Kiss and Spell
“That does appear to be the best solution,” Merlin said. “Thank you for your assistance.”
Brad shot me a smile. “Actually, it was Katie who saved us all. She was our resistance leader.”
Merlin turned to me and raised an eyebrow. “You neglected to mention that in your report.”
“I skipped the trivial details,” I said with a shrug.
“Now that her immunity’s back, maybe she should talk to Sam,” Owen suggested. “He could probably use her in Security. She has a knack for covert operations.”
“Is that something that interests you, Miss Chandler?” Merlin asked.
“Yeah, I think it does,” I said. “Just as long as I don’t have to make coffee anymore.” Merlin looked completely blank, since that was another of the trivial details I’d omitted, but Owen and I laughed.
We returned downstairs, where the elves who wanted to return to their realm were already going through the portal. Two of them took Sylvester through between them, using something that looked like the elvish version of the wizards’ silver chains as restraints. Every so often, a few people came through from the other side, blinking and looking a little confused.
When I went back to the stereo to retrieve Jake’s iPod, I was surprised to find my purse and Owen’s coat in a pile under the stereo table. It looked like they’d just tossed their captives’ personal effects aside. That meant I still had my apartment keys, ID, and credit cards and he had his wallet and phone. We’d gone through all that and hadn’t lost anything but a week.
But I wasn’t quite ready to return to normal reality yet. I’d spent the entire time I was a prisoner wanting to get home, and now I found myself thinking a little longingly of the world I’d left. Well, mostly my apartment. I’d gotten used to having that lovely brownstone apartment all to myself. Going back to sharing a two-bedroom in an old tenement building with three other people was going to be a real adjustment.
While the others were still wrapping things up, I went back up the stairs to the roof for perhaps the last bit of peace and quiet I’d probably have for a long time. But when I reached the roof door, I found that it had started raining.
“What was that about dancing on a rooftop in the rain?” Owen’s voice said from behind me.
“It’s a romantic movie cliché,” I replied.
“Still, don’t you think we should give it a try? We hit all the other clichés. Why not that one? They’re even playing our song.”
I listened for a moment before I realized that what I was hearing was a hundred elves singing a Bee Gees song. “Okay, in that case, we have to try dancing,” I said, turning to face him. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
He took my hand and led me onto the roof. It was only a light rain, just enough to make my skin tingle where it touched, which felt a lot like magic surrounding me. Owen took me into his arms, making my skin tingle in a totally different way, and we moved to the unearthly sound of the elven chorus singing “How Deep Is Your Love.”
“Well, that was interesting,” I said after a while.
“Dancing on the rooftop in the rain?”
“No, though I am starting to see the appeal. But I meant everything that’s just happened to us.”
“Then ‘interesting’ is the understatement of the century.”
“I don’t even know what to make of it. It’s almost like a dream. Now that we’re back in the real New York, it doesn’t seem like it was real, and yet it’s more real to me right now than my real life.”
“Do you know what I find most amazing about that whole experience?”
“What?”
“That even when they made us forget not only each other but who we really were, we still somehow found each other and knew we belonged together. It happened all over again when we weren’t even ourselves, and I’m pretty sure that wasn’t their plan.”
“Florence did help nudge things along.”
“But did she really make that much difference? She mostly planted doubts about the other guy.”
“So I suppose that means we really do belong together,” I said, feeling my heart fluttering a little as I rested my head on his shoulder.
“It does seem rather inevitable, doesn’t it?”