“And meanwhile, MSI looks ineffectual,” Ramsay concluded. “That is a very good point, Katie. I can see why you’re so valuable to this company. I wish I’d had you on my side when I was in charge here.” Although it sounded like praise, I got a funny feeling from the gleam in his eyes as he looked at me that what he’d left unsaid was something along the lines of, “so I could have done away with you before you became a problem.”
The door opened and we all glanced over to see Owen come in. Ramsay got up to shake his hand and clap him on the back in greeting, as though he hadn’t just been questioning Owen’s actions. “Good work this morning, son,” he said. “Too many of these guys have been getting away, so it was good to get a couple in custody.” He guided Owen to the conference table with a hand on his back. “Now, maybe you could help us understand a few things.”
Owen looked as confused as I felt. “I’d be glad to help,” he said.
“What did you do to stop that spell affecting the armored car?” Merlin asked before Ramsay got a chance to take over the discussion.
“Nothing special. I just blocked all spells coming from that direction until I could tell who was doing it. I didn’t really counter the spell.”
“How close are you to having some good counterspells?” Ramsay asked.
“Not as close as Spellworks, from the looks of things. I don’t have any protective charms ready to go on the market, if that’s what you’re asking. But then I’m at a disadvantage, since I didn’t create the bad spells in the first place.”
“That’s what you think they’ve done?”
“I know they created some of these spells because I have the original spells they sold, back when it was an underground enterprise. And now they’re selling the charms. It’s pretty obvious, even if they’re now playing innocent.”
“That’s a big accusation to make,” Ramsay said, leaning forward and resting his elbows on the conference table.
“And one they’re sure to deny,” Merlin added.
Ramsay propped himself on one elbow while gesturing with his other hand. “I’ve got to tell you guys, this doesn’t look good. The Council is concerned. They’re wondering why MSI should get the position of prominence when you can’t deal with this situation. You’re losing customers left and right. Not to mention the fact that the mundane world is starting to ask questions. I got a call from our person in the mayor’s office just this morning.” I was totally at sea here. I’d never heard of this Council.
“Our customer conference should help with our image,” Merlin said. “How is that progressing, Miss Chandler?”
Oh, great
, I thought. Now my event was being viewed as the key to stopping a catastrophe I didn’t understand? “I’ve decided on a venue. That’s the first step. Then we’ll need to decide what we want to announce or showcase.”
“I would be happy to help if you need any suggestions or feedback,” Ramsay said.
Merlin’s lips thinned, and when he spoke, he faced me instead of turning to Ramsay. “I am sure Miss Chandler is quite capable. Now, unless you have any additional Council gossip to share, Ivor, we should all return to our duties.”
If Ramsay felt chastised or took offense, he didn’t show it. He just grinned as he stood and said, “Don’t worry, I’ll keep you in the loop on anything I hear from the Council world.”
This sudden dismissal took me by surprise. I’d been sure they were suspicious about Owen’s use of unauthorized magic, but they hadn’t brought that up at all. What had the interrogation been about, then? It was like Ramsay wanted to see how much we knew, or let us know how much he knew. Whatever it was, my instincts told me there was something fishy going on with Ramsay.
Owen walked with me away from the executive suite. “Is there some backstory I’m missing?” I asked him when we were out of earshot of the others.
“What do you mean?”
“Don’t tell me you didn’t notice the cold war between Merlin and Ramsay. I felt like I needed to put on a sweater, it got so icy in there.”
Owen frowned and tilted his head in thought. “It wasn’t that bad, was it? As far as I know, there’s no bad blood between them. Ramsay suggested we bring Merlin back, and he retired voluntarily.”
“You know, he would be ideally placed to indulge in a little industrial espionage,” I mused.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Katie,” Owen said, sounding truly annoyed as he came to an abrupt stop on a landing and faced me. “I know he can seem overbearing, but I’ve known him most of my life, and I’ve never had reason to doubt him. Ramsay’s not on the Council anymore, but he’s still really well connected.”
I backed off by changing the subject. “What is this Council, anyway?”
“The ‘law’ part of the magical law and order, assuming you consider the people doing the enforcement on the streets the ‘order’ part. The Council makes the rules about the use of magic and deals with violators.”
“Then where have they been all this time? They should have stepped in long before now instead of leaving it up to us.”
“It’s not quite the same as the mundane justice system. It’s hard to explain—it’s more like the United Nations and their enforcement of international law.”
“So they pass resolutions, but don’t do anything serious until it’s a crisis that leads to an international outcry?”
He gave a wry smile. “That’s pretty much it. MSI has always been the de facto ruling body of magic, in a practical sense, backed by the Council, and that mostly means they leave us alone until things are really bad, and then they get in the way.”
I groaned as we resumed walking down the stairs. “Maybe I should go back to Texas.”
“Only if I can come with you.”
“You wouldn’t be able to use much magic there.”
He held the stairwell door open for me. “Right now, I don’t care. I’d find something else to do. I’ve got money, and I’m good with the stock market.” His voice took on a dreamy quality, as though this was something he was seriously contemplating.
“But could you really leave everyone here to deal with all this? And that’s if you could even get away without it following you. Remember, I tried that, and it didn’t work.”
He sighed. “Of course not. It was just a thought. So I guess I’d better get back to work. We need to develop our own protective charms so it at least looks like we’re addressing the situation.”
“And we’ll need something to demonstrate or announce at the conference.”
He came to a dead stop in the middle of the hallway. “What?”
“The centerpiece of an event like that is usually a big announcement of something the company is launching, so there’s at least one thing everyone will be talking about. Do you have anything up your sleeve?”
His forehead creased as he thought. “Well, there’s a stain remover spell. I guess you could have some fun demonstrating that.”
“Only if you want to look like a magical laundry commercial. That’s it?”
“Some recipes using conjured ingredients, a few upgrades of earlier spells, adjusted to use less power or to last longer.”
“How about your dragon-taming spell?”
“Most people don’t have much use for that.”
“There are dragons living under the city, so you never know when it might be necessary,” I reminded him. “You could announce the threat—you know those legends about alligators in the sewer system? They’re not alligators! And then you announce the solution to it.”
“Those dragons aren’t really a threat.”
“Yeah, because you tamed them. You’re still checking on them and playing with them, aren’t you?”
He turned red enough that I was sure I could feel the heat radiating from his face. “I feel responsible for them. I’ve been researching dragon refuges to find a good home for them. I’d feel bad about using them for something like this.”
“Well, if you can’t give me something splashy, I might make you give a speech.”
All the color drained from his face. “I’ll see what I can come up with,” he said a moment later, his voice faint. “And that means I
really
have work to do.”
*
I had plenty of my own work, which would have been easier if I worked in a department that believed in work. Even when there weren’t official departmental parties, everyone went up and down the halls, visiting with each other. I knew you had to be somewhat outgoing to be good at sales, but this was ridiculous. I resorted to having Perdita veil me and tell people I was out when they wandered by to chat.
Life gradually settled down into something that passed for normal, relatively speaking. Though, the way things were going lately, it wasn’t that much weirder inside the walls of the magical corporation than it was outside. City officials were having press conferences and talking about task forces to look into the unusual crime wave. Those of us in on the secret didn’t feel like we had much of an advantage.
I was used to being targeted by the bad guys, but now I was in less danger than the average person because those awful influence spells didn’t work on me. While I had the occasional scary moment, I was never forced to commit a crime. All I had to do was get out of the way the moment I felt magic at work and hope that someone with a Spellworks protection charm was nearby. Even some of the MSI employees had started carrying those charms.
Owen’s workload and obsessive tendencies meant he was working crazy hours, and I didn’t even see him going to and from work anymore. The times I ran into him at work, he looked tired, distracted, and more rumpled than he usually let himself be in a business setting. Given the current crisis, I was afraid I’d sound petty and selfish if I insisted on him paying attention to me. When your boyfriend’s trying to save the world, it’s no time to whine, “But what about us? What about
me
?” no matter how much you miss him.
A week after I’d come back to work, I got a phone call at the office from him. “So, you’re still alive,” I quipped, trying to keep my voice from sounding too bitterly sarcastic.
Supportive, not snarky
, I reminded myself.
“Sorry, I’ve been busy.”
“I know. But I miss you.”
“Then maybe you’ll want to see me now. Can you come by? I’ve got something I want to show you.”
“It wouldn’t involve something splashy with dragons, would it?”
“Dragons in the office? Even I’m not that crazy. But I can show you something that will give you the picture.”
“I can’t wait. I’ll be there in a moment.”
I was heading down the hallway toward the department exit when Hartwell stepped out of the conference room and shouted in a magically amplified voice that rang throughout the entire department, “All hands! Conference room! Now!” I sprinted toward the exit, hoping to avoid yet another party. I got caught by a burst of streamers flying from the conference room, but nobody called me back.
When I got to Owen’s lab, Owen and his assistant, Jake, were leaning over something on the lab table. Owen looked frazzled enough that I felt bad for resenting his recent distance. He pulled a metallic green streamer out of my hair. “Let me guess, another sales department party?”
“Yeah, but I narrowly escaped.” I gestured toward the streamer he held. “They only winged me.”
“How come we don’t get parties?” Jake asked.
Owen looked at him with one eyebrow raised. “Can you imagine this department at a party?”
Jake nodded knowingly. “Yeah, now that I think about it, I guess it would be a bunch of people lined up along the walls, looking uncomfortable. But I think they’d like it if you showed movies. They wouldn’t be forced to talk to each other.”
“I’ll consider it, if we ever get to a point when we’re not so busy. We can celebrate once we’ve beaten the bad guys.” Then he turned to me and said, “And you’re not here to talk about parties.”
“In a sense, I am. A really, really big party. What have you got for me?”
“You said you wanted dragons.”
“I said I wanted something splashy to show off.”
“And what’s splashier than dragons? Wait right here.” Grinning ear-to-ear, he ran into his office.
I turned to Jake. “What’s he up to?”
Jake, also grinning, said, “Just wait. You have to see this.”
I wasn’t sure quite what I expected Owen to come back with—maybe a giant old magical tome, or perhaps a miniature dragon. Instead, he held a small white cat with a spattering of big, black spots on her body. It was his cat, Eluned, who’d been dubbed Loony by Rod.
“I didn’t realize it was Take Your Cat to Work Day,” I said.
“I’m using Loony to demonstrate proof of concept. She’s a lot smaller and a lot less messy than a dragon. You see, that spell I used to tame the dragons could be used in a modified form for pet obedience training. You could end indoor accidents and keep Fido from chewing your favorite shoes.”
“I could see where that might be popular.”
“Allow me to demonstrate. You know how notoriously untrainable cats are—there’s a reason we refer to wrangling a bunch of people who all want to do their own thing as herding cats. But with the right touch of magic, that all changes.” He handed Loony—who looked utterly bored by these proceedings—over to Jake. Jake took her to the opposite side of the room and put her down. She immediately yawned and stretched, then began grooming herself. Owen said some magic words and did a few complicated hand gestures, then called, “Loony, come here!”
The cat interrupted her grooming to shoot across the floor and hurl herself at Owen’s legs, where she purred and gazed adoringly up at him.
“Ta da!” Jake said with a flourish.
Owen knelt to scratch behind Loony’s ears. “Making a cat obey is actually quite impressive on a conceptual level, even harder than dragons, really. However, cats aren’t big enough to demonstrate to a large crowd. But we can demonstrate it with the dragons, which looks a lot more impressive than making a dog sit, fetch, and roll over. You can do that even without magic.”
“But you’ve been training your cat like a dog her whole life. She obeys without magic,” I said. To demonstrate, I knelt and said, “Hey, Loony! Come here, sweetie!” She came straight to me and rubbed her face against my ankles.
“She likes you,” Owen said. “That doesn’t mean the magic doesn’t work. You saw what happened with those dragons—one minute they were trying to roast us, and after I did the spell they wanted to play. Now they even do tricks. I did that spell in a panic, with probably a bit too much power behind it. Since then, I’ve analyzed what I did and figured out a way to control it better. If the spell works on dragons, it should work on household pets that don’t breathe fire. Is that what you wanted?”