Jodi pulled into the parking lot behind the Archetype Place. From the back, it looked like a gigantic warehouse. In the front, someone had painted a series of delightful murals that made the warehouse look like a series of Disney storefronts. But the back was just painted white, and Jodi preferred it.
There weren’t a lot of cars back here. Most of the folks who frequented the Archetype Place either flew there, magically appeared inside it, or walked over from Disneyland where a bunch of them worked. Jodi brought a lot of her clients to the Archetype Place because they got very discouraged working in the Industry. The Archetype Place did a lot to combat the myths about the magical perpetrated by the Industry. The Archetype Place had a wing devoted to the founding branch of PETA—People for the Ethical Treatment of Archetypes. Jodi was a member, but mostly she just paid her dues and kept silent. Until recent years, PETA had been too radical for her.
She rolled one window down a fraction, then got out of the car. Blue looked a bit disoriented, but he got out too.
“Should we wake Tank?” he asked.
Jodi shook her head. “She’ll join us if she wants to.”
Jodi really didn’t want Tank to join them inside the Archetype Place, but she didn’t want to say so, because for all she knew, Tank wasn’t really sleeping and might actually hear her. At the moment, Jodi wasn’t willing to seem ungrateful to Tank in any way or form.
Jodi waited for Blue in front of the car, then slipped her arm through his. He stepped back as if she had pinched him. Then he gave her a wary look.
“We have to go in together,” Jodi said. “It’s better if we look relaxed.”
“We can look relaxed without… that,” he said. He sounded nervous.
She was nervous but decided not to show it. “You have to stay at my side. It’s easier to keep you there when I have your arm.”
He nodded, then shook his head. “No. No, I… Just no. Okay?”
“Okay,” she said. She hadn’t meant to set off quite that reaction. After all, she had touched him in the restaurant. But not quite in that way. Even though she had gone into the Archetype Place a million times with a client on her arm just like that, none of the clients felt quite the same way. None of them had such firm biceps (how did a heavy drinker get such firm biceps?), and none of them made her feel tingly with just the slightest brush.
It probably was better not to have her arm threaded through his. She could concentrate better if she wasn’t touching him.
“At least stay by my side,” she said. “I don’t want to lose track of you.”
He nodded distractedly, a small frown creasing his forehead. His nerves were affecting her.
Jodi and Blue walked to the smoked glass doors in the front of the building. Jodi pulled them open and stepped inside the coolness. Something about the Archetype Place smelled like home. She’d discussed it with others of the magical, and they all described the smell differently.
For her, it smelled faintly of hot chocolate on a cold winter day mixed with a trace of wood smoke, and just a hint of cinnamon. When she was growing up, both chocolate and cinnamon were luxuries that very few people had access to. She had indulged only rarely, and only on the most special of occasions.
Still, the smell always soothed her, and she always smelled it when she came into the Archetype Place. She knew it was a domestic comfort spell—it was one of the earliest spells she had ever learned—but that didn’t make her appreciate it less.
Beside her, Blue didn’t seem to be soothed. He seemed so tense that she felt like she could shatter him with the flick of a fingernail.
No guests sat in the reception area. The Frog Prince had reception, again. He’d been working it a lot lately.
Froggy was probably the most handsome man that Jodi had ever met (until she met Blue, that is), but he preferred to remain in his frog form. His beloved wife had died a few years back, and ever since, he had stopped taking care of himself. Selda had given him a job in the Archetype Place so that she could keep an eye on him and dump him into a pool of water when she felt he needed it.
He looked like he had been in some water recently. His skin was a shiny forest green, and the ridges on his back looked healthy, not bony. His feet were splayed across a lily pad that doubled as a desk blotter, and Jodi thought she saw a dead fly in one corner.
It made her shudder. She had heard of people who took on the characteristics of their other form, but she tried not to think about what that meant.
Froggy’s golden eyes had met Blue’s, and for the first time since she met him, Froggy actually looked cold.
“We’re here to see Selda,” Jodi said.
“Not him,” Froggy said without taking his gaze off Blue.
“I’ll just wait in the car,” Blue said. “I probably shouldn’t be here anyway.”
Jodi caught his arm and held it, even though she knew he didn’t want her to. She also realized, as she felt the developed muscles that went all the way down, that she wouldn’t be able to keep him here if he didn’t want to stay.
“You can be here,” Froggy said, “or have you forgotten that you signed the I’m Not Evil pledge to get in here? Or should I say, have you forgotten again?”
Blue’s muscles had tightened, not because he was going to hit someone, but because he’d been surprised. He shook his head, then frowned, then looked at Jodi.
“See? I shouldn’t—”
“We need to see Selda,” she said to Froggy, “and I’m not taking no for an answer.”
“He’s not allowed to see Selda ever again,” Froggy said, “and you will take no for an answer because I work for her.”
“Then get her for me and we’ll change this,” Jodi said.
“No, really,” Blue said. “I don’t mind. I can—”
“You be quiet,” Jodi said without looking at him. She held his forearm, effectively preventing him from moving. Then she said to Froggy, “You tell Selda we’re here. Tell her we need to talk about the Fairy Tale Stalker, a curse, and Bluebeard.”
Froggy tilted his head so he looked at her from one bulging eye. “This job means a lot to me.”
“Selda won’t fire you,” Jodi said.
“She might,” Blue said softly. “You don’t know what I did last time I was here—”
Jodi held up her free hand, effectively silencing him. “You’re right. I don’t. And I don’t want to know. Froggy, if she fires you, I’ll hire you, all right?”
“I don’t like Hollywood,” Froggy said. “I won’t work for some studio. They’ll make me sing that Muppet Green song. I don’t like to be green. I like emerald.”
Which is green, Jodi thought but didn’t say. Her irritation level was high enough without aggravating Froggy further.
“I won’t get you a Hollywood job,” she said.
“Good, because I don’t sing and I don’t do commercials and I don’t do cute.” Froggy slapped one long toe onto the intercom button and leaned forward so he could talk into it. “Selda, it’s me, Froggy.”
“Who else would it be?” Jodi muttered to herself. Blue put a hand on top of hers and looked at her. He shook his head and mouthed, This is a bad idea.
She ignored him while Froggy explained who was at his desk and why they were here.
“…something about a stalker, a curse, and this disreputable Bluebeard.”
The intercom crackled with static. “Is Blue drunk?”
Jodi thought that a good sign: Selda actually didn’t dismiss him out of hand.
“No,” Froggy said with a bit of surprise. “And he’s showered too.”
“Aqua Velva?” Selda asked through the intercom.
Blue was cringing. Jodi suppressed a smile.
“Thank the Powers, no,” Froggy said. “You can actually breathe around him.”
Blue made a sound of distress. Jodi clamped harder on his arm.
“Then send him back,” Selda said.
“Alone?” Froggy sounded alarmed.
“With Jodi,
who is probably listening and better have a good reason for this.”
The intercom clunked off. Froggy stood at his full height—which was about as high as the mug of pens on the far side of the desk.
“You heard her,” he said. “Enter at your own risk.”
Blue shot Jodi a panicked glance. She gave him a reassuring smile, then slid her hand up his arm and tucked her hand through his elbow, as if they were on their way to a ball.
He was actually trembling, and his cheeks red. She hadn’t really thought before about all of those times she had seen him drunk and rude and out of control. She had always thought that was the man. But the real man was embarrassed by what he had done, and now she was forcing him to face that.
But wasn’t that part of recovery?
Although she doubted he had planned to enter this stage of recovery today. She doubted he had planned to enter it at all. He had only done his recovery at the rehab center and then, when he left, had deliberately fallen off the wagon.
She led him down the narrow hallway, past a few closed doors, to the open door at the end. Jodi had never seen Selda’s door closed, not even on the worst days.
Selda’s office was huge, bigger than Jodi’s office. Only Selda’s office didn’t feel as big. Part of it was the gigantic fireplace on one side of the room, part of it was all of the comfortable upholstered furniture scattered about. Some of the chairs already had cats on them, one had a dog sprawled across its entire length, and only two were empty, the two closest to the desk.
Jodi didn’t know if that was by design. Selda had one of those offices where nothing seemed like it was by design, and yet it had to be, from the spider plants hanging off all the surfaces to the macramé plant hangers filled with climbing ivy in front of the windows to the constantly percolating pot of coffee in the very back.
In the center of it all was Selda, a woman as large and comfortable as the furniture. She had been gorgeous once—Jodi had seen the images—but she had let that slide as her reputation disappeared. She had saved two children on a very harrowing night in the woods and had gotten excoriated for it for decades. Branded an evil witch, she was actually shunned by people who had once cared for her, and eventually she had come here where her reputation preceded her.
She transformed herself with Jodi’s help, landing the gig as “Mother Nature” on a series of commercials in the 1970s. She had almost balked at the tagline—It’s Not Nice To Fool Mother Nature—because it was followed by a peal of thunder and a crack of lightning, but Jodi convinced her to do it, and ever since, people (mortals) had reacted well to Selda.
The commercials had captured her warmth and her power. Jodi had liked that. Selda had felt exposed and had left the business shortly thereafter to continue her work here at the Archetype Place.
She stood behind the desk as they came in, a tall square woman wearing a brown and orange caftan. The caftan suited her. It matched her curly brown hair and should have made her eyes sparkle.
But she wasn’t sparkling anywhere. In fact, Jodi had never seen Selda stand when someone came into her office. Selda had her hands behind her back and she was watching Blue warily.
If Jodi didn’t know better, she would have thought that Selda was frightened.
“I’m letting him in here because of your phone message last night,” Selda said. “You sounded distressed, and Tank leads me to believe it had something to do with that stalker. Now you come here, dragging the real Bluebeard, and I’m worried.”
Jodi hadn’t expected Selda to start. “When did you see Tank?”
“Before she went to see you. She said she had it under control,” Selda said. “Where is she now?”
She asked this last question of Blue as if he had done something with her.
He glanced at Jodi, who kept her hand clamped on his arm. “I—um—”
“She’s in my car,” Jodi said. “I made the mistake of taking her to Echoes. She’s sleeping off her food coma.”
Selda grunted.
“Look,” Blue said. “I know you don’t want me here. Let me just apologize for everything I’ve done, and all the things I’ve said, and then Jodi can talk to you. I’ll wait with Tank—”
“Jodi wants you here,” Selda said. “So you stay. Sit. And I don’t want to hear some twelve-step apology.”
She waved her hand at the two open chairs near the desk.
This time Blue didn’t argue. He glanced at Jodi. Together they went to the chairs and sat down. Jodi had to let go of his arm to do so and felt it as a real loss.
He didn’t look at her. Instead, he looked directly at Selda, his hands gripping the arms of the chair as if it was about to levitate.
“I owe you an apology,” he said. “And it would be real.”
“I don’t care,” Selda said.
Selda sat down too, but she didn’t lean back like she usually did. Instead she leaned forward, elbows on her cluttered desk.
She looked directly at Jodi. “Curse? Fairy Tale Stalker? And now Blue in my office. This had better be worthwhile. I trust you plan to tell me everything?”
And so Jodi did.
Chapter 30
Or at least, Jodi told Selda everything she knew. There was a lot of information, but as Jodi told the tale, she realized there were a lot of gaps as well. And Blue wasn’t doing anything to fill them in.
He sat quietly, not moving, as if he expected Selda to banish him immediately.
Jodi had never seen someone with such a large presence recede into the background the way Blue had. It was as if he had shut off his charm, as if he had taken his personality and shoved it into a corner of himself. He was trying to fade away, and he was doing a very good job.
Or so it seemed to her. But she was trying to focus on Selda, who was listening intently. Selda’s gaze never left Jodi’s.
“You’re certain this is a curse?” Selda asked as Jodi finished.
“I’ve never seen a curse before, but this seems to follow all the signs,” Jodi said. “The magic is threaded through his. You can see it in his aura.”
“I can’t,” Selda said. “I don’t have that kind of magic. But you’re excellent at what you do, Jodi. I don’t need a second opinion for this. I’m just amazed no one has noticed it before.”
She still didn’t look at Blue as she spoke, and he remained relatively motionless. It had to take a lot of concentration to keep himself that still. But Jodi didn’t look directly at him either. She didn’t want to make him more uncomfortable than he already was.
“There’s a reasonable explanation for that,” Jodi said. “It’s only visible once the curse activates. Otherwise it’s dormant. All you can see in his aura is charm magic.”
“And now it’s different?” Selda asked.
Jodi nodded. “Just since yesterday.”
Selda let out a long sigh. “We’re dealing with someone quite powerful then, someone with magic that can span centuries. And work on multiple people at once. That’s rather terrifying. I would think the Fates would shut him down.”
“Not without a complaint,” Jodi said.
“And curses are too subtle for a complaint before the Fates,” Selda said. “You’d have to know who placed the curse to stop the curse.”
She turned her head, looking at Blue for the first time. Jodi looked sideways at him. He swallowed visibly.
“Well?” Selda said. “Do you know who did this?”
He shook his head. “I didn’t know it was a curse until this morning.”
“And now you’re out, but not drunk.” Selda folded her hands together. “Tell me, is this the first time you’ve been loose in the Greater World without some alcohol in your system?”
“Outside of a rehab center?” Blue asked.
Selda nodded.
“Yes,” he said.
“Well,” Selda said. “I’m beginning to understand the fairy tale now.”
Blue looked confused. Jodi smiled. Selda was referring to Blue’s handsomeness. Jodi had
had the same reaction. Her gaze met Selda’s and they had one of those woman-to-woman moments of understanding.
“What does that mean?” Blue asked.
The edges of Selda’s lips turned up, but she didn’t quite smile. Jodi knew the look. Selda wasn’t going to answer him directly.
“You know,” Selda said to Jodi, “I always wondered why the story of Bluebeard was included in a group of fairy tales. Didn’t you?”
Jodi started to answer, but Selda cut her off.
“I mean, at its heart, it’s not a fairy tale at all, but a horror story about something rather mundane. What do they call them now here in the Greater World? A serial killer, right? Someone who murders for pleasure.”
Blue said, “I didn’t—”
“There’s no magic in that, no fairies, no bargain with a magical being.” Selda didn’t even seem to notice that he had spoken. “But if you look at the story as the story of a curse, then it belongs in the oeuvre of fairy tales. So those Grimm Brothers screwed up again, taking a tale they knew had magic and removing all the magic from it.”
Selda said that last with a touch of bitterness. Maybe more than a touch. Jodi was getting the impression that if Selda ever ran into the Brothers Grimm (were they still alive? She didn’t know. But assuming they were), then the Brothers Grimm would have a lot to answer for.
It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature, Jodi thought and smiled to herself.
“Do you think the Brothers Grimm knew it was a curse?” Jodi asked.
“Do you think they knew that I would never harm a child?” Selda asked. “Of course they knew. Those boys had agendas I still don’t understand.”
She turned toward Blue.
“And you,” she said to him, tapping the desktop with her free hand. “You did something to anger them.”
Charming Blue Page 17