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Trish and I turned to look at each other. “Seriously?” she said, a corner of her lip turning up.
“I’ve never heard that the moon has anything to do with it,” I said. “But then, it wouldn’t make any difference to me.” I looked for Rod in the crowd, but I’d lost him, and this wasn’t really a conversation we could have here. I’d thought this was the faction that wasn’t being run by magical people. If they had the magic to drop the veils on MSI’s building, then I’d misjudged the whole thing.
I moved to the fringes of the crowd and called Sam. “It’s not an attack,” I whispered into the phone. “I think they’re going to drop the veils on the building.”
“Got it.”
“Soon,” I added. “Something about when the moon passes overhead. Is that a thing?”
“Not that I’ve ever heard. It’s probably just showmanship. But we’re on it. Thanks for the tip, doll.”
The woman was still bellowing through the bullhorn about all the strange things that existed in the city that no one else could see, and I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. It was clear that she was magically immune, and if only someone had managed to catch that and explain it to her, I had a feeling she’d be a much happier person now. As it was, I wondered if it was too late. She already believed the truth, so would it do any good to bring her fully in on the secret? Would it make her hate magic any less if she were part of it?
I was still musing on the topic, heading back toward Trish, when Carmen stopped me. “You came,” she said.
I shrugged. “I work nearby, and I walk through here to get to the subway, so I thought I might as well stop and see what’s going on.”
“None of this makes any sense,” she said, shaking her head. “What is she saying about a disappearing building that doesn’t seem to belong here? That castle-like building has always been over there.” She pointed straight at the MSI building. “And I don’t think it’s Magic HQ.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. I wasn’t supposed to admit that I saw it, but I didn’t want to tell her I couldn’t see it. “It’s easy to miss if you’re not looking for it, I guess.”
“But what’s the big deal?”
“I have no idea.” That much was the truth, but for entirely different reasons than she probably suspected.
The woman with the bullhorn paused dramatically, looking up at the sky, then turned and pointed. “There!”
I didn’t know that the crowd would get too excited about seeing a building they’d never noticed before, but I did expect some reaction, at least a few double takes when it suddenly appeared or changed, or whatever would happen when the veils dropped. Instead, people just stared like they were waiting for something to happen, and when it didn’t, they began wandering off, going about their business. That got the speaker really riled up. “Don’t you see it?” she shouted, loud enough to overload the megaphone. “The veils dropped, and there it was!”
“It was always there,” Carmen said, shaking her head.
I thought about telling her the truth, but I realized I had no proof. Being able to see a building wasn’t exactly evidence of magic, and she didn’t seem to notice that no one else in the crowd could see it. “I guess this was a bust, huh?” I said.
“I’m just glad I didn’t pitch this as a story or bring a crew. I’d have been a laughingstock. It’s just another crackpot. We really need to do something about the mental health system in this country.” With a halfhearted wave, she said, “Catch you at the next big magical exposé.”
“Yeah. One of these days, maybe it’ll be the real thing,” I said.
“Ha! As if!”
I was still watching her go when someone grabbed me by the arm. I whirled to see the woman from the bridal sale. “What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded.
“Excuse me?” I said, all the Texas in me coming out with a vengeance. Even I was a bit surprised by how many syllables I managed to fit into those two words.
“You’re the one who made it fail.”
“Wait, you’re blaming me for whatever you were trying to do failing?” Okay, so it had kind of been my fault, but I was indignant enough about being blamed to sound somewhat genuine.
“I heard you on the phone, talking about veils.”
How had she heard that? I hadn’t been that close to her, and I’d whispered. She must have been right behind me, and I hadn’t noticed, or maybe she could read lips. “I’m planning a wedding, remember?” I tried to pull away from her.
She tightened her grip on my arm and dragged me toward the fountain, where the speaker was still berating the dwindling crowd. Trish moved toward me, as though to intervene, but I caught her eye and shook my head slightly. I didn’t think I was in immediate physical danger, and I was curious what was going on. This might be a good way to find out.
“She’s the one who did it!” my captor said when we reached the speaker. “I heard her on the phone, warning them about the veil dropping. And she was at the incident at the bridal sale. I should have known she was one of them.”
“I told you, I was talking about a wedding veil,” I said, wrenching my arm out of her grasp. “I was just buying a wedding dress at the sale. Which is why I was talking about veils. I’m not sure if I should go with one or drop the idea and do something different.” Even though that hadn’t been what the phone call had been about, it was kind of the truth. I hadn’t found a veil style I liked and was wondering if not using one would give my mother a heart attack.
The crowd had shrunk to the point it was just the true believers left, along with Rod, Trish, and a few other MSI people who hung back. Even Mimi was gone, much to my relief. The last thing I needed now was her identifying me. I hoped none of the MSI crowd did anything drastic that would end up revealing magic. The speaker glared down at me from her spot standing on the bench and lowered her megaphone, speaking without it. “Are you the reason my demonstration failed?”
