Magic Trick

Of course Neal said Peter should spare her the knowledge. Neal and secrets went hand-in-hand. Usually Peter encouraged more openness, but today he truly understood Neal's side of the argument. This time it did feel like keeping El in the dark was protecting her.

"Too bad the only magic tricks I know are sleight-of-hand," Neal said. "I wish I could solve everything by muttering some Latin and waving my hands."

The resulting thought of wanna-be witch Chloe Bishop made Peter shudder. The romance author had inadvertently caused the dorkiness curse by muttering some mispronounced Latin, but fortunately her latest attempts to perform spells had proven unsuccessful. "I don't want to deal with another amateur spellcaster." After a pause Peter added, "Tell me you aren't planning to take lessons from Chloe."

"I promise. I'm holding out for my invitation to the wizardry school."

Peter snorted. "Of course you'd want the infamous invitation that must be kept secret from your family. The last time we came to Connecticut, it was about three weeks after you'd traded your confession for immunity, and I naively thought we knew most of your secrets as a result. As far as I was concerned, the only mystery left was whether that trouble-making friend you kept mentioning was real or a joke."

"My wizardry school roommate," Neal quipped.

"Little did I know you had a whole treasure trove of secrets you were still hiding." Peter reflected on the things he'd learned about Neal's past and family over the last year and a half. "We're beyond that now, right? Full disclosure?"

"I don't want to keep you in the dark," Neal said.

Encouraging, but not a promise to keep Peter informed, either. He let it go for the moment, as they were reaching heavy traffic that required his attention. It wasn't long until Peter dropped Neal off at his loft and then drove home to Brooklyn. By the time he arrived, El had already left for work. She wouldn't be back until that evening, after her rehearsal for a community theater production.

Having worked through the weekend chasing down their best lead on Curtis Hagen, Peter had Monday off. He stayed occupied with tasks around the townhouse. As long as he kept busy, he could block out thoughts of witches and demons.

Before El got home, he'd worn himself out tackling more household chores than he would have believed possible. She dashed upstairs to change out of her costume. He sat on the sofa with a beer in one hand and the TV remote in another, cruising through the channels until he found a baseball game.

He tried to concentrate on the game. The Chicago Cubs were playing. He listened to the commentary about the team and their record. It was closing in on a century since they'd last won a World Series. It took dedication to be a fan of the Cubbies. It was like the team was cursed...

Damn. His mind kept returning to spells and curses. Peter turned up the volume on the game in hopes that it would drown out his troubling thoughts. He wanted to forget what he'd seen in Connecticut, even if only for one night.

Unfortunately it felt as if the witch had cast a spell on him, refusing to leave him alone. If he wanted to capture Hagen he'd probably have to find the witch again. But how? What did he know about witches beyond what he'd read in high school? The Crucible. Macbeth. Until this weekend works of fiction had been his primary sources of information about them.

He still hadn't decided what to tell his wife. And what was he supposed to put in his report tomorrow regarding what he'd learned about Hagen's supernatural prison escape? If he told the truth, everyone but Neal would think he was losing it.

###

Tuesday afternoon, Peter wondered where the day had gone. So far he'd been too busy to write up a summary of what he'd learned over the weekend. What could he say that didn't sound like a fantasy? When he tried out explanations in his head, they reminded him of that latest movie in the School for Wizards series. El's sister had given them the movie for Christmas. He vaguely remembered it featured the search for a wizard who'd escaped from prison. Maybe he should watch it again to see if it provided any ideas for finding an escaped forger aided and abetted by a witch. He hoped that Hagen would be easier to track down than the movie's elusive wizard had been.