Once Upon Stilettos

Loony was nibbling at her breakfast from a bowl near the refrigerator. She noticed me and greeted me with a happy “meow,” which caused Owen to turn around and see me. There was a day’s worth of dark stubble on his jaw, and he wore a pair of wire-rimmed glasses. I had to grab the back of the chair near me to steady myself at the sight. How was it that the more disheveled he got, the cuter he became?



“Good morning,” he said, apparently oblivious to my total meltdown. “Did you sleep well?”



“It took me a while to get to sleep, but then I must have really conked out. Sorry I was such a slugabed.”



“Don’t worry about it. I wasn’t up much earlier than you were. Do you like scrambled eggs?”



“Yeah. I can make them if you want me to.”



He gave me a knee-weakening grin. “I can manage breakfast. There’s fresh coffee in the pot if you want to get yourself some. Cups are in the cabinet above. There’s milk in the refrigerator. No cream, sorry.”



I followed his directions and poured myself a cup of coffee, then added milk and sugar. I leaned against the counter by the stove as I drank it and watched him cook. “Is there no end to your talents?” I teased, hoping it sounded like teasing instead of gushing. “Wizard, scholar, sleight-of-hand artist, spy, benefactor of orphaned animals, and now cook.” I decided it would be best to leave out the part about him being an expert kisser.



“I was a decent fencer in college, but I haven’t picked up a sword in years. But you’re pretty multitalented yourself.”



“What? Let’s see, I can cook, shop, and come up with crazy schemes to save the world.”



“All very valuable and important life skills.” He dished eggs and bacon onto plates, then took toast from the nearby toaster as it popped up. “Breakfast is served.”



We ate at the kitchen table, with Owen dropping the occasional bite of food to Loony, who sat patiently at his feet, ready to catch each morsel. “I have a few ideas about what to do with your shoes,” he said. “I did some research last night, and it looks like this is a variant on the more common Cinderella spell, one that very likely could have been targeted at you, though I don’t know how they could have been sure you’d buy those shoes, given your magical immunity.”



I wasn’t going to get a better opening than that. If I was going to tell him, it was now or never. “Um, actually, that’s something I kind of need to talk to you about.”



“What, your immunity?” He fed a bite of toast to Loony.



“Yeah. It’s gone.”



His attention snapped back to me. “It’s what? Gone? Really?”



“Yeah, pretty much.” Once I started the ball rolling, the story came pouring out of me. “I see illusions now—Rod looks totally different, and when we’re away from work, Ari and Trix look like ordinary humans. The other night I didn’t see you talking to that gargoyle. I didn’t see any of the people who attacked me last weekend, and I only felt like magic was being used near me last night. The shoes did affect me. They did all the things you said they would, and I’m pretty sure I was as much under a spell last night as Rod was.”



Behind his glasses, his eyes were full of concern. I noticed that they were as beautiful a dark blue as they ever were, so if he wore contact lenses most of the time, they weren’t colored. “When did this happen?” he asked.



“I’m not sure exactly when it started, but I first noticed it Thanksgiving weekend. We ran into Rod and I didn’t recognize him. It may have started sooner, though. Now that I think about it, it was like things were fading in and out sometimes. Mom saw a few things I didn’t see. And then it was totally gone, and it hasn’t come back at all.”



“Why didn’t you say something?”



I traced a pattern in my uneaten eggs with my fork. “I kept hoping it was just a glitch, that it would come back on its own. And then I got scared that it wouldn’t, and then the company wouldn’t want me anymore. I didn’t want to have to face that until it was a last resort.”



“If you’d told me, I could have helped you, and I would have kept your secret until we had a better sense of what was happening. Why did you tell me now?”



“Because I realized I was only going to get myself into more trouble if I didn’t do something. So can we reverse it, or am I stuck this way?”



“It depends on the cause, but I have an idea. I’ll get someone to look into it Monday morning, but in the meantime, don’t drink the water at your home. Your water supply may have been tainted.”