“And how did you order it?” Granny asked, her hands tightening on the top of her cane and her voice taking on an edge I recognized all too well. When her voice got that tone to it, even my mother quit arguing with her—and my mother’s main hobby, aside from trying to make me wear more makeup, was arguing with her mother.
Mimi was distracted enough for me to slip in close to her, but her brooch pocket was too close to the cake table, and then she put her hand in her pocket, presumably to draw strength from the Eye so she could deal with Granny. “It–it was supposed to have a more metallic look in the icing,” Mimi eventually managed to say.
Granny nodded. “Yes, I can see where that would be important. Metallic icing is just what’s keeping a cake shaped like a wheelchair from being tasteful.” The cake decorators grinned and clustered around Granny.
Even from where I stood, I could see the lump in Mimi’s pocket where she formed a fist around the brooch. When she spoke, her words were tinged with power. “Do it as I ordered it.”
Granny stared her down in silence. The cake crew started to cower again, but then drew strength from Granny and straightened defiantly. When Mimi began twitching anxiously, Granny said, “Well, alrighty, then. Girls, throw on some silver glitter. Don’t worry about how it’ll make the cake taste. Taste is obviously not a concern here. Want us to add some streamers to the handles? That’ll really jazz it up.” Behind her, the crew took some little vials of silver cake décor and began sprinkling it on the metal parts of the wheelchair cake. They hadn’t even waited for Mimi’s reply.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Either the Eye had met its match and found the one force in the universe that was more powerful than it was, or Granny was drawing power from the stone without actually being in possession of it. She was in total control of the situation, even while Mimi desperately clutched the brooch. I supposed it helped that Granny knew exactly what she was dealing with and maybe even knew how to channel its power, while Mimi had no idea what was going on other than that touching the brooch made her feel stronger.
I moved so that I could catch Granny’s eye over Mimi’s shoulder. If Granny was channeling the Eye, then maybe she could get Mimi to obey her. When I was sure Granny was looking at me, I mimed taking something out of my pocket and handing it over. Granny didn’t acknowledge me, but she stared Mimi down again and said, “Why don’t you show me that pretty thing you’ve got? Maybe we could work the design into the cake. That would be nice, wouldn’t it?” Her voice had softened, taking on the tone of someone trying to get a toddler to hand over her candy, but it still had an edge of command to it, very much like the tone Mimi got when she touched the brooch.
Mimi’s hand slowly moved out of her pocket. I couldn’t see from my angle, but it looked like she was taking the brooch out. She held her palm out to Granny, and Granny leaned over to look at it. “Ah, very nice, isn’t it?” she said sweetly. Then her voice hardened and she added, “Give it to me!”
The puritan minion jumped forward to intercept, but he wasn’t fast enough. Mimi’s arm moved as though she was really going to do it, but then she jerked back, clutching the brooch against her chest and crying, “No! It’s mine!” Her minion breathed an obvious sigh of relief. Mimi shoved the brooch back into her pocket and kept her hand in there. It had come so close to working, but now I didn’t stand a chance of getting it away from her anytime soon. She’d be extra-clingy.
I headed over to where Owen had watched the whole incident while spreading cloths over tables. “That was …interesting,” he said.
“I think Granny was using the Eye,” I said, running my hand across the tablecloth to smooth out a wrinkle. “Is that possible?”
“Maybe. There had to be a way of overpowering the owner and taking it over, or it wouldn’t have stirred up so much strife. The owner could have just commanded everyone to back off. A powerful person who knows what she’s doing might be able to use it from nearby without actually touching it or possessing it.”
“Then maybe we could just keep Granny close to Mimi, and she can counteract or minimize the damage until we can find a way to make the switch. She already stopped Mimi from abusing the cake decorators.”
“That may work for a while, but it won’t be enough later in the evening.”
“Why not?”
“When this event starts, this room will be filled with billionaire and millionaire philanthropists, celebrities, and politicians. Now, think about those kind of people surrounding the Eye.”
“That’s when the real trouble will start,” I said, nodding as I imagined the likely scenario. “That’s probably what these magical puritans have planned—a big scuffle breaking out that they can resolve.”
“Or worse, one of those people with real power getting the brooch away from Mimi. Imagine what might happen if a senator got that thing and took it to Washington. That’s when the real trouble would start that they could step in and save us all from by plunging us back into the Dark Ages.”
“Yikes,” I said, shuddering. “Okay, then, we’ve got to get the brooch and get it out of the museum before the event starts.” I turned to watch Mimi fleeing from Granny to go micromanage something else, trailed by her minions. “Maybe we should use one of our darts on the puritan minion, get him out of the way, and then we can go for the brooch.”
“Okay, let’s do it that way. Give me a dart and I’ll deal with the minion.”
I took the case out of my purse, handed him a dart, and said, “I’ll distract him.”
I picked up a flower arrangement and headed past Mimi and her minions. When I thought I was in the perfect position to distract all of them, I pretended to trip, dropping the arrangement so the vase shattered on the floor, the water splashed everyone nearby, and flowers flew in all directions.
That triggered a patented Evil Mimi hissy fit outburst. “I do not believe the incompetence I’ve seen here today!” she shouted. “This is a world-class institution. I am trying to put on a world-class event. And yet you people can’t do anything right. You can’t get the linens right, you can’t get the flowers right, you can’t get the cake right, you can’t even walk across the room without dropping something. I’m terrified of what the food is going to be like. You, stop that!” she shouted at me as I bent to pick up the fallen flowers. “Don’t do another thing. Don’t touch anything else. I want you out of here, right away. This instant! Do you hear me?”
She seemed to expect me to fall down and grovel or else scurry away in fear, but instead, I stood up and faced her, stepping toward her in a way that showed I wasn’t the least bit intimidated by her. I might not have been able to channel the power of the Eye the way Granny did, but I wasn’t influenced by it, either, and I had taken my last verbal abuse from Mimi almost a year ago. She had no power over me anymore, and it felt really good to know that.
She stared at me. I figured she was baffled by the idea of a catering staff member not being cowed by her. But I didn’t expect what she said next.
She frowned as if in disbelief, then said, “Katie Chandler? What are you doing here?”
Chapter Twelve
It was my turn to be stunned speechless. Mimi wasn’t supposed to be able to recognize me. I was magically disguised! I glanced over at Rod and saw that he was on the phone. Behind Mimi, Owen was also on the phone, so I assumed they were conferring about this very situation. Either Rod’s illusion on me had slipped, or the brooch made Mimi immune to magic and not just magical attack.
“Well? Explain yourself!” Mimi snapped.
I turned back to her as if just then remembering she was there—which was halfway true—gave my best mysterious Mona Lisa smile, and said, “That would be my business.”