No Quest for the Wicked

by Shanna Swendson

  I was surprised by how long Mimi was able to keep running, even in a tight dress and high heels. Then again, she never missed a spin class, so she probably had enviable stamina. I was running out of steam, and Owen, with his bad leg, trailed behind me. Only Sam kept an easy pace, staying just above her. Come to think of it, that probably had as much to do with her stamina as her time in the gym. If I didn’t know Sam, a gargoyle chasing me would give me plenty of incentive to run until I keeled over.

  Fortunately, this part of town was relatively quiet at this time of night. It was mostly residential, with doctors’ offices on the ground floors of the swanky apartment buildings. The street was nearly deserted. If the people in the apartments above were affected by the proximity of the Eye and driven to come after it, then we’d be long past by the time they made it down in the elevator. Luckily, Mimi was too focused on running to remember to scream for help.

  She slowed as we neared Madison Avenue. The window of a designer boutique distracted her. If the shop had been open, I was sure she’d have gone in and demanded that they give her everything she wanted. As it was, her eyes grew wide and she practically drooled with her face pressed against the glass like a kid perusing the thirty-one flavors in an ice cream parlor.

  I was immensely grateful for the opportunity to stop and catch my breath. Being the chaser instead of the chased wasn’t any easier. It still had the same effect on my heart, lungs, and muscles. Sam perched in a nearby tree and Owen and I hung back while Mimi window-shopped. She seemed to have forgotten we were there.

  The respite gave our pursuers time to catch up, though. The sound of running footsteps approached, and Owen and I ducked into the shadow of a spindly sidewalk tree. A moment later, I saw that it was Rod and Granny, but without the puritans.

  Owen gestured for Sam to keep an eye on Mimi, then we stepped out of the shadows to meet Rod and Granny. “What happened with the others?” Owen whispered.

  “They’re confused, wandering around like they’re looking for something,” Rod said.

  “What about the museum party people? Did you see them?”

  “They were milling aimlessly. It may take them a while to get a fix, since they don’t know what they’re looking for.” Then he frowned and stared at me. “You don’t have the brooch anymore. What happened?”

  I gestured over my shoulder at Mimi. “She got it back.”

  “Damn! I guess there’s not much we can do to help.”

  “I might be able to talk her out of it this time,” Granny said.

  “No, don’t!” Owen hurried to say. “We’re keeping an eye on her, but it’s probably better for now if she has it.”

  “We’re using her as a brooch mule,” I explained. “Since it works on her, nobody but us can take it from her, and that means they’re not attacking us. Which, believe me, is a really nice change of pace.”

  “We’ll get it back when it’s time,” Owen said. “We just have to keep her away from anything that would stir up problems.”

  Rod nodded. “I see. That’s actually pretty clever.”

  “I wish I could say we planned it,” I said, “but we’re making the best of a bad situation.”

  “Hey, gang!” Sam called out softly, “She’s on the move.” He stayed hidden in the trees to avoid panicking her again.

  Mimi, tiring of the sights in that window, moved on to another one. We followed from a safe distance, like wildlife experts on a nature show, tracking a skittish animal through its native habitat.

  Just then, Mimi shrieked, even though Sam was nowhere in sight. She’d come to the intersection with Madison Avenue and had run smack into the ragged remnants of the group of puritans that had attacked us in the park. Her ex-minion was front and center, with the mad professor standing beside him. They must have circled around on the adjacent street to cut us off.

  With Mimi wearing both brooches, we couldn’t throw them off the trail by staying nearby and pretending to have it. For the first time in my life, I hoped that Mimi retained her essential Mimi-ness and could keep these guys at bay.

  “I fired you legitimately!” Mimi said to her ex-minion. “That’s no reason for you to go get your cronies and stalk me. You’ll get paid for the hours you worked, but I’m not giving you your job back.”

  “It’s not a job I want,” he said. “I want that brooch.”

  She put her hands on her hips. “You’ve got some nerve! What is this, a holdup?”

  He gambled on the possibility that she didn’t know that the brooch made her invulnerable and pulled a gun on her—apparently our gargoyles hadn’t disarmed all of them. “As a matter of fact, it is,” the ex-minion said. “Now, hand over the brooch and I won’t shoot.”

  I held my breath, wondering what we should do. Should we intervene? The last thing we needed was the puritans getting the brooch. Next to them, Mimi was little more than a controlling bitch.

  But the Eye’s hold on Mimi was too strong. She put her hand up to the brooch, cupping it protectively, and shook her head as she backed away. “No. It’s mine. You can’t have it. You can’t take it from me.” Her voice grew shriller as she shouted.

  “Are you willing to die for it?” the ex-minion asked, curling his lip menacingly.

  She held her head high and looked down her nose at him as she said, “Go ahead and try.”

  He made the mistake of firing, in spite of what he knew about the brooch’s properties. Everything after that seemed to happen in slow motion. Mimi screamed at the sound of the gunshot and ducked, but the bullet was too fast for that to do any good. It flew straight at her, but less than an inch away from her it deflected as though it had hit a bulletproof barrier. The ricochet hit one of the puritans, which I felt was just desserts.

  Mimi stood openmouthed, still clutching her brooch, as the wounded puritan fell and some of his comrades went to his aid. “I’m bulletproof!” she said in awe. “I knew this brooch made me powerful. It saved my life.” To her ex-minion, she snarled, “Now try to take it from me. You can’t hurt me.”

  She had him there, and I could see from the look on his face that he knew it. I didn’t know if they’d planned for her to end up with it, but if they had, they’d picked entirely the wrong woman. She was too strong to let it go to anyone who could really use the power, but she was too petty to do much with the power other than boss people around. About the only difference the brooch made for Mimi was making her bulletproof.

  It was now late at night, and we were in a part of town not known for its nightlife, but we were also on a major street in a part of town not normally known for gunfire. Since there had been a gunshot, a crowd was forming. Most people just craned their necks to see what was going on, but I recognized a certain look in the eyes of some of them and elbowed Owen. “We need to get her away from here.”

  We didn’t get a chance to act before someone made a lunge for the brooch. Mimi knocked the man aside, then faced the crowd. “Don’t get any ideas! Now, get out of my way. I’ve had a long day, and I’m going home.”

  Most of them—even some of the puritans—did get out of her way. She strode through the path they cleared, but then as soon as she had passed them, they fell into formation behind her as she headed down Madison Avenue. Some of them wore evening attire, but I couldn’t tell if they were part of the museum mob.

  “Oh, this is not good,” I muttered. If we took the brooch while she was surrounded by people, we’d then be back where we started, with all of them trying to get it from us. We needed to get Mimi alone.

  “Rod, could you pull the time trick again?” Owen asked.

  “Maybe, but not for long, and after that I’d be totally wiped.”

  “Okay, wait for my signal. We need to get to a place where we can get away with Mimi. Sam, some veiling after that would be nice. And let’s hope that the brooch’s magical immunity works the same way it does for us. It won’t help if she’s frozen, too.”

  Owen and I worked our way through the crowd to flank Mimi. The
puritans had lost all interest in us now that we no longer had the brooch, but I wasn’t sure how long that would last after they realized we had Mimi.

  Once Mimi was between us, Owen signaled Rod and then everything went still. We grabbed a protesting Mimi by the arms and ran into the street, weaving our way between frozen cars. The spell wore off just before we reached the other side. We put Mimi between us and the oncoming traffic, hoping that she’d work as a human shield since the cars couldn’t hit her. Brakes and tires squealed, and there were some close calls, but Mimi didn’t seem any the worse for wear. Once across the avenue, we ducked back onto the side street and ran, dragging Mimi along with us.

  “Katie, what are you doing?” Mimi asked once she calmed down enough to recognize me.

  “Rescuing you,” I replied. “Those people back there were bad news.”

  “But they couldn’t hurt me. Didn’t you see that I’m bulletproof?”

  “They wanted to take your brooch,” I reminded her.

  “But they can’t! They can’t do anything to me. All I wanted was to go home, and I’d be safe there. I didn’t need your help.”

  “Yeah, but do you really want an army of stalkers finding out where you live?”

  That thought alarmed her, and her eyes bulged with horror. “Oh! No, I wouldn’t want that. But I do have a good doorman. He wouldn’t let them in the building.”

  “I don’t think he’s bulletproof, and neither is your fiancé.”

  “Probably not,” she admitted.

  Mimi was capable of being meek for only so long, especially when she was being magically influenced. Before we made it to Park Avenue, she tried to pull away from us. “I don’t need you anymore,” she said, jerking her arms out of our hands. “I’m invincible. You’re just trying to get my brooch back, anyway, and let’s face it, Katie, it doesn’t suit you.”

  “Yeah, you’re probably right,” I said. “It’s way too tacky for me.” I reached to grab her again.

  But she was already rushing for the curb to flag down a cab, so she didn’t hear my insult. A cab cut all the way over from the far lane when she beckoned, with much honking of horns and at least one fender bender along the way. Owen and I barely reached her before she got in the cab. She could compel the cabbie to take her away from us, and then we’d lose the brooch. “You don’t want to do that,” I said.

  “Why not?”

  “Did you see the way this guy drove? You’d be putting your life on the line if you got in his cab.”

  “But I’m invincible!”

  “To bullets, maybe, but do you want to risk being disfigured in a car accident?”

  I’d hit the right button, and she stepped back from the cab, letting it go. We still had the accidents to deal with, and the drivers came out of their cars to argue over fault. One of them got that now-familiar gleam in his eye and left his car in the middle of the street to come toward Mimi.

  “What do you want?” she demanded, standing her ground. “That wreck wasn’t my fault. I can’t help it if the cab driver was an idiot. I was hailing a closer cab.”

  Meanwhile, the driver of the closer cab was also heading over to yell at the man approaching Mimi. “You’ll pay for this!” he shouted. “You cut in front of me.”

  The other man turned to argue, and when Mimi shouted, “Stop it and get away from me,” the cabbie immediately left while the other man returned his attention to Mimi. The look in his eyes was truly frightening, and I didn’t blame her for giving a startled squeak, turning, and then running away.

  Not that I was happy about having to run again, but I gathered my resources and forced myself to take off. Owen looked even less enthused. I imagined his leg was killing him by now. He lagged behind as I chased Mimi.

  At the next intersection, I ran into Rod and Granny, who’d caught up with us. “After her!” I panted, relieved to hand the baton over to someone else and catch my breath.

  Sam glided down to give her a good scare and send her down a side street where there was less traffic, and therefore fewer opportunities for her to cause more mayhem. Unfortunately, that meant she ran a block, then darted straight into traffic crossing Park Avenue. The cars all barely missed her, thanks to the Knot’s protection. Granny raised her cane and brought traffic to a halt so she and Rod could follow. I couldn’t tell if she’d used magic or played the little old lady card. Then again, this was New York. She had to be using magic to stop traffic.

  Owen and I had no such magical advantage. The best we could do was follow in their wake and hope that Granny’s spell didn’t wear off before we got across the street. It did. We barely reached the median, then had to wait for the signal to change before it was safe to make it the rest of the way across the avenue.

  “This isn’t close to where she lives, is it?” I asked Owen.

  “I think it’s a few blocks down from here,” he replied.

  “Then she’s not heading home.” As soon as the light changed, we ran across the other side of the avenue and down the side street. I barely caught a glimpse of Mimi, Rod, and Granny rounding a corner and forced myself to put on a burst of speed to give chase.

  It was as though the brooch also gave Mimi superstrength and endurance in addition to power and invulnerability, because I didn’t think there was any other way she could keep up this kind of pace while running in three-inch heels, no matter how many spin classes she took.

  When we reached Rod and Granny, I started to thank them for giving us a chance to take a break, but my thanks died on my tongue when Granny’s cane shot out and blocked me. “Oh no, dearie, it’s mine,” she said, and the raw hunger in her eyes made my stomach sink.

  Before I could say anything, Rod whirled on Granny. “Wait a second, grandma, it’s mine. It’s been my magic keeping her away from the others.”

  “Ha! Like you’d know what to do with that thing. I’d use it wisely. You’d just pick up chicks with it.”

  While they argued, Mimi was getting away. “Sam, stay on her!” Owen called out. He and I edged our way around the combatants and sprinted after Mimi. We’d lost our magic users, but they were of no use to us now. It was down to us, the nonmagical people who could remain sane around the brooch.

  Unfortunately, Mimi had a good head start. “Mimi?” I called out when I lost sight of her. “Are you okay?” I didn’t get an answer, so I shouted, “Sam, have you got her?” He didn’t answer, either.

  Owen caught up to me and said, “Where is she?”

  “I don’t know. I think Sam’s still with her.”

  We kept going, checking in doorways as we passed, in case she was hiding. There was no sign of her the whole block. Soon, we reached Lexington Avenue, which was busier. In all that traffic, she could easily have disappeared. She could have hailed another cab.

  “I think we’ve lost her,” I said.

  “Sam’s still with her. He’s hard to shake.”

  “Well, there’s no point in us running until we hear from him, right?” I said.

  “Very good point.” We stopped, both of us breathing heavily.

  “How’s the leg?”

  “I barely feel it anymore.”

  “Either you’re lying or that’s a very bad sign.”

  “I’ve got bigger things to worry about than pain.”

  A bench would have been nice, but I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to stand up again if I let myself sit down. Owen and I just leaned wearily on each other as we waited for word.

  Finally, Owen’s phone rang. I heard Sam’s voice on the other end when Owen answered. “Sorry, kids, but I think I lost her.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  I wanted to bang my head against the nearest brick wall. We’d gone through all that to get the brooch and keep it safe, and now we’d lost it again?

  “Keep looking, Sam,” Owen said into the phone. “She can’t have gone far. You know the signs to look for.” When he ended the call, he said with a weary sigh, “Okay, maybe letting her keep the brooch for a whi
le wasn’t the best plan.”

  “On the bright side, how long has it been since anyone’s attacked us?”

  “Good point.”

  We stood there for a moment, both of us swaying slightly as our bodies fought to force us to rest. “I suppose we ought to search, too,” I said after a while.

  We began walking, keeping our eyes open for signs of Mimi’s presence. There seemed to be a higher-than-normal number of fender benders, so either Mimi had hailed another cab or she’d crossed the street. In case it was the latter, we crossed over. We hadn’t gone far when we heard raised voices coming from a nearby coffee shop, where it looked like an altercation was in progress.

  Owen and I exchanged a glance. “Do you think …?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “It’s worth a shot.”

  We went inside and found Mimi holding court, surrounded by young people whose backpacks suggested they were students at the nearby university. She was berating a waitress for bringing the wrong kind of creamer for her coffee.

  “Jackpot!” I whispered. “Now what do we do?”

  “That box should be ready soon, so we might as well wait and watch. She can’t get out of here without going past us. Are you hungry?”

  “Starving,” I said, my stomach seconding the motion with a rumble. We’d done so much running and fighting, and the late lunch was hours away.

  We took the table nearest the door, and Owen ordered coffee and pie for both of us. The waitress gave us a funny look. I figured we didn’t look much grungier than any of the other late-night patrons, so long as no one noticed the blood on Owen’s leg, but we also didn’t exactly look like reliable, upstanding citizens. Owen put enough money to cover the bill and a generous tip on the table, and that seemed to ease the waitress’s concerns.

  I winced at the sound of breaking crockery as Mimi forcefully rejected whatever they’d brought her. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” her waitress groveled, backing away. Mimi’s court of students rushed to do anything she demanded. One stood behind her, picking the leaves and twigs out of her hair. Another knelt under the table, washing her feet and lower legs.