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But who was? I looked around for other people who weren’t dancing. Then again, if I were casting this kind of spell and wanted to keep suspicion away from myself, I’d have joined in the dance. The place was just so chaotic, it was hard to tell who was doing what. My best hope of finding the culprit was to get out there and move among the people. Then I might be able to feel the source of the magic.
“I’m going to go get something to drink,” I said. “Anyone want anything?” The ones who were in the know must have figured out what I was doing, for they shook their heads. Nita was so transfixed by the dancing that she didn’t even respond. I slipped away from the group until I was away from the protection of the shields.
My first thought was to look for Gregor. He might have had a grudge against MSI and the magical establishment that would make him want to blow it wide open. Before I could spot him in the crowd, I heard Nita’s voice behind me, saying, “Hey, Katie, wait up! I could use a drink.”
She still seemed to be under the protection of the shield, as she was surrounded by people who weren’t dancing, so I called out, “I can bring you something! What do you want?”
But she kept heading toward me. “That’s okay, I’ll go with you,” she said.
I hurried toward her, but I didn’t reach her in time to keep her from leaving the protected area. First, she bobbed her head as she walked. Then she began swaying. Finally, she was doing a full-on jive, her arms and legs moving fluidly. I’d seen Nita dance before—or attempt to—at school dances and during slumber parties, and she’d never been this coordinated. She didn’t seem at all aware of what she was doing. Like all the others, she was carried away by the magic.
I was torn. I needed to find out who was responsible, and she didn’t seem to be in any danger. But it felt wrong leaving a friend in that state, and the others couldn’t get to her without being affected by the spell, too. With a frustrated groan, I rushed forward and grabbed her by the arm. She didn’t protest. In fact, she didn’t seem to even notice. She just kept dancing as I dragged her back to safety.
Gradually, she came back to herself. She stopped dancing, then just bobbed her head while we walked, and finally she stopped dead still, resisting my tug on her arm. She turned to me, frowning.
“Katie, what the heck is going on here?” she asked.
11
I didn’t have a good answer for Nita, not one I was allowed to give or that she was likely to believe. After far too long a pause, I said, “I guess you got caught up in the spirit of things. That music really does make you want to dance, doesn’t it?” I tried moving a little with the beat, but I was actually with the music, which meant I wasn’t in step with the dancers.
“You weren’t dancing, not until I said something,” Nita said, raising an eyebrow. “And I don’t know how to dance, not like this. I might tap my toes, but I was doing fancy stuff, and I don’t know how. All these people may be a flash mob, but I didn’t get the memo. And yet I knew all the steps. How come it’s just our group who seems to be immune to it?”
I glanced to Rod for backup, hoping he knew how to handle this sort of thing. It was my understanding that we were allowed to tell the truth to someone who figured it out for herself, but I didn’t know what counted as figuring it out. She hadn’t yet said “magic.” She just knew something was weird, so I wasn’t sure if that was enough. I just knew I had no intention of making something up to explain it away, not when I knew she wouldn’t be any kind of threat to the magical world if she knew.
Rod opened his mouth to speak, but at that moment the spell must have broken because the dancing stopped. The few couples who’d been dancing from the start were still at it, but they adjusted their moves to fit the new song. Everyone else drifted away, heading for the refreshment stands, their faces red and sweat dripping from their foreheads. We were lucky there weren’t any heart attacks from all that unexpected exertion. Strangely, no one seemed to be aware of what they’d been doing. At least, they didn’t seem to find it odd. It was as though they’d been in a trance the whole time. For a moment, I wondered if I’d done the wrong thing by dragging Nita to the safety of the shield. If I’d left her alone, she might have remained as clueless as all the other people, with no memory of dancing.
Then again, I’d been wishing we could read her in about magic for a long time, so maybe this was a good thing. I just hoped the authorities didn’t think I’d done it on purpose to give me an excuse to tell her.
Nita glanced around at all the former dancers, now going about their business as though nothing had happened. “Okay, wait, they’re acting like this was no big deal,” she said. “What is going on here?”
“It’s a long story, and we can’t really talk about it here,” Rod said. “But I promise, we’ll discuss it later.”
I thought for a moment that she’d get stubborn and insist on talking about it right this minute, but she nodded, scowling. “Okay. Later. But today.”
“Today,” he promised.
“I’ll hold you to that.”
That crisis delayed, I returned my attention to the bigger picture. Had Carmen been the intended audience for the dance spell? If she was magically immune, I doubted that it would have raised the kind of questions it had with Nita. Nita noticed it because she was affected. She knew she couldn’t dance, but had been made to do so. From Carmen’s vantage point, if she was immune to magic (and she must have been, since she’d been unaffected), it would have just looked like a flash mob. It would take more proof to convince her that magic was real, and even more for her to have evidence she could show the world. What would be absolute proof that magic existed?
For me, it had been a serious lecture from Merlin himself, along with a few demonstrations, all in the MSI headquarters, which looks like a castle that no one else seems to notice. That came after me noticing all kinds of crazy stuff happening in the city, like gargoyles that came and went from churches. What would it take for the general public to really believe and not just think it was special effects or an illusion? When there are TV shows about making the Statue of Liberty appear to vanish, it would take a lot to make people think something even that big really was magic.
I figured it would help if someone planted the seeds of doubt. “I just saw someone I know,” I said to my friends. “I’ll be right back.”
I made my way through the crowd toward Carmen, who noticed me before I reached her. “Was that some kind of magic thing, or what?” she asked, gesturing toward the stage as she approached me.
“I thought it was a flash mob,” I said with a shrug.
“Yeah, that’s what I figured, publicity for the band, or something. It was a good idea. But I got another one of those news releases promising a public demonstration of magic today, and I thought maybe that was supposed to be it.”
“Have you considered that someone might be pranking you?”
She grimaced. “Yeah. Maybe. But then there are those things I keep seeing. It’s a pretty elaborate prank if they’re sending me news releases about magic, then staging huge incidents, just for my benefit.” Her eyes narrowed. “And you always seem to be around when these things happen.”
“Hey, don’t look at me about this. I was here to listen to them as a possible band to play at my wedding.”
