Enchanted Ever After

by Shanna Swendson

  “It would have to be something people are sure to see, something that would be on TV,” Gemma said. “Otherwise, the news wouldn’t be guaranteed to get out.”

  “Can you think of anything?” I asked. “You’re the walking Time Out New York. What events would be great for exposing magic that would likely be on TV?”

  Gemma wrinkled her forehead in thought. “Fashion Week would be great, but that’s in the fall.”

  “No, people would think magic was just part of the show,” Marcia said. “Don’t they do all kinds of fancy lighting and special effects? If you want to show off magic, it would have to be something relatively staid and boring, so you’d notice the magic and it would be impossible to explain away. I have an idea: There’s an awards ceremony Saturday night, honoring top executives involved in philanthropic causes. There’s always some press there because the honorees are people who get covered and it’s a chance for interviews.”

  “That could be a target,” I said, nodding. “Any other ideas?”

  “It’s Fleet Week,” Nita said. “There’s lots of stuff going on. The hotel’s full, and there are a ton of events. Plus, the city is crawling with sailors.” She said that with a great deal of relish.

  “Easy there, tiger,” Gemma said with a grin.

  “I think something they’d have on TV live is a good possibility,” I said. “Then it’s less likely that whatever happens would be considered special effects that were added in production, and more people would see it.”

  Marcia got out her laptop to look up calendars of events. By the time we went to bed, we had a huge list of things that sounded like they’d be fun to do, but no real idea of which one would be chosen for a magical demonstration. Even if we brought the entire MSI staff in on it, we couldn’t cover all these events.

  I got up early the next morning and turned on New York One to keep an eye on the local news. So far, they weren’t covering any major news event, just the usual weather, crime, and sports. Nita got up soon afterward. “Anything happening yet?” she asked as she staggered into the kitchen.

  “Not that’s making the news.”

  “I guess that’s good.” After pouring herself a bowl of cereal, she joined me in the living room. “I still vote for Fleet Week. Cute guys in uniform.”

  “We don’t get to choose. We’re guessing what they’ll choose.”

  “Your chief suspect’s a woman, right? So, cute guys in uniform.”

  “She’s a wizard. I don’t think she’d consider ordinary guys, especially ones who aren’t rich. Sailors aren’t known for their wealth.”

  “Speaking of rich wizards, why aren’t you working on this with Owen?”

  “Today’s his bachelor party. That gives me a good excuse to keep him out of it. I’m pretty sure they’re trying to use him as a scapegoat and blame the exposure of magic on him so they can reap the benefits of exposing magic without getting in trouble. He’s already suspected, so it’s a win-win for them.”

  “And it’s a win-win for you because you get to keep him out of the way of danger while being the super understanding fiancée and letting him enjoy his bachelor party. What kind of debauchery does Rod have planned? Beach house, keg, and high-class exotic dancers? Weekend in Atlantic City? Or Vegas?”

  “I think Rod made a case for a big bash like that, but he went with something more Owen’s speed. They’re going to a baseball game.”

  She raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Really?”

  “That’s Owen’s idea of a party. He might get wild and crazy and have a beer.”

  “You two really are made for each other.”

  I tossed a throw pillow at her, and she stuck her tongue out at me.

  When the others got up, we decided to hit a few of the events we’d picked out as possibilities. I wasn’t sure what good it would do, since none of us could do anything about magic, but at the very least, I could spot anything hidden and report it. We could add to the feet on the ground and eyes on the city while the rest of the security team looked at other places. Mostly, I needed do to something.

  “I still say it’ll be the awards ceremony,” Marcia said.

  “Like that’ll make headlines,” Gemma said with a soft snort.

  “It’s at night, so if nothing has happened by then, we can get a team there,” I said.

  “I vote for one of the Fleet Week things,” Nita said. “There’s a SEAL exhibit.”

  We ended up going to a Fleet Week event because we doubted Nita was going to give in quietly. Besides, none of us were entirely opposed to the idea of seeing men in uniform. “It’s our patriotic duty to support our brave naval personnel,” Gemma deadpanned as she admired the SEALs answering questions about the displays. With a glance at me, she added, “We could consider this your bachelorette party, since Owen’s out having his fun today. These guys are classier than Chippendales.”

  I started to make a scathing response, but then several things clicked together in my brain. “Hmm, an event with cute guys in uniform. Public. On live TV. And Owen’s there. I know what they’re going to hit—the baseball game!”

  The others all turned to me. “Oh, wow, you’re right!” Marcia said. “Why didn’t we think about sports? Big crowd, live television. Duh!”

  “Do they know about his bachelor party?” Gemma asked.

  “Yeah. The suspect even talked about it with her contact.” My phone rang, and I answered it.

  “Kathleen?” It was Carmen. “They just had a release faxed over that said something big was happening—”

  “At the stadium,” I finished her sentence.

  “You knew?”

  “I guessed. But thanks for confirming it.”

  “What’s going to happen?”

  “If I’m very lucky, nothing that anyone will notice.”

  “Then I guess I’ll see you there.”

  I groaned as I ended the call. I didn’t know if she was coming out of personal curiosity or planning to do a story. Maybe I shouldn’t have told her the truth. I’d figured out the target on my own, after all. Then again, the news that it would be Saturday had helped me figure it out, and would she have told me that if I hadn’t come clean with her?

  I immediately called Rod, but didn’t get an answer. The game shouldn’t have started yet, but they were probably already at the stadium because they liked to watch warmups and batting practice. After several rings, it went into voice mail. Was that because he’d turned his phone off for the game or because reception was lousy at the stadium? I supposed it didn’t matter, but I left a message, anyway. “Whatever they’re doing, it’s happening at the game, so get Owen out of there, if you can,” I said.

  My next call was to Sam, and he took care of rallying the troops. When I finished that call, I said, “Now, how do we get to the stadium?”

  Marcia took command at that point, herding us to the nearest appropriate subway station. “Y’all don’t need to come with me,” I said before we reached the turnstiles. “It could get hairy, and you don’t have the magical immunity I do, so you could be affected.”

  “All for one and one for all!” Nita proclaimed enthusiastically. I was especially worried about her because she didn’t yet know the darker side of magic.

  “You do know this is probably going to be more Voldemort and less Narnia,” I warned her.

  “Duh, Hogwarts had a death count. I know what I might be getting into,” she said.

  “Okay, but if I warn you about something, you’ve got to do what I say, immediately. No asking questions, no arguing.”

  “Got it,” she said with a salute.

  But I wasn’t sure she did.

  I really had no idea what we were getting into. What would someone do at a baseball game to prove that magic was real?

  We entered the station and Marcia got us on the train we needed. It became more and more crowded as we neared the stadium, full of fans wearing team colors. It was like rush hour, only more monochromatic. I wondered if there were even still ti
ckets available for the game, with this many people going. What if we couldn’t get into the stadium? We didn’t have a magic user with us who could cheat, and I wasn’t sure cheating magically was a great idea when we might run into people who were opposed to magic because they thought it was cheating. Then again, if they were doing something blatantly public, did they even care about stirring up the anti-magic factions anymore? Why worry about a few bloggers when you had TV networks spreading your story?

  When the train stopped at the stadium, we joined the flood of people pouring out through the doors. I hooked my arm through Nita’s so we wouldn’t be separated. I tried to keep Gemma’s head in sight. Fortunately, she was tall enough to serve as a beacon.

  “Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many people in one place,” Nita said.

  “You’re lucky. You don’t commute during the normal rush hour,” I replied.

  “This is what it’s like going to work every morning?”

  “Well, maybe not this bad.”

  Gemma found a spot by a wall, with the throng flowing past her, and I fought my way toward her. Just before I reached her, my phone rang. I didn’t dare stop to answer it, so I hurried forward, hoping the call wouldn’t go to voice mail before I got to the wall. As soon as I was close enough to the wall to not be trampled, I grabbed the phone without even looking at the caller ID readout. “Hello?” I shouted into it.

  “Hey, Katie, it’s Trish,” the voice said, also shouting, like she was in a noisy environment, as well. “Where are you?”

  “We just got off the train at the stadium. I guess Sam called you.”

  “Yeah, I’m already here, near the front gate. I’ve got tickets.”

  That solved that problem—or did it? “How many?” I asked.

  “How many do we need?”

  “Well, my friends are with me. We may need the help.”

  “I’ve got a stack. Apparently, we have some sort of corporate account. Who knew?”

  “We’ll meet you in a second.”

  I ended the call and said, “We need to get to the front gate. My coworker Trish has tickets for us.” I attempted a grin. “And if we’re wrong and nothing ends up happening, hey, we get to go to a baseball game.”

  “A Yankees game was on my New York wish list,” Nita said.

  “And you get to crash your fiancé’s bachelor party,” Gemma said.

  “It’s not like we’re going to catch them doing anything too crazy,” Marcia said. “We are talking about Owen here.”

  I spotted Trish standing near the nearest stadium gate. When we reached her, I made quick introductions, adding, “All of them are in on the secret and know what’s going on, so we can talk freely. Well, as freely as we can in this kind of crowd. I take it this is an all-hands situation.”

  “From what I could tell. Fortunately, I live on this end of town, so I got here pretty quickly. Sam and his people flew in, and I think he called in the other big guns.”

  I checked my phone to make sure no messages from while I was in the subway had popped up, then tried calling Owen again. No answer. I got the same result when calling Rod. “Now I’m getting worried,” I said. “They’re not picking up, which means I can’t warn them.”

  “Let’s get inside, then,” Trish said. “Do you know where they’re sitting?”

  “No idea.”

  “They might be in the same block of corporate tickets.”

  “I think Rod said something about getting tickets from work when he was planning this,” Marcia said.

  “Then let’s start by heading to our seats, in case that’s where they are,” I said. This would have been a great time for Owen’s precognition and strange awareness of what was going on with me to kick in, I thought as we showed our tickets and got through the turnstiles. I concentrated on a sense of alarm and hoped he’d pick up on it. Maybe if he got worried about me, he’d check his phone or call me.

  We’d reached the passage to our section when I heard a voice calling my name—my full name. I resisted the urge to groan when I saw Carmen. She wasn’t in full reporter mode, but she looked like she could go on the air at any moment, if called upon. She didn’t have a cameraman with her, but I was fairly certain her station already had a sports crew covering the game. “What’s going on here?” she asked, looking almost as eager as Nita.

  “We don’t know yet,” I said. “With any luck, nothing will go on, not that most people will notice.”

  “I’ll notice, though, right?”

  “It depends on how observant you are.”

  “You told her?” Trish asked. She only sounded mildly surprised, not shocked and horrified, which I found reassuring.

  “We need all the help we can get, and she helped me figure out what was happening,” I said. To the rest of my friends, I explained, “Carmen is like me, a magical immune.” Turning back to Carmen, I added, “And you might as well join us.” I made quick introductions all around before we continued our search for our seats—and, I hoped, the guys.

  When we made it close to the row listed on our tickets, I sighed with relief to see the backs of some familiar heads. There was tall, fair-haired Philip, slouched in his seat and looking bored. Next to him was Jake, bopping his head to some inner music (or possibly tiny headphones). Owen was next to him, watching the game intently, and Rod sat beside him. I allowed myself a tiny sigh of relief that at least one thing had gone easily for us. I hoped that was a good sign for the way the rest of the day would go. The guys were caught up enough in the game, which seemed to have just started, not to notice us. Philip, who had little interest in modern baseball, was the first to spot us standing in the aisle beside them. He reached around Jake to nudge Owen, who turned to see us. “Katie? What are you doing here?”

  Rod turned and said, “Hey, don’t you know that the bride crashing the bachelor party is bad luck?”

  “I never heard that,” I said.

  “Well, it’s not cool. You’re cramping our style.”

  “You’re not doing anything worth cramping,” I said.

  “But we might. Ah, but we might.”

  “Well, we wouldn’t have to be here if you’d answer your phones.”

  “We made a pact. No distraction by phones while we’re here. Plus, it meant that Owen had an excuse for not being available for you-know-who.”

  “I’d bet she’s here,” I said. “I’m pretty sure the game is their venue for their big demonstration.”

  Owen slapped himself on the forehead. “Of course. It’s very public, on TV, and she knows I’m here. How did I miss that?”

  “Anyway, the gang’s all here, and we need to get you out of here so they can’t blame whatever shenanigans happen here on you.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Owen protested. “You’ll need me to help counter whatever they try to do.”

  “They’ve called an all-hands. We have plenty of other people here to handle this,” I said, but that worked about as well as I’d expected it to, which wasn’t at all. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any of the knockout potion with me, so I wasn’t likely to be able to get him out of there without him kicking up a fuss that would be noticed, and he was right. Short of Merlin, he was the best wizard we had, and Merlin didn’t seem to be here yet, so we’d probably need Owen.

  Since we weren’t going to win this argument, I figured we might as well stay with the guys. Our seats were in the row behind them, so I gestured for the others to go ahead and find their seats. Gemma and Marcia filed in, Nita and I followed them, and Trish and Carmen came in behind us.

  As soon as Carmen took her seat, she gasped. “Oh. My. God,” she said, staring at the top of the stadium, where gargoyles were perched so they could watch the field. “They aren’t always here, are they? I don’t think I’ve seen them before.”

  “No, they’re just here to handle things today,” I said. “They’re our security team.”

  “What’s she talking about?” Nita asked, squinting in the direction of Ca
rmen’s stare.

  “She’s seeing something that’s veiled by magic,” Gemma explained. “That means we’re out of luck. We won’t see it.”

  “Who’s this?” Rod asked, gesturing toward Carmen.

  “This is Carmen. She’s a magical immune who saw enough to realize what was going on,” I said. The full explanation and any apologies could wait until the immediate crisis was averted.

  I felt an intense surge of magic, followed immediately by another one. “Hey, wait, I think I do see something!” Nita said, pointing. “Oh, no, now it’s gone. Maybe I just imagined it.”

  “No, there was magic,” I said, rubbing my arms to try to make the goosebumps subside.

  “Probably that veil drop they attempted on the building, but Sam and his people countered it,” Rod said.

  “So, I did see gargoyles on top of the stadium?” Nita said.

  “Probably,” I said.

  “Let’s hope no one else did,” Owen said.

  “Who looks at the stadium roof during a game?” Gemma remarked.

  “Well, now we know that we were right about what event they were hitting,” I said. “If they tried to unveil the gargoyles, this must be the place, so everyone, keep your eyes peeled and be ready to take action.”

  Jake peered at the field with binoculars. “Whoa, what’s that?” he wondered out loud, pointing toward the batter. We weren’t that far away, so I could see the batter fairly clearly without binoculars, but I wasn’t quite sure what Jake had noticed. Only after staring at the batter for a few seconds did I notice that something funny was happening with the bat. Like, it was sprouting leaves. No sooner did I notice the oddity than it was gone. Jake turned to Owen with a grin. “I told you that spell would come in handy.”

  “Which one did you use?” Owen asked. “The McKetchney or the Ferguson?”

  “Y’all can discuss magic theory later,” I said. “For now, focus!” I turned to my friends. “Let’s divide and conquer. I’d like an immune and a nonmagical person to work together so you can be sure to spot what’s veiled and what everyone else can see. Nita, you’re with me. Carmen, you and Gemma work together. Trish, team up with Marcia. We’ll look at the roof and sky, Carmen’s team can focus on the stands, and Trish’s team will keep an eye on the field. The moment you see something even slightly odd, tell the wizards.”