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When Owen still hadn’t commented even after we reached his office and closed the door behind us, I said, “That went well.”

“As well as can be expected,” he said with a solemn nod.Advertisement

“What’s wrong?”

“Wrong?”

“You don’t seem happy.”

“We’re prisoners with no obvious means of escape and I’ve just let the magical authorities know that my powers have been back for a while without me telling them. The best-case scenario isn’t exactly rosy.”

To distract him from his bad mood, I said, “Since it worked to break the spell, I’m going to assume what you said to Mac was true. But did you really have to have a dog to protect you on the way to and from school?”

“The dog wasn’t to protect me.”

“He wasn’t?”

He blushed slightly, a hint that my tactic was working. “The first time the bigger kids got to me, I panicked and lashed out with my powers. I had very little control over them then and didn’t even do it consciously. There was no serious harm done—at least, nothing that didn’t wear off after a while—but the bullies were in danger until I learned to use my powers. James and Gloria figured that if I had a big dog at my side I wouldn’t be frightened, and everyone would be safe.”

“Did it work?”

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“After a few dog bites. The bullies were kind of slow to learn.”

I hated to bring up business again after relaxing him, but we needed a plan. “What next?”

He frowned, thinking, for a moment, then said, “Act as normal as possible. And we should probably avoid talking to anyone else we know is a prisoner for the rest of the day.”

“Do you know how hard it is to act normal? Just the fact that you’re acting keeps it from being normal, by definition. Nothing about this situation is normal.”

He took my hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “Of course it isn’t. Maybe a better way to phrase it is ‘unchanged.’ What would be normal in this scenario?”

“Well, we’ve just fallen in love and found each other, and we’re in romantic comedy world.” I tried to remember every sappy movie I’d ever watched with Nita. “I think we’re due for a montage where we walk around the city, generally acting like we’re in a perfume commercial—stuff like holding hands, acting like you’re oblivious to the rest of the world, or else seeing the world in a new way now that you’re in love. Doing spontaneous things like buying flowers or getting a street musician to play our song.” I felt my face growing warmer as I listed all the things that I’d imagined in those moments that had probably led to me getting stuck in this scenario to begin with. “Talking, laughing, splashing each other in fountains, pausing to kiss in picturesque places.”

“That would be the perfect cover for exploring the dimensions of our prison. Good idea, Katie. You may have to cue me, though.”

“Oh, come on, you can’t be that hopeless,” I teased. He sure knew how to burst a girl’s romantic bubble.

“I’m not that spontaneous.”

“Remember, we’re acting normal, not being normal. And speaking of normal, since we haven’t hired someone to replace me in the coffee shop, I’d better get up there. Florence is really grilling me about you, by the way. I think she’s working for them.”

“Then this is your chance to convince her. But before you go …” He slid a notepad and pen across his desk. “Write down a memory powerful enough to jolt you out of the spell, just in case.”

I scribbled a few lines about growing up in Texas, since that was something that hadn’t come up in this scenario at all, and put it in my skirt pocket. “See you after work,” I said as I left the office.

The gray-suited elf was in the store, lurking among the shelves. I fought to keep my eyes from focusing on him as I passed him on my way to the stairs, then forced myself not to turn around when I heard footsteps behind me.

“Sorry that took so long,” I said to Florence when I reached the café. “We’ve got to hire someone new for the coffee shop so I don’t have to juggle this and the assistant manager thing. Owen’s already giving me the info dump.”

“I bet that’s not all he’s giving you,” she said.

“We just went to lunch and then had a meeting,” I protested, willing myself to blush and forcing myself not to look at the gray guy lurking in the background.

“A meeting, hmmm,” she said with a smile. “About what?” pqdm.com