“It was a thought,” Marcia said with a shrug.
My shoulders sagging from weariness and futility, I turned to head home and ran smack into Idris.
“You!” we both said simultaneously. I hurried to grab his wrist before he could run, and Marcia grabbed his other arm. “I ought to knock your lights out,” I said.
He smirked. “For what? Telling the truth?”
“Truth? What truth? Do you even have any proof, or were you just parroting what Ramsay told you?”
He froze in shock. “How did you know that?”
“How else would you have known about Owen? You would have been a toddler when all that happened, and there aren’t any records about Owen’s identity in the company. Besides, it became pretty obvious when Ramsay announced he was taking over Spellworks.”
“He what?” Idris shrieked.
I couldn’t hold back a laugh. “You mean, you didn’t know? His whole scheme was to get you to stir up trouble, and now he’s swooping in and taking over, probably shoving you to the curb because your name’s as tainted as Owen’s. You’re too associated with the bad spells they’re now selling protection against and you spoke out against Spellworks. I don’t think he’ll welcome you back.”
“Ah, but didn’t you hear? I was falsely accused by MSI. It was all a cover-up by Owen, who was hiding his own evil schemes by blaming me, and they forced me to speak against Spellworks. But now the truth is out, and, you know, if something happens to Merlin, we’ll know who has evil in his blood and probably decided to take out his biggest rival.”
I tightened my grip on Idris’s wrist and dug in my fingernails. Now I really wished I had Sam’s talons. “Oh, really?” I said. “Is that the plan, take out Merlin and blame Owen? Then I suppose Ramsay will deal with Owen and look like a big hero.”
Idris gasped and tried to back away. I got the feeling he wasn’t supposed to have shared that.
“When’s this murder supposed to take place, huh?” I demanded, tightening my grip to the point I was probably drawing blood. “Because Owen was arrested today.”
“You never know what might happen when a desperate criminal tries to escape.”
The burst of panic that shot through me then was so strong I couldn’t come up with a snappy response. Could they possibly know that Merlin was seriously considering helping Owen escape? Where was Sam? Had he sent someone yet? Although Idris couldn’t use magic on me, I didn’t think Marcia and I were physically capable of subduing him and bringing him in on our own, and I was worried what he’d do to Marcia if he bothered to notice her.
“You must really hate Owen if you were willing to give up a salary,” I said, hoping that would distract him from casting a spell on Marcia or from trying to escape.
“What do you mean?”
“As I recall, the deal you made with Merlin when they decided to let you speak means any money you make from Spellworks will just vanish,” I reminded him. “And in case you were wondering, that clause was Ramsay’s idea. Your boss was setting you up. If things went wrong, then you were the one left to look bad, and you don’t even get anything out of it.”
He closed his eyes and groaned. “Oh, damn. I forgot about that.”
“If you come with us, I’m sure we could work something out,” I said. “What’s the point of sticking with the bad guys when you don’t get anything out of it?”
A flash of terror crossed his face. “I can’t. I won’t,” he stammered as he started shaking. He looked like a person trying to fight a compulsion—or else like a bad mime attempting to do the “walking against the wind” routine.
That’s when I realized what had to be going on with him. “He put the whammy on you!” I said. “Ramsay’s got you under a compulsion of some kind, right? He was using one of those attraction or charisma spells—” I barely cut myself off before adding “like Rod used to use” in Marcia’s presence “—on everyone else, so of course he’d have you under a spell. You really couldn’t tell us who you were working for. It wasn’t all just an act.”
“Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop,” he whimpered, moving his arms like he wanted to put his hands over his ears, but Marcia and I hung on and kept his hands down.
“We can help you,” I said. “Now that we know about it, we could break the spell. You could help us beat him, and then you’d be free.”
He gave a scream of fury and lunged away from me, but I refused to let go even as he tried to wrench his arm from my grasp. My purse slid off my shoulder and I couldn’t get it out of the way without releasing him.
