Damsel Under Stress (Enchanted, Inc. 3)

It then dawned on me that I was still wearing my coat and still had my purse over my shoulder from when I’d been heading home. In all that had happened after I got back to the office, I’d totally forgotten to take the coat off or put my purse away. If I had my purse, that meant I still had Ethelinda’s locket.

I unzipped my purse and found the heart-shaped locket inside the coin pocket. I pulled it out and held it up to Merlin. “Will this help? She gave this to me as a way of summoning her. I’ve only used it to read her the riot act.”

His face brightened. “It should help immensely. Thank you.”

While he did something with the locket, I shrugged out of my coat. Owen took it from me and hung it on the coatrack in the corner of the office. He’d just returned to my side when there was a loud crack in the air, followed by something hitting the nearby sofa with a thud and a cloud of silver sparkles.

The sparkles cleared, revealing a pair of bloomer-clad legs sticking out of a mass of fabric. The feet at the end of those legs wore pink terrycloth house slippers. The mound of fabric stirred, and then the legs lowered to the ground while a head and torso emerged. It was Ethelinda, of course, dressed in what looked like a high-necked Victorian nightgown over all the other clothes. She had pink sponge curlers in her hair and thick, white cream all over her face.

She started to act indignant, but then she saw who stood in front of her and fell to her knees at Merlin’s feet. “You summoned me, my lord?” she said, bending to touch her head to the ground.

“Yes, as a matter of fact, I did,” he replied, ignoring her bowing and scraping. “You seem to have been bothering one of my people.”

“Helping!” she insisted, tilting her head up slightly but still on her knees. “Not bothering. I never bother people. I only help them.”

“Perhaps, then, you can explain the latest trauma to strike Miss Chandler. Do you understand how a magical immune is suddenly able to do magic? And don’t deny that you’ve done something to her. I detected the traces of your spell.”

She rose awkwardly to her feet, beaming with pride. “That’s one of the most clever things I’ve ever done, if I do say so myself. Of course, she’s not doing the magic herself, but while her immunity was gone, I was able to plant someone who could do magic within her.”

I couldn’t help but shudder. “Ewww! And why?”

“So you’d understand magic, silly. You weren’t willing to listen when I told you that someone like you isn’t compatible with a wizard, so I thought if you discovered what it was like to have power, you’d understand.”

“That makes no sense whatsoever,” Owen said.

Merlin cleared his throat. “At this point, the question at hand is not why this was done, but how, and who else was involved?”

Ethelinda tittered and batted her eyes at Merlin. “Of course, I can’t take full credit.” She turned to me. “Your friend had the initial idea, and she volunteered to help.”

Considering what Owen and Merlin had already noted about my “magic,” I knew exactly who that “friend” was. “Friend?” I asked, trying to keep from screeching.

“The friend you were trying to catch up with in the train station. I saw her at the party when we were both watching you. When I discussed your romance problems with her, she volunteered to help. It was very brave of her. Not many fairies like being shrunk to that size.”

If it hadn’t been for Owen’s firm hand on my shoulder, I would have come out of my chair. “You mean I’ve got a fairy inside my skull? And you thought Ari was my friend and was volunteering out of the goodness of her heart? Are you insane?”

Owen’s grip tightened on my shoulder, and I couldn’t tell if that was because he was trying to restrain me or if it was because he’d become very tense. “You have to undo the spell,” he said with the kind of icy calm in his voice that meant he was absolutely furious.

She shrugged and flounced down onto the sofa. “I can’t.”

“You can’t?” This time, I did shriek. “You mean, this is irreversible?”

“I can’t do magic on an immune. It won’t work.” She waved her wand at us teasingly. “Surely all of you are well aware of that. I didn’t realize her immunity would return again so soon before I could undo it.” She pointed her wand at Owen. “If you weren’t so eager to get her away from the party, I would have had a chance to undo it before it was too late.”

I couldn’t help but whimper. Owen rubbed my shoulder gently, which made me feel a lot better. I had to bite my lip to keep from blurting out an Ari-like comment about how much better it made me feel. And then my sluggish brain caught up. “We know how to take care of the immunity issue,” I said. “Could you get Ari out of my brain if we did that?”

Ethelinda blinked. “Oh. I suppose I could.”

I sighed in a mixture of relief and resignation. I’d just barely regained my immunity, and now I had to give it up again. In this case, though, I was more than willing. Magic powers would be cool to have, but not at the price of having a psycho evil bitch fairy stuck in my head. As that thought crossed my mind, I was struck with another stabbing pain. That made me realize something. “While she’s in my head, it’s very possible that she can read my thoughts,” I told the others.

Merlin turned his attention from Ethelinda to me. “Why do you think that?”

“Just now, I thought something about Ari that was, well, not very nice, and it felt like someone kicked me in the head right away. And one of my roommates told me the mean things I said to her at the party were things only I knew. There’s no way Ari could have known, and I’m thinking that since I don’t remember that time at all, she must have been totally in control then. She’s possibly picking up on anything I think, which means she might also be getting anything anyone else says around me. We’ve got a spy all over again.”

“That’s easy enough to solve,” Merlin said, walking over to the kitchenette area of his office. He took out a glass, then opened the cabinets, fiddled with a few jars, mixed something up in the glass, then brought it back to me. “Drink this. It’s a sedative specific to fairies. As it doesn’t rely on magic to work, it should still be effective, even with the current circumstances. You may notice some minor effects, but I’m afraid they can’t be helped.” I took the glass and downed it in one swallow, even though it tasted pretty nasty. Anything to get Ari out of my head.

Merlin then returned his attention to Ethelinda. “It will take a couple of days to remove Miss Chandler’s immunity once more, and then we will have to call upon you to undo the spell. You will cooperate.” He said it in a way that emphasized that he was Merlin, the greatest wizard who ever lived.

“Why, yes, of course!” she said. “Anytime you need me!” He waved a hand, and she vanished instantly.