Once Upon Stilettos

by Shanna Swendson

  By the time I finished rattling all that off, we were in the lab. “Can you tell if anything’s missing or changed?” Merlin asked.

  Owen ran a hand through his hair, making pieces of it stand on end. “I have no idea. I guess I’ll have to start warding the lab, too, but that’ll make it difficult to get much work done.” Then he looked at me. “What are you doing down here, Katie?”

  “You’re not the only person in this department who has a secret Santa, you know. And I thought I’d drop by to say hi while I was in the neighborhood.”

  He went back to sorting through the books and papers that were on the floor. “You didn’t see anything, did you?”

  “Sorry. It was like this when I got here, and I called right away.”

  Another man then joined us. He was perhaps old enough to be Owen’s father and was nearly a head shorter than Owen. “Did I hear there’s been another break-in?” he asked.

  Owen practically snapped to attention. “Yes, sir, I’m afraid so.” I’d never seen him that deferential to anyone in a business setting, except sometimes to Merlin.

  “What about all those security measures you’ve taken?” the newcomer demanded.

  “They don’t do any good if the culprit is within your department,” Merlin said in his usual mild manner.

  That didn’t calm the newcomer. “Are you implying that my department is the problem?”

  “Your department is clearly the target, and it would appear that someone in the department is the culprit, so yes, I’m saying we have a problem in your department,” Merlin replied.

  “I don’t keep anything essential out here, so they can’t have stolen anything worthwhile,” Owen said. “It’s more like vandalism.”

  “Well, report to me when you have more information,” the other man said before turning to leave.

  “Katie, you’ll keep me updated?” Merlin asked.

  I nodded. “I will when I figure something out.”

  He left, and I knelt by Owen to help him gather books and papers. “I should probably explain about Mr. Lansing,” he said.

  “Who?”

  “The one who was just here. You probably saw him as a frog.”

  I bit my tongue before I blurted that I hadn’t seen a frog.

  “He’s the departmental director for R and D. There was apparently an industrial accident a number of years ago. He doesn’t come out much since maintaining that illusion is a drain on him, but he doesn’t feel like he gets much respect as a frog.”

  “I can see where that would be a problem,” I said, nodding. For once, I was grateful for my hopefully temporary lack of magical immunity. I’d have been totally freaked out if a frog had hopped into the room and started asking questions. “But don’t you have ways of breaking the frog spell?”

  “Trust me, he’s kissed half the city. And we’ve tried everything. It was a pretty diabolical spell. I’m not even sure how it happened, but they’ve been working on breaking it for decades. We generally don’t talk about it that much. I usually try to stay out of his way.” He gathered a few more papers, then asked, “Was there something you needed to see me about?”

  My cover stories were starting to need cover stories. Then I thought of something. “Did you ever find out where that camera was sending its signal?” I asked.

  “Unfortunately, no,” he said with a sigh. “The cord ran through the ceiling and stopped halfway down the hall, then was severed. Someone must have cut it before I managed to track it back. But I’ve reached the conclusion that this has more to do with chaos than it does with espionage. That would definitely be Phelan’s style. And it may be a sign that he’s as lost as we are. He must not have anything of substance up his sleeve if he’s resorting to this sort of behavior. Otherwise, he’d be more focused on taking us on in the marketplace.”

  “So our best strategy might be to ignore it and hope it goes away.”

  “He might go away. I’m not sure his spy would.”

  “Yeah, anyone motivated enough to be willing to spy probably has personal reasons for doing so. Which brings me back to square one.”

  “Sorry I couldn’t help more.”

  “And I’m sorry I haven’t been able to do anything to stop this.” I stood and dusted off my knees. “I guess I’d better get back to work. Let me know if you run across anything interesting.”

  I felt like an utter loser as I headed out of the department. I was letting everyone down. I passed Ari’s lab, and she called out, “So, what was the sitch down there?”

  I turned back and stood in her doorway. “The usual. Chaos and all that.”

  “As messy as he is, I don’t know how he’d notice the difference with a few books and papers scattered. He looks like he’d be a neat freak, but he’s such a pack rat.”

  I suddenly got a prickling feeling between my shoulder blades. No one had described the chaos in the lab to her, so how had she known? Fragments of conversations, facial expressions, and odd coincidences all crashed together at once in my brain—Ari on the phone just before the last attack, her apparently fruitless pursuit of Owen, her hounding me about him, her grilling me about what I did and didn’t see, the camera cord that was cut halfway down the hall, right about where her lab was.

  No, it couldn’t be. Happy-go-lucky Ari couldn’t be the spy. But she had access. She had information. She even had motivation, if her feelings about Owen ran deeper than she let on. I had no real evidence, though, just a hunch. That wasn’t enough to risk our friendship by turning her in. I had to know more.

  I tried to keep a straight face and an even voice as I said, “I think it was just enough to tick him off. You might want to stay away from that end of the hall for a while. He doesn’t get angry often, but when he does, you’d better duck.” Her eyes narrowed briefly at me. Did she sense that I knew? That would be bad. To cover my tracks, I added casually, “Oh, and you might want to warn Jake when he gets back before he says the wrong thing.”

  She laughed then, and I relaxed. She didn’t sound like someone who knew the game was up. “Yeah, I’ll keep an eye out for Jake. He drives Owen crazy at the best of times. We wouldn’t want him walking into a hornet’s nest.”

  My heart raced as I slipped out of the department. I didn’t want to believe that one of my closest friends, one of the people who’d introduced me to the magical world in the first place, could be the spy. I really hated the idea of spying on her, but I told myself that I was looking for evidence to exonerate her, not hang her. I needed to eliminate her as a suspect, once and for all.

  Before returning to my own office, I went to see Isabel. If anyone knew the whole story behind whatever ill-fated thing Ari had for Owen, it would be Isabel.

  “Are you okay?” she asked me when I got to her office. “You look like you don’t feel so well.”

  “I’m fine. I just wanted to brainstorm some on those treasure hunt clues.” I sank into her comfortable guest chair, relieved to get off my watery legs.

  Her face lit up. “I found something this morning.” She pulled a small figurine out of her desk drawer. “We can cross off clue fourteen.”

  “Good work.”

  “I saw that one team had T-shirts. Do you think we need that?”

  “Probably not.” Then, because I didn’t really have anything to say about the hunt, I dropped a piece of gossip I knew would sidetrack her completely. “Did you hear? There was another break-in in Owen’s lab. He doesn’t think anything’s gone, but it’s a mess in there.”

  “That poor boy. He hates it when people rearrange his clutter.”

  I licked my lips, trying to think of a delicate way to phrase what I needed to ask. “You know what Ari was saying the other night about having tried her luck with Owen? What do you know about that?”

  “Why?” Then she grinned. “I knew it! You’re interested in him yourself, aren’t you?”

  It looked like I was going to have to take one for the team. This was the only way I could think of to get the infor
mation without raising suspicions. If it made me the butt of office gossip, I’d have to get over that and hope Owen forgave me. Looking down at my lap, I said, “Yeah, maybe. But I don’t want to do anything that would hurt Ari, and if she liked him, it would be a bad idea for me to go after him.”

  She beamed. “You two would be perfect for each other, and I still say he likes you—and not only as a friend.” Leaning back in her seat and steepling her fingers, she said, “Let’s see, it must have been back when she joined the company, before he was promoted. Gregor was still fully human. She pretty much fell for Owen at first sight—and can you blame her? He was focused on something else—I think that was when he was starting to get suspicious of Idris—and didn’t even notice. She made the mistake of getting aggressive with him, which sent all the barriers up. Make a note of that: sneak into his heart. No full-frontal assault. But I think that’s what you’re already doing. He trusts you.”

  “So what happened?” I prodded.

  “She got more and more aggressive, and he either didn’t notice or pretended he didn’t notice. I don’t think she would have minded so much if he’d outright rejected her, but he neatly sidestepped every pass she threw at him, and that made her feel like she hadn’t made any impact. After a while, she gave up.”

  “Do you think she really got over him, or does she still resent him?”

  “I think she gives it another try every so often, just for kicks and to see what will happen. She wouldn’t be happy if you ended up with him, but I think she’d also be the first one to say it was his choice, and you won fair and square. It’s all a game to her, anyway. I’m not sure she would have liked him if she had caught him. She just wanted to be able to say she’d caught him.”

  “Catch-and-release dating, huh?” I had a sinking feeling Ari wouldn’t be so happy about me ending up with Owen. Not that it was likely to happen. I gave Isabel my most beseeching look. “You won’t say anything about this to Ari, will you? Or anyone else? You know how shy Owen is. If he knew I was interested, he’d probably clam up on me.”

  “My lips are sealed,” she promised. I knew she meant it, but I also knew her good intentions tended to disintegrate when she had a really juicy piece of gossip.

  I nearly ran head-on into Rod in the hallway outside the personnel office, and as usual, it took me a moment to remember that the gorgeous guy I saw was the Rod I knew. He steadied me with his hands on my shoulders, and I fought to resist the effects of that attraction spell. I took a couple of steps backward to get out of the spell’s range.

  “You okay?” he asked me.

  “What? Oh, sorry, just a little distracted.”

  “Did you need me for something?” He waved toward the office I’d just left.

  I shook my head. “No, I was discussing something with Isabel.”

  He grinned. “Ah, office gossip, then.”

  “Treasure hunt, actually.”

  “Of course. Then I’d better let you go on about your important business.” He gave me a jaunty salute and a wink, and I grabbed the nearest door handle to anchor myself so my body wouldn’t fly at him of its own accord. With that kind of pulling power, there was no wonder he never lacked for a date. It was a miracle he wasn’t the Pied Piper of New York, with hordes of salivating women following him around town.

  Before I could force my feet into motion so I could get farther from his enticing spell, he said, “Uh, Katie?”

  “Yes?”

  “I was wondering…I know things have been rough for you lately, what with this investigation, and then your parents, and Ethan, and that attack last weekend, and all. Would you like to have dinner this weekend? Don’t worry, nothing romantic. I just feel like you could use a break, a no-stress night out.”

  My body shouted Yes, yes! but my mind knew better, reminding me that I had a huge crush on Rod’s best friend, and I could kiss any future chance I might have with Owen good-bye if I got together with Rod. It was a persuasive argument, but my body wasn’t quite ready to give up. My mouth compromised between body and brain with, “Can I get back to you? I need to check my calendar.” Maybe once I got away from him I could think straight enough to decide if this was something I wanted to do. I suspected he meant exactly what he’d said. He had no way of knowing that I was influenced by his attraction spell.

  “Sure. That would be fine.”

  I had a lot to think about when I finally got back to my office and fell wearily into my desk chair. In the plus column, I now had a real suspect, someone who had motive and opportunity. In the minus column, that suspect was one of my friends, and I didn’t have a shred of hard evidence, just an instinct. It would be easy enough for her to rebut every charge I made, even if she really was guilty. I wasn’t sure which column Rod’s invitation fit into.

  There was a light tap on my door, and I looked up to see Trix standing in my doorway. She looked timid, which was unusual for her. “Can I talk to you about something personal?” she asked.

  “Sure. Come on in.” She shut the door behind herself, then approached my desk.

  “I know this is a terrible thing for a friend to do, but I did want to ask you first,” she said, wringing her hands.

  “What is it, Trix?”

  “Ethan was just here to see the boss. And, well, he asked me out. And to be honest, I’d like to go. He seems nice. But I know you and he had that thing, and it ended not that long ago, but I don’t know how much it still bothers you. So I thought I’d talk to you before I said anything. If you have a problem with it, I’ll say no, and I’d understand completely.”

  My stomach twisted. I knew he’d said he was interested in exploring the magical world, but I hadn’t realized how close to the mark I’d come when I said he wanted to date chicks with wings. Looking at Trix’s face, though, I knew I couldn’t be bitch enough to tell her she couldn’t see him.

  “You go ahead, please. It’s not like we were engaged or even dating that long,” I said. “Maybe you’ll have better luck with him than I did.”

  She shot up into the air and spun around, then landed. “Thank you! You’re the best friend I could imagine.”

  I watched her flutter back to her desk, wondering what she’d think if she knew I was going to try to bust her other friend. Then my eyes began stinging. I hadn’t thought much about Ethan in a few days, but the realization that he’d already moved on hurt. Before I knew what I was doing, I’d picked up my phone and dialed Rod’s extension. “Hi, it’s me,” I said when he answered. “I’d love to have dinner with you this weekend.”

  “Really?” Rod sounded so overjoyed that I was glad I’d accepted his dinner invitation.

  “Sure.” I didn’t have to tell him that it was mostly to strike back at Ethan for asking Trix out. Or maybe I was distracting myself. I wasn’t sure which it was. I just knew I wanted to go out with somebody that weekend.

  “How’s Friday? Not right after work. I live close enough to you that I can pick you up at your place, say sevenish?”

  “That works for me.”

  “Good. This is mostly for fun, but we could also discuss some of my morale-building ideas while we’re at it.”

  “Okay. I’ll see you Friday. And I guess I’ll probably see you some before then, huh?”

  He laughed. “I hope so. Thanks, Katie.”

  I realized as I hung up that I was actually looking forward to it, and that had nothing to do with his attraction spell, unless it was capable of carrying over the telephone. I’d have to ask about that.

  I spent that evening frantically cross-stitching a Christmas ornament for Owen. I needed an excuse to go back to R&D to spy on Ari, and if I kept baking at my recent rate Owen would probably explode, no matter how often he went to the gym.

  “What are you up to?” Gemma asked when she came home from work and found me watching TV while stitching.

  “More secret Santa stuff.”

  “You’re really going all-out.”

  “It’s a long story, but this has
nothing to do with the guy. There’s this whole other reason, and I don’t have nearly enough time to get into it.”

  “Mmm-hmm,” she said, and I could tell from her tone that she didn’t believe a word of it.

  “Really. In fact, I happen to have a date with someone else Friday night.”

  “You’re on a roll, aren’t you? I knew all it would take was a little confidence for your luck to change.”

  “Yeah, a couple of good dates and now I’m the most desirable woman in New York.” I still hadn’t told her about the nightclub last weekend. I wasn’t sure I believed it myself. I’d had plenty to drink that night, plus a big scare. The whole thing could have been a very vivid dream.

  “Need help planning an outfit?”

  “I’ve got something picked out—an old standby.”

  “Including the red shoes?”

  I hadn’t thought about it, but why not? It would make the strike back at Ethan complete if I wore the shoes I’d bought for him with someone else.

  At work the next day, I put the ornament in my skirt pocket, got Merlin’s crystal key, and headed down to R&D. Ari caught me in the hallway. “Let me guess, another Santa mission,” she said with a smirk. “You’ve got one lucky secret pal.”

  “Just doing my part to spread the holiday spirit.”

  “I hear you’re going out with Rod this weekend.”

  I wondered how that one had got around. Probably Isabel, who would have heard it from Rod. “Yeah, we’re going to discuss some of these morale projects we’re working on.”

  She snorted. “Yeah, right, like that’s high on his agenda. Then again, I keep forgetting you don’t see his illusion, and that love spell won’t work on you. You might be okay. Watch yourself, though.”

  If she was our mole, she was good. Everything she said could have had a totally innocent meaning, or she could have been hinting that she knew I’d lost my immunity. “I’ll be okay,” I said with a cheerful smile. Nope, nothing wrong here whatsoever, I tried to project.