A Farewell to Charms (10 page)

I
was back to sweaty hands (and fingers) as I scrolled through the new manual apps, Someone could show up at any minute. When I pressed the key application button, the screen read input door. I typed in “sub-questioning” and the screen read door not recognized. I typed in “sub-sanitation” and the screen read door not recognized. I tweaked the name, thought of ten different variations, but the screen never registered. Most of these doors were electronic—this one required that old-fashioned key Meredith carried around her neck.

Old-fashioned keys had old-fashioned locks. And locks could be picked. Just ask Vanna.

My hair was twisted in front with a little bobby pin. I plucked the pin out of my hair and bent it straight. The lock was fairly easy to undo—just a little digging with the pin, and
click!
I tried the handle. The door opened to darkness.

I didn’t step through right away. There could be a laser alarm or…motion-activated blow darts, or Genevieve. Her office was secretly hidden next door. I wadded my on a roll T-shirt into a ball, ignoring the chill in my thin tank top, and threw the shirt into the room. No sirens went off. Nothing happened. I took a hesitant step inside, and then another, closing the door behind me.

The space was empty except for a few white lab tables on the spotless floor. I couldn’t remember which wall was magical, so I tiptoed around the perimeter of the room, tapping each wall twice. On the third wall, the white exterior rolled away, revealing rows and rows of built-in shelves holding hundreds of colorful jars. The magical storage vessels.

Now. Which one should I take? Maybe I could find Fake McKenzie’s magic, the girl I’d watched in the Idaho beauty pageant during Level Two. She’d been a little too enthusiastic and done better in the pageant than instructed, leading to a quick memory wash in this very room. My experience as a Watcher for Fake McKenzie was the reason I’d started to doubt Façade in the first place. But I didn’t even know the girl’s first name. And the shelves were endless. So much magic.

I analyzed the shelves more closely, and my heart sank. Each vial swirled with colors and a long label with names wrapped around the tube. Gretchen Uzuri Barbara Olga Soo Maria…Great. The magic was
mixed.
I couldn’t just grab a container and give one girl her magic back. Each vial held the potential of dozens.

And not like it mattered, because each vial had a computerized security system. A code needed to be entered to remove the containers. No wonder it was so easy to get into this room—even if I knew about that hidden wall, I couldn’t touch anything there.

My hope had been a façade, too.

I slumped down on the ground and tucked my newly healed knee underneath me. The tears came so fast, I didn’t bother to wipe them away. I couldn’t give back magic. Why did I ever think I could? I thought I could just break down this wall and everything would be restored, like I was someone super-talented, like Vanna. I was one regular person. One person against a centuries-old institution.

“Please tell me you aren’t having a pity party.”

I looked up. Meredith leaned against one of the white lab tables.

“Am I going to be in trouble?” I asked in a small, pitiful voice.

“Not
in
trouble. But you most certainly
are
trouble. And please don’t take that as a compliment and go tattoo it on your arm or anything.” Meredith knelt down next to me, gently brushing a hair away from my face. “Are you trying to save the world again?”

Another sob burst out of me, and I wiped away snot with the back of my hand. Having Meredith mad at me was easier than having her sympathy. Softness from her was such a rarity that I knew I must be completely hopeless if she was pulling that deep emotion out now.

“I did the same thing, you know,” she whispered.

“What, got snot all over yourself?”

“No.” She handed me a tissue. “I came here.”

I wiped my eyes. “To the sanitation room?”

“No one ever saw me. I’ve never told anyone about my field trip.”

My master plan seemed so optimistically foolish now. Maybe I’d been too confident, too full of myself.

“Were you trying to…trying to…” I couldn’t say out loud what I had tried to do.

Meredith ignored the question. “Did you know they used to bring the Watcher along when the sub hopeful was sanitized? I don’t know why—I think we were supposed to serve as witnesses. I had one hopeful that really got to me. Poor girl was on the ground, pleading for another chance. Then one makeup application and she was smiling at me like we’d never met.” She shook her head. “Her name was Caprice. She was from Florence, in Italy. She didn’t pass because she was too nice. Didn’t have an edge.”

“She lost her power because she was
nice
?” I asked.

“I think about her a lot,” Meredith continued. “She acts and waits tables in Los Angeles now. She’s a lousy actress, but she would have been a good sub. If she had the training. If she had some time. If the agency didn’t try to fit all these different-shaped pegs into their magical square holes. They sold her short, but they did value Caprice’s magic enough to remove and recycle.”

I let out a humorless laugh. “I was hoping I could find Fake McKenzie’s magic, the girl I watched in Celeste’s beauty pageant. I wanted to see what would happen if she had magic back.”

“That wouldn’t be good. Being here isn’t a good idea, either.” Meredith stared straight ahead. She chewed on her bottom lip, which was chapped underneath her carefully applied gloss. “The reason you came here is because you were trying to figure out the perimeters of your own magic. You thought these vials would be labeled with a specific power, and that information would help you, which would help Façade.”

“No. I came because—”

“You came because you wanted to be a better sub,” she said evenly.

Oh. Okay. Meredith had just given me a much-needed alibi. So I wasn’t fired; just back to where I was when I’d first found out about this place. “Right. I want to be the best sub I can,” I said.

There was a beat, a pause, and in that moment I had to let go of everything I’d just lost. This wasn’t the way to crack Façade, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t be done. It’d only been a few weeks since I’d even learned there was anything wrong. I’d told Vanna to take her time and finish her spy training. Maybe I needed to follow that same advice.

“So. How did you know I was in here? Camera, satellite?”

“Façade doesn’t film in the sub-sanitation room. They don’t want documentation of what happens in here. But I did see Ferdinand, and knew that if you were wandering around Façade, this is where you’d end up.”

“Ferdinand! That reminds me, why didn’t you tell me about healing makeup!” My voice echoed against the wall. Okay, so jumping from one hot topic to another wasn’t exactly slow-and-steady Desi. But how do these people work here knowing all this stuff?

“It wasn’t time for you to know,” Meredith said. “That’s still in the developing stages, but healing makeup does prove that Façade is thinking about more possibilities than a stand-in for a princess birthday party, doesn’t it?”

“Oh. I guess it does.”

“See? There’re still plenty of wonderful things happening with this agency. And actually, I have some news for you.”

My stomach dropped. “I’m not getting sanitized, am I?”

“Of course not. No one knows you’re here yet. I only knew because I know
you
. And you have your story in place should anyone watch the security footage and ask questions about why you were roaming all over Façade.”

“Okay.”

Meredith rolled her eyes. “By the way, it was a royal buzzkill having to rush away from the biggest moment of my life to come find you.”

“Sorry about that.” I wiped my eyes, trying to remove any trace of crying. “Was your first council meeting good? Are you, uh, happy?”

Meredith flicked my question away with a wave of her hand. “This isn’t about happy. The meeting, like I said, was of special concern to you. I have some good and bad news. The good news is the agency has selected your Match.”

“Yeah?” I knew this was a distraction, something to make me feel better about my epic magic failure, but I was still biting. I hadn’t thought much about my Match. There were only so many possibilities, being as I’d subbed for six princesses, and I definitely had a favorite in that group. If I had to wake up day in and day out as someone else, I would choose Elsa. Not because of Karl, either. Elsa was the princess I identified with the most, the girl I understood. And with understanding came empathy. And with empathy, magic. And with magic, well…I didn’t know what my magic really meant anymore. “Who is it?”

“Well, Floressa Chase. Of course. She fell in love with you after the secret princess debacle, and is excited to have you at her beck and call. I know how much you love Hollywood—”

“
Old
Hollywood,” I said.

“Old, new, whatever.” Meredith smoothed out the front of her suit. “You’ll not only have a chance to live the royal life, now that Floressa’s long-lost father has welcomed her back to Tharma, but the movie premieres and social scene…twenty-four-hour glamour. She’s quite possibly the most sought-after Match, and she’s yours. Or you are hers, I suppose.”

“That’s…great.” It was. Really. But the whole glamour aspect of Façade, of life, just wasn’t as alluring anymore. The magic, literally, was gone. And Floressa’s life might be enviable, but she was also a bit spoiled. Who knew what she would expect of me? And a princess Match could be forever, or at least until I changed departments within Façade. Did I really want to devote the rest of my teen years to Floressa Chase? “What about Elsa?”

“Elsa hasn’t applied for a Match.” Meredith stood and offered me her hand. “I’d imagine she quite likes her life right now and isn’t too keen to escape it. Floressa, on the other hand, has explicitly requested you. A perfect fit.”

“When does that all start? The Matching stuff?”

“Soon. You’ll receive an entire packet of information on Floressa—far more than what you’ve previously had available through your manual.”

“Oh, so I’ll actually know what I’m doing.”

“One would hope. Now it’s up to you to immerse yourself in Floressa. No more other princesses, no more BEST, no more random jobs. With a position like this, it’s expected that Façade time is Floressa time.”

I looked around the room, wondering if I would ever see this place again. “So, I probably won’t be back at Façade much anymore, huh?”

“No need. You have your own bubble, you have one client. You do have that new substitute ambassadorship that Genevieve discussed, so when it’s your turn, you’ll come back to address the council as a representative. But you certainly don’t need to come back to
this
room in Façade.”

Like I could. No way would I make it past security and Meredith a second time. One visit I could blame on curiosity. Another was impossible. “So what’s the bad news?” I asked.

“Oh. Nothing devastating. This was bound to happen eventually.” Meredith dusted off her suit. “I didn’t mention it before your last job because I didn’t want you to get dramatic, but the council decided…my agenting duties will end. Naturally—I’ll be heading a new committee, and I can’t be jumping in and out any time one of you girls goes crazy.”

I let out a small gasp. “You’re not my agent anymore? What am I going to do?”

“The same thing you always do. Get into trouble and cause your higher-up headaches.” She smiled weakly. “You’ll be assigned someone new, but to be honest, once you’re Matched, your agent doesn’t have much to do with you anymore. She checks in periodically. In the meantime, Genevieve said she’ll take over as a temporary agent, sort of a mentorship until they decide whom to assign you to permanently.”

“Wait, why is she doing that?”

“Well, your latest PPR from Vanna was positively glowing—says your magic saved the day. Genevieve is very excited about your future. And I don’t need to tell you what an honor that is.”

“No! Are they trying to punish me?” I stepped away from the vials of magic so I didn’t fall into them. All this news was making me feel dizzy. Not only did Genevieve take Meredith away from me, but now she would be watching me all the time. And this was all my doing, because I told Vanna to sing my praises. Stupid! Drawing attention to myself was so not stealth. “Meredith, I can’t work here without
you.
This is horrible.”

“Oh, hush, I don’t much need your diddly twenty percent, thank you.”

“But, you’re, like, my mentor.”

“Mentor? I wouldn’t say mentor.…” Meredith looked away from me and wiped at her eye. Okay, this was intense. I didn’t know the woman even had tear ducts. “This is stupid. I must be allergic to something in this room.”

Another wave of tears hit me, and I started to hiccup.

Meredith yanked two tissues out of her purse and handed me one. “I’m sure Genevieve is going to be proud that you figured a way in here, but we’re going to need to fill out a report so everything looks legit. Last thing I need is Façade disposing of you because you’re too much of a risk. I won’t let that happen after all the grief you’ve put me through. Let’s go.” Meredith reached over and squeezed my hand, pushing something small, almost lipstick-shaped, into my palm in the process.