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“Where?”
“Central Park. Let’s say the Alice statue.”
I could sense her relief that I wasn’t asking her to meet me in some hidden alley. That was a public, busy spot, so it wasn’t likely that I was going to conk her over the head and haul her off to my secret lair. “Okay, how about six this evening? I’ll have to have today’s story done by then.”
“Six it is. I’ll see you then. And don’t worry, it’s not bad. You may even like it.”
I had to leave work a little early to be sure of making it there before she arrived. I was worried that Owen would suggest we get dinner after work, but he didn’t say anything,
and if he thought it was weird that I didn’t suggest it, that also went without comment. Things were okay between us after the spells were undone. At least, I thought so. I hoped so, considering we were getting married in a little more than a week. Of course, whether we were okay after today would depend on how he took what I was about to do.
It was a pleasant spring evening, and the park was full when I arrived, lots of other people apparently sneaking out of work early to enjoy some time outdoors. I worried that might work against me, since the magical beings tended to be shy about crowds.
Carmen was already there when I reached the statue. She wasn’t quite in full incognito mode, but she had her hair in a ponytail and wore glasses, so she didn’t look like her on-air self. “I’m glad you came,” I said as I approached her.
“You had me intrigued,” she said with a shrug. “So, what did you want to show me?”
“Come with me,” I said and began walking, heading toward the boathouse and the path that skirted the lake. All the while, I kept an eye out for any signs of magic. Wouldn’t you know, it was a quiet night for magical creatures. If I’d been hoping to keep the secret from Carmen, the place would have been swarming with gnomes and sprites, but now that I wanted her to see them, they’d become strangely shy. Did they know what I’d planned, somehow? I hadn’t told a soul, so unless they could read my mind, they couldn’t possibly have known.
“Are we going anywhere in particular?” Carmen asked as we walked across Bethesda Terrace.
“I’m looking for something,” I said. “We’re bound to run across it sooner or later.”
As we followed the path around the lake, I spotted a park ranger ahead of us, and it was one of the sprites—as the male fairies preferred to be called. In fact, I thought it might have been one of Trix’s exes. I touched her arm and indicated the ranger. “Notice anything unusual about him?” I asked. “Anything at all? And don’t hesitate to tell me something because you think it’s too weird.”
She frowned, took a breath as though to speak, then shook her head. “Nope.”
“So you don’t see that he has wings, like he’s an overgrown fairy?”
Her head snapped around toward me so quickly that I suspected she’d need to see a chiropractor soon. “What? You see them, too?”
“Yeah, I see them.”
“And they look real. Not like a costume. Why would he be wearing a costume at work in the park at this time of year?” Her voice had gone a little shrill. I took her arm and guided her down the path, passing the ranger, who nodded politely, and around a bend where he was no longer in sight. Ahead of me, I saw a gnome digging at the base of a tree. I waited to see Carmen’s reaction. She definitely reacted. I could tell she saw him. Her eyes focused on him, and she turned her head to keep her eyes on him as we passed, but she didn’t say anything.
“Don’t tell me you didn’t see the gnome back there,” I said.
She came to a dead stop and dug in, refusing to budge. “Okay, just what the hell is going on here?”
“I haven’t been entirely honest with you,” I said. “All those weird things that have happened? They’re magic. Magic’s real. And you’re apparently immune to it. That means it doesn’t work on you, and the magic used to hide magic from normal people doesn’t work on you. That’s why you see wings that no one else sees, why you see a garden gnome at work. It’s why you didn’t have the urge to dance when everyone else at that festival broke out into a dance routine.”
“Have you been doing all this to me?” she asked, her eyes going wide.
I shook my head. “No, I’m not behind it. I’m a magical immune, too, and I work for a magical company. There is someone out there trying to expose magic. They’re the ones who’ve been doing these things, and I’m pretty sure they’re the ones who’ve been sending you news releases. I bet they saw you reacting to something you shouldn’t have seen, so they’re targeting you.”
“And that brawl at the bridal sale?”
“A real magical fight, though I don’t know if that one was staged or just strong feelings about discount designer gowns.”
“Why shouldn’t magic be exposed? If it’s real. I’m not saying I’m convinced yet.”
“I can’t do magic to show you because, as I said, I’m immune—so nonmagical that magic doesn’t work on me. Magic’s a big secret because it would probably seriously mess up the world if everyone knew about it. There are a lot of rules about keeping it secret, and that generally keeps magical people from going overboard. If there are harsh penalties for being seen using magic, it’s harder for them to take over the world. Without the rules, it’s no-holds-barred. And that keeps ordinary people from being able to get magic users to do things for them.”
“So you’re saying this is for our own good?”
“Yeah, and from what I can tell, it makes sense. Can you imagine how it would reshape society if everyone knew about magic?”
“If it’s such a secret, why are you telling me?”
