Once Upon Stilettos

by Shanna Swendson

  Loony jumped up onto the bed and sat grooming herself. I went into the bathroom and draped my clothes over the shower curtain rod. I found a drawer full of toothbrushes and unwrapped one, then found another drawer filled with sample-size toiletries, from which I selected a tube of toothpaste. It looked like he more or less ran a bed-and-breakfast. I imagined that with a house like that and a spare room, he was very popular with friends and family from out of town.

  I returned to the bedroom, leaving the door to the hallway open just slightly so Loony could leave if she wanted to, and to send a subtle signal to Owen that I did trust him. Then I pulled back the covers and crawled into bed. It was like lying on a cloud. Owen might have had to persuade me to stay, but after a night in that bed, he might have to force me to leave. When I got myself settled, Loony came to the head of the bed to join me, curling up against me. I wasn’t much of a cat person, but I was glad for the company. It was like she knew I didn’t want to be alone. I would have preferred her owner, but that would have been a very bad idea.

  I slammed a fist into the pillow next to me. How stupid could I possibly be? I should have known that there was far more going on than my magical immunity being gone. Men never fell all over me like that, and I’d never had two men in one night kiss me. It had to have been supernatural, and I should have clued into that a long time ago. I consoled myself with the thought that the artificial confidence from the shoes must have kept me from seeing the truth. I wondered if the shoes were also the source of the libido surges, but I was not going to ask Owen that question.

  I rolled onto my side and buried my fingers in Loony’s soft fur. She purred in response. The big question was whether the shoes had been targeted directly at me and if they had anything to do with me losing my immunity. Was Ari behind it all? She had been at Bloomingdale’s the day I first saw the shoes. That might not have been a coincidence, after all. Gemma had even shown her the shoes, and then I’d told everyone my holiday shopping plans.

  The only conclusion I managed to reach was that I couldn’t do this alone. If I kept trying to puzzle out the spy, my immunity problems, and now the mystery of the shoes all by myself, disaster was inevitable. I was going to have to tell someone everything that had happened. Owen was probably my best candidate. He was smart, powerful, and a truly good guy. He took in orphaned kittens, for crying out loud. Surely I could trust him with my problems.

  I heard footsteps outside my bedroom door and held my breath as I listened to a nearby door open and close. I doubted I’d get much sleep so close to Owen. Closing my eyes, I allowed myself the luxury of reliving that kiss, from the first thrilling moment when I realized he was going to kiss me, to the initial contact, to the ever so gently increasing pressure and feather-soft touches between more serious kisses. It had been sheer heaven, right up to the point he recoiled in horror.

  With a stifled groan, I rolled to my other side. He was the one who needed to lock his door for safety. I didn’t know if I was still under the effects of any spell, but I wanted just one more kiss like that, only preferably without the horror at the end of it.

  Loony climbed over me to get back into a position where I could stroke her properly. “What are we going to do about that guy of yours?” I whispered to her.

  Sleep didn’t come easily, and when it did come, it brought with it nightmares and disturbingly erotic dreams, some of which got tangled together so that I woke both terrified and turned on. I must have tossed and turned too much, for at some point in the night, Loony left me. When I woke the next morning, cold, dim light came through the curtains. The clock said it was nine. I hoped Owen wasn’t sitting around wondering if I’d ever get up.

  I went to the bathroom, brushed my teeth, washed my face, and tried to do something with my hair before I headed downstairs. I found Owen in the kitchen, standing at the stove. He wore jeans and a sweatshirt even more faded than the one he’d loaned me, and his hair was rumpled, as though he hadn’t done much more than run a hand through it upon waking.

  Loony was nibbling at her breakfast from a bowl near the refrigerator. She noticed me and greeted me with a happy “meow,” which caused Owen to turn around and see me. There was a day’s worth of dark stubble on his jaw, and he wore a pair of wire-rimmed glasses. I had to grab the back of the chair near me to steady myself at the sight. How was it that the more disheveled he got, the cuter he became?

  “Good morning,” he said, apparently oblivious to my total meltdown. “Did you sleep well?”

  “It took me a while to get to sleep, but then I must have really conked out. Sorry I was such a slugabed.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I wasn’t up much earlier than you were. Do you like scrambled eggs?”

  “Yeah. I can make them if you want me to.”

  He gave me a knee-weakening grin. “I can manage breakfast. There’s fresh coffee in the pot if you want to get yourself some. Cups are in the cabinet above. There’s milk in the refrigerator. No cream, sorry.”

  I followed his directions and poured myself a cup of coffee, then added milk and sugar. I leaned against the counter by the stove as I drank it and watched him cook. “Is there no end to your talents?” I teased, hoping it sounded like teasing instead of gushing. “Wizard, scholar, sleight-of-hand artist, spy, benefactor of orphaned animals, and now cook.” I decided it would be best to leave out the part about him being an expert kisser.

  “I was a decent fencer in college, but I haven’t picked up a sword in years. But you’re pretty multitalented yourself.”

  “What? Let’s see, I can cook, shop, and come up with crazy schemes to save the world.”

  “All very valuable and important life skills.” He dished eggs and bacon onto plates, then took toast from the nearby toaster as it popped up. “Breakfast is served.”

  We ate at the kitchen table, with Owen dropping the occasional bite of food to Loony, who sat patiently at his feet, ready to catch each morsel. “I have a few ideas about what to do with your shoes,” he said. “I did some research last night, and it looks like this is a variant on the more common Cinderella spell, one that very likely could have been targeted at you, though I don’t know how they could have been sure you’d buy those shoes, given your magical immunity.”

  I wasn’t going to get a better opening than that. If I was going to tell him, it was now or never. “Um, actually, that’s something I kind of need to talk to you about.”

  “What, your immunity?” He fed a bite of toast to Loony.

  “Yeah. It’s gone.”

  His attention snapped back to me. “It’s what? Gone? Really?”

  “Yeah, pretty much.” Once I started the ball rolling, the story came pouring out of me. “I see illusions now—Rod looks totally different, and when we’re away from work, Ari and Trix look like ordinary humans. The other night I didn’t see you talking to that gargoyle. I didn’t see any of the people who attacked me last weekend, and I only felt like magic was being used near me last night. The shoes did affect me. They did all the things you said they would, and I’m pretty sure I was as much under a spell last night as Rod was.”

  Behind his glasses, his eyes were full of concern. I noticed that they were as beautiful a dark blue as they ever were, so if he wore contact lenses most of the time, they weren’t colored. “When did this happen?” he asked.

  “I’m not sure exactly when it started, but I first noticed it Thanksgiving weekend. We ran into Rod and I didn’t recognize him. It may have started sooner, though. Now that I think about it, it was like things were fading in and out sometimes. Mom saw a few things I didn’t see. And then it was totally gone, and it hasn’t come back at all.”

  “Why didn’t you say something?”

  I traced a pattern in my uneaten eggs with my fork. “I kept hoping it was just a glitch, that it would come back on its own. And then I got scared that it wouldn’t, and then the company wouldn’t want me anymore. I didn’t want to have to face that until it was a last resort.”

&
nbsp; “If you’d told me, I could have helped you, and I would have kept your secret until we had a better sense of what was happening. Why did you tell me now?”

  “Because I realized I was only going to get myself into more trouble if I didn’t do something. So can we reverse it, or am I stuck this way?”

  “It depends on the cause, but I have an idea. I’ll get someone to look into it Monday morning, but in the meantime, don’t drink the water at your home. Your water supply may have been tainted.”

  “That’s how they were drugging me.”

  “You knew about that?”

  “I did a little research, not that it did me much good. All I know is that there’s a list of chemicals that supposedly dampen immunity. But I didn’t know what they were or how I might have been affected.”

  He nodded. “You’re right. The more recent versions of antipsychotic and anti-depressant medications have a dampening effect on magical immunity. That’s why it’s so hard to find immunes these days. Someone says they’re seeing things, they’re given drugs, and then they’re no longer seeing things.”

  “So you think someone put Prozac in the water supply, and presto, I’m no longer immune?” He nodded. “Come to think of it, my grouchy downstairs neighbor has been surprisingly nice lately. And Gemma and Marcia have been in a running fight about whose turn it is to buy bottled water, so I’ve been staying out of it by drinking out of the tap.” I felt like someone had given me a jolt of Prozac with the weight that lifted from my shoulders.

  “I’ll have the water tested, and in the meantime, don’t even brush your teeth with tap water at home, and then be very careful about who you accept food or drinks from, including at work.” He winced. “That probably means you’d better not eat anything your secret Santa leaves you, not until you know more.”

  “That sounds ominous.”

  “I don’t mean to scare you, but I do want you taking precautions.” He put his fork down and shoved his plate aside. “I have to confess that I haven’t been entirely honest with you, either.”

  “Well, aren’t we a secretive bunch,” I said, even as I hoped his secret was that he would have wanted to kiss me even without a spell. “What have you been hiding from me?”

  “You know those notes the spy apparently looked at?”

  “Yet another counterspell to fight the enemy?”

  He grinned and shook his head. “The secret is that there isn’t any big project. It was a trap to see if Idris did have an inside spy. We made it as tempting as possible, too tempting for him to resist. If he had someone on the inside, he’d get them to look into it.”

  “So those papers that were in your desk, they were fake?”

  “Oh, they were real, but they had nothing to do with anything, just an old spell that’s all but irrelevant today.”

  “You really are the master spy, aren’t you?”

  I expected him to blush, but he looked somber instead. “I had no idea you’d end up caught in our scheme. I don’t know if they came after you because you were onto something, or because they thought you were a good way of getting to me.”

  “It may be even more personal than that,” I said, deciding that now was a good time to go whole hog and let him in on everything I knew or suspected.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I think I know who our spy is. I have no evidence, nothing more than a string of suspicious coincidences and a hunch or two, but the coincidences are adding up.”

  “Who is it?”

  “Ari.” I was surprised by how much it pained me to say it. “She’s in the same department with you, so she has access, and she’s been around every time something happened. She was the one who spread the rumor about the spy in the first place, back when you, Merlin, and I—and, of course, the spy—were the only ones who knew about it. She was even in Bloomingdale’s that first time my roommate and I saw the shoes.”

  He chewed on his lower lip and frowned, like he was processing the information before reacting. The fact that he didn’t immediately deny it seemed a good sign to me that I might be onto something. Eventually, he nodded and said, “I could see that. She and Phelan were fairly close when he worked at MSI. But I’m not sure why she’d be willing to turn on us.”

  This was where things became potentially uncomfortable. “It may be personal,” I said, avoiding his eyes. “I don’t know if you were even aware of it, but from what I’ve heard, she was pretty interested in you for a while and went to a great deal of effort to get you to notice her. She even confessed to throwing herself at you.”

  “She did? When?”

  “You didn’t even notice? Honestly, Owen, no wonder she’s pissed off. That’s a huge blow to the ego. In most people, it wouldn’t inspire treachery and bad magic, but I think anyone would be irked.” I took a deep breath and forced myself to continue. “She also seems to be jealous of me because you spend so much time with me, when you wouldn’t spend time with her.”

  “But she’s shrill and shallow, and you’re not.”

  “Boy, do you know how to sweet-talk a girl.”

  He blushed at that and got up from the table. “There’s one sure way to find out. When someone casts a spell, there’s a signature left behind. Let’s see who’s been tinkering with your shoes.”

  I followed him to the hall closet, where he retrieved the shoes and carried them to the living room. There were already some books scattered around the floor in front of the fireplace, where he must have done his research the night before. He set the shoes down among the books and sat on the floor. I joined him.

  “Since you’re not wearing the shoes at the moment and haven’t worn them in hours, the spell shouldn’t have much of an effect,” he said. “But try to avoid the temptation to touch them, please.”

  I scooted back a few inches and sat on my hands. The siren call of the shoes wasn’t nearly as strong as it had been in the past, but I still wanted to put them on.

  “I’ll need one of your hands,” he said, reaching out to me. I hesitated, and he added, “It’s okay. Nothing will happen to you, but I need to see if this spell is specific to you or if it’s a more general spell simply meant to enhance these shoes.”

  I tentatively reached my left hand out to him. He laced his fingers through mine, and I thought I’d die on the spot. Did he have any idea what he did to me? When this was over, I’d have to avoid him for a while or risk spontaneous human combustion.

  His eyes went unfocused as he held his other hand over the shoes. He blinked, then smiled. “It looks like you were right, it’s definitely Ari, and the spell is specific to you. Which means she, or someone she was working with, knew you were going to lose your immunity. I think there’s even a transmitter in there, too. That could be how you and Rod were affected last night. As long as you were wearing those shoes, they could influence you and the people around you.”

  “So that’s evidence, then?”

  He nodded. “Unfortunately, that means I can’t disenchant your shoes yet. I’ll need to take them to the office Monday and document everything.”

  I sighed. “That’s okay. It’s not like I have anywhere to wear them anytime soon.”

  “What size do you wear? I may be able to come up with something you can wear home.”

  “Seven. Don’t tell me you keep ladies’ shoes lying around the house.”

  “No, but my downstairs neighbor should have something you can borrow. She doesn’t get out much anymore, so it’s not as though she’ll be needing snow boots.” He got up and picked up the red shoes. “In the meantime, I’d better put these away where they’ll be safe.”

  As he went out into the hallway, I leaned my back against the sofa and wondered what would happen next. I hoped his mention of shoes to wear home didn’t mean he wanted me to leave. This place already felt more like home to me than my own home did. Maybe it was the fireplace, or the Christmas tree, or even the cat, who got up from her spot in front of the fireplace and crawled into my lap. Then Owen cam
e back into the room and I knew what it was that made this place feel like home. It was the man who lived there.

  I felt disloyal for even thinking it, since my roommates had been my friends for so long, but in the months I’d worked at MSI, he’d become my closest friend in so many ways. He was the only person I didn’t have to hide things from, especially now that I’d told him all my secrets—all, that is, except the one big secret of how I really felt about him. I didn’t know what to do about that one.

  “I like your Christmas tree,” I said, as he sat next to me.

  He turned a lovely shade of rose. “Oh, that. Gloria had me help her put up her decorations at Thanksgiving, and that made my place look bare when I got back home. Normally I don’t put much of anything up.”

  “We don’t have room to put anything up.” I glanced around the spacious living room, which was the size of our whole apartment. “This is such a great place.”

  “Thank you. I was lucky to find it. If you think it seems big now, it was originally built as a single town house. Now it’s two units, two floors each. My downstairs neighbor used to own the building. When her husband died, I bought it from her, and now I lease her home to her.”

  If I knew him, he probably rented it to her at a fraction of what he could get from any other tenant. Was he trying to make me fall in love with him? “I still don’t think you’re for real,” I said.

  He groaned. “Don’t start that again, please. I’m just on my best behavior with you.”

  I liked the sound of that, even though I doubted he meant anything by it. I played with the fringe on the Oriental rug we were sitting on. “So, what now? We have our suspect and our evidence. Do we bust her, or what?”

  “I don’t think so, not yet. All we have is proof that she was targeting you. It makes sense that she’s also our spy and that she therefore works for Idris. But we don’t have that evidence.”