It was Rod. “Are you two okay?” he asked.
“For now,” Owen replied. “What happened back there?”
“I wish I could have found a way to record it because Katie would’ve enjoyed seeing it.”
I stood on my tiptoes to speak into Owen’s phone. “Oh, do tell!”
“Mimi made a huge fuss about her missing brooch, so they eventually brought in one of the NYPD officers working event security to take her statement. They couldn’t take her too seriously when she was griping about missing a brooch that she was still wearing. She insisted that it was a different brooch, and the way she could tell the difference was that the real one made her feel better. Once the officer heard about her earlier meltdown, there was talk about calling Bellevue, but one of the museum trustees was there and talked them into just letting her lie down for a while. They may have given her a little something to help her relax.”
“So we won’t have to worry about Mimi coming after us for a while,” I concluded with some relief. “What about the others?”
“Thor and Granny are with me. Sylvester finally woke up, and he and his group, including Earl, just left. I’m not sure how much time you have before they reach you. Sam’s tailing them and we’re trying to stay in range so we can help if you need us.”
“Thanks for the warning. We should be on the move.”
“I hope you’ve got a plan because you’re eventually going to have a lot of people after you.”
“The boss is working on a new protective case, and when he gets it to us, we should be okay. We just have to hold out until then.”
“Maybe instead of following the elves, we should meet up with you.”
“No, sorry, I’d rather not tell you where we are. It’s not that I don’t trust you.”
“It’s that you don’t trust us around the Eye. Don’t worry, I get it, but I’m not sure Katie’s grandmother does. She’s not happy.”
“I’ll deal with her later,” I said.
“Are you sure you don’t need help? I don’t like the idea of you two out there alone, defenseless, with who knows what coming after you.”
“Who’s defenseless?” Owen said indignantly.
“Magic can’t hurt you, but I can think of a lot of other things that could.”
“Still, the fewer people who might be affected around me, the fewer I’ll have to deal with. Or do you want me to have to hit you?”
“Okay, then,” Rod said, “I’m here if you need me. We’ll try to keep everyone else off your backs—from as far away as possible.”
Owen ended the call and said, “We should probably move on.”
“Yeah. It would be too easy to trap us in here—just close in on either side.”
However, neither of us moved. It was comfortable standing huddled together, and I felt safe in the enclosed environment, even if it did make a perfect trap. Outside, the world was a scary place, full of people who were out to get us—and this time, that wasn’t paranoia talking.
“So, maybe we should check to see which side is safest for leaving,” Owen said after a while.
“If you insist,” I said, forcing myself to pull away from him, and then instantly missing his warmth.
“You check that end, I’ll check this end.” He grinned. “Maybe you could consider all this part of your security job audition for Sam.”
I reluctantly headed to the opposite end of the tunnel from Owen. I didn’t like splitting up like that, even if I thought it was probably a good idea. I flattened myself against the tunnel’s wall and peered out from behind the bridge’s decorative edging. All I saw was a dim darkness. It wasn’t pitch black, thanks to the lights from the city around us and the lampposts that lined the footpath, more of a dark twilight. I thought I heard faint footsteps on the road above, and I held my breath to listen, but they grew fainter until I could no longer hear them. I didn’t hear anything else, other than distant city sounds, and I didn’t detect any motion, either on the ground or in the air.
I turned back to look at Owen’s end of the tunnel. He was doing the same thing I’d done, hovering at the edge of the tunnel to watch and listen. I could only see him in silhouette, but I thought he turned back to look at me. I gave him a thumbs-up sign, holding my arm away from my body so he might be able to see it. I waited for a similar signal from him. Instead, he jumped, and then I heard his footfalls echoing through the tunnel as he ran toward me.