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“Hey, where did you come from?” the person in line behind him shouted.
The line jumper turned, waved a hand, and the man’s shouts went silent. His date ran at the line jumper, but he repelled her with a wave of his hand. The onlookers gasped. It looked like we had another incident of public magic, right in front of us. This wouldn’t look good for Owen.
5
Several more people in line shouted protests about the line jumping and whatever had been done to the first person to complain, and soon we had the beginnings of a brawl. Owen instinctively moved to intervene in the scuffle, but I grabbed his arm and held him back. “No, don’t do anything that hints that you might be even thinking about using magic,” I told him.
He started to protest, but a bright flash of light interrupted him. It was followed by several more, from various angles—camera flashes. I wasn’t sure there was anything happening at the moment that would look truly magical when photographed, but I was glad that any pictures would show Owen standing well away, not doing anything that even remotely looked like performing a spell.
Rod and Philip were under less suspicion, and they moved to take action, but Marcia stood in front of them. “No, let’s handle this a better way,” she said. “Gemma?”
Gemma joined her. “Yeah, we’ve got this.” The two of them approached the scuffle. “Whoa, guys, what’s all this?” Gemma asked, tossing her hair over her shoulder and fluttering her eyelashes at the men.
“Yeah, what are you guys doing?” Marcia added.
The men turned to see a leggy brunette who could have been a model and an elegant blonde. In their current state of inebriation, the men didn’t seem able to concentrate on more than one thing at a time, and a man who’d tried to cut in line lost out to attractive women. “Huh?” one of the men said.
The guy who’d tried to cut started to object, but apparently realized that he was getting what he wanted. The others had forgotten to object to him stealing a place in line. For a moment, I worried that he’d try to continue the fight. He bounced around on the balls of his feet, like a sparring boxer, and I felt the magic power building as he prepared to strike. I rushed to get in between him and my friends, since if he attacked using magic, it would do me no harm. I wasn’t sure what he did, but I certainly felt the blast of magic hit me. I forced myself not to react. I imagined he must be wondering what went wrong, since he probably had no idea I was magically immune.
The other men in the line surely felt the magic, too, but since nothing had happened, they didn’t have anything to react to, and they were distracted by Gemma. She’d engaged them in conversation about the club, the band that was playing, and whether they were any good. I still noticed some camera flashes going off, but there wasn’t anything to take pictures of right now, just me standing still while a man faced me with his hands held in front of him.
The line jumper grew hot under the collar about being more or less ignored. That told me he was in this to make a scene, not to get into the club sooner. Clenching his fists, he summoned more power, and I felt another wave of magic hit from behind, where Rod, Philip, and Owen seemed to have put up some kind of magical shield. I couldn’t see them doing it. They all looked like they were just standing there, glaring at the troublemaker, but if you knew magic, you knew they were doing something.
The line began moving again, more smoothly now, and the guy had to decide if he wanted to get into the club or if he wanted to keep making a scene. He moved with the line, heading into the club. I made sure to get a good look at his face so I’d recognize him if I saw him again. He didn’t look at all familiar. He wasn’t someone I’d encountered at work or through any related magical activities. I wondered if any of the guys recognized him.
Once all the parties involved were inside, I asked, “Do we need to go in and make sure nothing else happens?”
“I figure it’s the club’s problem now,” Rod said.
“Should we alert the magical authorities?” Philip asked.
“Well, it was a public use of magic,” Owen said. “And we noticed it, so there could be trouble for us if we don’t report it.”
“On the other hand, it was pretty petty as magic goes, and here comes our car,” Rod said.
“Maybe we could call our security people, and they can take care of notifying the authorities,” I suggested as a compromise. I wasn’t taking any chances of Owen getting in trouble with the Council. Once we were in the limo, I called Sam and reported the situation and the location, along with a description of the magic user, in case Sam wanted to keep an eye on him. I figured that would satisfy the Council while keeping us from being entangled.
But I cared a lot less whether some loser used magic to cut in line at a nightclub than I cared how far the story had spread. I hoped that the nonmagical intervention would keep it from becoming a big story. It was hardly worth sensationalizing. Then again, I had a feeling that the guy had wanted to start a magical fight and had only backed down because his agenda would have been obvious if he got what he wanted and still kept fighting. That, combined with the possibility that one of the anti-magic people was hanging out in a magical club, was highly suspicious. Maybe it wasn’t just that people were noticing magic. Maybe magical people were trying to get noticed.
The next morning, I borrowed Marcia’s laptop and checked out the magic-watching blogs. The story was all over them. Most of the photos were blurry, and I was relieved to note that we didn’t show up in any of them. Nothing we’d done had been worth taking pictures of, at least not as proof that magic exists. One photo captured the moment the woman was pushed back. She looked like she was flying backward without anyone nearby seeming to have pushed her. It was rather iffy as proof of magic use went, but I could see where it might raise questions.
Marcia leaned over my shoulder to peer at the screen. “There are really people out there looking for magic?” she asked.
“Looks like it.”
“If I didn’t know they were right, I’d say they were crazy.”
“That’s what we’re counting on.”
“And it’s really bad for magical people to do stuff that normal people can see as magic?”
“Yeah. Their society is based on keeping magic a secret. Imagine what would happen if everyone knew magic worked, but only a certain group of people born with the power could use it.”
“Probably lots of fear and hate. A lot of people would think having magic was an unfair advantage and would try to find a way to eliminate it, I guess. There might be some trying to bribe, blackmail, or coerce magical people into working for them. So, yeah, I can see the point.”
“What I find interesting is that the people looking out for magic manage to report on every little incident.”
She sat across from me at the kitchen table, where I was working. “I suppose that is odd. Are there that many people looking for magic?”
