Owen walked with me away from the executive suite. “Is there some backstory I’m missing?” I asked him when we were out of earshot of the others.
“What do you mean?”
“Don’t tell me you didn’t notice the cold war between Merlin and Ramsay. I felt like I needed to put on a sweater, it got so icy in there.”
Owen frowned and tilted his head in thought. “It wasn’t that bad, was it? As far as I know, there’s no bad blood between them. Ramsay suggested we bring Merlin back, and he retired voluntarily.”
“You know, he would be ideally placed to indulge in a little industrial espionage,” I mused.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Katie,” Owen said, sounding truly annoyed as he came to an abrupt stop on a landing and faced me. “I know he can seem overbearing, but I’ve known him most of my life, and I’ve never had reason to doubt him. Ramsay’s not on the Council anymore, but he’s still really well connected.”
I backed off by changing the subject. “What is this Council, anyway?”
“The ‘law’ part of the magical law and order, assuming you consider the people doing the enforcement on the streets the ‘order’ part. The Council makes the rules about the use of magic and deals with violators.”
“Then where have they been all this time? They should have stepped in long before now instead of leaving it up to us.”
“It’s not quite the same as the mundane justice system. It’s hard to explain—it’s more like the United Nations and their enforcement of international law.”
“So they pass resolutions, but don’t do anything serious until it’s a crisis that leads to an international outcry?”
He gave a wry smile. “That’s pretty much it. MSI has always been the de facto ruling body of magic, in a practical sense, backed by the Council, and that mostly means they leave us alone until things are really bad, and then they get in the way.”
I groaned as we resumed walking down the stairs. “Maybe I should go back to Texas.”
“Only if I can come with you.”
“You wouldn’t be able to use much magic there.”
He held the stairwell door open for me. “Right now, I don’t care. I’d find something else to do. I’ve got money, and I’m good with the stock market.” His voice took on a dreamy quality, as though this was something he was seriously contemplating.
“But could you really leave everyone here to deal with all this? And that’s if you could even get away without it following you. Remember, I tried that, and it didn’t work.”
He sighed. “Of course not. It was just a thought. So I guess I’d better get back to work. We need to develop our own protective charms so it at least looks like we’re addressing the situation.”
“And we’ll need something to demonstrate or announce at the conference.”
He came to a dead stop in the middle of the hallway. “What?”
“The centerpiece of an event like that is usually a big announcement of something the company is launching, so there’s at least one thing everyone will be talking about. Do you have anything up your sleeve?”
His forehead creased as he thought. “Well, there’s a stain remover spell. I guess you could have some fun demonstrating that.”
“Only if you want to look like a magical laundry commercial. That’s it?”
“Some recipes using conjured ingredients, a few upgrades of earlier spells, adjusted to use less power or to last longer.”
“How about your dragon-taming spell?”
“Most people don’t have much use for that.”
“There are dragons living under the city, so you never know when it might be necessary,” I reminded him. “You could announce the threat—you know those legends about alligators in the sewer system? They’re not alligators! And then you announce the solution to it.”
“Those dragons aren’t really a threat.”
“Yeah, because you tamed them. You’re still checking on them and playing with them, aren’t you?”
He turned red enough that I was sure I could feel the heat radiating from his face. “I feel responsible for them. I’ve been researching dragon refuges to find a good home for them. I’d feel bad about using them for something like this.”
“Well, if you can’t give me something splashy, I might make you give a speech.”
All the color drained from his face. “I’ll see what I can come up with,” he said a moment later, his voice faint. “And that means I really have work to do.”
