Read Page 28

“You obviously haven’t met my parents.”

He laughed. “They can’t be that bad. All parents worry a little, and their worries are usually a lot worse than the reality could possibly be.”Advertisement

I turned to stare at him. “You mean they’re worrying about worse things than me being caught up in a magical war between good and evil, in a company that has an enemy spy in it?” Then I thought for a moment. “Come to think of it, from what I know about my mom, she is worried about worse.”

“And it’s not like she’s going to learn about the magical issues while she’s here.”

Before I could counter that, I noticed something in the sky, something larger than a pigeon and growing larger as it came closer to us. I grabbed Owen’s arm and shoved him out of the way before an ugly half woman/half bird dove at us out of the sky. The last time I’d seen one of those things, it had been digging its claws into Owen’s shoulder. The harpy swooped back up to the sky and began another dive.

“What is it?” Owen asked, his voice tense.

“Harpy, I think.”

He frowned for a second, then nodded. “Got it.” At that moment, the harpy seemed to hit an invisible brick wall in the sky, then fell to the sidewalk with a splat. A business-suited commuter casually stepped around the body, then continued on his way, as if dead mythical creatures on the sidewalk were something he encountered every morning. I wondered what he saw instead of seeing a harpy—a pile of trash, maybe? That wouldn’t be out of place on a New York sidewalk, but as far as I knew, trash didn’t fall from the sky or appear out of thin air. The ability of New Yorkers to focus on their own business and tune out everything else never ceased to amaze me.

I took a deep breath to steady myself. “Okay, that’s why I don’t want my parents in New York. How do you explain something like that—the street people are breeding with the pigeons?”

“Your parents likely wouldn’t see anything extraordinary.”

“So, what would they see when something dropped out of the sky and started ripping them to shreds? There’s no way for anyone to make that look normal.”

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He took my arm and steered me back into the flow of pedestrian traffic on the way to the subway station. “I doubt they’d come after your parents. This attack was probably aimed at me, and if I know Phelan Idris, he wants to shake me up more than he wants to hurt me. If I’m thinking about ways to protect the city against harpies, I’m not working on ways to counter his spells.”

“He nearly killed you with one of those things the last time,” I reminded him.

“It was only a flesh wound. But just in case, I’ll talk to Sam about getting a security detail for your parents.”

“I know you’re trying to help, and I appreciate it, but somehow the thought of a group of gargoyles following my parents around the city isn’t what I’d call reassuring.”

If the commute was unusual that morning, the office was even weirder. The moment we entered the building, I felt a changed atmosphere. Instead of friendly greetings from co-workers I passed on my way up to my office, there were cold stares. And it wasn’t just me. Nobody spoke to Owen, either, and I’d noticed previously that he was generally well respected. Nobody made eye contact with anyone else when they passed in the hall. It was like everyone saw everyone else as a possible traitor. I ducked out of the way when I passed Gregor in the hallway. He was bright green and yelling at someone who was yelling back at him about using the verifiers to his advantage.

Trix was already at her desk when I got to Merlin’s office suite. “Are you feeling better?” I asked.

“It’s amazing what a ton of chocolate and three back-to-back viewings of Thelma and Louise can do for your outlook on life,” she said grimly.

“That bad?”

“He filled up my voice mail with apologies.”

“Sounds like a positive sign.”

“Ari said to let him stew until Thursday, not go out with him this weekend, and then by Monday he’d be eating out of my hand.”

“Or you could patch things up now and be back in swing by this weekend,” I suggested. Ari’s way seemed a little harsh to me, unless he’d done something awful enough to deserve it.

She sighed. “That’s what I thought. Maybe I’ll do that and not tell Ari. I miss him too much already to drag it out another week.” She abruptly shifted gears. “I hear we had a little excitement yesterday.”

There had to be an e-mail list for company gossip, and apparently I wasn’t on it. “Yeah, a bit. R and D is in lockdown, with actual guards at the doors. The boss has turned my phone into a tip line, so you can guess what my day will be like. Speaking of which, I’m probably going to have to wade through about a thousand messages, so I’d better get to work.” pqdm.com