A Kind of Magic by Shanna Swendson

Author:Shanna Swendson [Swendson, Shanna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC009010 FICTION / Fantasy / Contemporary; FIC044000 FICTION / Contemporary Women; FIC010000 FICTION / Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology
Publisher: NLA Digital LLC
Published: 2015-09-15T04:00:00+00:00

Twenty-five

Lincoln Center

Wednesday, 6:45 p.m.

“I can’t believe you’re dragging me to the ballet,” Mari grumbled as she and Michael waited in the lobby for the theater doors to open.

“I told you, it’s Emily’s sister and Emily can’t be here, but she wanted there to be some familiar faces in the audience, so she gave me her tickets.”

“Yeah, but why do I have to be here?”

He grinned at her. “So I can tell everyone at the precinct that I went because you wanted to go.”

“Yeah, like anyone would believe that.”

He saw Amelia and Athena on the other side of the lobby and felt bad for hoping they didn’t approach. He didn’t think he could begin to explain his relationship with them to Mari. It wasn’t exactly common for a man to maintain a friendship with people who ran a shop his late wife used to patronize years earlier or for him to socialize with his downstairs neighbor’s former employers. No matter how he described it, it was bound to set off a whole new round of “nice to old ladies” jokes. His desk would soon be covered in fake merit badges for helping old ladies cross the street and carrying their groceries. The angel thing was bad enough; he didn’t want to get anything else started.

Besides, it was probably best to make all this look somewhat natural. If they were conferencing before the performance, it might be obvious that they were here for some reason other than supporting Sophie. Athena caught his eye and gave him a wink, but he sighed in relief when she didn’t approach.

He turned his back slightly, just to make sure she got the message, and found himself staring across the room at Josephine, who’d made a grand entrance, fur coat and all.

“Whoa, check out Cruella de Vil over there,” Mari said. It was hard to miss Josephine, and he suspected she intended it that way. Now he really, really hoped she didn’t approach. He couldn’t begin to imagine what would happen if Mari found out someone like Josephine knew him, and he didn’t have any desire to start collecting Dalmatian knickknacks.

“Yeah, the preview is mostly for patrons of the arts, so the place will be full of society ladies,” he said. He noticed that there were a few elegant women in Josephine’s wake. Other enchantresses? That was a very good sign that this was going to be her chosen moment for outing Sophie as a fairy, just as Emily had suspected. He had some bits of anti-fae protection on him, but he wasn’t sure he could do anything to protect Sophie from enchantresses. Amelia and Athena couldn’t risk going against Josephine in public. What really concerned him was the possibility that this could ruin Sophie’s dance career. He’d heard how she sounded when talking about it, and he knew that meant more to her than being an enchantress.

They opened the doors to begin seating, and Michael lost sight of Josephine and her entourage as he and Mari entered the theater.

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