Much Ado About Magic

I got out my purchases from the lunchtime shopping trip. “I don’t know how good a disguise these will be, but I do have hats and funny glasses. And ‘I Heart NY’ obnoxious tourist T-shirts.”



“This would be a lot easier in winter, when we could really bundle up and hide ourselves,” he said, taking a shirt from me.



I went into the bathroom to change shirts. I wished I’d thought to pick up some hair rinse at a drugstore to darken my hair, but I settled for stuffing it up under a “Big Apple” baseball cap. When I came back out, Owen had also changed. He hadn’t shaved that day, and with a baseball cap, sunglasses, and a touristy T-shirt a size too large so that it looked sloppier than he usually did, he was almost unrecognizable. Someone who knew him well would spot him if they knew to look for him, but in a crowd, he might not obviously be Owen. I was naturally invisible in crowds, which made ditching followers in a busy city easier. Utterly average blends in nicely.



“Okay, let’s do this,” I said, trying to talk myself into courage.



He picked up the key, then folded the letter, slipped it back into its envelope, and then slid that into the book he’d been reading. “You’ve got a key to the room?” he asked. “I think it’s probably safest if I don’t have one on me.” I didn’t like the way he made that sound. It reminded me of the note of fatalism in his mother’s letter.



“You think they’re going to catch you?”



“Let’s just say I’d rather plan for the worst-case scenario and then be pleasantly surprised. And I do think the odds of me making it there and back are slim.” He took both my hands in his and faced me. “Listen to me now. Our priority—our only priority—is getting those documents. If we get ambushed or caught or chased, get the documents and don’t worry about me. Go straight into the building and give them to Merlin. Once we have those, I’ll be okay eventually, whatever happens, even if they catch me. Do you understand?”



I nodded and tried to swallow the lump in my throat. “Yes, I understand.”



“Now promise me.”



“Owen,” I whimpered.



He squeezed my hands tighter and looked me square in the eye. “Promise me,” he repeated, his voice firmer.



“Your magic doesn’t work on me, you know. This isn’t binding. But, yes, I promise. I know what the priority is.”



He held my hands a moment longer, then said, “Are you ready?”



“Ready as I’ll ever be.” On impulse, I stood on my toes and threw my arms around his neck to give him a tight hug. “You will be careful,” I whispered into his ear, making it an order.



He hugged me in response. “I will. Trust me, I have no desire to end up back in one of those cells.”



“I’d better go down first and scope out the situation,” I said. “I’m pretty sure I wasn’t followed, but they saw me come here yesterday and may be on the lookout. You sit tight, and I’ll call the room when the coast is clear.”



I was glad I’d thought of checking out the situation because there were black-clad men at every exit in the lobby, and I didn’t think they were doormen. Before I could sneak out of the lobby, one looked directly at me. Oh, crap, I thought. We were trapped. I couldn’t even act like this was just another visit to Nita because they’d seen me leaving the elevators. They had to know Owen was hiding somewhere in the hotel.



Nita was my only hope. Maybe she knew another way out of the hotel. Pasting on a carefree smile, I went up to Nita’s station at the registration desk and said, “Surprise!”



“Hey, you!” she said with a grin, then she looked at me and frowned. “What’s with the look? Surely you know better than to go out in public looking like that. We have got to go shopping. I’m off Saturday afternoon. Put it in your calendar, in ink. Don’t argue with me, Katie. This is an intervention for your own good.”



I glanced down at my tourist gear. “This is actually for that event I was telling you about.”



“Oh, the secret celebrity thing?” She made a face like she was smelling something nasty. “You poor thing, having to dress like that around a big star.”



“He’s dressed like this, too. Speaking of which, he’s got a thing about crowded hotel lobbies, and I have to get him to this event, but he doesn’t want to come down with all these people here, and the event’s going to start soon, so I’m desperate.” I dropped my voice to just above a whisper and leaned forward. “Plus, there are a couple of people in this lobby who are on my list of people to look out for. One’s a tabloid reporter and the other is a known industrial spy who works for our competition. Can you think of a way to get us out of here without being seen?”