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“With four kids—and three of them boys—I bet your parents kept them that way on purpose.”
“Exactly. I’m still not sure Mom and Dad know about the escape route, and boy, did Dean make use of it. The one downside of putting you in this room is that Dean’s the one most likely to need it. He still moves back home every so often, but he can take Frank’s old room if Sherri kicks him out while you’re here.”
“Complicated relationship?”
“Don’t ask. Now, there are a couple of bathrooms off the hall here, and there’s one downstairs under the stairs. Mom will tell you to make yourself at home and get anything you want to eat or drink from the kitchen, but she’ll spend the entire time trying to force food on you, so that probably won’t be an issue. And now before the whole mob gets here, we should probably talk. The store closes at six today, so that holds off most of the family, but Mom could be back sooner. She’s probably making the rounds to let everyone know about her future son-in-law, so we have a little time. However, my grandmother could show up at any moment.”
He blanched a bit at my recitation of family likely to invade us, and I could tell that he was reconsidering the offer to stay with us. He sat on one of the room’s twin beds, braced his hands on his knees, and asked, “You haven’t had any more encounters with our suspect, have you?”
I thought I detected a hint of worry in his eyes. “No, nothing since the other night, and I still don’t think that was targeting me, specifically, for who I am. You don’t attack a magical immune with an illusion.” I fought back a shudder. “For all I know, the guy was flirting with me. What’s Sam found out? I haven’t talked to him since Wednesday night.”
He went into professional mode, the way he was in meetings at work when he seemed to disconnect his emotions from the situation. “Sam observed the suspect over the course of two days. He hasn’t been able to identify the suspect yet, so we may have to confront him or her directly.”
“So, magical duel on Main Street?”
“Not if I can avoid it. I’d rather have a friendly chat about the responsible use of magic and the need to be registered centrally, then see if I can use him to get to Idris. If he or she isn’t receptive to that, then I might have to take other measures. Having power means you have to abide by the code, whether or not you know about it.”
“I guess this means some detective work for us, huh?” I felt my spirits lifting at the thought of it, and I realized how bored I’d been away from the magical world.
“It means some detective work for me. You’re not a part of this anymore.” I winced inwardly, but before I could say anything in self-defense, we were interrupted.
“Hello! Who’s there?” my grandmother’s voice called from downstairs. “I don’t recognize that car, so if you’re robbing us, you should know that I’m armed.”
“And that would be my grandmother,” I said with a sigh. “I knew we wouldn’t have long.” I got up and called downstairs. “It’s just me, Granny. I’ve got a friend visiting.”
“That Indian girl from the motel?”
“No, Granny, a friend is visiting from out of town.” I gestured to Owen, and he got up and followed me downstairs. “Granny, I’d like you to meet Owen. He’s here visiting me from New York. Owen, this is my grandmother, Mrs. Callahan.”
Owen tried to shake her hand in greeting, but she braced both her hands on the top of her cane and gave him a good, long stare. “With coloring like that, you must be Irish,” she said. “It’s good to see someone from the old country.”
I bit my tongue before I echoed my mother’s usual reminder that she’d never been to the old country, but I figured her Texas accent—she hadn’t yet gone to Lucky Charms land—was clue enough for someone as smart as Owen. “I’m not entirely sure what my heritage is,” he said. “I suppose there could be some Irish.” Owen actually didn’t have the slightest idea who he was. He’d been orphaned young and didn’t know anything about his parents. I didn’t know the whole story, but I pictured him as a baby left in a basket on the front steps of a church. That’s the way it always happened in books.
“Ah, you’re Irish, I’m sure of it. I think you may even have a touch of the magic running through your veins.” And there she went into the land of marshmallow stars and clover. “I’d guess you often see the wee folk, as well.” She tapped the corner of her eye with a gnarled finger. “I can tell, I can.
They say I have the Sight.”
“Mother, you’re not telling those stories to Owen, are you?” My mother’s voice came from the kitchen. She then appeared in the living room. “Mama, would you mind making us some coffee? I’m sure Owen could use a pick-me-up after making such a long trip.” Granny gave Owen a long, searching look before she wandered back into the kitchen. Mom then dropped her voice to a whisper and said, “Don’t let her fool you. She’s never been outside Texas. We are of Irish descent, but everything she knows about the old country, she learned from watching movies. And if she has the Sight, well, then it’s got cataracts on it as bad as the ones she had on her eyes.”
“She’s very seldom right,” I agreed, but she had been right about Owen having magic in him. Had she actually seen that, or was it more of her usual blatherings?
“Now, if you’ll excuse me,” Mom said, “I need to start getting things ready for dinner. I’ve invited the whole family over to get to know you better.”
It looked like getting time to investigate—let alone time to work out whatever was going on with us—was going to be a real challenge.
F ortunately, Owen didn’t react in the way I wanted to, which was to run screaming from the house.
He also didn’t react in the way I halfway expected him to, which was keeling over in a dead faint.
Instead he said softly but with a firm undertone to his voice, “That’s very nice of you, Mrs. Chandler, but I was looking forward to catching up with Katie tonight.” With that he put his arm around me, proving finally that he was here for real and wasn’t just a cloud of magical mist. Oh yeah, he was definitely real and very solid, and I wanted even less to spend the evening with the entire family. I’d forgotten just how good it felt to have his arm around me.
Mom faltered. “Oh. I suppose I could see that. Yes. I’m sure you’re tired from traveling, anyway.
You already met the whole family. I should let you rest before you have to keep them all straight.
You two go on and have fun catching up.”
“Thank you for being so understanding. Now, I think I’ll go finish unpacking, and then I’d like Katie to show me around the town.” With his arm still around me, he steered me back toward the stairs.
