Much Ado About Magic (20 page)

“He’s not okay. He’s in shock and he’s alone,” I said.
Why didn’t he wait for me?
I wondered. I would have been willing to vanish with him.

Sam came along when I went back to meet Rod. “Anything?” Rod asked me.

“Not a sign.”

“I called James and Gloria to give them a heads up, but they’d already got the word. They haven’t heard from him. James offered to come to the city, but I told them to stay put for now. I’m still not getting an answer on his cell or his home phone.”

“Can you track his cell phone?” I asked. “He did something magical to that phone, so maybe you guys can find it.”

“Let me check.” Rod made another phone call, then came back to me. “Got it. Let’s go.”

“I’m comin’ with,” Sam said, flying alongside us as we ran from the tents.

It was still daylight, and this was the longest day of the year. At least we wouldn’t have to search in the dark for a few more hours. “The phone’s in the park, so he may have found a private place to think,” Rod said. He pointed the way so Sam could fly ahead, and then we reached a secluded spot in the Ramble, where a cell phone lay abandoned on the ground.

“There goes that idea,” I said, kneeling to pick up the phone. I checked the missed calls list, and it was full. Everyone was calling him. No wonder he’d ditched the phone. I turned it off and put it in my pocket.

Rod swore and kicked a rock. “Now what?”

“You’ve known him longer than I have. Where’s he likely to go if he needs to think? Does he have any favorite places or places where he feels safe?”

Rod ran his hands through his hair the way Owen usually did when he was thinking. “You mean other than home? That’s where he usually feels safest. Let’s see, I know that sometimes when he needs to clear his head, he goes up to the park around the Cloisters. And there’s the stadium. I don’t think there’s a game tonight, though.”

“I’ll go up there,” Sam offered. “I can stop by the cathedral along the way and get a few gargoyles to help.” He took off, soaring uptown.

“Anything else?” I asked Rod.

“There’s the bookstore. Someone could hide in the Strand for hours—and he’s been known to do so.”

“Then let’s go.”

We ran to the nearest subway station to head downtown. I was so distracted by worry that we were halfway to our stop when I noticed that there were Spellworks ads in our car—new ones proclaiming the trustworthiness of the company since it didn’t keep secrets. I elbowed Rod and pointed it out. “They had to have planned that,” I said. “I wonder if Idris knew all along.”

“I wonder
how
he knew. I grew up with Owen, and I didn’t know anything.”

When we reached the bookstore, I wished we’d kept Sam with us. It would take someone with wings to do a quick search of this place. If you wanted to hide from someone, this was better than a maze. “Do we split up or stick together?” I asked Rod.

“Splitting up might be more efficient, but it’s probably best if we stick together since you’re the one who’ll be able to spot him even if he’s used an invisibility spell, and I can stop him from getting away.”

We worked our way gradually through the store, level by level, starting with the sections where we were most likely to find Owen and then spreading out. For perhaps the first time in my life, I spent at least an hour in a bookstore without being tempted by even one book. My feet were killing me and I was dizzy from hunger when we finally concluded that he wasn’t there.

“There’s a diner near here that he likes,” I said, unsure whether I suggested that because I was starving or because I thought Owen might go there.

He wasn’t at the diner, and the waitress, who remembered me from having been there with Owen, said she hadn’t seen him. We got burgers to go and ate while we scouted the neighborhood.

“He’s such a homebody that I can’t think of too many places where he might go,” Rod said. He took out his cell phone and made a call, then shook his head. “Still no answer at his place. Do you think he might have gone to your place?”

“It’s a thought. Gemma, Marcia, and Nita wouldn’t know or care what all the fuss is about, and he’d know I’d eventually go back there.”

We exchanged a glance, then both of us took off running as fast as we could go, weaving through the crowds on the sidewalk. I was out of breath by the time we reached my building, and it took me two tries to unlock the front door, my hands were shaking so badly. Rod ran ahead of me up the stairs, taking them two at a time, then he knocked on the door while I was still halfway up the last flight of stairs.

Marcia opened the door. “Hey, I wasn’t expecting you!” she said, giving him a quick kiss. “I thought this was a crazy day for you.”

“Crazy doesn’t begin to describe it,” he said. “You haven’t seen Owen, have you?”

By this time, I’d reached the top of the stairs, and Marcia gave me a funny look. “Why, what’s wrong?” she asked.

I was about to explain when Nita appeared behind her. “Oh, hi, Katie!” she said. “How’d your conference go?”

I forced myself to sound as breezy as I could. “It was great, just great, but now I need to find Owen. I think we got our wires crossed. In all the confusion after the conference, I’m not sure if we agreed to meet at his place or my place.”

“He hasn’t come here,” Marcia said. She looked really concerned now, but I couldn’t explain this situation in front of Nita.

Already turning to head down the stairs, Rod said, “Okay, then it must be his place. I’ll talk to you later.”

Marcia raised an eyebrow at me, and before I followed Rod I said, “Post-conference debriefing,” to which she nodded knowingly.

By the time we were back outside, Rod was completely panicked, his eyes wild and his body twitching, like he wanted to go in every direction at once. “I don’t know where else to look!” he said.

“Let’s try his place,” I suggested.

“But I’ve been calling there every five minutes, and there’s been no answer.”

“That doesn’t mean he isn’t there, and he’ll have to go home before long.”

“Why’s that?”

“You don’t think he’d leave his cat to starve, do you?”

Rod let out a long sigh of relief. “Of course not. So he’ll be home before it gets too late. Let’s go there. We can stake out the place and wait for him to get back. I’ve got a key, for when he needs me to check on Loony.”

I wasn’t up to another sprint, so I was glad that he just set off walking quickly, but his legs were a lot longer than mine and I had to practically run to keep up with him. When we got to Owen’s street, I saw that the lights were on in his living room windows. “Look, he’s home,” I said to Rod.

“That, or someone’s there waiting for him.” He rang the doorbell, and when there was no response, he took his key chain out of his pocket. I caught his arm before he could unlock the door.

“He’s probably got the place warded.”

He took the key off the ring and handed it to me. “The wards won’t stop you. He needs you. He doesn’t need to be alone, even if it takes barging in.”

There was a flutter of wings, and Sam and several other gargoyles alit in the trees in front of Owen’s building. “Looks like you two found him,” Sam said.

“I was just about to go up and check on him,” I said, reluctantly taking the key from Rod.

“I’ll leave some people here to keep an eye on the place, make sure no one tries anything funny,” Sam said.

“Thanks, Sam,” I said. I glanced at Rod, then held up the key and said, “Well, let’s see how this goes.”

“Give me a signal to let me know he’s okay,” Rod said. “I’ll wait out here until then.”

I unlocked the front door, then went up the stairs. At Owen’s door, I hesitated, then rapped lightly on it. “Owen?” I called out. “It’s Katie. Rod gave me his key. I need to talk to you. I’m alone.” There wasn’t a response, so I said a little louder, “Okay, then I’m coming in. If you don’t want me to come in, you’d better throw an interior deadbolt or put up the chain. You’ve got a count of ten.” I counted down from ten, then said, “Ready or not, here I come,” and unlocked the door. I felt the magic of his wards as a slight shiver when I passed through the doorway, but they didn’t stop me.

Loony met me at the door, meowing loudly and twining herself around my legs. I wasn’t a cat person, but I could still tell that she was agitated. That made me wonder what I’d find inside. “Where is he?” I asked her. She flicked her tail at me, then ran into the living room.

“Owen? It’s me!” I called out as I followed her. “Are you okay?” Then I came to a stop just inside the living room.

The place was always untidy. For such an ordered thinker, Owen could be a real slob, especially with books and paper. This was a different kind of mess. There was a pile of books on the floor in front of the bookcase, like he’d pulled them out one-by-one, then hadn’t bothered to reshelve each one when he didn’t find what he was looking for and moved on to the next book. He must have finally found the right book because he was leaning over his desk, peering intently at an open book.

I’d anticipated that he might be in a severe sulk or a serious, soul-searching depression. After all, he’d just learned his true identity after a lifetime of contented ignorance, and it was a horrifying truth. According to what I’d read, his alleged birth parents had been worse than anything Idris aspired to be, and now he’d been accused of being a monster like them. That was the kind of news that tended to make people want to slit their wrists.

But he didn’t look all that different from any other time when he was focused on a problem. I supposed research mode was a comfort zone for him. He was still wearing the slacks and shirt of the suit he’d worn that day, with the collar undone and the sleeves rolled up. His jacket and tie were thrown across the arm of a chair. His hair fell across his eyes and stood up in every direction, like he’d been running his fingers through it. He glanced up as I entered and said mildly, “Oh, there you are. I was wondering when you’d get here.”

I shook my head to clear the fuzz. I felt like I’d just walked onstage expecting to act in one scene and found myself in an entirely different one from a different part of the play—or even from a different play. “Well, you haven’t exactly put out the welcome mat,” I said. “You’re not answering the phone—by the way, I’ve got your cell—or the doorbell, and you’ve got the place more heavily warded than Rod’s little black book.” Mentioning Rod reminded me that I’d promised to signal him. I stepped to the front window, pulled back the curtain and gave a thumbs-up before returning my attention to Owen.

“Like that could stop you,” Owen said with a shrug. “And don’t tell Rod, but I got past the wards on his little black book when we were in high school. It’s very interesting reading. When I was fourteen, I considered it quite educational.”

“Are you okay?” I asked. “I’ve been worried sick about you.”

“I haven’t had the best day ever, if that’s what you mean. But I’ll have my existential crisis later.”

I gestured at the pile of books. “If this isn’t an existential crisis, what do you call it?”

“Fact finding. Before I collapsed in despair, I thought I ought to get to the bottom of things. First, is it true?”

I leaned against the edge of the desk and crossed my arms over my chest. “Is it?”

“Well, since I don’t have a handy home DNA test kit or samples from my alleged parents, I can’t say with absolute certainty, but the dates do work out. The Morgans died very soon after I was born, so of course I don’t remember them.” He pointed to a couple of photos in the book on his desk, which looked like an old club membership directory. “There is some resemblance, I guess. I hadn’t ever seen a picture of the Morgans before. For all the disruption they caused, they don’t get a lot of play in the histories. I’m lucky I bought this old university magical society annual for one of the articles in it, so I have these pictures.”

I had to squint and peer closely at the tiny photos. Owen apparently got his looks from his mother. She was strikingly beautiful and dark-haired. His father had a vague, absent-minded genius look about him, and his eyes were similar to Owen’s, but I couldn’t tell their color in the black-and-white photo. “I suppose if someone merged these two, they might get you,” I said.

“The next question is who knew? Was I just some orphaned kid with magical powers, and whoever’s behind Idris managed to unearth the truth, or have they known all along behind the scenes while keeping it a secret, even from me?”

I squirmed uncomfortably, then said, “Rod said—” I broke off, unsure if I should share what Rod had told me, but then I decided that there’d been enough secrets. “Rod said that when you were kids, James and Gloria told him to keep an eye on you. He thought it was because you were so little and needed someone to look after you, but now he’s wondering.”

I wasn’t sure how he’d react to that bit of news, but he took it calmly enough, just nodding. “Yeah, I remember that. But I was so little that I was bully bait and I didn’t have good control over my power yet. That’s a dangerous combination, so having a bigger kid stick with me made sense. On the other hand, I often felt like a prisoner on parole with James and Gloria, so maybe I was.” He gave a bitter laugh that was the first sign he wasn’t as okay as he was trying to act. I caught his hand in mine and gave it a squeeze, noticing as I did so that he was trembling. “I do wonder who knew.”

“And how did Idris know?” I asked. “Then there’s the part where they’re trying to make it look like you were following in your parents’ footsteps and doing all of this negative magical stuff.”

“I missed that. I was already out of there.”

“I don’t blame you.”

His grip tightened on my hand as he ran his other hand through his hair. “So, now what do I do?” he asked.

“I think we need a plan.”

“A plan? For what?”

“Well, first, we need to definitively answer your questions: Is it true, who knew, and how did Idris find out? Then we have to clear your name—not because of your identity, since it’s not like you can help who your parents were and you never even knew them. If you had evil in your genes, surely it would have manifested by now. But we do need to clear you of these accusations about causing magical trouble, and to do that, I think we’ll need proof of who really is doing it.”