A Kind of Magic

by Shanna Swendson

  “You?” Emily asked softly.

  “You notice I never married.” Athena turned her attention to her work, moving quickly, but her fingers trembled and fumbled at the ribbon she held.

  It was hard to imagine Athena ever being young, but Emily let her vision go out of focus so that the older woman blurred slightly. If her hair were blond instead of white, and if her skin were smooth and young, then yeah, she probably had been a woman who could have beguiled a fairy man. Obviously, he hadn’t been willing to give up immortality for her, and she couldn’t have given up her life’s work for him. Emily wondered who he was. Was he a fairy they’d run into in the Realm? Talk about a nightmare encounter! It was bad enough to run into an ex without makeup on a bad hair day. What would it be like to be old and wrinkled when running into an ex who was still young and gorgeous?

  They both jolted when the bells on the door rang, but it was just Michael. Athena automatically filled one of the spare teacups on her tray. “Tea, Detective?”

  “Sure, thanks. Making Christmas decorations?”

  “Something like that,” Emily said, tying off a bundle. “Here, take one.”

  He took the bundle, sniffed at it, and frowned. “What is it, really?”

  “It should keep fairies from taking you in your sleep.”

  “That’s something I have to worry about?”

  “Probably not you,” Athena assured him. “They wouldn’t take one who’s been touched and who can see them unless you want to go.”

  “Still, better safe than sorry, huh?” he said, tucking the bundle into his pocket. At the sound of his voice, Beau blinked awake and waddled over to collapse against Michael’s ankles. He knelt to scratch the dog behind the ears.

  “And how may we help you today, Detective?” Athena asked.

  He stiffened for a moment, then took a long, deep breath, like he was coming to a decision about something. “There’s some weirdness I need to look into. It’s getting bad enough that the other cops seem to know something’s going on. I’m pretty sure they’re seeing selkies around the shore. A guy in the park was attacked by something that sounds like a nixie. There’s that kelpie. I’ve also got a list of missing persons, including kids taken from their beds. It’s like all the folklore about fairies is coming true.”

  “It does seem that way, doesn’t it? The enchantresses have taken note. There’s a lot of buzz on our Facebook group.”

  “You have a Facebook group?” Emily asked.

  “Don’t worry, it’s a closed group,” Athena assured her.

  “Is the buzz good or bad?” Michael asked, steering the discussion back.

  “Are you asking who the good guys and who the bad guys are?”

  “Well, yeah, I guess.”

  “The humans have to be the good guys, right?” Emily asked.

  “That would be the party line,” Athena said.

  “Humans are the ones writing the stories,” Michael said. “Naturally that makes the other side sound bad. But you have to wonder if the humans might have done their own bad stuff. Some of those selkie stories are pretty horrifying. I’m not up for kidnapping kids, but I’m also not crazy about the idea of forcing someone to stay in a shape that pleases you.”

  “That is a very balanced argument, Detective,” Athena said with a nod.

  “I feel caught between worlds, so I have to be fair to both.”

  “All I can give you is the enchantress side of the equation,” Athena said with an uncharacteristically prim air. In fact, she sounded a lot like Sophie did when she got on her high horse. When Athena added, “You’d have to talk to someone else to get the other side,” Emily had to fight a smile. So, Athena had been deliberately channeling Sophie.

  “Do you have any idea where I might find that someone else?” Michael asked. The slight twitch of his lips told Emily that he’d also figured out what Athena was doing.

  “She said something about having some private studio time,” Emily said. She checked her phone. “She might be there by the time you get to Lincoln Center, depending on how long she took to drop off her stuff and run.”

  “She got the part?” he asked.

  “Yeah, isn’t it awesome? You’ll have to go see the ballet.”

  She watched his reaction carefully, trying to read it. She knew Sophie had a massive crush on him, but she wasn’t sure where he stood. She was gratified when he grinned, and for a moment he lost that hint of sadness around the eyes that he’d had ever since she’d known him.

  “Yeah, I guess I will. And I’ll see if I can track her down.” He knelt and gave Beau one last scratch, patted the dog on the back, then straightened. “Thanks for the help.”

  As soon as the door jingled shut behind him, Athena said, “Now who’s being a busybody?”

  “I merely told him where he might be able to find her. Dancing. In a leotard. And then nature can take its course. If he can resist that, he isn’t into her. But why didn’t you help him beyond just hinting?”

  Athena looked around the room like she was making sure the walls didn’t have ears. “We need to be very careful right now. Josephine is in town, sniffing around. It wouldn’t look good to the other enchantresses if any of us took the side of the fae.”

  “Is it really that bad?”

  “It can be, and for good reason. You may like Eamon, and he is a nice fellow, for a fairy, but remember what else you’ve seen in the Realm, and you’ll know why we’re necessary to protect mankind. That’s why you need to consider very carefully your dealings with them, especially if you let your heart get involved.”

  “My heart isn’t the part of me that would get involved,” Emily said. She watched a blush rise from Athena’s collar and knew she’d effectively ended that discussion. She just didn’t know for sure what she thought about it.

  Nine

  Lincoln Center

  2:30 p.m.

  Michael followed the directions the woman at the front desk gave him and found the right studio. After one glance inside, he hesitated in the doorway rather than speaking.

  Sophie danced alone. She wore what he assumed was casual dance workout wear, but with a skirt made of many layers of filmy stuff falling to just past her knees and a tiara on her head. She made a series of leaps across the floor, her legs in a full split as she soared at what had to be head height. As soon as she landed, she went into a bunch of leaping turns that made her skirt fly out around her like a fluffy cloud.

  He’d seen her dance before, but not from this close and not in such a real setting. She’d always seemed so ethereal when she danced in the fairy world, but here in the harsh fluorescent lights of a studio, he could see the hard work that went into it. She’d once compared it to athletics, and that was obvious now. She was tiny, but she was solid muscle.

  Abruptly, she stopped, scowling at something she’d apparently done wrong, though he hadn’t noticed anything that looked like a mistake. She repeated the move a few times, then stopped dancing and headed for the stereo near the doorway. That was when she noticed Michael. “Oh, hi,” she said, not sounding at all surprised as she stopped the music.

  “Emily told me you’d be here. Congratulations. I heard you got it.”

  “Yeah, I did, thanks. I’ll have to get you tickets. Have you ever been to the ballet?”

  “Can’t say that I have, but yeah, I’ll come.” He was afraid he sounded a little too eager, despite his attempt to appear casual. He cleared his throat and added, “So you’ll be staying in town a while?”

  “At least until after Christmas. We’ll see what happens after that. But you didn’t come to talk about my dance career, did you?” Up close, he could see that her face was beaded with perspiration. He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen her break a sweat, in spite of all the intense situations they’d been through together.

  “No, not really. Is it safe to talk here?”

  “Come on in.”

  She shut the door behind him after he entered, and he sat on the bench of the u
pright piano at the front corner of the room. She remained standing, swinging one leg at a time back and forth. He found that a little distracting as he kept waiting for her to knock her knee against her nose when her leg swung to the front, and he was amazed by how much her back bent when she swung to the rear. “So, what is it? Some fairy-related weirdness?” she asked.

  “Yeah, I’m afraid so. I wanted to get your take. Kelpie on the lake, with at least one victim. Selkies showing themselves around the shore. Nixie in the park. And more than the usual number of missing persons, including kids. Normal people are starting to notice.”

  She stopped swinging her leg and leaned against the piano to look at him. “Oh, that’s really not good, especially not now.”

  “Yeah, Athena said something about the enchantresses maybe getting edgy.” Her mismatched eyes, one gray and one blue, were a little unnerving when gazing at him so closely and intently, so he glanced down at the sheet music on the piano and absently started playing the right-hand part. As the rust fell away, he added the left hand.

  “I didn’t know you played,” she remarked.

  “It’s not like we know each other that well, outside our respective professional capacities,” he said with a smile. “I imagine there’s a lot we don’t know about each other. But my mom’s a church organist, so I had to start learning from the time I could reach the keyboard. I just haven’t played in a long time.”

  “And yet you’re sight-reading Tchaikovsky. How are you feeling? Are you particularly tired?”

  “I’m always tired. You think one of these leanan things is after me?”

  “Your association with me might draw their attention, so stay alert. Look for the symptoms you’d usually associate with depression.”

  He stopped playing, suddenly feeling oddly self-conscious. “Is there something you can do—not about me, but about this other stuff?”

  “I really don’t have that much power. I suppose I could wander by the affected areas and flash enough aura to let them know they need to back off, but I’m a little worried about doing so while there’s an outsider enchantress in town. Enchantresses see the fae as enemies, so they probably wouldn’t be too keen on me being what I am.”

  It was hard to sit at a piano and not play, so he began playing softly again. “Which would be worse, her knowing that stuff is happening, or her knowing that you’re part fae?”

  “The selkies are odd but benign. The nixie, kelpie, and abductions are bigger problems, but enchantresses shouldn’t be surprised about them. I don’t know what the consequences would be if she found out I was fae, but I’m sure it would make things awkward.” She rubbed her temples. “And this is a really bad time for all this to come up.”

  “I guess you have a lot of work to do.”

  “I’m mostly getting used to dancing in a tutu again.”

  “And the tiara?”

  “I am a queen,” she said with a sly grin. “But having something on my head takes some getting used to, as well.” She began dancing along with what he was playing, rising on her toes and taking little steps. “And the fun thing is that I’m more or less the villain in this production.”

  “Really? That’s a twist.”

  She quirked an eyebrow. “Not according to most people who know me.” More seriously, she went on. “This is a ballet notably lacking in conflict after the first act, when they defeat the Rat King. The rest of the ballet is basically a reward for that triumph. But in this version, the Snow Queen stirs up a blizzard that nearly traps Clara until her prince rescues her.” She spun around and glanced back at him over her shoulder. “It’s not the first time I’ve been accused of being an ice queen.”

  He’d seen her being truly terrifying, staring down enemies that would make the toughest cop flee, but in that moment he had a hard time imagining anyone fearing her. She looked like the girl next door. “Just remember that creating a real snowstorm on stage would give you away,” he warned.

  “That takes all the fun out of it.” She stopped dancing and leaned on the piano again. “Now, what about all these missing people? The enchantresses should be doing something about that.”

  He stopped playing and took his list out of his pocket. She came around and sat next to him on the piano bench. “These addresses are where children have been taken out of their beds, no evidence of break-in.”

  She frowned as she looked at the list. “Do you have a sense of exactly where these addresses lie?”

  He got out his phone, opened a map app, and entered an address. “Here’s the first one.” He entered the rest and showed her.

  “You’re not dealing with fae.”

  “You sound pretty sure.”

  “They’re too deep into the city and in high rises that would have steel support structures.”

  “I thought the fact that they were high rises with no sign of a break-in was a pretty good clue.”

  “I’m not saying magic wasn’t involved, but it wasn’t fae. There aren’t many fae who’d make it that deep into the city and back out again, and no one’s leaving food offerings to them these days that would give them the strength to try something like this. Besides, the fae usually leave changelings when taking children. The parents wouldn’t know they’ve lost their kids. They’d just have kids who suddenly seemed to be ill.”

  “Then if not fae, who? Are there other magical beings I need to know about?”

  “I have no idea. I just learned about enchantresses, and I am one.”

  “So I’m back to talking to Amelia and Athena.” He couldn’t help but sigh wearily.

  “It almost sounds like someone’s trying to frame the fae because they’re the only magical beings I know of with a reputation for kidnapping children.”

  “Why would someone want to make the fae look bad?”

  “It would give the enchantresses something to do, wouldn’t it? The first step toward getting people to listen to you is giving them a problem that you can solve.”

  “So I shouldn’t talk to Amelia and Athena?”

  She stood and did a few fast turns around the room before coming back to the piano. “Not yet. I suppose I’ll have to look into it, but I’ll have to be careful.”

  “I’d appreciate anything you can do. I hate for these families to have to go through this, and it’s even worse at Christmas.”

  Her face softened with empathy. “And how are you doing? I didn’t get a chance to ask yesterday.”

  He normally didn’t like talking about it, but he suddenly found himself wanting to discuss everything with Sophie. He doubted she was putting the whammy on him. It was just that she was the only one who knew the entire story, so she was the only one he could discuss it with honestly. “I don’t know. There are good days and bad days, I guess. Most of the time, nothing feels any different, but then suddenly I’ll remember that I know for sure she’s not coming back and I feel like my whole life has changed. Sometimes that’s good, almost liberating, but most often it’s devastating.”

  “I could always give it one more try. Jen may change her mind.”

  “I wouldn’t count on it. She told me to move on, and she knew her own mind then, so I can’t disregard it. The holidays may be rough. That’s always when I missed her the most when I thought she might be coming back. But I think the closure is helping. This year may not be any worse than other years have been. I suppose I should look at it as the first Christmas of the rest of my life.” He hadn’t even realized he was feeling all that until he started saying it, and after getting it off his chest, he felt a ton lighter.

  “Well, if you need anything—company, food, whatever—let me know. I may be crazy for the next week or so, but after that, my days should be mostly free except when there’s a matinee. If you don’t want to be alone, you don’t have to be.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.” The prospect was actually pretty cheering. It felt good to not have to pretend about anything.

  “Let me know if you notice anything else that’s odd.
You’re getting good at recognizing it, and you’re on the front lines if things are getting weirder than normal in the city.”

  He removed his hands from the keys and stood. “Now I’d better let you get back to your practice, and I’ll go back to making the streets safe for law-abiding citizens. Good day, ma’am.”

  She rolled her eyes and followed him to the door. “You get out there and do that.”

  As he headed down the hallway, he heard the music start again and had to restrain himself to keep from turning back to watch. Instead, he headed outside, where he kept his senses on high alert. The problem was that just about everything in this city could be considered odd, even when it was entirely normal. There was a woman who made amazing music on a saw in a subway station, for crying out loud.

  Case in point, the violinist playing near the entrance to the nearest station entrance. The only thing that kept him from being of Carnegie Hall caliber was the fact that the ones playing at Carnegie Hall were even better.

  Then again, this guy was rather amazingly good, and the usually jaded New Yorkers who normally wouldn’t have so much as given him a passing glance as they went about their shopping were stopping to gape. Even he seemed a little surprised by the crowd he’d gathered as he played lightning-fast notes that struck Michael as being perfectly pitched.

  Another case of fairy magic coming to life? And if so, was it such a bad thing?

  Ten

  The Antique Shop

  5:00 p.m.

  Sophie was surprised to find customers in the shop when she stopped by on her way back from rehearsing. She’d seen maybe two at the most in all the time she’d spent there. The shop had seemed to be little more than a front for the sisters’ other operations, and they had to have another source of income to live in a prewar Upper West Side apartment.

  Then again, she wasn’t sure how old they were. Amelia could have been living in that apartment since before the war. There were signs that the maid’s room where Sophie was staying had once been the home of a teenager, and it hadn’t been within the past forty years.