“I think I’d want to know. Having that question hanging would drive me nuts.”
“You might think differently if it wasn’t purely hypothetical for you. I’ll come up with another plan, but please, don’t ask me again.”
“Okay, I won’t.” I stood to leave. “But I have to admit I’m disappointed in you. I understand you’re going through a lot, but aren’t you the one who likes to quote that Casablanca line about the problems of one or two little people not adding up to a hill of beans? This isn’t just about you.”
“I said, I’m working on a plan—something that might actually get us somewhere.” He spoke through gritted teeth.
“Then you do that,” I said. “But you should know that I don’t give a damn who or what your parents were. I don’t care whether or not you’re a wizard. And I don’t think anyone other than those idiots with the amulets cares, either. What really matters is what you do, and if I were in your shoes, I’d do anything in my power to stop Ramsay, no matter how uncomfortable it made me.”
I’d given up on dramatic exits when I was a kid and I realized my brothers didn’t even notice when I flounced out of a room, but I gave it my best flounce and left him sitting alone in his kitchen.
While I was somewhat sympathetic about his position, I couldn’t take the risk that we’d have the time it would take him to come to terms with the situation and come around. But if I couldn’t persuade him, maybe someone else could. It was time to bring in the big guns, whether or not he was ready to see them.
I still had Owen’s cell phone, and I found James and Gloria’s number in the contacts list on it. I called and told them what had happened. “We’ll be on the next train,” James said.
I met them at Grand Central. We took a cab from there to Owen’s place, stopping at the end of the block because his narrow side street was nearly blocked by the mob, which seemed to have grown. Gloria’s eyes flashed with cold fire when she saw the protesters. “How dare they?” she growled.
James straightened his back until he looked like a general about to survey the troops, and before I could say or do anything, the two of them were striding forward, right into the mob. I may have been about sixty years younger, but I had to rush to catch up with them, and I wasn’t sure what I could do to help.
The strange thing was, the protesters backed away from Gloria. I knew she was formidable and that I was afraid of her, but I hadn’t thought that absolutely everyone would be that frightened of a tall, thin old lady. She carried an old-fashioned umbrella that wouldn’t have been out of place in Mary Poppins’s umbrella stand, and she banged it on the ground at her feet as she shouted, “What is the meaning of this?”
Because they were a mob that was probably being magically influenced, there wasn’t any one leader to act as spokesman. They all looked at each other, and none of them had a good answer. That did not impress Gloria. “Surely you have more constructive things to do with your time than make nuisances of yourselves. What do you expect to accomplish, standing out here in the street all day? He’s not going to come down so you can arrest him, or whatever it is you plan to do, and it’s not as though he’s even done anything wrong. Are you protesting what someone has told you about his very existence? Is that it?”
They backed farther away from her. One man moved toward her, his lips bared as his fists raised in an aggressive posture, and she barely flicked a finger at him, sending him reeling backward. “If you have a complaint, you can make it to me,” she said, sweeping the crowd with her steely gaze.
“To us,” James said firmly, standing by her side. “You will leave our boy alone.”
One person wandered off with a shrug. Two more joined him. One man moved to block the stairs to Owen’s front door, but buckled under the combined glares from James and Gloria. I knew then that I’d made the right call in bringing them here. Owen needed allies like this, whether or not he wanted them.
Since I had guests with me, I went through the formality of ringing the bell and waiting for a response that wouldn’t come, then unlocked the front door and led James and Gloria upstairs. “He’s got his door warded,” I warned them, “so I may have to talk him into letting you in.”
“And who do you think taught him to set wards?” Gloria asked. “I’m sure we can find our way past them.”
I forced myself to face Gloria and meet her eyes without wavering. “And I’m sure you shouldn’t,” I said as firmly as I could manage. “He’s being this way because he doesn’t trust himself. You’re not going to help that by going against his wishes and acting like you don’t trust him. You’ll either go through that door because he lets you, or you’ll shout through it.”
