Diane thought maybe he was as relieved as she felt, to sidestep the subject of a five-inch-tall man with wings who knew them, but had been invisible up until that evening.
"Maybe. Maybe not," Angela said, with her usual serene smile.
Diane supposed someone who could handle all sorts of magic--like little Fae men and paintings that turned into new worlds and books full of magic--would be serene when faced with most problems.
"One should never judge a book by its cover. Especially when it's in a different language." She stroked the book before handing it to Troy. "Your fall into the painting totally disrupted the link between your enemies and the talisman in your pocket. They will be justifiably worried, and I fear they will come looking for you soon. I suggest you take care of the exchange as soon as possible."
"If there's ever anything I can do to help you," Troy vowed, as he stood up, "just ask."
"I know you have a great deal of pull with conservation efforts. There's talk about reducing the park boundaries and letting developers bid on the land at the bottom of the hill on this side of town. I do love the view out my back window, all the deer grazing there in the morning dew..."
"I would have fought that decision without you asking." He laughed and raised her hand to kiss it.
Diane fought down an ugly twinge of jealousy.
"Then let's save the favor for the future."
Troy turned to Diane. "I owe you even more." His voice was husky.
"Friends don't owe friends," she nearly whispered.
"After all we went through, I hope we're more than friends."
Diane's cell phone went off before she could answer. She was too well-trained to turn it off, but she wanted to snarl when she saw her dizzy cousin Marielle's number displayed on the phone's screen.
Cousin Marielle, whose father was Chairman of the Board for the conglomerate that owned Allegiance.
"Excuse me," she said, and stepped into the next room, flipping her phone open. "Mari, honey, what can I do for you?"
It was something so inconsequential, Diane forgot what her cousin wanted to chatter about almost as soon as the words passed through her ears. The nice thing about dizzy Cousin Marielle was that she was one of the decent relatives who enjoyed charitable functions and worthwhile causes, thus effectively balancing out some of the vicious, profit-oriented things her brothers and other relatives did.
Even better, Marielle had extremely good manners and never interrupted, and she could be persuaded to support a good cause. Diane started talking as soon as Marielle paused to take a breath. She had no idea she could speak so fast or be so persuasive, but when she got off the phone, Marielle was incensed over what had been done to Troy and promised her father would send heads rolling. Marielle might have been a ditz, but she had her father and two uncles and half the board wrapped around her pinky finger.
"Where's Troy?" Diane wailed, when she stepped back into the kitchen with her good news and found only Angela there.
"He had a call to make. He'll wait for you outside. I suggest you hurry." Angela finished rinsing out her teapot. "Important phone call?"
"Very." Diane slung her purse over her shoulder and headed for the stairs. "Thanks, Angela. You're the best."
"That's all we can try to be. Oh, Di? Don't forget your coat this time." Her eyes sparkled. "And maybe you should take the weekend off."
Diane's face burned with blush as she ran down the stairs. She hesitated a moment when she reached the ground floor. Which door?
"He went thataway," Maurice said, fluttering down to hover a few feet in front of her. He pointed at the front door.
"Thanks." She paused with her hand on the doorknob. "I hope I can still see you on Monday, Maurice."
"Me, too, kid," he said with a chuckle. "Don't worry about the door. I'll lock up behind you."
"Hey, partner." Troy snapped his cell phone closed as she stepped out on the front porch. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and they fell into step as they started down the long, moonlit street toward the center of town. During their journey up the mountainside, he had told her how he had been guided by the magic to park his car several blocks away and walk to Divine's Emporium, so no one would know he was trying to break in.
"Partner?" She felt ready to float to the stars. When it occurred to her that after six days of hiking up a mountainside, they should both be grimy and aromatic, she almost burst out laughing. Both she and Troy smelled and looked as fresh as they had been when they first fell through the painting. There were definitely some benefits to magic at work.
"Wouldn't have made it out of there without you. I might be able to save the environment, but I need you to save me. Feel like taking on the job?"
Diane could only grin, her heart in her throat making her mute. Troy understood. Troy always seemed to understand. He laughed and bent his head and brushed a kiss across her cheek.
And they kept walking.
* * * *
"So, think they're going to be okay?" Maurice said, as he glided through the door into Angela's quarters. He settled down on the edge of the plate and picked up a few more cookie crumbs.
He shuddered, reliving that moment when he realized that Diane and Troy could see him.
The blast of magic when he'd shoved Troy into the painting had all but paralyzed him. All he'd been able to do was lie there and stare at the picture Diane and Troy had fallen into. A few minutes later, when Angela and Diane had come upstairs with the ladder, he was still dazed. Angela had seen him lying there and had picked him up, carried him downstairs in her pocket, and tucked him into bed. He'd have been content to stay there until morning if he hadn't been starving. And he sure wouldn't have ventured out if he'd known they'd be able to see him.
"I think when Troy's enemies open up that book, they'll be too busy defending themselves to try to do him any harm," Angela said. She poured the last of the tea into her cup and added an equal amount of cream.
"What did you do? Set up a trap? You're one sneaky chick." He chuckled and walked over to lean on the handle of the creamer and look up at her. "I'm proud to know you."
"I think it's more that you're rubbing off on me." She sipped her tea, and the amusement in her eyes faded.
"Hey, what's wrong?"
"Maurice... I shouldn't have left you alone. I should have had a clearer idea of what we were up against."
"No, it's okay. You came right away. No harm, no foul." He fluttered up to rest against the hand lying on the table, and patted it.
"You have no idea how badly hurt you were."
"Yeah, I do. And I didn't realize how fast four centuries of life can flash in front of your eyes when you haven't done much good with it." He shrugged and tried to smile for her sake. "I'm okay now. Diane and Troy are okay too, and it looks like they're gonna hook up, so that's a good thing, right? Once that talisman got zapped, it turns out he really is a good guy, right? Good enough for her?"
"Oh, indeed, I think Troy and Diane will be very good for each other."
"Think old Asmondius will count that as another matchmaking job on my part? I mean, yeah, I was pissed when I pushed him into the painting, but he said it was good because then Diane wasn't alone. So I did good, when you think about it. Right?" He pasted a cheesy grin on his face and fluttered his eyelashes in time with his wings.
Angela gave him an exasperated look that immediately softened into a smile, and shook her head.
* * * *
The cold, heavy feeling seeping through the air wrapped around Troy as he pulled up in front of the Darbyville townhouse he shared with Meggie. He shuddered.
Why had he brought Diane home with him? They were both too wound up from their adventures to just go to their separate homes and go to bed. And honestly, he didn't want to let her out of his sight. Still, he should have taken her home and hoped she would invite him in, instead of bringing her here to meet Meggie.
Diane sat up and reached across the console to clutch his hand where it rested o
n the gearshift. "Meggie! She's in there alone."
"You sense it too?" He felt as if icy fingers were scrabbling up his spine. The sensation caused by his enemies' approach was made twice as bad, because Diane also felt it. That overrode the curiously warm pleasure he'd felt, knowing she had thought of his little sister, too.
"Like Angela and Maurice said, we've been soaking in magic for the last six days, so it's going to stay with us for a while." She frowned thoughtfully and gnawed on her bottom lip as she looked up at his townhouse.
"Have you got a plan?" He remembered how she'd gotten that look every time she came up with something clever during that long hike up the mountainside.
"We can sense those creeps, but they don't know it. We can use it. And Angela said that book would work against them, and they wouldn't even know they had the wrong book." She shook her head. "I wouldn't dare try to work magic. Especially when I have no idea how. But I think we're going to be safe, just because they don't know what we know. Does that make sense?"
"I think we're both tired, because yeah, that does." He patted the journal he had tucked inside his coat for safekeeping. "Let's go inside. If those creeps are coming after me, it'll be on my home turf."
"There's got to be some magic in that."
Diane blushed delightfully when he hurried to get out of the car and run around the front to open her door for her. Troy thought about all the places he wanted to share with her, all the things he wanted to do for her, now that they were back in the real world. It struck him yet again that he didn't want to let her out of his sight. And not just because she had pulled some strings with her good relatives to put pressure on the bad relatives and clear up the undeclared fight he was having with Allegiance.
His little sister was curled up on the couch in the living room, surrounded by textbooks and enough dirty dishes for half a dozen high school girls to have been snacking all night. It never failed to amuse and amaze Troy, how much Meggie could eat and still almost look like a famine victim. She had Turner Classic Movies on, with the volume turned down to whisper, and looked like she was half-asleep, bent over the book on her lap.
"You are in so much trouble," Meggie said, when Troy stepped into the living room. Then she looked up and her eyes widened as she saw Diane standing next to him.
"In trouble for what?" Troy asked.
"Well, if the call I got was legit, someone leaked our spy mission to the bad guys, so the Feds are gonna lock you away for about twenty years. Hi, I'm Meggie. Please tell me you're a date and not a social worker." She somehow managed to climb out from her tangle of dishes, books and blankets without disturbing anything.
"Ah, that would probably be Uncle Sydney or one of his lackeys, assuring you that Allegiance will not only be reforming, but helping you catch other violators," Diane said. "Hi, I'm Diane Rittenhouse, and yes... I think it's safe to say I'm your brother's date."
"Yes!" Meggie half-crouched, giving the downward-pumping arm motion that always seemed so incongruous with her delicate appearance. "Who's Uncle Sydney?"
"It's a long story," Troy said. "Your cousin works fast, doesn't she?"
"Mari is a total space-case and fashionista, but when she gets a bug in her ear, look out." Diane's smile froze and she glanced over her shoulder, toward the front door.
"Yeah, I sense them, too. Ah, Meggie, isn't it about time you get to bed?"
"It's not a school night." His sister looked back and forth between them a few times. "If you were just looking for a place to be alone so you can make out, you'd go to Diane's place, so what's up? What are you protecting me from now?"
"Told you so," Diane muttered.
The doorbell rang before Troy could respond. He suspected he would be happy that happened. Sighing, he made sure the disguised, substituted journal was secure inside his jacket and went to the door. Diane was on his heels, with Meggie right behind her. Troy was too tired and too keyed up from the events of the last few hours--and days--to argue with them.
The man who stood on his doorstep looked like someone's yes-man, conservatively dressed in a dark suit with a subdued, dark tie, white broadcloth shirt, and carrying a briefcase. Troy flinched when he realized that yes, he was sensitive to magic, when he sensed there was much more to the briefcase than just leather and lining and locks. He had a momentary image of a slit in the back of the case that opened into a space deeper and darker than anything he could imagine. After what he and Diane had gone through, he was able to imagine a lot further and stranger than just a day ago.
"Mr. Richards." The man, who had only introduced himself as Carpelli the first time they met, managed a thin, flattened twitch of his lips in lieu of a smile. If it hadn't been nearly eleven at night, Troy suspected he would have been wearing dark glasses. "How nice to see you're...unharmed. We had a moment of worry earlier this evening."
"I'm sure I have no way of explaining whatever worried you," Troy said. A number of theories half-formed in the back of his mind. He was going to have to go to Divine's Emporium and have a long talk with Angela, maybe even take lessons, before he could make any of those theories coherent. All that mattered was the certainty that these people who had been blackmailing Meggie to make him their errand boy had no idea what had happened once he got inside the protective walls of the shop. "You know more about what's involved with Divine's Emporium than I do."
"Hmm. Yes, that's certainly true." Carpelli glanced over his shoulder, at the dark, expensive-looking sedan sitting by the curb. Whoever was inside didn't give him any signals. Or rather, no signals that Troy could see. "Did you succeed this time?"
Troy chose not to speak, but first pulled out the coin they had given him, to help him find the book inside Divine's Emporium, then withdrew the journal with the switched-out cover as his answer. He gave both to Carpelli, then crossed his arms and waited as the man checked the cover with the designs they had drawn for him, so he could identify the book. Then the man opened it and flipped through the pages. Troy looked away after a few moments, because he could have sworn some of those drawings moved independently, and a few of the people and animals drawn there were able to look at him.
"Thank you for your help." Carpelli opened up his briefcase. Troy saw something moving and could have sworn there were stars swimming in the blackness that lined the case. "As we agreed." He handed a thick accordion file to Troy and slipped the journal into the pocket where the file had been. He snapped the case closed.
Troy clutched the accordion file to his chest, pressing it hard enough to feel the video tape, the thick packet of what had to be photos, and several CD and DVD cases, just as promised. He responded to Carpelli's nod with a silent nod of his own, and stayed where he was, watching, until Carpelli got into the big, dark car and drove away. It was interesting, and a little disturbing that no light came on inside the car when Carpelli opened the door and got in.
"Okay, it's big bad confession time," Meggie said, when the car had vanished down the street and the soft quiet of a chilly spring night had seeped back through the neighborhood.
They settled down at the kitchen table, and Meggie insisted on making more food. Troy still felt hungry, despite the snack he'd had at Divine's Emporium. He supposed the stress made him feel that way.
He was more pleased when Diane offered to help and Meggie accepted her help without hesitating. It had already become clear to him that Diane was going to be a big part of his life from now on. Meggie's acceptance of her, with so little explanation, seemed like a signal, a promise that this would work out.
He got as far as explaining what had been exchanged. Meggie snatched the accordion file and took everything to her computer in the office they shared. The doctored surveillance tapes and computer files and pictures were all very convincing. Troy felt a little better, knowing he had made a wise choice to cooperate. Until Diane spoke up.
"Look at this." She slipped the mouse from Meggie's fingers and manipulated the screen, enlarging the photo of Meggie pushing a girl who looked
terrified. "You can see the seams. What kind of jerk put this crap together and expected it to get past real investigators?"
In half an hour, under her experienced eye, and using software that wasn't made specifically for the task, she was able to highlight and tease apart the various layers of the photos and DVD images that Carpelli and his associates had planned to use to blackmail Meggie. Troy was impressed with Diane's skills, and infuriated that he had fallen for such blackmail. The problem was that he wouldn't have known where to look, or even how to prove all the evidence against his sister was false, if Carpelli had let him look at the evidence.
"How did they expect experts to buy all this junk?" he growled, after Diane had closed up the last file and Meggie put away all the disks and photos, back into the accordion file.
"Magic?" Diane offered. "Maybe our trip made us able to see through the illusion they have wrapped around this."
"Magic?" Meggie looked back and forth between them. "Okay, what have you two been up to? And why didn't you take me along?"
It was nearly three in the morning by the time they finished telling the tale of what had happened to them. Meggie was more upset that she had missed out on the fun--Troy and Diane just shook their heads and shared exasperated, long-suffering looks--than that she had been used against Troy, to force him to take the risk in the first place.
"You gotta promise me, we're going to visit Divine's Emporium. I want to see what's going on there and especially meet Angela," Meggie said. "I wish we lived in Neighborlee. Darbyville is okay, but Neighborlee sounds like a lot more fun."
"Actually..." Diane nodded, seeming to come to a decision. "I think it would be a pretty smart move to do just that. Now that we've been touched by magic. There's a protection that surrounds Divine's, and another layer of protection that goes around the whole town. I've always felt that way, even though I could never put my finger on it. Now I know it's true."
She offered Troy a hesitant smile. "Now that we've been touched by magic, I don't want to lose it, and I can't imagine you do, either. Move to Neighborlee."
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