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She grabbed me by the upper arm. “Why don’t you and I go have a chat?” Her grip was tight enough that I didn’t think I could get away without making a scene.
I glanced across the crowd, looking for my friends. I saw them, but they weren’t looking in my direction, and there wasn’t much I could do to get their attention without Carmen noticing. “I need to get back to my friends,” I said.
“This won’t take long.” She stopped once we were out of earshot of her cameraman. “So, what gives? Are you the one sending me these press releases? Why are you always there when these things happen?”
“Bad luck?” I asked with a shrug. “Why do you think I went to that meeting? Weird stuff seems to happen around me. If you followed me around, you’d see all kinds of things.” Too late, I realized she might take that as a challenge, or an invitation, and we certainly didn’t need a reporter who was immune to magic following me around. That would be the best way to make the existence of magic public. “But, really, weird stuff happens all the time in this city, and most people don’t notice it. I notice it because I’m not from around here, and I don’t seem capable of developing the blinders everyone else in this city grows. You’ve been trained to look out for things that are out of the ordinary, and you probably had some natural curiosity that led you into your profession. It’s not so much that we’re around when weird things happen as it is that we notice the weird stuff.”
“Yeah, but I haven’t had people telling me about magic before.”
“I have no idea about that. Most people just tell me to mind my own business and stop acting like a tourist.”
She snickered, and I realized that I’d broken my personal vow not to outright lie. I knew magic was real and was surrounded by people who lived magic. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed people wearing black moving through the crowd. In New York, that wasn’t too odd, since just about everyone wore black, but there was a certain kind of blackness to this black attire that made it stand out. I was fairly certain that representatives of the magical Council were here, investigating public magical activity, and I was glad I’d sent Owen away. “Look, I really need to get back to my friends. We were just about to leave when you saw me.”
“You don’t know anything about this?”
“I wish I did,” I said, telling the absolute truth.
She released my arm. “Okay, then. But if you learn something, you’ll tell me?”
“Of course.” I hurried away before she could ask me anything else and returned to Rod and the others.
Nita was still scowling when I returned, looking at everything with a skeptical eye. I glanced at Rod, and he said, “It looks like the set is just about over. Want to go meet the band?”
Nita’s scowl turned to a grin. “Oh, yea
h! But you’re not off the hook.”
She got ahead of us on the way to the stage. “What did your reporter friend say?” Rod muttered softly to me.
“She wasn’t affected by the dancing, so I’m pretty sure she’s immune. And she’s getting really suspicious about me.”
The band stopped playing, but before they had a chance to disconnect their instruments from the sound system, men in black swarmed the stage, and I didn’t think they were roadies. “Oops, looks like the Council’s already after them,” Rod said.
“Then we should probably get Nita out of here. Mysterious men in black won’t make that discussion we’re going to have to have with her any easier.”
“I’m on it.” He caught up to Nita. “Looks like we’ll have to wait for that introduction. They’ve got some promoters talking to them.”
“Oh, we wouldn’t want to get in the way of that.”
I tried making meaningful eye contact with Gemma and Marcia because I suspected that we’d have to talk to the Council before this was over, and I didn’t want to have to do that in front of Nita. She knew too much right now, and not enough, all at the same time. “I think I saw a snow cone stand back there,” Gemma said. “Anyone else want to join me?”
“Ooh, yeah!” Marcia said. “Nita?”
“Yeah, okay,” Nita said. “Might as well, until we can talk to the band. Katie?”
“No thanks. Y’all go ahead.”
When they were gone, Rod and I hurried over to where the men in black were interrogating the band. I recognized Mack as one of the enforcers and relaxed a little—at least, until he spotted us and came over. “Why am I not surprised to see you here,” he said dryly. “What about Owen?”
I was tempted to lie and claim that Owen hadn’t been here, but it was a lie that would be too easy to prove wrong. “He left awhile ago, while the dance party was still going on. And he had nothing to do with it, in case you’re wondering.”
“I don’t think he had anything to do with it. That’s not his style. But you know what people are going to think.”
“We did see at least one former Collegium associate here,” Rod said. “Maybe they’re trying to get revenge after their operation was busted up.”
“That’s a possibility,” Mack acknowledged.
“And someone seems to be trying to expose magic to that TV reporter,” I added. “I think she’s an immune, so this could get tricky. Someone’s sending her news releases about magic being revealed, and then things like this happen. We may have to resort to bringing her in on the secret. At least that way we can somewhat control what she knows and get our point of view into it.”
