Kiss and Spell (Enchanted, Inc.) (21 page)

“Too risky,” he said after catching a drip off his cone with his tongue. “I want to know a lot more before I try going in again. However, I have an idea for surveillance. Do you think they’d put any of the prisoners in an apartment across from their gateway?”

“No, but it would be a good place to house guards.”

He nearly tripped over his own feet. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

“The whole building probably isn’t occupied,” I hurried to reassure him. “We should be able to find a vantage point for watching the park. That was your plan, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, something like that.”

At the end of the block where the park was, we made sure no one was following us, then tried the door at the top of the first set of steps. Owen unlocked it magically, and we found that the entry lobby appeared fully furnished. When we squinted at the upper landing, it seemed less detailed. We headed up there and found that it looked a lot like the backdrop of a stage set. Even the small table on the landing was just an image painted onto the wall. The door on that landing was unlocked.

Past the doorway was blank space like I’d found above my apartment, open through to the end of the building, without interior walls. We picked our way across, walking on the floor beams. When we were across the street from the park, we settled down to watch.

We were about half an hour earlier than we’d been the day before, but soon the gray elves began arriving at the park. They came in ones and twos, but never more than that. I kept a running count. When the flow had trickled off and then ceased, I said, “I counted twenty.”

“They started arriving around eight thirty. Do you think you can wait around a while longer?”

Perching on the narrow beam wasn’t very comfortable, but I said, “Of course. Let’s see how long the meeting lasts and how many come out.”

Things were quiet for the next twenty minutes. No one came down this street, which meant we’d have to be really careful when we left. It didn’t seem like this was a place we could get away with randomly wandering into too many times. Finally, gray elves began emerging from the park. “I counted eighteen this time,” I said. “But I couldn’t tell if they were the same ones or different ones. They may as well be clones. And since we’re not supposed to be able to see them, we can’t exactly pull the ‘accidentally spilling ink on him’ trick to tell them apart.”

Just then, the exterior door downstairs slammed shut, and we both froze. Another door inside the building then opened and closed. It sounded like someone had gone into the apartment immediately below us.

We froze. Meeting each other’s eyes, we silently agreed to wait and see if anyone left. Several long moments went by without any sound of doors opening or closing. Sounds of muffled conversation came from downstairs. Did that mean someone had been below us the whole time? We’d spoken very softly and hadn’t moved much, and no one had come up to check things out, so I hoped that meant they hadn’t noticed anything.

Owen began inching across a beam, and he gestured for me to follow him. It was fully night now, and while there was some light from the streetlamps outside, it was still pretty dark inside, which made it hard to see our footing on the open beams. The last thing we needed was to put a foot through the plaster into the apartment below.

There were apartments below us the whole way across, so we moved with painstaking care. We could walk upright between windows but had to drop to hands and knees while crossing windows, in case there was someone watching from outside. I thought it likely that there would be illusions in the windows making it look like normal life was going on in normal apartments, but we couldn’t confirm it, so we didn’t take any chances.

By the time we reached the far end of the building, my legs were cramping and my knees felt bruised. Out on the landing, we brushed the dust off ourselves and straightened our clothes. When we got downstairs, Owen made sure the way was clear before we left the building and hurried around the corner toward the more populated areas.

We passed a couple of the gray guys, but they didn’t seem to pay us any particular attention. “Are you going to report all this to Mac?” I asked Owen.

“I have to,” he said with a helpless shrug. “If I’m ever going to have any kind of life, I have to convince him to trust me, which means no secrets.”

He didn’t sound at all enthusiastic about it. “You’re worried about Mac’s plan.”

“I think it will expose all of us and risk getting us all put under the spell again. And that’s the best-case scenario. It could also get people hurt or killed.”

“But you don’t dare argue with him for fear of looking like you’re taking over, which naturally leads to taking over the world using bad magic.”

“Not that he’d listen to me even if he did trust me. I think he still sees me as a five-year-old.”

“What would you do if you were in charge?”

“I’d work closely with the elves. Maybe one of them could switch out with one of the gray guys and get inside for some recon—maybe even find the portal and get through. We’re at a disadvantage while we’re here in the elven lands, so I think the key is to get help from the other side.”

“But anyone approaching from the other side is likely to find themselves here.”

“That’s why we need to get someone through who looks like an insider.”

“Earl’s too well-known,” I mused, “but maybe someone he knows might be able to pull it off.” I contemplated telling him that I already had Earl working the elf angle, but I figured Owen was safest if he had plausible deniability.

Not that I liked having secrets from Owen. In fact, I was a little worried about how he’d take it. That wasn’t enough, however, to deter me from doing what had to be done to get all of us home without Owen having to defy the Council.

Since it had been my habit while under the spell, I figured it was safe to keep stopping off at Perdita’s diner on my way to work. When she saw me the next morning, she rushed over to me. “I used to go out with the guy who delivers our supplies,” she whispered. “I think he might be in the underground—he was very political. And then there’s a guy who comes in at least once a day who’s going out with my best friend’s sister. I don’t know where he stands, but if he’s here, he’s probably on our side, right? So, what do I do?”

“Have you ever kissed either of them?”

She blushed slightly and coiled a ringlet around one finger. “Both, actually.”

“Give that a shot.”

“Oh, like in the fairy tales?”

I started to explain about cognitive dissonance, then remembered who I was dealing with. “Yeah, like that. But be careful. Make sure you’re alone, and then explain it and have them revive anyone else they know and trust.” I hoped that if her ex was with the underground, he’d know how resistance cells worked, because I really didn’t want to try to explain that to Perdita.

“By kissing them?”

“Talking about your life back home works, too. Kissing’s just quicker if you had that kind of relationship there but don’t have it here. Anything that brings back strong memories.”

“Okay, got it, thanks,” she said a bit too enthusiastically, then dashed off before I could order my coffee.

After I’d ordered and received my coffee from another waitress, I left the coffee shop and nearly ran into Perdita kissing someone in a delivery uniform. She gave me a thumbs-up behind his back. It looked like we had one more member on our team.

Owen was sitting with Mac in the park when I approached the store. I thought about joining them, then decided that varying our routine a little not only wouldn’t look suspicious but might help keep our guards guessing. Besides, I wasn’t sure I could keep a straight face now that I knew things that Owen didn’t.

Earl caught me as I entered the store. “I’ve got three more of us,” he said. “None of them know any more than I do, though. They were political enemies Sylvester wanted out of the way.”

“Good job,” I told him.

“And one of them’s a leader in the underground. He wants to meet with the wizards.”

That was potentially awkward. Then again, reviving Earl and getting him started on the others had been part of the official plan. “You should tell Owen,” I said. “He’ll be in soon.”

I went upstairs and hoped Florence didn’t pry too deeply into my love life. She was surprisingly quiet this morning, though. Either she’d given up on getting anything interesting out of me or she was giving it a rest. She merely teased me a few times about Owen. I wished I knew where she stood, but I couldn’t think of a way to probe without giving myself away.

During the midmorning coffee break rush, I looked up from making lattes to see someone who looked vaguely familiar. I wondered if it might be someone I knew as an elf but didn’t recognize in human mode. He didn’t seem to recognize me and gave me no subtle signals that he was in on any secrets, so I figured he wasn’t one of Perdita’s or Earl’s converts. The tricky thing about recognizing people here was that not only were they likely disguised, but they were also out of context. He could be someone I saw in the halls at work every day who was a total stranger in an Upper West Side bookstore—and I’d have had the same trouble recognizing him in a real Upper West Side bookstore.

While I made his latte, I mentally ran through all the people I knew at MSI, and I still came up blank. It was an hour later as I was making a fresh pot of coffee that I blurted, “Dan!”

Florence turned to me. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, why?”

“You just blurted what for you is a pretty harsh curse. Did you burn yourself?”

“No,” I said. Then I realized what she’d thought I said and decided to go with it to cover my mistake. “I just spilled something. Sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize. I have no delicate sensibilities to offend, since I’m not from the Victorian era. You can even say ‘damn’ on TV.”

“Maybe I should have said, ‘Egad!’” I joked. But I was pretty sure that the guy who’d bought coffee was Dan, the new security guy who’d posed as a bicycle messenger in the sting to catch the elf gang.

After the rush, I took off my apron and headed downstairs to see what assistant-manager stuff I needed to do. We had to at least pretend to keep the bookstore running so we wouldn’t look suspicious, and that was a full-time job even without worrying about planning a prison break. I couldn’t believe that not too long ago I’d been complaining about being bored in my job.

Owen and I finally got a spare moment to meet in his office. As soon as we were alone, I asked, “Do you remember Dan, the new guy in security?”

“Vaguely. He played the bicycle messenger, didn’t he?”

“Yeah. He was here for coffee today, so I guess he got caught investigating—maybe looking for us, so he might know more than we do. I hope he comes back, but I don’t know how to break the spell on him if he does. Do you know anything about him?”

“I didn’t even remember his name. Mac might know him. Our security and the enforcers work pretty closely.” He paused, frowned, then said, “And speaking of Mac, Earl just told me the elves want a meeting with him. Well, technically, they want to meet with the wizards, but he’s in charge.”

“What are you going to do?” I asked, trying to act like this was news to me.

He shrugged. “Pass on the message. Mac’s not going to like it, though. He’ll see it as a challenge to his authority, and it is—probably one he’ll lose, since wizards are vastly outnumbered here.”

Cringing, I said, “They may be even more outnumbered. Perdita has recognized people and started breaking the spell.”

He grinned. “I guess she’s our wild card.” The grin faded quickly, and he said much more soberly, “I’ll talk to Mac after work.” With a weary sigh and an attempt at a smile, he added, “At least I’m improving my chess game. James should be pleased when we get back.”

I was surprised that the look in his eyes said, “
If
we get back.”

Chapter Fourteen

When Owen went to talk to Mac, I came along for support. I didn’t think Owen would so much as say a snarky word in his own defense, so he needed backup. I tried to feign interest in the game they started playing before they got down to business, but my attention was more on the gray guy nearby. I couldn’t tell if he was merely standing guard at his assigned post near the park and bookstore or if he was specifically watching us. It was hard to see where his eyes focused when I had to keep my eyes from focusing on him.

“We’ve been breaking the spell on the people we know,” Owen began, “and they’re doing the same for their contacts. But it turns out that some of the leaders of the elf underground are here, and they want to meet with you to discuss strategy.”

Mac made a move on the board before saying, “What’s to discuss? I’ve got a plan.”

Wincing, Owen said, “I think they want to brief you on
their
plan.”

“Why should we care?” McClusky asked.

“It is their world, and I think they have the majority here, since this seems to be Sylvester’s elf Siberia,” I said.

 “I have no idea what they’re planning, but we ought to stay in the loop,” Owen said.

“Won’t a meeting between heads of different factions of prisoners be noticed?” McClusky asked with a scowl.

“It depends on where we meet,” Owen said. “Most of the buildings are uninhabited. They only seem to have bothered finishing the apartments that are actually in use by either captives or guards. That leaves a lot of space that’s just for show on the outside and wide open inside. You can enter at one end of a block and make it all the way down the block in some places. That means people can come in from various doors. It should look less like a meeting then.”

Mac nodded. “Okay, then. Say, tomorrow night at eleven. Tell us where to enter and where to go.”

“You’re leaving that up to him?” McClusky protested.

“Oh, didn’t we tell you, Owen’s evil scheme is to wipe out you and the elf leaders so he can become the grand overlord of these few blocks of fake New York,” I shot back without thinking. As soon as I realized what I’d said, I bit my lip in contrition.

Much to my relief, Mac chuckled. “She’s right. There’s no point in getting silly about this. He wants to get home as much as we do. Pass on the message, son, then let us know where you need us to go. You two will be there, of course.”