That took him aback. He clearly hadn’t thought this through. Come on, this was Manhattan, home of some of the highest rents in the nation. How could he expect me to just up and quit my job?
“Maybe you won’t have to quit,” he said when he’d recovered. “Maybe you’ll get fired when they find out about you.”
“Find out what?” I asked, projecting all the innocence I could muster. His mouth hung open. I had him, and he knew it. Anyone who reported my lack of immunity would be revealing that they knew about it, and at this point anyone who knew about it was probably responsible.
While he processed that, I took advantage of his distraction to slip out of his arms. He grabbed my arm before I could get away, and I stepped back toward him, letting my stiletto heel sink into his foot, right above his toes—and Mom said those shoes weren’t practical. As he hopped up and down on one foot, I broke away and ran for my friends.
Isabel was sitting alone on the sofa. “I guess Ari and Trix are dancing,” I said. I couldn’t spot them on the dance floor, then I remembered that I wouldn’t see their wings, which was how I usually found them in a crowd.
“I’m not sure Ari’s dancing, if you know what I mean. Trix went to get another drink.”
“If you’re ready to head out, I’d go with you,” I said. “I don’t think I can take much more of this.” The truth was, I was totally wigged out and felt like I needed a shower to wash Idris’s touch off me. I supposed I was lucky that he’d been too arrogant not to make sure I knew what he was doing. The thought of what might have happened if he hadn’t said anything was too horrific to even consider. I fought off a shudder. I started to tell Isabel what happened, then realized I’d have to admit that I’d fallen for Idris’s scheme. In my normal state, I wouldn’t have let him get within ten feet of me on the dance floor, let alone get close enough to me to freak me out that much.
I must have looked bad enough not to have to explain, for Isabel said, “When Trix comes back we can tell her, and she can tell Ari. I don’t have the stamina to keep up with this pace.”
“Neither do I.”
“But you were very popular tonight. You must have been having a good time.”
Since the other two were gone, I felt like I could get a more honest answer, so I asked once more, “You really didn’t set this up? I’m not going to see a bunch of men pocketing five-dollar bills as I leave, am I?”
She shook her head. “As far as I can tell, you’re doing it honestly. You’re a lot cuter than you give yourself credit for.”
I looked around the room at all the glamorous model types and exotic-looking girls showing great expanses of skin, then considered myself. There was no comparison. “Okay, I may be cute, but cute doesn’t seem to be what cuts it in a place like this.”
“Or maybe it does. You were cutting it very well. You’re different, and they might find that refreshing.”
I was still pondering that possibility when Trix returned with a pink drink like the one Rick had bought me. “I think I’m going to head out now and make sure Katie gets home okay,” Isabel told her.
“You’re leaving already? But Katie, I thought you were having a good time. You had all those men after you.”
“I was having a good time,” I said, “but my feet are killing me, and I think the whole evening has suddenly caught up with me.” Not to mention my enemy—who had apparently tampered with my magical immunity and who thought I somehow figured into whatever his grand scheme was.
I kept my adventures to myself all weekend, spending more time pondering my unlikely appeal and Idris’s behavior than I did the possible reasons behind that strange attack earlier Friday evening. As a result, it took me a second or two to respond when Owen greeted me Monday morning with a worried, “Are you okay?”
“Huh? Oh yeah, yeah, I’m fine. I guess Sam must have told you. I’m not sure it was anything serious. They gave up pretty quickly.”
“You must be close to something to get them to respond like that.”
I thought about telling him about my immunity being gone. If I was going to be attacked on the streets by people I couldn’t see, that was probably something the people watching me needed to know. Come to think of it, it was strange that nobody had figured it out yet. Magical people often talked about how ordinary people missed so much of what was going on all around them because they saw what they expected to see, but this experience proved that magical people were just as bad. I hadn’t even had to lie all that much, and they still assumed I was seeing through illusions because that was what they expected of me.
