Merlin spoke fervently about the importance of using magic for good, and the crowd was totally with him. I felt like I was at an old-fashioned tent revival. I barely kept myself from shouting, “Amen!”
Then Merlin said, “You’re probably aware of our competition by now, and there are some things you should know about that company. The man who has served as the face of Spellworks has rejoined MSI, and he can tell you more about what their magical methods really mean. I am pleased to welcome Mr. Phelan Idris.”
That brought murmurs of surprise and some tentative applause. Someone had really managed to clean Idris up. He almost looked respectable in a nice suit. It may have been the first time I’d ever seen him in clothes that actually fit him. I held my breath as he started talking. “I’m a big one for fun and, let’s face it, mischief,” he began, and I relaxed as I recognized the opening line of the speech I’d written for him. “That was the reason I left MSI. I was creating spells that caused trouble, and those spells were the foundation for Spellworks.”
He was no orator. He sounded stiff and like he was reciting from memory, which he was, but at least he was more or less on script. “It does seem like every generation has someone rise up to challenge the status quo,” he went on, and that wasn’t in the script. I held my breath again. “I guess I was this generation’s one.” His smirk indicated that he was proud of that, and that worried me. “I’m not old enough to remember it, but some of you probably remember the last time we went through this, only it was a lot worse when the Morgans tried to take over the magical world. They used magic—raw power—to stop anyone who got in their way, and it took a lot of raw power to bring them down.”
Merlin, who’d taken a seat on stage during Idris’s speech, rose slowly to his feet when Idris went off-script, but he hesitated. Anything that looked like censorship at this point was bound to backfire. I had no idea what was coming, but my heart pounded in anticipation.
“What were their names? I think it was something like Kane and Mina. Yeah, that’s it, Kane and Mina. They were pretty young, even younger than I am now. Maybe that’s a phase particularly powerful wizards go through.” He smirked again and shrugged, like he was including himself in that group. “But the good guys destroyed the bad guys, and all was right with the world. There was just one loose end. One very tiny loose end. Like, a baby they left behind. Just think about the power that kid might have, with those parents, and with the amount of power Mina was channeling while she was pregnant. Didn’t you ever wonder what happened to that kid?”
The audience was spellbound. I wondered how Idris could possibly have all these details that weren’t in the histories, but given his interest in the darker side of magic, I supposed he was likely to dig up that kind of dirt.
“Believe it or not, he’s been among us all along, right in the heart of things, hidden by the so-called good guys, and totally trusted, in spite of who and what he is. You’d think as paranoid as these people are, they’d be more careful.” Merlin moved closer and closer to Idris, but Idris kept talking. “In fact, you saw him here tonight. Let’s see, what was that baby’s name? Why, I do believe it was Owen. Only, he doesn’t go by Owen Morgan these days.”
I felt like the floor fell out from under me. Instinctively, I turned to where I’d seen Owen last. He was standing with his back flattened against the door, his eyes wide, all the color drained out of his face.
“Yeah, that’s right, our Owen Palmer is the last remnant of the darkest magical days in recent memory.”
And from the look on Owen’s face, I knew it was news to him.
Chapter Fourteen
I jumped out of my seat and sprinted toward Owen. While I ran, Idris kept talking. “And it sounds like he’s up to his parents’ old tricks, since it seems like he’s always around whenever dark spells are used to commit a crime.” Then there was a yelp and a commotion from the stage. I turned to see Merlin stepping forward to grab the microphone while security guards went after Idris. The crowd muttered and mumbled, but so far they didn’t seem to be turning into a mob.
Owen was gone by the time I reached the doorway where he’d been standing, and I could hardly blame him for getting out of there. I ran through the outer assembly area, looking for him. Even if he’d gone invisible by veiling himself, I should have been able to see him, but he was nowhere in sight.
I tried the dragon enclosure, but Owen wasn’t there. I ran back to the assembly area, where people were pouring out of the auditorium. They entirely ignored Rina’s carefully arranged dinner buffets as they hashed over the announcement. From the bits and pieces I picked up, I got the impression that some had decided that MSI wasn’t to be trusted and that they’d known all along that Owen Palmer was up to no good. There were a few who scoffed at the accusations, and the MSI sales force was attempting damage control.