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The tricky thing about dealing with a magical immune was that I would have to be alone. There’d be no way to have a gargoyle following me or a wizard using an invisibility spell staking out the place. Anyone watching me would have to do so from afar. Still, I reported it to Sam and very pointedly didn’t tell Owen because I didn’t want to spur him to do something stupid and risky. He’d always had a stubborn streak, but I didn’t know where this level of petty contrariness was coming from. He was under a lot of stress, which may have had something to do with it. I couldn’t imagine what it must be like to have his every move so closely scrutinized and to be accused of all kinds of terrible things, just for existing. Although I understood, to some extent, I couldn’t let it keep me from doing my job.
I left the office early and headed in the opposite direction from the plaza, looping around so I could approach another way. I didn’t want to risk being seen leaving that magical building they’d tried to expose. That would pretty much kill my cover. When I arrived a few minutes early, Abigail and the woman from the bridal sale were already there. “So, you’ve seen the light,” Abigail said by way of greeting as I approached.
“More like I’m curious about the light,” I replied. “I’m not entirely convinced.”
The bridal sale woman waved the wand of the magic detector over me and reported, “She’s still registering the same way.”
“Do you know what this means?” Abigail asked.
“I have no idea,” I replied with a shrug. “I kind of think it means you’re hitting a button on your gizmo to make it look like a serious result.”
The woman tested herself and showed that the readout was in the dead center. “This is normal,” she said. She tried it again with me, and the needle went all the way to the left. “This is you. It’s the same with Abigail.” She demonstrated on her leader.
“Yes, but what does that mean?” I asked.
“It means you’re untouched by magic, and that’s something of a miracle in this city, which is heavily contaminated by magic,” Abigail said. “Living here and remaining pure means you’re special. But there are other effects. What do you see over there?” She pointed to the MSI headquarters.
I weighed my response. It would really blow their theory if I pretended not to see it, but I wasn’t sure what they’d do. I also knew I couldn’t sustain that kind of charade if I didn’t know what other people saw, so I’d probably be caught. Besides, my job was to infiltrate them, and that would probably go better if they thought I had whatever ability their leader had. “There’s an office building that looks like it could be a castle,” I said. “It’s been there as long as I can remember.”
They looked at each other and nodded. “You need to come with us.” Abigail waved and a battered silver sedan pulled up to the curb.
“Whoa, I don’t think so,” I said, shaking my head. “You said we’d meet here, in public. You didn’t say anything about going with you. We can talk here, but I’m not going anywhere.” I crossed my arms over my chest to indicate my firm stance.
“You must come with us,” Abigail insisted.
“Okay, then, I’m out,” I said, turning and heading toward the subway. I hoped they’d back down and agree to talk here. Otherwise, if they called my bluff and let me go, I’d lose this avenue of investigation. What I didn’t expect was to have my arms grabbed on either side. “Hey!” I protested, struggling.
“We’re not going to hurt you, but you need to come,” the bridal sale lady said.
She and Abigail hustled me between them toward the waiting car. I could probably have put up a fight and escaped, and I suspected there was at least one gargoyle lurking behind something nearby who would have helped. Screaming might even have helped, though in this city you never knew. But I wanted to know what they had to say, so I had to go against every instinct and let them drag me to that car and shove me into the backseat, with me putting up enough of a token protest to not look suspicious. Abigail took the seat next to me, with the bridal sale woman in front. A man I didn’t recognize was driving. If something horrible happened, I knew I’d never hear the end of it from Owen. Though I guess if something truly horrible happened, I’d never know what he had to say because I wouldn’t be there to hear it. That was a cheery thought.
“So, what do y’all do when you’re not having demonstrations?” I asked as the car inched its way uptown. “I mean, are you trying to get policies changed, raise awareness, or what?”
“We want people to see the truth,” Abigail said. “People must remove the blinders that keep them oblivious to the true threat. You and I can see the world for what it is, no matter what they try to hide from us, but we must show the others how to see the truth.”
“And what is the truth?” I asked.
“The truth is that magic exists and is being hidden from us.”
I tried go back to the way I’d felt when I’d first learned about magic. So much had happened since then, it was hard to remember what it had been like to learn for the first time. I thought I recalled some skepticism on my part, in spite of the rather vivid demonstrations I’d been given. I would have been far less likely to believe under these circumstances. “Seriously?” I asked. “There’s magic? You mean like Harry Potter, Gandalf, and all that? You’ve got to be kidding. If that’s what this is about, let me out of this car, right now.”
“You saw the building.”
“Yeah. It was just a building. It kind of looks like a castle, but they used to have fun with architecture, and gothic-style stuff was big in the Victorian era. What’s the big deal?”
The bridal sale woman turned to face us. “The rest of us don’t see that building. The buildings next to it look larger and fill that spot.”
“And that’s proof that magic exists?”
“There is more,” Abigail said, but she didn’t elaborate.
If I’d been some random person off the street, this would have been far from convincing—well, the part about magic being real. I’d have been thoroughly convinced that I was dealing with some serious nutjobs. “Okay, this is getting too weird for me,” I said, tugging on the door handle. We were caught in gridlock, so it wasn’t as though I’d have to hurl myself out of a speeding car to escape. I just needed to step outside and walk briskly. The door didn’t open. They must have had the child safety locks engaged. “Hey, what’s up with this? Let me out.”
“As I said, we mean you no harm,” Abigail said. “But you must come with us.”
“This is kidnapping. Help! Someone!” I wasn’t quite as vehement as I would have been if I’d been truly serious, since I didn’t really want to escape. But I was uncomfortable enough that I was probably pretty convincing.
Abigail caught my wrist in an iron grip. “You’ll stay in the car and hear us out,” she said through clenched teeth. “Once you have heard all, it will be up to you to decide what to do.” She glared at me for a moment longer before releasing me.
