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“Wait a second,” I said, “you came all the way here to this town that’s barely on the map and that most people in Texas haven’t even heard of, just because you thought there might be another wizard here who could step in and steal your students or expose them for doing magic?”
He got the kind of expression Dean used to get when he realized he needed to come up with a good explanation for something, fast. Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t nearly as smooth as Dean. “Well, um, uh, from the sounds of things, my student was attracting attention, and um, if someone warded the bank, it meant someone with power knew something was going on.” He pulled a pillow into his lap and fiddled with it, then realized he’d removed the covering from his papers and moved it back. “I haven’t taught dueling yet, so I wasn’t sure my student would be able to take care of himself. He might have needed backup, and if a student got exposed, then it would ruin my operation.”
“Your attempt to build a magical army of your own, you mean,” Owen said. He didn’t look like he was enjoying Idris’s discomfort nearly as much as I was. He just looked tired and fed up.
Idris didn’t deny Owen’s assertion. “Yeah, if you want to put it that way. And, um, well, I was kind of looking for an excuse to get away from New York.”
“Evil scheming is very hard work,” I said in mock sympathy. “You need fresh country air to recharge yourself.”
“It is! It was fun at first, but man, these people I’m dealing with are intense. I thought it was great to get the funding, but wow, now they want reports and results, and stuff. It’s like if I don’t have every magical person in the world as customers, I’m doing something wrong, and now they want me to find even more magical people so we can grow the market and outnumber your customer base. Oh yeah, and they use phrases like ‘grow the market’ and ‘customer base,’ which is so not my scene. It was a total buzzkill.”
“That’s what happens when you go into business,” Owen said. “What did you expect?”
Idris acted like he hadn’t heard him. He was on a roll. “And then there’s this crazy broad who keeps meddling in my life. I can’t even look at a woman without her showing up to get in the way. It’s like someone cursed me. Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve had any action?”
This time, I managed to keep a straight face while Owen cracked up. We both knew exactly who that crazy broad was, and that was a very accurate description for my erstwhile fairy godmother, who’d nearly driven Owen and me apart in her attempts to make sure we got together. I’d managed to get her on Idris’s case to make sure he worked things out with his girlfriend, who was currently in MSI custody. Apparently fairy godmothers didn’t think that forced separation was an excuse for infidelity.
“What?” Idris asked Owen.
“Oh, nothing,” Owen said, fighting to suppress a smirk.
Idris turned to me. “So, my local student here is your brother? I guess that means you caught him and stopped him from doing anything else.”
“Yeah, we kind of read him the riot act. He’s seen the error of his ways. He won’t be taking any more lessons from you, and he’ll be warning the others about what you’re really up to.”
“He’s also going to get some real training so that he can keep watch over this area for us, and he’ll be registered with the Council,” Owen added. “You might as well head back to New York. There’s nothing for you to do here.”
A look of panic crossed Idris’s face. “I’ll refund his money, but he’d better not be blabbing to the other students on my message boards. He can’t do that to me! I carried out my end of the deal. I can’t help it if he chose to use his power to commit crimes.”
“Your lessons contained step-by-step instructions on how to commit specific crimes using specific spells,” Owen pointed out. “The entire course was on using magic to get rich.”
“That was only an example. When you do those problems about trains running into each other in math class, do you really think that means you’re supposed to go out and crash trains into each other?”
“No,” I said, “but if you’re taking home economics and there’s a cake recipe in a textbook, I do think it means you’re supposed to follow those directions to bake a cake. It’s not just a hypothetical example of what happens when you combine flour, sugar, and eggs.”
“That’s different! And you can’t register him! I’ll look like a failure.”
“News flash,” I said. “You are a failure. Maybe you should quit now while you’re still ahead.”
“I can’t quit. Do you know what they’ll do to me? I have to stop you. If you go through with this, you give me no choice. I swear, Palmer, this time I will bring you down.”
Owen turned to look at him, staring at him silently for long enough that Idris started to sweat. Finally, Owen gave him a crooked grin. “This time, huh? You mean unlike all the other times?”
“I got away those times. The last time I almost got your girlfriend.”
Owen shrugged. “Okay, then, I guess I’ll have to take you into custody now.” He took a step toward Idris, his hands raised. The sense of magic in use in the room grew stronger, and I stepped backward so I’d be out of the way of the magical fight that was about to break out. Just when it was getting intense enough to give me a headache, Idris vanished into thin air. Owen lunged toward where he’d been, but it was too late. “How’d he do that?” he asked. “I can’t do that here, so there’s no way he could do that.”
“Well, he did. He’s not here, so it’s not like he just went invisible.”
“This is not good,” he said, the tension in his voice contradicting the incredible understatement of his words. He raised his hands again, his eyes half closed, like he was listening for something. After a while, he shook his head. “He used a lot of power, but I’m not sure where he got it.”
I reached over and took his arm. “Come on, we’re not getting anything done standing around here.”
With a weary sigh, he went along with me. On our way out of the room, I locked the door behind us, in case Idris hadn’t taken his room key when he vanished. He’d have to use that much power again to get back into the room. I dropped the towels off in the housekeeping closet, then we got back into Owen’s rental car.
“What do you think he’ll do?” I asked.
“He may make a go of convincing your brother not to drop his program or let the other students know what’s going on. Or he could challenge me to a duel on Main Street at high noon. With him, you never know.”
