I went to the green room to check on Owen and found him pacing nervously. He’d cleaned up and changed clothes, so now he looked like the professional he was, but he also looked like he might bolt given the first opportunity. “Do I really have to do this?” he asked me, his voice sounding strained and not too steady.
“Well, considering that you have to represent Research and Development because your boss is a giant frog and refuses to go out in public, and considering that you’re the one who tamed the dragons, yeah, you really have to do this. Now, take a deep breath and settle down.”
He closed his eyes and took a few long, shuddering breaths, then shook his head. “No, that didn’t work. I can’t talk.”
“You do it in meetings all the time. This is just a really big meeting.”
His eyes went wide and panicky. “But there are a lot of people in there, and they’ll all be staring at me. A lot of them may even think I’m the big magical criminal.”
“Only the ones dumb enough to listen to rumors. Once the dragons come on, they’ll all forget you’re even there.” That didn’t seem to make him feel much better. It was time for tough love. “Look, Owen, this isn’t the time for a shy attack. The way the lights are, you won’t be able to see most of the audience.”
I grabbed his shoulders and pulled him close to me so I could look him directly in the eye. “I’m going out there to sit in the front row, where you should be able to see me, and I want you to give this presentation to me. I’m the only person in the audience, and I will like you no matter how it goes. Can you do that?”
He took another deep breath and let it out slowly. “Yeah, I can do that.”
“I know you can. I’ve seen you take on things a lot scarier than that crowd.” We stood there for a while, our eyes locked, and I wasn’t sure if I was picking up on his stage fright or if something else was going on, but my heart pounded and my mouth went dry. As I looked into his eyes, I decided it wasn’t stage fright on my end. It was the dizzying realization that I was in love with this guy. I was about to tell him, with the hope that would distract him from his fear, when Hartwell’s voice came from the stage, introducing Owen. I stood on tiptoes and gave him a quick, hard kiss. “Now go knock ’em dead.”
I went into the auditorium and found an empty seat, front and center, just as Owen came on stage. He froze at first, and his voice was soft when he started talking, but once he found me in the front row, he gained confidence and sounded more normal. Then he really got going as he forgot about the crowd and focused on his favorite thing to do: geek out about the science of magic.
Soon, he had the audience eating out of the palm of his hand, and there was little wonder. Take an incredibly good-looking guy with next to no ego and a passion for his subject matter, and you’ve got a captivating speaker. “But enough talk. Now I’d like to show you something,” he said. “I don’t know how many of you have pets, but those of you who do probably know that making them behave can be a challenge. We’ve developed a way to make pet misbehavior a thing of the past. I know this works because it works on my cat—and if you have cats, you know exactly what that means.” That got him a laugh, and he grinned as he continued, “But it’s hard to do a proper demonstration on something as small as a cat, so I thought I’d show you just how effective this is.” The audience gasped audibly when he brought the dragons on stage.
The dragons went through their paces, playing fetch, rolling over, and even toasting a marshmallow on a stick. There was only one minor mishap involving a curtain that got accidentally set on fire, but Jake doused it immediately. I held my breath the whole time, nervous for Owen, but also worried that the Spellworks people would strike at any moment. I got a sense of tension from the audience, but it was hard to tell if it had anything to do with magic or was just because they were in the presence of real, live fire-breathing dragons. When Owen sent the dragons away and ended his presentation, the audience gave him a standing ovation.
Hartwell introduced Ramsay, who got an extended standing ovation and a roar from the crowd. Ramsay basked in the admiration until the applause died down long enough for him to give Merlin a long-winded introduction. The response to Merlin was more subdued, but more from awe than lack of enthusiasm. He talked about the founding of the company and the changes he’d noticed in magic since his return.
I glanced to the side and saw Owen come in one of the doors near the back of the auditorium. Although I had an empty seat next to me, he stayed near the exit, watching the crowd.