Enchanted Ever After (Enchanted, Inc. 9)

Merlin—yes, the Merlin from the King Arthur stories—greeted me. “Ah, there you are, Katie,” he said. “Come have a seat.” He didn’t sound too upset or angry, so I probably wasn’t in trouble. I took a seat next to Owen and glanced at him to see if he knew what this was about. He gave me a barely perceptible “I have no idea” shrug.

“We have one more person joining us,” Merlin said, “but I think we should talk before he arrives. I’m sure you noticed the incident yesterday not far from here.”

“You mean the flying city bus?” I asked.

“Yes, that would be the one in question.”

“We didn’t have anything to do with it,” I said.

“And we don’t know who did,” Owen added. He sighed. “But security footage showed me there, so of course I’m under suspicion. Is that it?”

Merlin’s genial expression faded. “I’m afraid so. I’m sure it’s a formality, but they do have to investigate.”

“Even if he did it, he saved a life, so it’s not exactly evil,” I said.

“We all know that’s not the point,” Merlin said.

“My guys who were on duty at the time thought the magic came from the other side of the street,” Sam put in. “We’re still looking at footage to see if we recognize anyone there.”

“That’s where the people who were talking about it and calling attention to it were,” I said. “Yeah, they were the ones with the best view, so obviously they’d talk about it if they saw it, but it makes me wonder if whoever did it wanted it to be seen and noticed.”

“But why would a magical person want to be noticed like that?” Owen asked. “I can understand forgetting yourself in a crisis, but this was rather ostentatious. I can think of a dozen easier and less obvious ways to have resolved that situation. In fact, I was preparing to use one of them when that other person acted.”

“And what way was that, Mr. Palmer?” a voice said from the doorway.

The door was behind us, so Owen and I had to turn to see a bland, business-suited man entering Merlin’s office. I thought I was reasonably nondescript, of average size and coloring, but I was striking compared to this guy. His hair wasn’t quite blond, gray, or brown, but somewhere in the middle. There was nothing distinguishable about his features. I felt my eyes sliding off him, like there was nothing to focus on, and it couldn’t have been a “don’t notice me” magical spell since magic doesn’t work on me. It was like he’d been bred in a lab that produced mid-level bureaucrats.

“Jabez Jones, from the Council’s Magical Activities Department.” He introduced himself as he approached the table and took the seat next to Merlin. “And it seems you’re already aware of why I’m here.”

“We were witnesses to an incident of public magical use yesterday,” Owen said. His voice was even, but spots of color blooming on his cheeks gave away his emotions.

“Hmmm. Witnesses. Possibly. At least, Miss Chandler here was a witness, since it doesn’t seem she currently has the power to do that sort of thing.” He glanced up at me over rimless glasses—I hadn’t even realized he was wearing glasses. “Or do you? It’s so hard to keep track.”

“I’m immune to magic. No power to do anything, but nothing works on me,” I confirmed. “But I can sense magic in use, and I know Owen didn’t do anything yesterday.”

“Hmmm. But you were saying as I arrived that you would have done something,” Jones said, turning to Owen.

“I was considering it, since I can’t in good conscience watch someone be killed when I’m capable of saving him. Levitating a bus was a waste of power and wouldn’t even have occurred to me as a solution. It would have been easier and less showy to just speed him up a little bit so that he was out of the way. He might not have even noticed that he was walking faster. I might also have tried slowing the bus, putting it in a time bubble, but that’s a little more intricate a working and would have required more time than I had.”

“Did you see who did the spell?”

Before Owen could answer, Sam said, “The magical force seemed to come from the other side of the street, which makes sense if Katie here couldn’t sense it. Magic doesn’t work on her, but she’s got a real nose for it. We’re lookin’ into who might have been doing anything over there.”

“Hmmm,” Jones said again, and that tic was already getting under my skin. Every time he did it, I wanted to kick him in the ankle. “And it seems like Miss Chandler was present for another public magic incident this weekend.”

“I was in the vicinity, but not close enough to identify anyone involved in it. I was minding my own business, shopping for a wedding gown.” I didn’t know how much Merlin wanted me to tell this guy, but I decided not to say anything more unless one of my superiors brought it up. This Jabez Jones guy rubbed me the wrong way. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the magical Council. They only seemed to show up to cause more problems after the MSI team had dealt with a situation.

“Hmmm. Interesting coincidence, though.”

I balled up my fists under the table and hooked my feet under the base of my chair so I wouldn’t be tempted to act on the urge to kick.

“Totally unrelated incidents,” Sam said. “One was people getting emotional, the other was someone not havin’ time to think. It happens when people have power they don’t know how to use.”

Jones raised an eyebrow, momentarily making his face moderately interesting. “You think this is all due to an untrained, undiscovered wizard?”

Sam shrugged, making his wings rise with his shoulders. “That’s just one possible explanation that we’re considerin’. It has happened before. Someone realizes they can do crazy things, has seen one superhero movie too many, and goes around doing stuff like making buses fly. If that’s the case, then we need to track this per

son down and bring him into the fold.”