Once the gang was gathered, Merlin threw the flyer in the middle of the conference table without comment. They all leaned forward to get a good look.

When Owen read it, he paled. “I suppose this explains last night,” he said dryly. Then he looked up at Merlin. “Did you already know about this?”

“There have been rumblings,” Merlin admitted, “but we didn’t know anything concrete.”

“It was apparently enough for you to use us as bait,” I said, not even trying to mask the irritation in my voice.

“We had our eyes on you the whole time, doll,” Sam assured me. “We were hopin’ the elves would show themselves.”

“And now we know why they were after me,” Owen said with a weary sigh. Poor guy, I thought. He already had people from the magical world watching his every move to make sure he wasn’t evil. Now he was on the elves’ Most Wanted list.

“Have you heard anything about this?” Merlin asked Earl.

Earl squinted at it, then shook his head. “Not in my circles, but I’m kind of persona non grata around Sylvester’s people these days. This looks like his style, though. He’s trying to create a common enemy and deflect the blame so people will forget that he was secretly hiding the Knot all along and was planning to use it to solidify his power.”

Rod picked up the flyer and studied it. “This explains a lot,” he said with a grim nod. “I’ve had more resignations in the past week than in the previous two months, and they were all elves. I was starting to research whether I had some toxic supervisors to deal with.”

“More like a toxic Elf Lord,” Earl said with a disgusted grunt.

“They’re leaving MSI like rats leaving a sinking ship,” Rod said with a shrug. “I don’t know if that means they don’t want to associate with us or if they want to be well out of the danger zone when something happens.”

“Do you see this as a real threat?” Merlin asked. “Are we going to see more than mischief from this?”

Earl cleared his throat to speak, then glanced around before saying tentatively, “I’ve heard …” He trailed off, realized we weren’t going to interrupt or disregard him the way his previous boss had, and started again. “I’ve heard rumors of people disappearing. Elves, I mean. Those who speak out against Sylvester. I don’t know anyone personally who’s gone missing, but people talk.”

“Has Sylvester got some kind of elf Siberia going on?” I asked.

Earl glanced around nervously, then winced as he said, “Actually, they’re blaming the wizards for the disappearances, and your people arresting those guys last night just played into that rumor.”

“It wasn’t our people,” Sam grumbled. “Those Council goons pulled rank.”

“They played us,” I said. “I wonder if that’s what it was really all about, staging an attack they knew we’d anticipate to goad us into arresting their people, and then there’s proof that the disappearances are our fault.”

Merlin sat lost in thought for a moment, then nodded as though he’d come to a decision. “Sam, I’d like you to put together a team to investigate any disappearances that might be related to the company. Earl, please use your underground connections to learn as much as possible. Mr. Gwaltney, provide the names of missing elf employees to Sam, and check in with our remaining elven employees. Please keep me informed of your progress.”

I cleared my throat. “Is there something you need me to do?”

He gave me a fond smile. “I think you deserve a break after all you’ve done recently. Please focus on your magical training.” In other words, I was a lot less valuable to the company when I couldn’t spot disguised elves or hidden activities.

“Maybe I’ll see if I can come up with a way to get out the message that we aren’t out to get the elves—of course, without admitting to destroying the Knot or outright saying that Sylvester’s the really evil one. Unless, that is, we get some concrete proof.”

“Yes, that would be good,” Merlin agreed.

That would probably mean having Perdita tell her friends the rumors were false. I wondered if maybe we should throw a big “elf day” party, but then I remembered that our track record for marketing events was iffy. Our enemies tended to use them against us.

Since Owen didn’t have an assignment either, I hoped we could try to have a normal, romantic date, after all. For once, we weren’t the ones in charge of saving the world.