Don't Hex with Texas (4 page)

“I guess she didn’t find herself a husband when she was off in New York,” another one shouted from underneath a hair dryer hood.

“We thought at Thanksgiving that she was getting close,” Mom said, “but that didn’t work out. It was a real shame, too. He was a lawyer, and he had a Mercedes.”

“It wasn’t my idea to break up with him,” I muttered, then realized I’d admitted to being dumped, which wasn’t much better. I’d been the one to break things off with Owen, but as I’d never told anyone in my family about Owen in the first place, I had to keep my mouth shut about that.

“Well, you know, some girls are just unlucky at love,” the stylist said, giving me a pitying look. I wasn’t entirely sure if she was pitying my sad state of romantic affairs or my hair, which needed a good cut. That was something I wasn’t likely to find here, so a ponytail was fine for the time being. It was certainly better than a big-hair bouffant or tight sausage curls, the two specialties of the house.

Mom finally emerged with her very own bouffant, and I drove her to the doctor’s office a few blocks from the square. She was likely to get in with the doctor and then suddenly claim to be fine, so I insisted on accompanying her into the exam room. Dr. Charles had been my doctor when I was growing up, and I still couldn’t look at him without thinking of booster shots.

“What seems to be the problem, Mrs. Chandler?” he asked, looking at us over the top of his reading glasses.

“Oh, I’m just fine,” Mom said.

I knew it.
“She had a fainting spell a little while ago,” I said. “She passed out in the store and was out for several minutes. We thought it would be a good idea to have her checked out.”

“Hmm, yes, I would think so.” He went about checking her blood pressure and pulse, listening to her heart and lungs, and all those other little doctor tests. “Your blood pressure’s a bit low,” he said, “but otherwise you seem to be okay. Do you have any idea what might have brought on the spell? Did you have some kind of emotional shock?”

She looked at me, frowned, then looked back at the doctor. “I thought I saw something that gave me a bit of a start. Frank would say I let my imagination run away with me.”

“Well, fainting after a shock happens more often in movies than in real life, but it does happen. I’d suggest taking it easy for a while. Put your feet up and make all those boys wait on you. Let me know right away if it happens again.”

“I told you it wasn’t anything serious,” Mom said.

“Hey, better safe than sorry,” I replied. “Thank you, Doctor.”

“You were right to bring her in. It’s best not to take sudden unconsciousness lightly.”

Although the doctor had told Mom to make the boys wait on her, I knew exactly who’d be stuck with that thankless job. I could do paperwork at home or at the store, so we stopped by the store on the way home to let everyone know what the doctor had said and to pick up some things for me to work on. At home, I got Mom settled into her bed with some hot tea and a few magazines, but she stopped me before I could leave her room.

“You don’t really think I’m going crazy, do you, Katie?”

I gave her what I hoped was a reassuring smile. “Not any crazier than usual.”

“I swear, I
did
see all those things. It was almost like when we were in New York and it was so weird and wonderful. I just never expected to see anything like it here.”

“Maybe that trip made you better at seeing unusual things, so you notice them more now.”

She shook her head. “But then why didn’t I see these things until now?” With a nervous laugh, she added, “I wouldn’t be surprised if I am letting my imagination run wild. I mean, look at Mama. She’s not always entirely there, and I’m not sure she ever has been, what with all her talk about the old country and the wee folk, and all that. If I am crazy, I certainly come by it honestly. As they say, the nut doesn’t fall too far from the tree.”

It occurred to me right then that my grandmother might be magically immune. Owen had said that the trait was genetic. It would certainly explain a lot about some of the wild tales she told. She really might have seen wee folk and fairies. “I guess I’m doomed, then,” I told my mother.

“No, you’re my levelheaded one,” she said. “Who says the craziness is limited to women? It’ll be one of your brothers in your generation. You’re far too sane to take after your mother and grandmother.”

If only you knew,
I thought as I left her room.

Sherri showed up in mid-afternoon, probably to avoid other work while also taking advantage of a kissing-up opportunity. I left her with Mom so I could head back into town. If Mom’s mysterious cloaked man had been going after money from the morning commuters at the courthouse, he’d surely be there for the afternoon rush, and I wanted to see it with my own eyes. Before I left the house, I went up to my bedroom and unlocked my jewelry box. I ignored the tinny song it played and the ballerina that twirled when I opened the lid while I retrieved the item I needed.

Owen had given me the locket for Christmas, but it wasn’t the sentimental value I needed at the moment. Rather than being a significant piece of relationship jewelry, it was a magical tool. It amplified the sensation of magic in use so that I had more to go on than an ambiguous tingling sensation. I clasped it around my neck and tucked it under my T-shirt before taking Mom’s car downtown.

I found a parking space at one corner of the courthouse that allowed me to watch two sides simultaneously. The only people I saw were ordinary county workers in suits or business-casual clothes. No statues moved, no one wore robes, and no one behaved at all oddly—other than me, of course. Sitting alone in a vehicle in front of the courthouse for no apparent reason wasn’t exactly a normal way to spend the afternoon.

I was beginning to wish I’d stopped by the Dairy Queen for a malt on my way over when I saw something that made me do a double take. If I wasn’t mistaken, one of the Art Deco relief sculptures of a buffalo on the newest wing of the courthouse had moved its head. I blinked, trying to bring it into focus, but it went back to being just another sculpture. Staring at anything for too long after being out in the heat could make anyone think they were seeing things, I decided. My necklace hadn’t so much as trembled, so it probably wasn’t magic. Of course it wasn’t magic, I reminded myself. This was Cobb, not New York. We didn’t have magic here.

I got out of Mom’s car to walk around, hoping the fresh air would clear my head. It was hard to tell what on the courthouse really belonged there and what might be new or unusual, considering what a mishmash of architectural styles it was. Different parts had been built in different eras, with the older parts remodeled in odd ways over the years, so that there were Gothic gargoyles perched on Art Deco arches. I remembered all the lectures from junior high art class when we’d taken field trips to sketch the courthouse. Too bad I didn’t still have those drawings, I thought. They’d have helped me be more sure of what I was seeing.

At the far side of the courthouse, near the gazebo that was part of the Civil War memorial, I saw a figure that didn’t seem to belong. He wore a rough, hooded robe that made him look more like a Jedi Knight than like a wizard. Then again, I hadn’t ever seen any wizards wearing robes, except at a costume party. Even Merlin wore business suits these days. I hid behind a crepe myrtle bush to watch him.

He danced around, waving his arms, and I thought I heard something that might have been chanting, though I was too far away to hear it clearly. He was certainly putting out more effort than I ever saw from the wizards I knew. They usually just waved a hand and muttered a few words to get what they wanted. My necklace hummed slightly against my chest, but it was perhaps the weakest response I’d ever noticed from it. After a while, the arms on the statue in front of the robed figure shivered, and the statue seemed to wake up. The robed figure then jumped up and down for joy. While he was jumping, the statue went back to its usual position and froze. I could hear his groan of frustration quite clearly when he noticed that.

The clock in the courthouse tower chimed five, and soon all the county workers came spilling down the front steps of the courthouse. The robed figure turned to face the sidewalk and waved his arms vigorously. My necklace shivered ever so slightly. Nobody seemed to notice that there was anything unusual happening. Every so often, one of the workers would go glassy-eyed for a second, and then he’d put some money on the ground in front of the robed figure before heading down the sidewalk. A few steps later, the worker would stumble, look disoriented for a second, and then go on his way.

I bit my tongue to keep myself from gasping out loud. I’d seen something like that once before, when Owen had tested one of Phelan Idris’s control spells.

I wouldn’t have believed if I hadn’t seen it for myself, but it looked like the least magical place on earth now had a town wizard.

M
y first impulse was to run at the wizard and tackle him to pull off his robes and uncover his identity, but I held back. His spells might not have been able to hurt me, but physical sticks and stones could break my bones. Not to mention the fact that assault and battery were considered crimes, and I was in the town square where both the county sheriff’s department and the city police department were housed. I didn’t think “but he was doing magic” would count as a valid excuse for an attack.

And then I realized that spying on the guy the way I was might not be the best idea, either. The wizard was definitely veiling himself and his activities from nonmagical people, judging from the lack of reaction to him. I had no such protection. Anyone who walked past would see me lurking around the courthouse grounds for no apparent reason. I guessed I could have approached him to talk to him and find out what his intentions were, but in case he wasn’t one of the good guys, I didn’t want to expose myself as a magical immune. That was my secret weapon, my ace up the sleeve. I’d need to know more before I could take any action.

A woman leaving the courthouse gave me a funny look, and I made a show of bending to examine a flowering bush. Then I smiled at her and said, “That new plant food we sold the county sure made the azaleas do well this year.” When she’d walked past, I turned back to see what the wizard was doing, but he was gone. I didn’t see a sign of him anywhere around the square. I somehow doubted he’d magically teleported away, given how weak his magic seemed to be, but he could have taken off his robes while my back was turned and blended into the flow of courthouse workers leaving for the day.

I made a circuit of the square, pausing to look at various plants I passed along the way so I’d have a good cover story for my strange behavior. Teddy did that kind of thing on a regular basis, so no one should have found it particularly odd for me to do it. Sometimes there are benefits to coming from a family known for its share of oddities. Finally convinced that I’d let my quarry get away, I headed to Mom’s car so I could drive to the feed store.

It proved to be empty of customers at closing time, but full of family. Even Dean was hanging around, leaning against the front counter. He had almost enough sweat beading on his forehead for me to imagine he might have done real work that afternoon. Mom and Sherri were the only ones not there. “Wow, did someone decide to throw a family reunion without letting me know?” I asked.

“We were talking about your mother,” Dad said solemnly.

“Mom’s fine. She just got a little overexcited.”

“It’s not the first time,” Molly said softly.

“She’s acting like she did in New York, when she kept talking about seeing things,” Dad added.

Of course she’d seen things in New York. She was magically immune and in a place full of magical people. “Well, New York can be weird,” I quipped. “You don’t really think she’s crazy, do you?”

I looked around at the others, who all appeared deeply concerned. Even Beth was frowning, and she was usually the most optimistic one in the bunch. “We’re worried that she might be putting her health at risk,” Teddy said, putting an arm around his wife. “That fainting spell today wasn’t a good sign.”

“So, what are you proposing we do?” I asked. “Put her away somewhere?”

Dad shook his head. “No, not that, not yet. But it might be good for her to get some professional help. They could find out what’s wrong with her and do something to make her better.”

The funny thing was, the treatment they’d give her probably really would make her better. That’s because antipsychotic medications tended to have a dampening effect on magical immunity. If they put Mom on drugs, she’d stop seeing things, one way or another. It would certainly make life easier for the family, but would it be good for Mom? With a possible magical war brewing, I liked the idea that magic couldn’t be used against my mother. Most of the danger I’d gotten into had been during times when my immunity had been altered. Plus, there were side effects to long-term use of drugs like that, and I didn’t like the idea of her taking them when she wasn’t really sick.

“That still sounds a little extreme considering that she’s just had a few bouts of flightiness,” I insisted. “Heck, Granny’s been talking about the wee folk for years, and we haven’t drugged or committed her.”

Beth crossed the room to take my hands in hers. “Katie, I know it’s hard to think this way about your mother, but we really do have to consider what’s best for her.”

Under other circumstances, I’d have been the first to admit that Mom could be a bit on the crazy side, but that was just her personality. Now I knew for a fact that Mom was most definitely not crazy, that everything she’d seen had been real. Unfortunately, it was impossible for me to explain that Mom wasn’t crazy without sounding even crazier than she did. It’s one thing to announce that you’ve seen something odd. It’s another entirely to say that you know exactly what the odd thing was and that it really was magic.

“We’re not talking about shipping her off to the state hospital tomorrow,” Dad said. “We just want to keep an eye on her for the next few weeks and make sure she’s okay.”

“She’s probably a little overtired and stressed-out,” Beth said reassuringly, giving my hands a squeeze. “A week or so of rest, and she’ll be right back to normal.”

She most definitely would be, if I could do anything about it. “Okay,” I agreed. “Two weeks, and then we’ll discuss this again. And now, I probably ought to catch up on some work while Sherri’s watching Mom.” The circle split up as everyone headed off to their respective jobs to close the store down for the night. Fortunately, no one followed me to the office. I didn’t need an audience for what I was about to do.

There was only one way I could ensure that Mom stopped seeing things that would make her sound crazy, and that was to deal with the magic. Magic wasn’t normal around here, and I was pretty sure my former boss would want to hear about the situation. Making life easier for Mom would be a bonus.

With one last look over my shoulder, I picked up the phone and dialed my old office. It was after business hours in New York, but my boss had a way of knowing when something was going on, and since he lived in the office building, there was a chance he’d still be around.

Sure enough, a deep voice answered the phone after one ring. “Hello, Katie. It’s good to hear from you.” When I’d first met Merlin, he’d had an indecipherable accent, but at the time he’d only recently been awakened from a long magical hibernation and had just learned modern English. Yes, I mean
that
Merlin, the one from Camelot. He’s my boss—well, former boss. His accent had faded considerably in the time I’d been gone. He barely sounded foreign anymore. “Now, what seems to be the trouble?”

I checked over my shoulder one more time before launching into the whole story about the wizard on the courthouse square. “And now the family thinks Mom is crazy. I can’t let her be medicated or locked away when I know that what she’s seeing is real. Are there even supposed to be wizards in this area?”

“There are none I’ve heard of. I shall have to check with the regulatory body to see if one has registered. I do, however, find it very suspicious that one has appeared in your hometown at this time.”

“Do you think Idris and his gang figured out where I am and followed me to stir things up? That was exactly what I was trying to prevent by leaving New York, you know.”

“We don’t yet have enough information to know, but we should at least investigate. Given our ongoing problems with rogue magic, I would prefer to be safe rather than sorry.”

“Thank you. I had a feeling this was something you’d want to hear about. So far, this guy doesn’t seem to be doing anything all that dangerous other than stirring up Mom and maybe bilking the courthouse workers out of a dollar or two. I guess I’m mostly worried because his spells look awfully familiar, like the type of spells Idris has been trying to sell. At the very least, it might tell us if he’s going after a national market.”

Idris had once worked for MSI but was fired for spending too much time developing ethically questionable spells. He’d then gone into business for himself marketing those same spells out of back-alley shops, and we’d managed to put a stop to that by making sure he couldn’t sell anything he’d developed as an MSI employee. He’d made a comeback with some serious financial backing, this time selling a wider variety of spells, but still focusing on the kind of magic MSI avoided, like using magic to influence others for personal gain.

“I will send someone to investigate as soon as possible,” Merlin said.

“Great!” And then because I couldn’t resist, I added, “And how are things going otherwise? Any new developments?”

“Mr. Idris is being his usual elusive self. We have had no new encounters since you left, which has made it difficult to make much headway.”

“Maybe all I need to do is stay out of town and you won’t have any trouble at all,” I grumbled.

“I hardly think that is the case. He and the people he apparently answers to have likely been working on something new that will surprise and confound us, as always.”

“Oh. Well, keep up the good work.”

After I got off the phone with Merlin, I got online to check airline schedules, just out of curiosity. If whoever Merlin sent took half an hour or so to wrap things up at the office, he could be home within an hour. He might need half an hour to pack, and then it could take at least an hour to get to LaGuardia at this time of day. That is, if he used normal transportation. Magical folk had other means of travel at their disposal, things like teleporting or using flying carpets, but I decided to estimate on the safe side. I looked for flights within a couple of hours of that time and saw that there were several options throughout the evening. They arrived at the Dallas–Fort Worth airport very late at night, and then it was about a two-hour drive to get here.

I forced myself to stop creating a mental itinerary before I drove myself crazy. I had no idea how big an emergency they considered this to be. Nobody was going to rush straight to the airport and hop a plane just because I’d called with a report of odd things going on in a small, out-of-the-way town. Besides, I doubted it would be the person I most wanted them to send. Why would they send one of their top guys to check on a little bit of amateur wizardry in a backwater like this? Owen would be in New York, heading up the overall efforts, not running off to Texas to put out minor fires. They probably had specialists for dealing with new wizards in unexpected places. And did I really want to see him, anyway?

Well, yeah, I did want to see him. I got a flutter in my chest just thinking about it. The question was, would seeing him be a good idea? I was able to feel noble and stoic for my brave decision to walk away from a man I was falling in love with in order to further the greater good. If I saw him again, it might not be so easy to be noble. There was also always the chance that he didn’t want to see me. I had no idea what he thought about what I’d done, whether he understood or was angry. So I guess that made Owen both the person I most and least wanted to see.

I held my breath all morning at the store the next day, and I nearly jumped out of my skin every time I heard the front door open. It was entirely possible that whomever Merlin had sent could be here by now. But each time, it was only a customer. I spent more time in the front of the store than I usually liked to; I was far too edgy to stay in my office.

By lunchtime, I’d come to the conclusion that a watched pot never boiled, so the surest way to make the person from MSI show up would be to take off for a while. I picked up lunch at the Dairy Queen, then went over to the motel to eat with Nita. She was sitting behind the front desk, her nose buried in a pink book with a martini glass on the cover. She jerked to attention when the bell on the front door jingled as I entered. “What brings you here?” she asked.

“I needed a break from my crazy family,” I said, in all honesty. “Sometimes I worry that I’ll get caught up in the madness and become just as bad as they are.”

She groaned. “Tell me about it. You should have seen the ceremony my mom did this morning. Incense, chanting, all that.”

I thought the room smelled different—not the usual scent of surface cleaner and pine air freshener. “Why? What happened?”

“My dad watched the security tapes from the other night, when the window vanished. There wasn’t anyone on there for half an hour before and after the time I’m pretty sure I heard something. The tape’s too grainy to tell exactly when the window went away. Of course, Mom had a big freak-out. I actually think the time on the security camera is off. It didn’t get set for Daylight Savings Time a few years ago, and it hasn’t been right since, but she’d prefer to believe there were evil spirits.”

“Your mom and my mom must be drinking the same Kool-Aid,” I said as I joined her on her side of the counter. “My mom’s become convinced that there’s something very odd going on in town.” Never mind that she was right. It was her enthusiasm for finding oddities—and the possibility that it would get her into trouble—that worried me. And now I wondered if the missing window might have something to do with our town wizard.