If nothing else, the smell of sizzling tomato sauce and beef had drawn Henry from my room. Throughout dinner, his focus had been on the front door and, more notably, not on me. I knew he was hoping Eleanor would show up and must be disappointed that she hadn’t. Not even my text promising both her and Victor a sumptuous feast had done the trick. My phone remained resolutely silent. Which was strange in itself. After all, I hadn’t done anything to offend her. Why wouldn’t she answer my calls or texts?
As we ate, I kept glancing at Henry, hoping for any outward sign that he was getting better. But though he acknowledged me as another person in the room—”Would you pass the garlic bread please, Cat?”—he showed no signs of particular affection and kept himself well out of my reach. I might as well have been anyone. It was all I could do to not cry.
“So I think we all know what we’ve got to do,” Sylvia said.
“Yes, I think so,” I said, hoping to sound more upbeat than I felt. “But maybe we should talk it through, step by step, just in case.”
“Good idea.” Sylvia gave me an encouraging nod, which I mirrored immediately to reassure her I was okay. I wasn’t, but I hoped I soon would be. We both glanced at Henry, who was still chewing his food and staring into space. He still looked a teeny bit distant and unconnected.
“According to Henry, the General is always in bed by one o’clock, so we should all leave here a little before two, by which time he should be sound asleep. Is that right, Henry?”
He hesitated for a second and then nodded, but did not make eye contact. I soldiered on.
“Sylvia will secure us a Magic Cab for then.” She nodded. “My job is to steal the scroll. Before we leave the apartment, I’ll scoop some of the trammeling powder from the cloak boxes and put it into a small pouch I’ll tie around Scar’s neck.”
Scar, who was listening intently, straightened up like a little soldier when she heard her name. I reached down and affectionately stroked her ears. “It won’t hurt her if she swallows any of it, will it?” I asked.
“No, she’ll be fine,” Sylvia said. “It’ll be no worse than if she swallowed a spoonful of sugar. It’s not enough to make her float up and away.”
“Good. Right, then I guide her to the willow and into the Abbey. Though she probably knows the place better than I do,” I said as an afterthought. “Once inside, I’ll steer her into the General’s study where the book should be on the desk. Umm, Henry?”
At last, his attention shifted to me, but his expression was neutral, like he was being addressed by a stranger. I hoped I hid my hurt. “Um, how do I find his study? I couldn’t find my own toilet when I was there before. I have a horrible feeling Scar’s going to get totally lost if we’re not careful.”
“It should be easy enough. It’s on the ground level, no stairs involved, and as long as Scar clings to the wall on her left, she will find it. His study is the last room before the hall ends before you have to turn right to go down another corridor. You should have no trouble at all finding it. Look for the portrait of the famous elf general Gavenold opposite the study door. You can’t miss it, purple uniform, gold braid, nasty purple cap.”
“Okay!” I said, sounding way more confident than I felt. “And the scroll will definitely be on the desk?”
“Always is,” he said.
“Once she gets there, she opens the door—err—how will she open it?”
“You can open it for her,” Sylvia said. “Cast a silent spell like you do here at the apartment, only don’t use Banana Peel, which only opens my door. Use a generic one.”
“Torhtlic duguð?” I asked.
“Yup,” Sylvia said. “That’ll work. That command will open anything, as long as the door’s not locked.”
“And will it be?” I asked Henry.
He shook his head. “No, Dad never locks any of the Abbey doors. He trusts in his enchantments.”
“Sounds a bit tricky. I’ve never projected a spell before.”
“Practice here,” Henry suggested, cocking his head in the direction of the front door. “It’s not locked right now. You should be able to open it.”
That was a good idea. I put on the cloak again and wandered into my bedroom to put some distance between me and the front door. “Back in a minute.” Once the door was closed, I pulled the hood over my face, and thanks to the magic of the cloak, I was immediately seeing the world through Scar’s eyes.
“We need to open the front door,” I thought.
The room spun quickly as Scar jerked to turn around. She meandered through the legs of the kitchen table and chairs, and then I saw her paws as she leaned on the base of the door, trying to open it though it wouldn’t give way.
“Torhtlic duguð.” As soon as I spoke the words, the latch turned, and the door opened. Excited, Scar did her little spin thing and ran back to join the others. I pulled the hood off my face and returned to the main room.
“That worked well,” I said, wandering over to the door and closing it again.
“Yup, looked good to me,” Sylvia agreed.
Henry smiled wanly.
“Okay. So then once she’s inside, Scar sits on the scroll or book, or whatever it is, which the powder will make as light as a feather, and once she has it, she should bring it back to us by the gate. Once she does, Henry should be able to reverse the enchantment, letting us all get inside. Then Henry and I will sneak into the General’s bedroom, where I’ll sing my song to him while he’s asleep so he can’t object. And that’s the plan! Anyone have any questions?”
Henry frowned. “I guess not. Though if it wasn’t for my mother, wild horses wouldn’t drag me back there.”
I knew the feeling. And I wished we had more time to practice, but if MagicNet was right, we only had a couple of days before Henry’s memory loss became permanent, and one of those days was already gone. Time was running out—fast.
Henry stared at his phone. I knew he was checking to see if Eleanor had left a text. No magic required to figure that one out. His disappointed expression told me all I needed to know.
“What time is it now?” I asked.
“A little before midnight,” Sylvia said. “I’ll book us a Magic Cab now. We shouldn’t have any trouble around two, but you know what New York is like. Better to book it now. I suggest you two keep going over the plan and practicing. The time will be gone before you know it.”
I nodded. Never a truer word.
While she was busy making the call, I instinctively reached for Henry’s hand without thinking. This time, I noticed a kind of mistiness swept over his eyes before he snatched his hand away. “Why do you keep doing that?” he asked.
“You really don’t remember, do you?”
He stared at me intently, like he was trying to. “Remember what, exactly?”
“Henry, listen. Before we went to the Abbey and you got hit by that revolting spell your father put on the gates, which gave you a serious case of the wobblies, you and I had gotten close, I mean really close. You’ve forgotten all that, and it’s breaking my heart.”
“Close?”
“Yes, close. We’re not just going back because your mother wanted us to. We’re going there for us. That’s why we’re planning to get the scrolls from the General’s study, so we can reverse the spell and, I hope and pray, have you remembered everything, most especially me, since frankly, and I’m not wanting to frighten you here, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Now I realize you’re not quite yourself at the moment, because I’m seeing horror growing in your eyes the longer you listen to me. Maybe you think I’m some kind of ranting madwoman, sometimes I wonder about that myself, but that’s how things were before the spell affected you, and I’m going to do everything I possibly can to get my Henry back, and if that means raising an army of the dead and burning down the Abbey and that scroll along with it, then so be it, that is what I’ll do!”
I could see him stare and try to remember, but then he shook his head sadly. “I’m sorry. I can’t—I mean, I just don’t remember. Excuse me.” He pushed his unfinished pizza away, barely touched, and once he was up, he disappeared inside the bathroom.
I wanted to scoop him into my arms and kiss him insanely like they did at the end of a romantic movie or on a succubus prom date, but I didn’t. I knew he’d resist me, and the thought of him finding me repellant broke my heart. I missed our intimacy greatly, but I steeled myself by remembering that in a few hours all could be well, and that in a short while he’d be my old Henry again, just as he was before. That time couldn’t come soon enough for me. If only the General went to bed a little earlier. I wasn’t sure if I could survive the wait.