Much Ado About Magic (Enchanted, Inc. 5)

I wondered if he’d also dropped the handsome illusion he usually wore. He’d certainly continued the self-improvement program he’d started before I left town. Now he had a good haircut, his skin looked better, and his teeth had been whitened.

“Do you think this is another setup for selling protective charms, demonstrating the product in a real-world setting?” I asked.

“I doubt it,” Rod replied. “I don’t see much of a market for something that keeps hot women from throwing themselves at you. Now, if they were using hags to demonstrate the potential dangers, then you might be on to something.”

“Maybe they’re marketing a charm to women to help them keep their men from being snared by these spells,” I suggested.

Our banter had given Owen a chance to recover, and now he looked more like himself. His eyes were still a little glassy, but from what I knew of Owen, that meant he was mentally analyzing the spell he’d just encountered and was thinking of ways to fight it.

The two of them walked me to the front door of my apartment building, then Rod said, “I’ll make sure Romeo here gets home safely without running off with any loose women. Say hi to Marcia and tell her I’ll call later.”

“Will do. And I’ll see you two tomorrow.”

I unlocked the front door, checked the mail in the entryway, then headed upstairs to my apartment. I’d missed this dingy old building while I was in Texas, but more for what it represented than for what it really was. Our apartment was far too small for three people, and there was no such thing as personal space. I was relieved to get home and find that my roommates were still out. That gave me a moment of privacy and quiet.

Well, maybe not that much quiet, I thought, wincing at the sound of an argument coming from upstairs. I turned the television on to drown out the noise while I changed out of my work clothes. When I came back to the living room, the TV was showing a live news report from an attempted bank robbery. The cameras zoomed in on a man being arrested while the reporter said, “The suspect, who was identified by patrons in the bank as the robber, surrendered to police, but claimed to have no memory of robbing the bank. Police still have not recovered the stolen money.”

I groaned and sank onto the sofa as the newscast returned to the anchorman, who began talking about an unusual crime wave in the city. New York may have the reputation of being a dangerous place, but it’s really not that bad except in certain areas. This type of crime wave was definitely unusual.

In a burst of panic, I switched to the national news to see if this was showing up anywhere else. The last thing I needed was my parents knowing about a crime wave in New York when their little girl had just returned to the big, bad city. We needed to put a stop to this as soon as possible before someone really got hurt—and before my parents came to drag me home. It was bad enough that people’s lives could be ruined by crimes they hadn’t been aware of committing. What would happen if one of these people under influence spells hurt or killed someone and then had to live with that? The magical people could buy the Spellworks charms to protect themselves, but what about ordinary people?

Nothing about a major New York crime wave appeared in the five minutes I had the national news on, and then my roommate Gemma came home. She kicked off her high-heeled shoes right inside the front door, then limped to the bedroom without a word.

“Rough day?” I called after her.

Mumbled cursing came from the bedroom. A moment later, she reemerged, wearing yoga pants and a tank top. “What is it with people these days?” she asked.

“What happened?”

Instead of answering, she inspected a bloody patch on her elbow. “Do we have a first-aid kit?”

I got off the couch and ran to the bathroom for the kit, then waved off her hands when she tried to take it from me. “You can’t see your own elbow properly, no matter how much yoga you do,” I said, grabbing her arm to hold it steady so I could dab the wound with antiseptic. “What happened to you?”

“Oh, just some jerk running out of the subway station. He slammed me against the wall.” Then she must have noticed my cuts and bruises. “What happened to you?”

“Something along those lines. I got caught in a subway fight this morning.” Out of sheer habit, I left out the reason for the fight. I wasn’t yet used to my roommates being in on the magical secret.

“So, tell me, Katie, is all this stuff a magical thing?”

“I think so,” I said, putting a bandage across her elbow. “We’re working on it, but be careful, and if you notice something weird, get out of the way.”

The door opened again and Marcia, my other roommate, came in. She, at least, didn’t seem to be damaged or disgruntled. As soon as she saw me, she grinned and said, “So, how’d it go?”

“How did what go?” I asked.

With an exasperated sigh, she threw down her briefcase. “Your job? You know, the one you were going to beg for today.”

“Oh, yeah, that.” So much had happened that I’d almost forgotten I’d started the day unemployed. “The bad news is, I didn’t get my old job back. The good news is I got a promotion, and I’m already busy with a big project.”

“Congratulations!” Marcia said. “I don’t suppose that promotion came with a raise?”

“It did. A nice one.”

Marcia and Gemma exchanged glances, then Marcia’s grin got even bigger. “Great! That’ll work out great.”

Gemma jumped off the sofa. “You mean we got it?”

“We got it!” The two of them jumped up and down like cheerleaders after a touchdown.