Owen nodded. “That’s good to hear. I wasn’t looking forward to being a fugitive.”
I smiled more than the joke was probably worth, but it was good to see his dry sense of humor returning.
“Did you have any particular plans for the future?” Merlin asked him.
Owen shrugged. “I haven’t really thought about it. I know immunes are rare enough that you still need me, but I’m not sure I’d want to work in Verification.”
“Believe me, you don’t,” I muttered.
“Yes, magical immunes are rare, but what you are is unprecedented,” Merlin said. “I have not known of a magical immune who was fully trained as a wizard, and that may be incredibly valuable. You see, we have in our vaults some magical works that are so potentially dangerous that we cannot allow anyone with any magical ability to so much as read them. But you have the expertise to decipher them and understand what they might mean, with no risk of accidentally enacting any of the spells they contain.”
He’d said words more magical than any spell. Owen’s eyes lit up. “You mean the Codex Ephemera?” he asked breathlessly. “I thought that was just a legend. And you want me to read it?”
“If you are interested.”
“If I’d known we had that, I might have wiped out my powers ages ago.” He gave a wry half smile. “And that might have saved me a lot of trouble.”
“I will take that as a yes,” Merlin said with twinkling eyes. “Take some time off, and when you’re ready to come back to work, report to the vaults.”
That afternoon, Owen and I walked down to the park by the river. “You seem to be feeling better about life,” I said. “Are you going to be okay—with all of it? Your parents, the magic thing, and all?”
He settled his arm around my shoulders, and I leaned into him. “Yeah, I think I’ll be okay,” he said after a while. “My parents were who they were. I can’t change that. The magical world won’t ever see my mother as anything but a villain, but at least I know what she did. As for the power loss…” He shrugged and sighed. “That’s taking some getting used to. It may not be permanent. With time, the power could come back.”
“On the bright side, they can’t accuse you of being a magical supervillain when you’re immune to magic,” I said.
“No, and I can read things that are too dangerous for magical people to read. I could contribute a lot to our knowledge of magic.” He glanced down at me, then smiled, “And I’ll get to see the way the world looks to you.”
“So you are going to be okay?”
There was a long pause, and then he said, “Yeah, I think so.”
“If you’re looking for more bright sides, they can’t make you take the lead if there are any more magical threats. But then again, that didn’t exactly help me, so maybe you’re still stuck with being a hero.”
He laughed and squeezed my shoulders. “Have I said thank you?”
“For what?”
“Where do I begin? For being a big help, for believing in me, for giving me a swift kick when I needed it.”
I turned within the circle of his arm to face him and put my arms around his neck. “Any time.”
“You mean the kicking part?”
“I mean all of it.”
He bent to kiss me, gently at first, and then more ardently. When he broke the kiss, he whispered in my ear, “I know the circumstances were a little crazy when I said it the first time, but I meant it. I love you.”
I kissed him, then said, “And I know I was yelling at you when I said it the first time, but I meant it. I love you, too.”
We stood like that for a long time, our arms around each other and my head resting on his shoulder. Then he said, “I did say that we’d go away somewhere when all this was over, and it does seem to be over.”
“Yeah, it’s over. So, any vacation ideas? I mean, other than that motel in the Poconos. I don’t think they’ll let us come back.”
“There’s this library in an old abbey in Wales I’ve always wanted to visit…”
I laughed and kissed him. You could take the magic out of Owen Palmer, but I didn’t think anything would ever really change him. And I was just fine with that.