Celebromancy by Michael R. Underwood Page B

traveler at JFK.”
    She tried the withering look again, hoping it’d work on the bodyguards at least enough to get her in the door.
    Her pulse quickened as she thought about all the ways that this could go really, terrifically wrong.
    The bodyguard met her gaze, checked out the equipment, and then gave her a look up and down, leering obviously.
    The other bodyguard piped in, an older black man that had an ex-military look. “Go ahead.”
    Ree put her recording equipment away and walked past the bodyguards to open the trailer door and peek inside.
    “Kelly Dominguez, Pearson Patriot ,” she said by way of announcing herself as she stepped into the trailer. It looked a lot like Jane’s trailer, because really, how different could actresses’ trailers look? Rachel’s had more chrome and glass, but there were still some personal touches, lush carpet, posters on the wall of old projects, and a whole wall devoted to pictures of MacKenzie’s daughter. And, of course, her Academy Award, which stood tall on a round table.
    A prim, twentysomething blonde woman in slacks and a baby-blue sweater looked down at her clipboard, tapping a pen.
    “You’re early.”
    Ree tried to disarm the woman with a smile. “If she’s free, might as well be done with it so she can go back to rehearsing, right?”
    The young woman, who Ree was tempted to call Emma due to the ice-queen demeanor, narrowed her eyes, then spun on her heels (heels on carpet?) and walked out of sight, presumably to speak with Rachel.
    Ree could feel the magic starting to fade in her mind, and her mental ticking clock got just a bit louder.
    Okay, magic, hold together. We have to untangle this clusterfrak of a situation.
    About two minutes later, Rachel emerged in what Ree took to be her costume for the shoot and full cinema makeup. Ree felt Rachel’s energy before she saw the woman, as she was wrapped in more Celebromantic mojo than Jane’d used even at the height of the previous night’s escapades. Now that she knew what to look and feel for, the magic was obvious. But no less seductive.
    Damn , Ree said inwardly. That’s some force of personality. Like Impressive x5.
    Rachel would stand a couple inches taller than Ree even in her own body, so she towered above Ree-as-Kelly. She had a veritable mane of curly red hair, bright-blue eyes, and skin so perfect you could use it for a color swatch. Celebromancy at work, and from the mojo radiation Ree was getting, it was Grade-A stuff.
    Ree wondered just how far the rabbit hole really went. She’d been playing in the deep end of a small pond, but there were many other pools, and Rachel brought her own diving arena with her as she entered the room. Ree wondered if knowing about Celebromancy would help make her resistant to the mega-charm powers, or if the star would be able to wrap her around one perfectly-manicured finger.
    “Hello. I have to be on-set in half an hour, so I’m afraid this will need to be quick,” Rachel said.
    Ree smiled again. “Of course. Thank you for seeing me early.” Was she lying about the set call, or had she never intended to see Kelly? Well, the real Kelly.
    Rachel took a seat on the couch, comfortable but regal, more than a hint of royal graciousness in the look she gave Ree. Ree didn’t know whether to be more scared because the woman clearly had Big-Leagues levels of magic or less intimidated because she was clearly using some of it to be scary. Ree split the difference and settled on wary, keeping the wall to her back.
    Ree spotted a chair opposite MacKenzie’s couch and took a seat, then pulled out the recording equipment, which she’d retrieved from a closet and hadn’t been used since she’d abandoned her webseries. She turned on the recorder and put it on the glass table between her chair and Rachel’s couch.
    Ree spoke in full voice to pick up on the bidirectional shotgun mike. “This is Kelly Dominguez for the Pearson Patriot , here with the Academy Award–winning star