Shanna Swendson - Don't Hex with Texas

Owen shoved Dean down to sit on a wooden crate inside the barn, looming over him. “What were you trying to pull? Did you really think you could get away with it?” he yelled. I couldn’t help but wince and take a step backward. Owen almost never raised his voice.

“Get away with what?” Dean asked, trying—and failing—to look innocent. I recognized the tactic from childhood. He wanted to make sure he knew what our parents thought he’d done so he wouldn’t accidentally admit to something they didn’t know about yet.

I was about to list his crimes when Daisy, our old mare, stuck her head into the barn to see what the commotion was. Dean patted his leg in what I knew was a signal for her to come to him. He’d always been her favorite, and I guessed he thought he’d found an escape route. But Daisy went straight to Owen, nuzzling his neck in a way that made me just a little jealous. Dean took advantage of the distraction and jumped off the crate, running for the door on the side of the barn closest to the house.

Owen barely jerked his head and that door slammed shut. Before Dean could run for the other exit, Owen gave a hand signal and Daisy went to stand blocking the barn entrance. She pawed at the ground with a foreleg and her ears flattened against her head when Dean moved as though to run in her direction. Dean’s eyes bugged out, and I could see it dawning on him exactly what he might be dealing with in Owen.

He went back to the crate and took a seat, as though that had been what he had planned to do all along. “So, what is it you think I’ve been doing?” he asked.

I took a deep breath, then shouted, “What have you been doing? For starters, you’ve been freaking Mom out. What was up with all that dancing on the square wearing Teddy’s old Jedi robes?” I’d finally recognized the robes and realized where they must have gone. “And then panhandling?

Really? That was so tacky. Oh yeah, and the window at the motel. What was up with that?”

“But those are all minor,” Owen put in. “Pickpocketing and burglary, however, took things a step too far. Magic used to commit crime is automatically classified as dark magic, regardless of which forces you channel to carry it out. Influencing people to your benefit, as you were doing while panhandling, is more of a gray area, but crime is definitely over the line.”

All the color drained from Dean’s face. “How—how did you know?” he asked, his voice shaking.

“I watched you dancing around the courthouse,” I said. “And to think you were going to let them lock Mom up in the loony bin for reporting what she saw, when you knew all along that what she saw was for real. That was really low.”

“No one was supposed to see that. And Mom really was nuts about some of that stuff, like what she thought she saw Gene Ward doing. Everyone knows his dad has an account at the pharmacy.”

I refused to get sidetracked from his crimes. “I also saw you at the theater. You were the one who sent the snake illusion after Nita and me, weren’t you?”

“I was only having a little fun. It wouldn’t have hurt you.”

“Ask Nita if it was fun. I didn’t even see the snake.”

“You didn’t?”

“That’s why you shouldn’t play with things you don’t understand,” Owen said, pacing as he talked.

“For instance, did you know that there are people your magic doesn’t affect, who can see what you’re doing, no matter what spell you use to hide yourself? That might have been good for you to know before you made a public spectacle of yourself.”

Dean looked at me. “You?”

“Yeah, and Mom, too, only she doesn’t know it. And there’s a strong possibility that there are others in our family, too.” I turned to Owen. “Speaking of which, how is it that he’s magical when Mom and I are immune?”

“It’s not entirely unheard of. It all involves the same gene—the immunity is actually caused by a mutation of the magical gene, but then that itself becomes an inherited trait. It’s possible for both traits to exist in the same family. I’m not sure exactly how it works. Magical genetics isn’t my area of expertise.”

Although he’d answered the question I asked, my real question remained: How come my brother got to be magical? It was no fair. I thought I was the special one in the family with my magical immunity, and Dean had trumped me by having actual magical powers. But I kept my pouting to myself so I wouldn’t sound like a bratty baby sister.

“Who are you, anyway?” Dean asked. “I take it you’re not really here as Katie’s boyfriend. You’re here to track me down, right?”

“I’m here for a number of reasons,” Owen said neutrally, glancing at me. “One of which was to determine who was doing unauthorized magic in a place with no registered magic users. The timing of your magical activity in this location was highly suspicious, considering Katie’s position.”

Dean turned to look at me. “You’re mixed up in all this magic stuff?”

“At a very high level,” I said, trying not to sound like I was gloating about knowing more about magic than he did, even if he was the one with the powers. “It’s a long story, and I won’t get into all the details, but Owen and I both work for a company called Magic, Spells, and Illusions, Incorporated. Well, Owen does. I used to. You might think of it as the Microsoft of magic—they come up with and sell most of the spells used in the magical world. They needed me because of my magical immunity. There’s a rogue wizard out there trying to get darker spells into the market as our competition, and we’re—our company—trying to stop him. I had to come back here because he was targeting me in New York.”

“He’s the one running your magic school, and I came here to get to the bottom of it all,” Owen added.

“But that doesn’t get you off the hook. You’ve been using magic to commit crimes, and I can’t let that slide, no matter who you are.”

“And who are you?”

“I’m…” Owen’s voice trailed off, as though he wasn’t sure of the answer to the question. “I’m a fully trained and qualified wizard,” he said at last. “The kind of stuff you’re doing, I learned how to do by the time I was five. Of course, I didn’t apply it in quite the same way you have. Now I run the theoretical magic division in the research and development department at MSI. I study old spells and try to find ways to apply them to modern life, in addition to creating new spells for specific situations.

And I’m more or less leading our efforts to counter this rogue wizard, since he used to work with me and I know how he thinks.” I noticed that he left out the part where he was probably the most powerful wizard of his generation.

“What should we do with him?” I asked Owen. “We should probably turn him over to the police, but then that would require explaining how he committed the crimes.”

“Hey!” Dean protested. “How do you know I’m the one who robbed the stores? Maybe there’s another wizard around town.”

“You had all the stolen stuff in your house,” I reminded him.

“So, magic really doesn’t work on you?” he asked me, turning the subject away from his guilt. Then he raised his arms and chanted some mumbo jumbo. I felt the magic surround me, but as usual, it didn’t affect me a bit. I copped a casual pose, even yawned in mock boredom.

Owen let it go on awhile, then waved a hand. “Enough of that,” he said. I felt the magic die down.

“You don’t want to accidentally set the barn on fire with us in it.”

“You mean I could do that?”

“You have so little control over your power that you’re more likely to do the exact opposite of what you want than to actually accomplish anything. Now, where were we? Ah yes, we were explaining to you how stupid you were.”