A Kind of Magic (32 page)

She saw a silver head that stood out from the surroundings moving toward her, and she’d never been so glad to see Eamon. “Ah, there you are, Emily Drake,” he said when he drew near. “Sophie needs help.”

“I know. Michael called. But I can’t persuade my friend here to go home alone. I think he might have a bit of a redhead obsession that’s enhancing his stage performance.” She hoped that was specific enough for Eamon to read between the lines and vague enough that Charles wouldn’t realize she was discussing fairies.

“Yes, I see,” Eamon said after studying Charles for a moment.

“Hey, buddy, who the hell are you?” Charles asked Eamon. “Emily, who is this guy?”

“He’s a friend.”

“What kind of friend?”

If only she had a good answer to that question. “A friend I need to talk to now.”

Charles looked for a moment like he was going to get belligerent with Eamon, but then he paused and his eyes went unfocused. “Go home and sleep soundly, with no dreams, no one invading your sleep,” Eamon said, his mercury eyes swirling hypnotically.

“So, see you at the matinee tomorrow?” Charles said, surprisingly conversationally.

“You bet. Later!” Emily said cheerfully. Charles turned and wandered off in the opposite direction.

“You say Michael called you?” Eamon said, his tone making it a question.

“Yeah. He said Josephine was taking Sophie toward the park. Maybe she wants Sophie to take her into the Realm.”

“There is a market tonight. That is another possibility.”

“Why would she want to go to the market, and would she need Sophie’s help for that?”

“Perhaps not. But if she only wanted into the Realm, why would she take her at this precise time? A market brings together fae from both worlds.”

“Then let’s get to market, pronto.”

“No, we must go to the palace.”

“The palace?”

“The queen must learn of this development.”

“Oh, right. Good idea. Except I need to talk to the enchantresses. You go to the palace, I’ll see if I can get the enchantresses on board, and we’ll meet up at the market. Where is the market, anyway?”

“It’s at the castle.”

“Okay, we’ll meet there.”

At least, she hoped they would. Surely Amelia and Athena wouldn’t let a kidnapping slide just because of some oath.

The Park

11:30 p.m.

Sophie wasn’t prone to panic. She prided herself on her ability to keep a cool head. Now, though, felt like the perfect time to have an epic meltdown, only she couldn’t indulge herself because Josephine’s iron control kept her from being able to do anything other than walk alongside her. After her cry for help, Josephine had even shut her voice down. All she could do that was outside her captor’s control was think, and she doubted that all her imagined insults would do Josephine any harm.

Which meant that mentally cataloging Josephine’s flaws and dreaming up potential tortures was a waste of time. What she needed was a plan, and for that she needed to have some idea of what Josephine wanted with her. They’d gone straight to the park, which was the seat of fae activity in the city. There were fae creatures who lived there, that was where gateways to the Realm could be found, and all the fairy markets Sophie had seen in this city had been there. Josephine had fae allies she met there. If anyone wanted to prove the existence of fairies, that would be where to go. So, was Josephine forcing the issue by bringing her enchantress colleagues there? Which meant there was likely to be a demonstration in which Josephine got to be the hero. Was Sophie being turned over to Josephine’s fae allies as payment for a staged demonstration? It seemed the most likely possibility.

When she saw the number of fae in the park, she felt it confirmed her theory. Something was about to happen. It had to be getting close to midnight—not that she was able to move her arm to check her watch—which meant they might be heading to a fairy market. That would be the perfect spot for a demonstration to “prove” a fae threat and Josephine’s ability to handle it.

Which meant Sophie couldn’t let that happen. It wasn’t the time she’d arranged with Nana to drag Josephine into the Realm, but that had still been the plan and she could move it up. The trick would be opening a gateway. She needed true earth or grass for that, so she needed to be off the path. From there, she wondered if she’d be able to summon the requisite magic. Nothing she’d tried, either fae or enchantress, had worked while she was under Josephine’s thrall.

“There you are,” Josephine said as she brought herself and Sophie to a stop. Sophie couldn’t see who Josephine was talking to because she couldn’t turn her head. “I’ve brought her. Now we’ll see if this works.”

Sophie felt someone moving behind her, and a voice said, “Are you sure she’s the one? She seems human.”

“She’s more human than fae, but she has the fae part that counts, and by all accounts, she won the throne properly. Which goes to show that anyone who knows the trick can do it.”

Sophie didn’t think that was quite true, but she was incapable of arguing, and arguing probably wouldn’t have been the smartest thing to do under these circumstances. She’d discovered while Josephine was sidetracked by talking to her friend that she could move her fingers ever so slightly. The hold on her must have taken some concentration to maintain, so what she needed now was a big diversion to allow her to break free enough to turn the tables and take Josephine to the Realm. And preferably before midnight.

Michael’s Apartment

Meanwhile

As much as Michael wanted to run headlong into the park to help Sophie, he forced himself to take his time and prepare properly. He loaded a backpack with water bottles and energy bars, just in case he ended up in the Realm. He filled the outer pockets of the bag with iron nails and plastic bags of iron filings for dealing with fae opponents. For other opponents, he had his sidearm on his belt and brought some spare ammunition. That was a last resort because firing his service weapon would result in paperwork, and he doubted that battling fairies would go over well as a reason. Still, the park was his jurisdiction, and anything that might look to the outside world like a dangerous riot might justify gunfire if he got desperate. Was there anything else that might help? He couldn’t think of anything, but he wasn’t sure how straight his thinking was right now. He hoped the enchantresses were better prepared for all this than he was. And he hoped they were willing to take action.

Once he was packed, he headed down to Emily’s place to retrieve a frantic Beau. The dog must have heard the commotion outside earlier. Or else he desperately needed a walk. Either way, Michael had to shut the door to keep him from running off before he could get the leash on him, and it was like hitting a moving target to connect with the collar, Beau was dancing around and twitching so impatiently.

If he’d had a skateboard, Beau would have probably pulled him straight to the park—though he’d probably have been killed getting across a street because Beau wouldn’t have slowed down. As it was, he had to pull back on the leash with all his weight at each intersection to stop the dog from darting out into traffic. “It’s okay, buddy,” he said, trying to soothe Beau. “We’ll find her and help her.”

Finding her would be the challenge. The park was big, and he didn’t even know if they were in the park or if Josephine had made Sophie take them through a gateway. He knew Beau was no bloodhound, but his sense of smell had to be better than Michael’s, so once they were in the park, he said, “Find Sophie, Beau.” The dog was already sniffing around, and Michael wondered how much he understood.

He tried looking at the scene with his enhanced senses, and he thought he detected the remnants of fae magic, but it wasn’t enough for him to be able to tell what had happened. Really, the whole park was full of traces of fae magic, if you knew what to look for. And there seemed to be more than he normally noticed tonight. Were they having one of those fairy markets? Maybe that was where Josephine was taking Sophie.

He watched the flow of fae traffic, trying to sense a general direction, and decided they must be heading toward either the castle or the theater. Beau didn’t object when he changed course to join them, so he figured he was on target. He still hadn’t seen any sign of Sophie or Josephine, though. They had a good head start, but Josephine didn’t appear to be a fast walker, so he hoped to have gained ground.

He did see another familiar face. Mrs. Smith had her shopping cart fully loaded and was pushing it as though she was heading into battle. Maybe she was, he thought as he approached her. “Something’s going down tonight,” she said.

“I know. Josephine took Sophie. I think they’re in the park somewhere, maybe heading to whatever market is happening.”

“How did the enchantress take your fairy princess?”

“I didn’t see that part—I was under a spell at the time—but she seemed to have some kind of magical hold on her, controlling her.”

Mrs. Smith nodded as though familiar with the concept. “I think I know what to do about that. Come on.” Even with her cart, she put on enough speed that he had to hurry to keep up with her. Then up ahead, he saw Sophie and Josephine. They’d stopped on the edge of the path for Josephine to talk to someone.

“If we distract Josephine, that might give your ballerina a chance,” Mrs. Smith whispered. “You ready?”

Michael tried to think of what he could do to create a diversion, short of firing his weapon. He had a police whistle, and he had his iron to use against Josephine’s friend. “Ready,” he said, bracing himself.

The Upper West Side

Meanwhile

Rather than try to deal with a doorman who wouldn’t be inclined to take someone babbling about an emergency seriously at this time of night without calling the police, Emily called the sisters from the sidewalk outside their building. Amelia sounded surprisingly alert when she answered, and Emily didn’t waste time on pleasantries before saying, “In case you had any doubts about Josephine being bad news, she just kidnapped Sophie. Do you think you could stir yourself to move against her and help, or would that be violating your oath?”

“What’s all this?” Amelia snapped.

“Josephine just ambushed Sophie outside my place and seems to have taken her away. What are you going to do about it?”

“Where are you?”

“In front of your building.”

“I’ll have the doorman send you up.” Amelia ended the call before Emily could answer. Emily stared at her phone for a second, then shrugged and headed into the lobby.

“You must be Miss Drake,” the doorman said. “Go on up. You’re expected.” His tone suggested that this was all highly irregular and was probably the fault of an impudent young person such as herself.

She was surprised to find that both Amelia and Athena were up and fully dressed, and they didn’t look like they’d hastily thrown on clothes. Funny, she hadn’t ever pictured them as night owls. Then again, they apparently went to midnight markets fairly regularly.

Amelia barely let her enter the living room before she said, “Now, what’s this about Sophie being kidnapped?”

Emily forced herself to take a deep breath and calm down rather than shouting. “Michael heard Sophie call out for help, then saw them walking away. Eamon also confirmed that something’s up. He thinks Josephine might be headed for the market with Sophie. Maybe she wants to use her as a hostage or a trade or an example, or something.”

Both sisters’ faces looked skeptical. “Are you sure Sophie didn’t go willingly?” Athena asked, wringing her hands.

“After crying out for help? And have you met Sophie? Look, I don’t know how the politics work, but I would hope that helping a friend takes priority over some oath you’ve sworn that allies you with someone you don’t much like, and while we’re discussing this, Sophie is out there with a woman who seems to have some power over her, and there’s no telling what she has planned. If it helps, think of it as rescuing Josephine, because she’s probably going to end up in big trouble with Sophie.”

“But what would she want with Sophie?” Athena asked. “Who would be there to see her at a fairy market? That’s not going to solidify Josephine’s position.”

“Nothing Josephine has done so far has made a lot of sense to me,” Emily said. “Maybe her agenda isn’t what we think it is. Or maybe she’s going to use Sophie as bait. Or a hostage. Or a trade. If she wants a war with the Realm, taking Sophie would be a pretty good way to start it.”

“Why would she want a war?” Athena asked.

“It would be an excuse to take power. Isn’t starting a war pretty much inevitable when you get a wannabe dictator?” Emily wasn’t entirely sure if that was true, but her vague memories of history classes and her roles in historical plays suggested it was the case. Wars and dictators tended to go together.

“But we aren’t that hierarchical,” Amelia said.

“Yet,” Emily snapped in response. In desperation, she added, “You can help me now, or I can find a way of letting all your enchantress friends know about your adventures in the Realm. You know if Sophie gets outed, that’ll affect you, too. I can make it happen, and I will. My sister needs backup.”

Emily thought for a moment that they’d argue, but they looked at each other, and Amelia said, “I’ll get our coats. Athena, we’ll need some supplies.” As she moved past Emily, she shot her an icy glare and said, “I hope you’re right about the situation. That kind of threat isn’t one to be made lightly.”

The Park

Next

The longer Josephine talked with her friend, the more control Sophie regained. Not enough to free herself, but enough to no longer feel quite so helpless. She was even able to summon a tiny bit of magic. That little magic allowed her to struggle against the magical bonds, like working at a knot to loosen it.