Magic Ain't a Game

by P. D. Workman

  “You’re not in the underworld.”

  “But maybe it could bind me here.”

  “Aren’t you already bound to this world?”

  Eventually, Julian nodded. He helped himself to a bear claw. “This… nice of your godfather to supply all of this food.”

  “He can be handy to have around.”

  Julian ate a few bites of the bear claw before sitting down and trying to clear more space for himself and his yellow legal pad.

  “You remember meeting him before?” Reg asked.

  His pale complexion had returned to normal, but at Reg’s question, he flushed.

  “I… don’t know. Maybe. It was a long time ago, and we were just kids. I’m not always sure what I remember from back then and what I’ve just made up to fill in the holes.”

  “Yeah.” Reg nodded. “I just try to forget all that stuff.”

  “That stuff?”

  “Foster care. Anything else… unpleasant from when I was a kid. Or even later. I guess I didn’t change much as an adult either. I’d rather not think about unpleasant stuff.”

  “Which brings us back to your trip to the Everglades.”

  He sat with pen poised, ready to make more notes.

  “It wasn’t that unpleasant,” Reg said. “Some of it was nice. I mean, it’s beautiful out there… some parts of it. And… interesting.”

  “What happened the first night?”

  Reg tried to think of what to say.

  “The truth,” Julian prompted. “I’ll know if you lie to me.”

  But Reg didn’t think he was a diviner, like Damon. She was a pretty accomplished liar. He might know if he had evidence to the contrary, but if he weren’t a diviner, she figured she could probably tell a convincing tale and he would believe her.

  “We set up camp. Went to bed.”

  “Ah, you were camping. Not staying at a hotel?”

  “I guess they don’t have any that are actually in the park. And if you have to add all that time going back and forth to get there… Damon figured it was better if we just camped over in the park.”

  Reg wondered if they had somehow damaged a plant where they had set up camp. They hadn’t lit a fire because of how wet everything was. There was really no dry firewood. Reg could have lit a fire anyway, but she didn’t want to get in trouble and wasn’t supposed to be “playing with fire” without Davyn’s supervision.

  “You brought all of your camping gear.”

  “I didn’t have anything. Damon didn’t tell me that it was a camping trip, so I was kind of out of luck. But when I opened my bag… there was a sleeping bag in it. That kind that crushes up really small, so you can carry it anywhere.”

  “Who put it there?”

  “I didn’t know for sure. I thought maybe it was Tybalt. Corvin and Damon had said they didn’t have any extras, and I was with them all the time. Tybalt was the only one who had separated during the lunch break, so I thought he must have gone shopping during that time.”

  “And how did that affect your feelings about him?”

  “I thought it was really nice of him. That even though we hadn’t really talked to each other, it was nice of him to have done something like that for me and he didn’t even mention it.”

  “Did you thank him?”

  “Corvin said I shouldn’t. That since Tybalt didn’t present it to me, there might be awkwardness if I said anything to him. He’s the one who understands magical etiquette, not me, so I assumed he knew what he was talking about.”

  “And what happened that night?”

  Reg shrugged. “We went to bed.”

  “And what happened? Something happened, because in the morning, you were gone, and your companions reported you missing, saying you must have wandered in your sleep.”

  “Well, we found each other again.”

  “Apparently.”

  Julian waited for an explanation. Reg wasn’t sure she wanted to tell him anything about her disappearance.

  “And at that point, you apparently decided to seek another guide instead of Tybalt.”

  “I did? I wasn’t there, remember?”

  “It wasn’t your choice to switch guides?”

  “No.”

  “Where were you? Clearly, you had not wandered into the swamp.”

  “Well, I woke up somewhere other than the camp.”

  “Where?”

  “Some other place in the swamp. So I guess you’re wrong; I did wander off.”

  “Did you?” His eyes were sharp.

  Reg said nothing. It was time for him to fill the silence. To tell her what he knew. Was this part of the reason she was being investigated? For what had happened that night?

  “Where did Tybalt go?”

  “I wasn’t there,” Reg repeated.

  “You and Tybalt both disappeared at the same time. I assume that means that you left together.”

  “I think he left before we made camp. Before we went to sleep, anyway. He didn’t stay with us.”

  “But he retired nearby. You didn’t expect him to take his boat and abandon your company. He was supposed to be guiding you the next day too, wasn’t he?”

  “You would have to ask Damon or Corvin. I didn’t make the arrangements. I was just riding along to provide my services when they were required.”

  “He was supposed to stay with you for the entire trip,” he maintained. “But that obviously is not what happened. What made him change his mind? Or what made your company decide not to keep him on?”

  “Like I said, talk to the others.”

  “I think you know.”

  “What makes you think that?”

  “Because you disappeared at the same time.”

  “You don’t know that. You don’t know what happened that night.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Julian shook his head. “I think I do. And I know you do. Quit pretending you don’t know what happened to Tybalt.”

  “What happened to Tybalt?” Reg echoed.

  “You know what happened to him. I want to hear you say it.”

  “Tybalt disappeared. When Damon and Corvin got up in the morning, he was gone.”

  “And so were you.”

  “And I eventually met up with them again. Tybalt didn’t. So they had to get a new guide.”

  “What happened to Tybalt?”

  “I guess he had a change of heart. Decided he had a better gig somewhere else. How would I know?”

  “Because you were with him.”

  “No.”

  It was a bald-faced lie, but Reg held his gaze steadily, counting the seconds until she let her eyes slide away. Long enough to be taken for sincerity. Not long enough for him to think she was being aggressive or evasive.

  “Are you a shapeshifter?”

  That one blew Reg out of the water. She choked on a piece of muffin. “What? A shapeshifter?” She coughed and took a drink of orange juice. “Is there even such a thing?”

  “I haven’t seen one—that I know of—but that doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. Many of the creatures that we have cataloged and tracked through the MI databases are things I have never seen.”

  “Well… no, I’m not a shapeshifter.” Reg laughed. “Is that what you came here to ask me?”

  “You were with Tybalt. I’m sure of it. The evidence all indicates that you were.”

  “Say what you like; that doesn’t make it true. I can’t change into other forms. Like what? I can’t even imagine what you think I changed into.”

  “A panther. Mountain lion.”

  “A panther? No.” She gave him a guileless look. “That would really be something. A mountain lion in the middle of the Everglades? That would be weird.”

  “There are panthers in the Everglades. The Florida panther is an endangered species. There are still a few of them left in the protected areas.”

  “And you think I killed one of these panthers?”

  “What makes you say that?” Julian questioned,
confused.

  “Well, you said they were endangered, And you said that you were with something like the endangered species department. So I assume this is what you were talking about. Someone hurt one of your panthers and you’re trying to figure out who.”

  “No. No one hurt one of the remaining panthers.” He spoke slowly and clearly, enunciating his words and being sure not to say one of “his” panthers. “But there are indications that a panther was involved, which is why I asked you if you could shift into a panther.”

  “Oh. Well, the answer is still no. I didn’t change into a panther and hurt—” Reg cut herself off quickly, “or hurt anyone.”

  He sat there looking at her, his eyes triumphant. Of course he knew what she had almost said. And hurt Tybalt. And she hadn’t. She had not, definitely not, turned into a panther and hurt Tybalt. She didn’t have the ability to shift into anything other than herself.

  “You know what happened to Tybalt,” Julian said.

  Reg shrugged. “What happened to Tybalt?”

  “He was killed.”

  “Killed?” Reg widened her eyes as far as she could. “I thought he just took off. Who killed him? That’s horrible.”

  “I think you did.”

  Reg made a noise of disgust. “Me? Why would I kill him?”

  “Maybe you want to take the opportunity to explain it to me. Give me your story first; get out ahead of this thing.”

  “Why would I kill our guide? That’s ridiculous.”

  “You and he both disappeared. And only you came back.”

  “So? Just because he disappeared, that doesn’t mean I had anything to do with it. He could be anywhere.”

  But he had said there was a panther involved in Tybalt’s death. He wasn’t just assuming that something had happened to Tybalt because he had disappeared. He already knew Tybalt was dead.

  “You killed him because you discovered he was a swamp goblin.”

  “A what?” Reg let her jaw drop open.

  “I don’t need to repeat myself. You found out what he was, and you decided that his life wasn’t worth anything. You didn’t want to be traveling with a swamp goblin. You decided he was evil and needed to be eliminated, so you waited until everyone had fallen asleep, and then you did it.”

  “Did what?”

  “Killed him.”

  But Tybalt hadn’t been killed near their camp, and Julian knew it. Julian knew there had to be something in between. Reg would have to have lured him away. And Julian knew that it hadn’t been Reg who had lured Tybalt because Tybalt had been killed in his own lair, not close to their campsite.

  “I killed him. Let me get this straight. I didn’t like him because he was a goblin. So I waited until everyone was asleep, and then I shifted into a panther, went to his campsite, and killed him?”

  Julian watched her carefully. He was going to have to be highly skilled to see past her deceptions. And he was going to have to try a whole lot harder to catch her in a lie.

  “Why don’t you tell me how it happened, then?”

  Reg shrugged. “I walked in my sleep. I woke up in another part of the swamp, didn’t know where I was. It took all day to get back to civilization and contact the guys. They picked me up.” She shrugged. “And that was that. We went on with our search.”

  “And you never asked them what had happened to Tybalt?”

  “They said he took off. They got a new guide.”

  “You just took their word for it.”

  “Why wouldn’t I?”

  “You didn’t look into it yourself? Ask questions?”

  “No. Why would I? Corvin was in charge of finding a guide. It wasn’t anything to do with my role.”

  Julian leaned forward. “What gifts do you have?”

  Reg shifted back, keeping a bubble of space between them. “That’s a personal question. I thought it wasn’t polite to ask.”

  “We are beyond being polite. This is a magical investigation.”

  “That doesn’t mean anything to me. I’m not really magical, just psychic.”

  “Gifts are gifts. You are a witch.”

  “A psychic,” Reg insisted.

  “You have a lot more power than any other psychic I’ve ever met.”

  “So? I’m good at what I do. What’s that to you?”

  “Tell me about your powers. You predict the future?”

  “Sometimes.”

  “Find lost items? Or people?”

  “Yes.”

  “What else? Can you move physical objects?”

  Reg hesitated. Julian waited.

  “No.”

  “No? Why didn’t you answer right away? Because you can move items telekinetically?”

  “No. And I don’t want to play twenty questions about my gifts. I’m a psychic. That’s what you know.”

  “I don’t think that’s the whole story.”

  “That’s your problem.”

  “Can you talk to animals?”

  Reg narrowed her eyes at him, thinking about it. “Anyone can talk to animals,” she pointed out.

  “Let me rephrase. Can you talk to animals in a way that they understand? And can you understand them?”

  “I have a cat. He comes when I call him—sometimes—and I know when he wants to be fed or to play. So yeah, I guess I can.”

  “More than that. Can you understand their thoughts?”

  Reg lifted her hands, palms up. “Sometimes. Can’t you?”

  “No. I can’t.”

  Reg sat back, considering him. “But you can’t understand the thoughts of other people either, can you? They’re a mystery to you.”

  “I have been trained in recognizing deception.”

  Yet he hadn’t called Reg on hers.

  “But you can’t put yourself into someone else’s place. Get inside their head.” Reg pushed harder. “You don’t have any idea what I’m thinking about right now.”

  Julian’s face tightened. “I’m good at my job.”

  “And I’m good at mine. I can read you, but you can’t read me.”

  And what she read were not happy thoughts. He stared at her, jaw tight, eyes blazing. His aura was red.

  Reg didn’t remember much about him from when they were young, but she remembered his anger. She’d known to avoid him when he was angry.

  Julian held his pen like a weapon. Did he intend to stab her with it? Or to use it as a wand to channel some kind of spell or curse at her? Either way, she could see how close to the edge Julian was. She couldn’t push him any further without putting herself in danger.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Reg said nothing. Julian looked down at his notes, struggling to keep himself under control. He looked back at her after a few minutes.

  “Could you command a cat to attack?”

  Reg chuckled. “I don’t think you know cats very well. You really can’t command them to do anything.”

  “Was this your first visit to the Everglades?”

  “Yes.”

  “When did you decide to kill Tybalt?”

  Reg massaged the space between her eyebrows. “Look, if he was a goblin, then why does it matter? I would think that goblins would have a lot of enemies. What makes you think that I had something to do with his death?”

  “Swamp goblins are an endangered species.” Julian was back to over-enunciating his words. “They are protected. The death of any swamp goblin is fully investigated and we evaluate what measures need to be taken to prevent it from happening again. And what consequences need to be imposed on the perpetrator.”

  “What consequences? What are you going to do if it was just a natural enemy?”

  “Goblins have few predators other than humans.”

  “And panthers, apparently,” Reg pointed out.

  Julian glared at her. “Swamp goblins and panthers have lived together in the Everglades for hundreds of years. I’m not aware of any other cases of a panther attacking a goblin.”

  “Then maybe… there’s
no other prey around and it was desperate. Or maybe it was a mama with cubs and she thought the babies were in danger. Or maybe you just never heard of any before because there aren’t many goblins around now.”

  “There were signs of a human at the scene. Things had been disturbed. There were indications of magic having been used. You were there.”

  Reg thought quickly about what things might have given her away at the scene. She had not been able to take anything with her; there were no personal possessions at the scene. It wasn’t like she had gone willingly. The only items she could think of that she had left behind were the ropes that had bound her. But if they saw those ropes, they would know that she’d been there against her will and had only been protecting herself.

  Did the magical laws allow for self-defense? Reg wasn’t willing to guess after what Corvin had said. She couldn’t assume that the magical rules were the same as the laws of the land. No one had given her any warnings before she went to the Everglades. She knew some of the magical world’s mores, like reading someone’s thoughts without their permission. Now she had to worry about whether the creatures who attacked her were endangered? What about Corvin? She had been told that his magical bloodline was dying out. Did that mean that she couldn’t protect herself against him too? How far would the rule be taken?

  “I don’t know how you would make a panther attack a goblin,” she said with a shrug, returning to the line of questioning that Julian had been following earlier. “Good luck figuring that out. Why is it that sometimes a cat will chase a catnip mouse and sometimes it won’t? They have their own minds.”

  “You think that this panther just decided to attack a swamp goblin. For no reason.”

  “No. I gave you some reasons. I guess you didn’t like them.”

  “You are trying to avoid the question.”

  “What question? I think I’ve answered all of them.”

  “The question of why you killed Tybalt.”

  “Well, you’re going to have to go back to Magical Investigations without the answer to that one. I’ve told you everything I can. I don’t know what else I can do for you.”

  Julian stood. He leaned over the table laden with food, pointing his pen at her, his face turning red again. “I know you, Reg Rawlins. You can’t lie to me. I came here to get answers to these questions and you’d better cooperate!”