Once Upon Stilettos
Page 113

“That’s how they were drugging me.”
“You knew about that?”
“I did a little research, not that it did me much good. All I know is that there’s a list of chemicals that supposedly dampen immunity. But I didn’t know what they were or how I might have been affected.”
He nodded. “You’re right. The more recent versions of antipsychotic and anti-depressant medications have a dampening effect on magical immunity. That’s why it’s so hard to find immunes these days. Someone says they’re seeing things, they’re given drugs, and then they’re no longer seeing things.”
“So you think someone put Prozac in the water supply, and presto, I’m no longer immune?” He nodded. “Come to think of it, my grouchy downstairs neighbor has been surprisingly nice lately. And Gemma and Marcia have been in a running fight about whose turn it is to buy bottled water, so I’ve been staying out of it by drinking out of the tap.” I felt like someone had given me a jolt of Prozac with the weight that lifted from my shoulders.
“I’ll have the water tested, and in the meantime, don’t even brush your teeth with tap water at home, and then be very careful about who you accept food or drinks from, including at work.” He winced. “That probably means you’d better not eat anything your secret Santa leaves you, not until you know more.”
“That sounds ominous.”
“I don’t mean to scare you, but I do want you taking precautions.” He put his fork down and shoved his plate aside. “I have to confess that I haven’t been entirely honest with you, either.”
“Well, aren’t we a secretive bunch,” I said, even as I hoped his secret was that he would have wanted to kiss me even without a spell. “What have you been hiding from me?”
“You know those notes the spy apparently looked at?”
“Yet another counterspell to fight the enemy?”
He grinned and shook his head. “The secret is that there isn’t any big project. It was a trap to see if Idris did have an inside spy. We made it as tempting as possible, too tempting for him to resist. If he had someone on the inside, he’d get them to look into it.”
“So those papers that were in your desk, they were fake?”
“Oh, they were real, but they had nothing to do with anything, just an old spell that’s all but irrelevant today.”
“You really are the master spy, aren’t you?”
I expected him to blush, but he looked somber instead. “I had no idea you’d end up caught in our scheme. I don’t know if they came after you because you were onto something, or because they thought you were a good way of getting to me.”
“It may be even more personal than that,” I said, deciding that now was a good time to go whole hog and let him in on everything I knew or suspected.
“What do you mean?”
“I think I know who our spy is. I have no evidence, nothing more than a string of suspicious coincidences and a hunch or two, but the coincidences are adding up.”
“Who is it?”
“Ari.” I was surprised by how much it pained me to say it. “She’s in the same department with you, so she has access, and she’s been around every time something happened. She was the one who spread the rumor about the spy in the first place, back when you, Merlin, and I—and, of course, the spy—were the only ones who knew about it. She was even in Bloomingdale’s that first time my roommate and I saw the shoes.”
He chewed on his lower lip and frowned, like he was processing the information before reacting. The fact that he didn’t immediately deny it seemed a good sign to me that I might be onto something. Eventually, he nodded and said, “I could see that. She and Phelan were fairly close when he worked at MSI. But I’m not sure why she’d be willing to turn on us.”
This was where things became potentially uncomfortable. “It may be personal,” I said, avoiding his eyes. “I don’t know if you were even aware of it, but from what I’ve heard, she was pretty interested in you for a while and went to a great deal of effort to get you to notice her. She even confessed to throwing herself at you.”
“She did? When?”
“You didn’t even notice? Honestly, Owen, no wonder she’s pissed off. That’s a huge blow to the ego. In most people, it wouldn’t inspire treachery and bad magic, but I think anyone would be irked.” I took a deep breath and forced myself to continue. “She also seems to be jealous of me because you spend so much time with me, when you wouldn’t spend time with her.”