Shanna Swendson - Don't Hex with Texas

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.