“Oh, I don’t think special treatment would be fair at all,” I said, trying to keep a straight face. “You do what you think is right, Sam.”

“Okay, dollface, but only if you say so.”

Dean screamed again and scrambled to cower in the corner against a hay bale. He shook visibly.

“You had no idea there were magical creatures, did you?” Owen asked. There was a trace of pity in his voice. “That’s yet another reason you shouldn’t play with things you don’t understand. Magic isn’t a game. It has serious ramifications. Do you even know what it can do?”

Dean shook his head silently. When he spoke, his voice was high and childlike. “What can it do?”

“Anything you have the power, the skill, and the spell to accomplish.” He held a hand out in front of him, and a glowing ball grew there. He then tossed it up, where it hung just beneath the barn’s ceiling, shedding light on the shadowed surfaces. “What would you like to see?”

“Can you pull a rabbit out of a hat?”

“He did it once in FAO Schwarz,” I said. “And that’s stage magic, which he can also do. What you’re not getting is that this is real. There are people who work at magical companies, live in magical enclaves, and use magic for every aspect of their day-to-day lives. Instead of cooking, they zap something into existence. They turn on their lights by waving a hand instead of flipping a switch.

They summon subway trains when they need them—and that’s when they’re not riding flying carpets.”

“Here, you look like you could use a drink,” Owen said, and a split second later, a tall glass with beads of condensation on the outside appeared in his hand. Dean crawled back onto his crate and took it from him.

I continued with my lecture. “There are magical creatures like the gargoyles, along with fairies, elves, and gnomes, walking the streets of New York like anyone else, and no one knows because they can hide themselves behind disguise illusions that make them look human.”

Dean looked awed, but he also seemed to relax. The tension in his shoulders eased into his more usual slouch. “What is it you want to know?”

“Where did you first learn about magic, and what did they teach you?” Owen asked.

“If I cooperate, will you take it easy on me?”

“I think a lot of that depends on you. I can’t allow you to be a threat to yourself or anyone else. But you could go a long way toward convincing me you’ve learned a lesson by cooperating. How did you get involved in this?”

“I saw an ad in a magazine. It said if you could see that ad, then it meant you had power and you should learn how to use it. I could see it, so I thought what the heck, I might as well check it out.”

Owen and I exchanged a look. “I hope you have the material that was sent to you,” Owen said, sitting wearily on a hay bale.

“Of course. I still need the references, and I haven’t finished the course.”

“Do you remember which magazine you saw it in?” I asked.

“One of those magazines for guys—not the porn kind, but with sexy pictures of actresses and some articles. I don’t remember which one, but I’m pretty sure it was the March issue.”

“Oh, boy,” I said, joining Owen on his hay bale. “Maybe you should zap up some drinks for the rest of us. The ad I saw earlier was only regional, but if they’re running recruitment ads in national magazines like that, then this could get ugly. There might be amateur wizards wreaking havoc all over the country, and we only know about it because I happened to be here.”

“If it’s in that kind of magazine, I wonder how Rod missed it,” Owen mused. “I think he gets all of them.”

“He’s been dating Marcia since New Year’s Eve. Either he doesn’t need them anymore, or she got mad enough about him having them that he decided to give them up.”

“I need to see your course materials and that magazine, if you still have it,” Owen said.

“You can take my truck, since it’s really your truck, after all,” I said. “You still seem to have a set of keys.”

“And you trust me, after all that? How do you know I won’t take off?”

“Because I’ll be coming with you,” Sam announced.

Dean went pale again. “I can’t drive around with that, uh, gargoyle with me.”

“Relax, pal, no one will see me. Hidin’ from ordinary folk is my specialty. We can chat about how sweet your sister is to pass the time on the drive.”