Much Ado About Magic

by Shanna Swendson

“That baby is my boyfriend.” I launched into my prefabricated cover story. “He’s starting to wonder who he is and where he came from—I guess turning thirty will do that to you—but he also seems to be a little scared about what he’ll find. My birthday gift to him is to do some investigating and see what I can find out. All he knows is that he was turned over to Children’s Services at this fire station.”

  Vinnie nodded. “Okay. Then let’s make a deal. I’ll tell you what I know, and you tell me how that kid turned out, even bring him by to see us.” He took off his baseball cap and shoved it onto Corelli’s head, then took off his apron and draped it over Corelli’s shoulder. “You’re finishing up on lunch. Just stir the sauce so it doesn’t stick or scorch.” Then he took my arm and said, “Come on, sweetheart, let’s you and me go talk.”

  He escorted me to a cramped office and showed me to a chair with a vinyl seat repaired with duct tape. He sat on the edge of a metal desk. “So, you say you know our Yankee Doodle?”

  I smiled at the thought of that nickname applying to Owen. He’d probably turn red and cringe. “Yes, I think so. As I said, he was turned over to Children’s Services on July fourth thirty years ago at this station.” I took the photo of Owen out of my purse and handed it to Vinnie. “This is him.”

  Vinnie studied the photo, creasing his forehead until his eyebrows almost met in the middle. He then gave a long, low whistle. “Damn, but he looks just like his mama.”

  “So the woman who brought him here looked a lot like this?” I asked, gesturing at the photo.

  “Yeah.” His eyes took on a distant look as his brain went back thirty years. “I was workin’ that morning. We had the bay open, and I was standin’ outside, and not long after dawn this girl comes staggerin’ up the street, holding a bundle. I think she was aimin’ for the church, but it didn’t look like she was gonna make it. She almost fainted on me, and I barely caught the kid. We got her and the baby inside, and she kept babbling about needing to keep the baby safe. Strange thing was, she was wearin’ a wedding ring. Usually, it’s teenagers and unwed moms who leave babies like that, not married women. She had some bruises on her face, so I thought maybe her husband beat her and she was afraid of what he’d do to the kid.”

  “Did she give you her name?”

  “No. And I don’t know how she did it, but while we were getting a blanket for the baby and some food for her and calling the police, she just vanished, leaving the baby behind. I mean, I barely turned my back on her, and she was gone. Nobody saw her go. Considerin’ that she could barely walk, that was a neat trick.”

  There went my theory that Ramsay had taken the child of his defeated enemies and tried to hide him in the mundane world. It had been Mina who’d sent her child to safety just before the final showdown. What did that mean? Did she have second thoughts? Had she known she was about to die, or had she discovered what Ramsay was up to?

  Of course, it might not have been Mina at all. Women who are planning to take over the world and start a magical dynasty don’t generally abandon their newborn infants at a fire station. At least, I didn’t think they would.

  “There wasn’t anything with the baby that identified him or gave any clue about him, was there?” I asked.

  “Nah, he was just wrapped up in an old shirt. Tiny little thing he was, too—must’ve come a bit early. But there was one thing—later that day we found an envelope with a note on it saying to give it to him—and only to him—if he ever came there looking for it. I swear it wasn’t there with the baby. We only found it after the police and Children’s Services left with the kid.” He shrugged. “I dunno, maybe she hid it while she was here, or dropped it on her way in or out. Hell, she may have come back and left it.”

  “What did you do with it?”

  “We filed it.” He frowned then, as a memory came back to him. “We probably should have given it to the police, but keeping it seemed like the right thing to do at the time—like that was the obvious thing. Funny, I never even thought of it until now.”

  I’d been around magic enough to recognize the signs that envelope was enchanted, which meant it was probably important. “Do you know what was in the envelope?” I asked, moving to the edge of my seat. My heart was racing so quickly that I was almost dizzy.

  He shrugged—using practically his whole body to do so. “I dunno. I didn’t open it. I knew I wasn’t supposed to. But it felt like there was something heavy in it beyond just paper, like a key or something.”

  “Do you still have it?”

  “I’m sure it’s still here. But like the lady said, it don’t go to no one but that kid. He comes here, I’ll find it and hand it over. Otherwise, no dice.”

  I forced myself to slide back in my chair so I wouldn’t look overly eager. If it was enchanted, then he didn’t have a choice. “Of course. I understand. I’ll have to talk him into coming. This is a big step for him.”

  “So, he’s successful now? He’s had a good life? He’s been safe and happy? ’Cause that’s what his mama wanted for him.”

  I didn’t want to tell him about the failed adoption, string of foster homes, and the foster parents who weren’t allowed to get too attached, so I focused on the positives. “He ended up with a family that loved him and took good care of him. He went to school, even has a doctorate,” I said. “I think his mother would be very pleased.” That is, if his mother wasn’t disappointed that he wasn’t ruling the magical world.

  I stood up and shook his hand. “Thanks, Vinnie, you’ve been very helpful,” I said. “I’ll try to get Owen to come back and see you.”

  “His name’s Owen?” he asked with a grin. “Yeah, he looked like an Owen. Tell him he can come by anytime and have lunch or dinner with us. He’s an honorary member of the company.”

  “I’ll do that,” I assured him.

  *

  I could barely wait to get to Owen’s place and tell him what I’d found. Whatever was in that envelope had to be important—unless it was just some “I hope one day you can understand why I had to do this” note and his mother’s ID bracelet. In case there were still protesters at Owen’s place, I swung by my apartment to get my delivery disguise, then hoped no one noticed that I was carrying Chinese takeout instead of food from the tavern.

  The crowd had grown since the day before, and this time I had to push past people to get to the front door. I knocked on Owen’s door before unlocking it. I almost didn’t recognize the place when I entered. For a moment, I thought I’d accidentally gone into the lower unit, but then I remembered climbing the stairs.

  The apartment was clean. All the books were shelved neatly, and there wasn’t a single loose piece of paper in sight. The living room could have been a photo in a home-décor magazine. Had Owen moved out?

  “Owen?” I called.

  Loony came charging into the living room, and then I knew he still lived there. He wouldn’t have left Loony behind. “Hey there, sweetheart,” I said, kneeling to pat her head. “I bet this doesn’t even feel like home for you anymore.”

  “Katie, is that you?” Owen’s voice called from back in the kitchen.

  “Yes, it’s me,” I said, heading in the direction of his voice. I found him standing at the stove, stirring something.

  “Have you eaten yet?” he asked.

  “I brought Chinese.”

  “That sounds better than canned soup. I’ll save this for later.” He turned off the stove and put the pan aside. He sounded frighteningly normal—so normal it was absolutely abnormal for someone in his situation.

  “I noticed you’ve tidied the place up.”

  “Yeah, I got a little bored, and spending that much time at home made me notice how bad the clutter was.”

  “It looks great.” I unloaded the takeout bag while he got plates out of the cabinet.

  I watched him closely as he scooped food onto a plate and started eating, trying to judge his mood before I sprang the news on him. “I’m not about to disintegrate,” he said dryly. />
  “What?” I wasn’t sure how innocent I managed to look, but I gave it a shot.

  “You’re looking at me like you think I’m about to snap or fall apart, or something.”

  “You mean, I’m acting like I’m worried about you because I care about you and I know you’re going through something horrible that’s turned your life upside down? Gee, I don’t know why I might be doing that.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “This must be a new definition that hasn’t made it into the dictionary yet. I heard you resigned.”

  He shrugged casually. “Well, I haven’t made it to work in a couple of days and I don’t know when I’ll be able to go back, so it’s not fair for me to stay on the payroll.”

  “And how many weeks of unused vacation time have you accumulated?”

  “I used some of it when I went to Texas.”

  “Uh huh, so now you only have a month or two left.”

  “Until this is worked out, I’m no good to the company. Let them do some damage control, and then I can come back after everything’s worked out.” He sounded freakishly unruffled about this.

  “That’s pretty much what Merlin said,” I admitted.

  “See? I’m not crazy or distraught. What I’m doing makes sense.”

  I ate my lunch while trying to think of a way to tell him what I’d discovered. I doubted he’d be happy about me going behind his back. I finally gave up and just blurted, “I tracked down the fire station where you were found. It wasn’t Ramsay who brought you there. It was your mother.”

  He blinked, shook his head, then said, “What? I told you I didn’t want to dig into that.”

  “And Merlin specifically assigned me to do so. I was just offering you the courtesy of being a part of it. Even without you, I had to do it. I met the firefighter who found you—who found your mother, really. He still helps out around the station.” I told him what Vinnie had told me about helping Owen’s mother. “She was trying to protect you,” I said. “Even if she was scheming to take over the magical world, or was misguided, or whatever it was she was into, she still wanted the best for you.”

  He sat totally still for a moment, like he was trying to absorb and process the information. He’d gone ashen, and I couldn’t tell if he was even breathing. I held my own breath as I worried about how he’d react. When he didn’t say anything, I added, “You’re an honorary member of that company. The firefighters would love to meet you. They’ve always wondered what happened to you.”

  Finally, he said, “I told you it would be a dead end.”

  “But it isn’t, or it might not be.” I told him about the envelope his mother had left. “It could be evidence. If she was trying to hide you from Ramsay, then that meant she knew Ramsay was trouble. You have to go to the station and get that envelope. They wouldn’t give it to me—I think it might be enchanted, so they can’t give it to anyone else. That envelope could be our key to beating Ramsay.”

  He shook his head. “You’re putting too much hope on something some young woman threw together to leave with a baby she didn’t think she could bring up. You’ve got it in your head that Mina had a change of heart or wasn’t all that evil to begin with, and her last act of courage was to get her baby to safety and leave a huge smoking gun that would expose Ramsay as the ultimate evildoer. But that’s only what happens in books. In the magical world, it tends to work differently.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest and asked, “How does it work, then?”

  “If she was trying to take over the world using magic but was afraid she was about to fail or be doublecrossed, she could have left an enchantment that would then make her son carry out her dreams or that would put her essence into her magically powerful son so her life could continue, or something equally nasty.”

  I tried not to shudder. “You really think she’d have done something like that?”

  He raised an eyebrow. “She tried to take over the world using dark magic. What do you think?”

  “Okay, then, you don’t have to open the envelope. You have to be there to get it from the firehouse, but then I could take it and open it to find out what it is. It can’t affect me.”

  “It’s probably not even something that dramatic. It’s probably just some note about how she hoped I would have a better life than she could have given me. We still don’t even know if that woman was Mina Morgan.”

  “You said yourself that it felt true.”

  “There’s a difference between feeling and knowing.”

  If he’d been one of my brothers, I’d have stuck my thumbs in my armpits and flapped my elbows like wings while making chicken sounds, but I didn’t think that would go over very well in these circumstances. “If you go and we open the envelope and it’s just a ‘sorry for ditching you, kid, but it was for the best’ note, then I give you permission to gloat all you want. But at the moment, it’s the only lead we’ve got.”

  I didn’t think it was possible, but he went even paler. He shook his head and said. “I–I don’t know if I can face that yet. I just need a little time, okay?”

  “I’m not sure how much time we have. You can mope all you want later, but there’s a lot at stake right now.” When that didn’t get a response, I shifted tactics. “You never told me your birthday was July fourth.”

  “I don’t know that it was. That was just the date I was found.”

  “Oh, it was your birthday, all right. They said you were ‘fresh out of the oven’ when you showed up at that fire station. The firefighters called you their little Yankee Doodle Dandy.”

  As I’d expected, he turned red, but he also smiled. “How much will it cost me for you to keep that quiet?”

  “A trip to the fire station? They said you had an open invitation to lunch or dinner, and whatever Vinnie was cooking, it smelled really good. The station’s in Little Italy, so I’m guessing you’d get some good Italian food there. You like Italian food, right?”

  His smile faded and he shook his head. “I can’t.”

  “Then I’ll have to tell Rod. Or maybe I’ll tell Marcia and Gemma, and Marcia will tell Rod. And I’m sure Jake would find it highly amusing. Of course, we’ll have to throw a huge party. It’s short notice, but I understand there are already fireworks scheduled.”

  This time, there wasn’t even a flicker of a smile. “I’m sorry, Katie,” he whispered. “I can’t. Could you, if you were in my shoes? If you found out that there was a chance your parents were someone like Bonnie and Clyde or Lee Harvey Oswald, would you be willing to prove it, or would you prefer to leave the possibility open that it wasn’t true?”

  “I think I’d want to know. Having that question hanging would drive me nuts.”

  “You might think differently if it wasn’t purely hypothetical for you. I’ll come up with another plan, but please, don’t ask me again.”

  “Okay, I won’t.” I stood to leave. “But I have to admit I’m disappointed in you. I understand you’re going through a lot, but aren’t you the one who likes to quote that Casablanca line about the problems of one or two little people not adding up to a hill of beans? This isn’t just about you.”

  “I said, I’m working on a plan—something that might actually get us somewhere.” He spoke through gritted teeth.

  “Then you do that,” I said. “But you should know that I don’t give a damn who or what your parents were. I don’t care whether or not you’re a wizard. And I don’t think anyone other than those idiots with the amulets cares, either. What really matters is what you do, and if I were in your shoes, I’d do anything in my power to stop Ramsay, no matter how uncomfortable it made me.”

  I’d given up on dramatic exits when I was a kid and I realized my brothers didn’t even notice when I flounced out of a room, but I gave it my best flounce and left him sitting alone in his kitchen.

  While I was somewhat sympathetic about his position, I couldn’t take the risk that we’d have the time it would take him to come to terms with the situation an
d come around. But if I couldn’t persuade him, maybe someone else could. It was time to bring in the big guns, whether or not he was ready to see them.

  I still had Owen’s cell phone, and I found James and Gloria’s number in the contacts list on it. I called and told them what had happened. “We’ll be on the next train,” James said.

  I met them at Grand Central. We took a cab from there to Owen’s place, stopping at the end of the block because his narrow side street was nearly blocked by the mob, which seemed to have grown. Gloria’s eyes flashed with cold fire when she saw the protesters. “How dare they?” she growled.

  James straightened his back until he looked like a general about to survey the troops, and before I could say or do anything, the two of them were striding forward, right into the mob. I may have been about sixty years younger, but I had to rush to catch up with them, and I wasn’t sure what I could do to help.

  The strange thing was, the protesters backed away from Gloria. I knew she was formidable and that I was afraid of her, but I hadn’t thought that absolutely everyone would be that frightened of a tall, thin old lady. She carried an old-fashioned umbrella that wouldn’t have been out of place in Mary Poppins’s umbrella stand, and she banged it on the ground at her feet as she shouted, “What is the meaning of this?”

  Because they were a mob that was probably being magically influenced, there wasn’t any one leader to act as spokesman. They all looked at each other, and none of them had a good answer. That did not impress Gloria. “Surely you have more constructive things to do with your time than make nuisances of yourselves. What do you expect to accomplish, standing out here in the street all day? He’s not going to come down so you can arrest him, or whatever it is you plan to do, and it’s not as though he’s even done anything wrong. Are you protesting what someone has told you about his very existence? Is that it?”

  They backed farther away from her. One man moved toward her, his lips bared as his fists raised in an aggressive posture, and she barely flicked a finger at him, sending him reeling backward. “If you have a complaint, you can make it to me,” she said, sweeping the crowd with her steely gaze.