Owen said to me.
“Do you want the cake before or after the sleep? Because I have her recipe.”
“After would be fine, but we have some things to wrap up here.”
Actually, things seemed to be going pretty well. The bad guys were all gone, and the magical healers were tending to any injuries among the combatants. Rod and his assistant, Isabel, were getting information from the former frogs to help them get situated. Some of them were only from Roger’s current campaign for world domination, so they were able to go back to their homes and businesses. Those who’d been out of the way for longer needed more help.
The accounting team was already gearing up to get into whatever they could find of the Collegium’s records and holdings to try to get property back to its rightful owners. Evelyn was helping clue them in on the physical locations the Collegium had used, since most of the portals linking the buildings had collapsed.
The security team rounded up the traitors for immediate dismissal and possible prosecution, depending on what they’d actually done. Magical Council enforcers had arrived somewhere along the way, and I got debriefed about Roger’s activities, including his meeting with a Council employee. It looked like this particular takedown was going to have far-reaching effects in the magical world, since the Collegium had its tentacles in just about everything.
We weren’t entirely sure what to do about all the employees who may have had Collegium ties, but who hadn’t done anything about the fight. It looked like there would be lots more interviews and discussions going forward, but since there wasn’t an actual Collegium anymore, what could Collegium plants really do?
Then again, that had been a huge organization. Something was bound to rise from the ashes. There were too many ambitious people involved, and at least one of them was likely to get ideas.
But that was something to worry about some other time. When I finished talking to the enforcers, I looked around and found Owen working with the team that was reinforcing the building’s wards. Now that the magic circuits were running again, he seemed to have more energy, but I suspected he needed a boost.
I went up to my office—soon to be former office—and found Perdita there, hard at work, and apparently entirely oblivious to the battle that had raged in the lobby just minutes ago. “Katie! You’re back! I thought you quit!” she said.
“Not really. It was part of a plan.”
“Oh. Okay. So you’re taking your job back?” She looked a little dismayed.
“No, I’ll be moving to a different department.”
“So maybe it can be permanent!”
