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He started to get up, but Rod stopped him with a hand on his arm. “Maybe you’d better leave this to Sam and his team. I don’t think you want to be anywhere near that dragon right now.” He gestured with his chin behind us, and I saw someone wearing all black coming down the steps a few sections over. It looked like the Council was here.
19
“Oh, great,” I said, turning away from the Council people in the vain hope that maybe they wouldn’t notice us if they didn’t see my face. “Now you’ll get caught and maybe blamed when you try to stop the next thing that happens.”
“Will the bad guys bother doing anything else, since we stopped the dragon?” Nita asked. “We did stop the dragon, right? I mean, you stopped the dragon. The rest of us didn’t really do anything.”
“It was a team effort,” Owen said over his shoulder to Nita, who smiled.
“Turn around,” I muttered to Owen. When he was no longer facing the Council people, I added, “The dragon’s asleep in the outfield, and the gargoyles have it covered. And would you give up so easily? After all they’ve done, I don’t think they’re just going to shrug and walk away now.”
“Don’t you have a good idea who’s doing this?” Gemma asked. “If we could find and distract that person, that should stop the hijinks. And you’d catch her red-handed.”
“Find her? In this crowd?” I asked, gesturing to the stadium.
“We should be able to follow the magic,” Owen said.
“Oh. Right. I’m sure she’s using plenty of it. I could probably sense it, but I’ll have to get away from y’all while you’re doing spells to counter what she’s doing.”
I got up and edged down the row. Nita followed me, saying, “We?
??re a team, right?”
Owen also got up. “Uh uh, you stay here,” I said, holding up my hand in a “stop” gesture.
“I won’t let her enchant me again,” he protested.
“Yeah, but if the magic’s coming from her, and if you’re nearby when the enforcers trace it back there, it won’t look good for you. You stay here and keep an eye on that dragon,” I said.
Instead, Jake joined us. “I’m bored with the game, anyway,” he said with a shrug as he climbed over Philip.
Nita gave him an uncharacteristically shy smile. “Hi, I’m Nita. I’m Katie’s friend.”
“Jake. Owen’s assistant.”
“So, you’re a wizard, huh?” Was she batting her eyelashes? Now?
“Yeah, but I’m also in a band.”
“Oh?”
“Come on,” I said, urging them along. “You can flirt later.”
“I wasn’t,” she said, at the exact time he said, “I’m not.” They both laughed. I herded them up the steps to the concourse. There, I paused, trying to feel where the magic was strongest. It was pretty obvious, and I hurried to my right. We’d barely made it to the next aisle when we ran into Mack, the Council enforcer.
“I’m almost afraid to ask what you’re up to,” he said, sounding weary. “But I shouldn’t be surprised to see you here. You’re always around when there’s trouble.”
“That’s because dealing with trouble is my job,” I said. “And before you say anything, Owen’s not responsible for the stuff going on here. He’s stopping it.”
“I didn’t say anything. You notice I’m not going after him.”
As a matter of fact . . . “Where are you going, then?” I asked.
“There are three big sources of magic around here right now: your friends back there in the stands, the gargoyles on the field around the dragon, and something in this direction. As you said, your friends and the gargoyles seem to be cleaning things up rather than causing problems, so I’m going to check out this lead.”
“Great minds think alike,” I said. “That’s what we’re doing.”
He resumed walking. “Well, come on.”
