The Undercover Witch

by Gina LaManna

  “He shouldn’t have been helping his brother if his brother was breaking the law,” Beck said. “That’s still against the law.”

  “What are you going to do?” Ace raised an eyebrow. “Arrest me?”

  I shot a glance of sympathy at the detective. “He’d be out of jail in a second,” I said. “Can we please just let this go for now and write it off as a misunderstanding?”

  Beck nodded first, although it was reluctant. Ace signified his agreement by gesturing for Mandy the ogre to drop off drinks at our table. She’d been hiding in the shadows during the showdown.

  “Enjoy your beverages,” Ace said stiffly, and then he returned to the bar.

  “Nice guy, huh?” Beck said.

  “Huh?” I sipped my drink distractedly, watching as Ace whispered something to Mandy then tossed his rag onto the bar. He left, heading toward the exit with one last complicated glance in my direction.

  I looked down, flustered by the disappointment in his eyes. “I’m sorry,” I said quietly. “I have to run downstairs for a second. I’ll be back.”

  Beck’s face pinched in dismay as he glanced behind the bar, from which Ace was conspicuously missing. “I’ll wait here.”

  Guilt ate at me for what had just happened, and for the things I’d said to Ace the other night. I owed him an apology. In retrospect, showing up there, at Ace’s bar, with Beck in tow, probably hadn’t been the smartest move.

  “Ace,” I said softly once I’d caught up to him in the hallway. “Can I please talk to you for a second?”

  He had his back turned to me, looking out over the city below us. “What do you need?”

  I cleared my throat, feeling self-conscious due to the group of paranormals smoking cigarettes near the window. “In private?”

  He blew out a frustrated sigh.

  “Please?”

  “I’ll be right back, Lydia,” he called to the shortest woman with the longest cigarette. “Mandy’s alone in there, so help her out if it’s busy.”

  Lydia, a somewhat nice-looking gremlin with a serious expression and a wicked ability to make drinks, nodded. She cast me a look that told me, in no uncertain terms, to watch my next step.

  “George,” Ace said, as we passed the gargoyle. “Balcony, please.”

  George stepped away to reveal another staircase, a hidden one. This led to a small balcony on the highest part of the building where a slim railing was the only thing holding us back from the city lights far, far below.

  Ace stood stiffly next to the edge, his eyes fixed on me. I took in the skyline for a long minute. The sunset hour cast a glow tinged with sadness as the sun slipped away, the light of the day fading.

  Finally, I made eye contact with the two dark gems staring back at me. “Ace, I’m sorry about what I said the other night.”

  Taking a moment to breathe, I half expected Ace to jump in and tell me not to worry about a thing. Unfortunately, I was wrong. He hardly acknowledged the fact that I’d spoken.

  “I lashed out at you,” I said. “I had a lot of things going on, and I know that’s no excuse. So, I’m just here to say I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you with anything I said. I was wrong to say—”

  “Right.” Ace interrupted before I could finish. “You were right.”

  “There was no reason for me to say any of it.”

  “You said what you felt.” Ace took his time to raise and lower his shoulders in a shrug. “That’s a good thing.”

  Biting my lip, I looked down. “Well, you still seem upset.”

  “I am.”

  I looked up so quickly the confusion didn’t have time to leave my face. “Then why won’t you accept my apology?”

  “I’m upset at myself.” Finally, he moved. Easing closer, he reached out a hand and brushed his thumb against my cheek. Then he held it there, cradling my chin in his hand, examining me through bright eyes that told me he liked what he saw. “I’ve had you here, sitting in front of me at the bar for years, and I never once made a move.”

  “We were friends—you didn’t have to if you didn’t feel the same.”

  “I thought I wanted to keep things the way they were—friendly, casual, fun. I really liked you, Ainsley. I still do. I suppose a part of me was scared that if I told you how I felt, it’d ruin our friendship.”

  I closed my eyes, the feel of his hand against my face something I’d been longing to feel for ages. However, instead of the romance I’d pictured for all these years, it felt almost protective—brotherly, even.

  “I worried about the same thing,” I said. “That’s why I didn’t bring it up sooner.”

  He laughed, the soft sound carrying over the clouds. “Hindsight.”

  “Regardless, things happen for a reason, and I don’t want to lose the friendship we have. It’s been working for so many years already.”

  He studied my face, his dark eyes hungry as they took in every inch of it. “I suppose,” he said, his hand trailing down my cheek until his thumb whispered against my lips in a touch that burned with what could have been. “Just promise me one thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “You seem to like this guy, and I won’t interfere, but, should you ever be single again, promise you’ll give me a chance. A real date.” Ace pulled me into a hug, his hand slipping into my hair and holding tight as he pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead. “I don’t make the same mistakes twice.”

  Chapter 33

  By the time I returned home for the evening, I had so much on my mind, I needed a major debrief with Harry. Beck had dropped me at the front door, kissed me on the cheek, and asked if he should come inside. Another time, I’d told him.

  For now, I needed to be alone, to process, to think about what came next. Dragging myself into the apartment, I dropped my things in a heap on the floor and went straight to the refrigerator.

  “Pop-Tarts or wine?” I asked Harry. I looked over at his fat self and nodded. “Both, good choice.”

  I dropped two cold Pop-Tarts onto a plate then set a fork and a knife on a napkin next to it—I wasn’t a savage. I debated nuking the pastries in the toaster, but I wasn’t an overachiever, either.

  Once I’d topped off my glass of wine with a cheap red blend, I sat down at the kitchen table and put a napkin in my lap. “It’s a feast,” I told Harry. “Just so you know, I have two men vying for my attention. It’s true! You might think I could figure out a way to have dinner with one of them, but no. Instead I’m here eating Pop-Tarts alone. The things I do for you, man.”

  Harry let a few oxygen bubbles float to the surface with a loud glub, glub, glub.

  “It’s a tough life out there. Sometimes I wish I could hang out in that thing with you.” Then I remembered I hadn’t fed my blowfish yet today, and I got up to drop a few pieces of food into his tank. I stood there for a long moment, mesmerized by the motions of the fish as he cut through the water. “I guess it’s me and you, Harry. After all, that’s the way it’s always been—”

  The sound of a throat clearing interrupted me, and I was pretty sure it wasn’t Harry. The noise was very, very human.

  I froze, fish food in one hand. All at once, I turned around, dodging to the side like my training had taught. I threw the most basic of Stunning Spells at my intruder, aimed to disarm.

  A flash of light lit up the room as my spell was deflected back at me. I deflected it once more and it ricocheted around the room, eventually zinging straight toward the fish tank.

  “Harry!” I shouted just as the spell zoomed into the fish’s body.

  The blowfish, now stuffed with food, stopped moving and floated, suspended in space for a long moment. Then, poof! He expanded even larger. He bobbed around the water like an inner tube, looking a little sad.

  I turned to the man responsible for stunning my fish. “Look what you did, Mr. Davis,” I scolded my boss. “You froze my fish.”

  “Apologies.” He muttered the counter curse and Harry immediately began to deflate. “Is he
okay?”

  “He’ll be fine,” I grumbled, murmuring an apology and tossing in a few more food particles before crossing my arms and turning back. “How did you get into my apartment?”

  He held up a tiny key. “You let me in.”

  “I gave you that for emergencies only,” I said. “And not by choice.” As Guardians, we were required to provide our address and a way to get inside our homes on the first day of orientation. “You’re not supposed to use that unless we’re nearly dead.”

  To my surprise, he hardly flinched. “The keys are to be used only in a state of emergency.”

  His meaning sunk in. His dark hair and large build stilled to an impressive wall of muscle. Mr. Davis wasn’t one to show emotion, nor was he one to mince words, but as he spoke next, the tiniest flicker of sympathy crossed his dark eyes.

  “We have a state of emergency,” Mr. Davis said. “And I need your help. Rather, we need your help. All of us.”

  “All of whom?” I glanced around the room, but it was empty. How I’d missed Mr. Davis during my Pop-Tart routine, I had no clue.

  “I cloaked myself,” he said. “You couldn’t have been alerted to my presence. I apologize for arriving in such a way, but I couldn’t risk anything showing up in the Agency’s records.”

  “You’re going to have to be more clear,” I said. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  He took a few steps away from me then and disappeared into the hallway. A clattering noise followed him. When he returned, he held a brand new, uber-shiny broomstick in his hands. Without a word, he extended it as a peace offering.

  “What’s this for?” I took it, holding the smooth wood lovingly. “Thank you, but I don’t understand.”

  “You completed a successful mission with Dimitrius,” he said. “But I’m afraid another urgent request awaits us. Are you prepared for another assignment?”

  I hesitated. “What is it?”

  At my question, Declan nodded and the air next to him shimmered, reminding me of the princesses’ arrival in the treehouse. The apparition grew more solid, but even when he’d fully materialized, I didn’t recognize the figure before me.

  “Hello, Ainsley,” said the strange gentleman. He was handsome, smart in a well-fitted suit, a wise gleam to his eyes. I put his age somewhere between my father’s generation and mine, though he had an aura about him that spoke of distant travels, a painful past, a hunger for the future. “My name is Liam.”

  I extended my hand and shook his, the cool, firm grasp softer than I would’ve expected from a man of his stature. “Ainsley. Er—I guess you already knew that.”

  “Oh, I know who you are,” he said, a hint of a smile tugging at his lips. “I’ve been aware of who you are for many, many years.”

  “I don’t understand.” I looked between the stranger and my boss. “Why?”

  “Let’s say Lily Locke is a dear mutual friend,” Liam said. “And I have a vested interest in her safety.”

  “You know Lily?” I perked up. A friend of Lily’s was likely a friend of mine, even if I hadn’t yet fully committed to believing anything this man had to say. “What brings you around here?”

  “Lily doesn’t know it yet, but she needs your help.”

  “Lily’s in trouble?” I asked, horror sinking into my stomach. All our work to keep her safe, the friendship; I’d loved her like a sister, and now this. “I thought the island would keep her protected! Isn’t that what The Isle was created for? A safe haven for our people?”

  “It was,” Declan said, stepping in for Liam. “But like all good things, there are rough patches. Now is a rough patch for the islanders, and Lily needs a friend by her side.”

  “You said this is off the record,” I spoke to Declan. “Why?”

  “Because if you accept this assignment, you’ll be working for an organization that doesn’t technically exist.” He raised an eyebrow, daring me to argue with him. “It was created in a time of crisis to protect The Isle. It will be disbanded once the crisis has passed.”

  “There’s someone else who will explain the details to you once you’ve arrived on the island,” Liam said. “Hettie has been waiting to meet you for some time. She’s quite a treat, you’ll see.”

  “On The Isle…” I trailed off. “But I work here, on the mainland.”

  “This is an exception.” Declan nodded, his lips forming a tight line. “Here’s how this will work: you will be paid agency wages for a new assignment. On the books, your assignment will be to return Princesses Fiona and Margot to the Iron Range and guard their sides until they’re settled into position as joint queens. It will last seven days, beginning this evening.”

  “What will actually happen,” Liam added, “is that you will take your father’s boat and bring the princesses home, but you will merely drop them off in the Frost Kingdom and continue your journey to the island. Any time you have left of the seven days, you shall return to the Frost Kingdom and finish out your assignment by Fiona and Margot’s side.”

  “To cover our tracks,” I said. “You don’t want anyone to know I even visited The Isle.”

  “Correct. Now, seeing that you must leave tonight, we must be going,” Declan said. “You will say your goodbyes and alert your family to your new mission—If, of course, you accept these terms.”

  I nodded. “It’d be my honor to help however I can.”

  “What mission is that?” Liam asked, a raised eyebrow. “To be clear.”

  “I’ve been tasked with escorting Princesses Fiona and Margot to the Frost Kingdom and remaining there until they’re settled into power,” I parroted in a monotone. “I shall return in seven days.”

  “Very good,” Liam said.

  “She’s ready.” Declan nodded in approval. “We won’t be accompanying you. Once you arrive on the island, Hettie will find you.”

  Liam stepped forward then, his gray eyes scanning my face. “Thank you, for everything that is to come.”

  The tone of his voice sent shivers down my spine, and I wondered for a long moment what I was getting into. Then Lily’s face flashed into my memories, and the lingering loyalty, that special bond between a Guardian and its target kicked into gear, and I nodded. “Of course.”

  “You must leave soon,” Declan said. “Your father’s godforsaken boat can only be flown at night. For crying out loud, Ainsley, can you help Frank get an invisibility shield onto that thing? It’s illegal in ten different countries.”

  Liam laughed, and then he stepped backward. Declan moved next to him, his lips moving as he spoke at an almost imperceptible volume. He cloaked them both with an Invisibility Incantation and together, they disappeared. My door opened one second later, and a minute after that I heard the gate creak open and closed.

  Then all was still.

  “Well, I guess this is it for now, Harry,” I said. “I’ll send Millie over to feed you. Wish me luck!”

  Chapter 34

  An hour later, I’d somehow patched together an explanation about my next mission that held water with my family. Convincing my father to trust me with Blimpy for the next week had been more difficult, but eventually he’d agreed.

  Then, I’d called Millie and asked her to feed Harry for me, and to reschedule my shifts at the library to begin once I’d returned from my assignment. She readily agreed to both. She didn’t say anything about a fire, so apparently I hadn’t burned down the library with my escapade, which was definitely a relief.

  One week, I thought, kissing my mother’s cheek as I told her goodbye. That seven-day mark weighed heavy on my mind. It was the same date Beck’s trial period in the magical community ended. When I returned from my mission, I’d find Beck on the precipice of his decision to join our world or to revert back to his.

  “Hurry,” my mother called. “I packed ice cream, and if you don’t get above the clouds soon, it will melt.”

  I glanced at the sky, the darkness complete. We had to get moving now if we had any hopes of making it t
o the Frost Kingdom before daybreak. “One second,” I told her. “I’ll be right there.”

  My mother showed Fiona each and every crevice of the boat, each stuffed with every snack imaginable: Twinkies, cans of soda, beef jerky, as well as a Tupperware container the size of my head that held the leftovers from their evening meal.

  Meanwhile, I stepped away from my family to find Beck waiting along the outskirts of the backyard. I’d called him after Mr. Davis and Liam had left, alerting him to my last-minute mission.

  “I’m sorry for the short notice,” I said, reaching out and grabbing his hands in mine. “Finish one job and start the next, I guess.”

  He smiled. “I’m a cop. Of all people, I should understand.”

  “You don’t look happy.”

  “I didn’t say I was happy. I said I understood.” He sighed, his bright gaze surrounded by a hazy glow underneath the moonlight. Pulling me close, smelling of spice and spearmint, he breathed a goodbye against my neck. “How long will you be away?”

  “Seven days,” I said.

  “That’s a week.”

  I nodded against his neck. “It’s a good thing, really. It will give you time and space—alone—to think. You have a big decision on your hands.”

  “I don’t need time to think.”

  “You do,” I said, my insides heavy at the thought that he might chose a life without me. We hadn’t known each other for long, but if he chose to remain human, our future together would be closed—for certain. It was that window of hope, the sliver of possibility that kept me smiling through our goodbyes. “You’ve had a lot to deal with, and you’ll need some time to process.”

  He simply shook his head. “We collided for a reason,” he said, sliding his hands around my back and kissing me first on my forehead, then on my cheek before finally, his lips found mine. “I’m glad you ran into me with your broomstick, Ainsley.”

  “I’m glad you crashed into me with your cop car, detective.”