Page 45 of Magical Midlife Conclave

“Ah, thanks, hon,” the woman said with a relieved smile. “He keeps breaking the lock on the basement door.”

“Honestly, Betty, we can’t have it running around downtown,” Jessie said evenly. “There are still a few Dicks and Janes living around here. I’m going to have to give you a warning. If it keeps getting out, we’re going to have to…retire it.”

How did you kill a big clay humanoid thing?

Betty clucked her tongue. “I know. I do. But I forgot which book I used to create it, and I’m afraid if I try to get rid of it, I’ll accidentally make another one. Then I’ll have two. Know anyone who wants a golem? Free to a good home.”

“Are ya jokin’?” Niamh asked incredulously. “I told ye ten years ago that I’d get rid of that thing for ya.”

“And I told you that I didn’t want to get rid of it ten years ago,” Betty snapped at her. “But now I do. Where’s that help when I need it?”

“In whatever book ye used to bring that noisy thing to life,” Niamh returned.

“Maybe put it in a bonfire?” Fred said. “Clay turns to pottery when fired, right? So, fire it and then go after it with a hammer. That should work.”

Aljoe spat out an unexpected laugh.

Betty narrowed her eyes at Fred. “What a horrible thing to say!” She shook her head, her gaze back to Jessie. “I should give you the warning, Jessie Evans. There’s too many odd magical folk around here.”

She peeled out and sped away.

“She’s the one that doesn’t want the thing, like,” Niamh said. “And now look, it’s running wild.”

“Did you hear what she called me?” Fred looked at everyone with wide eyes. “She thinks I’m magical.” She smiled. “That’s a compliment, right?”

“Sometimes,” Niamh said.

Aljoe started laughing again.

“We’ll need to ask Nessa about breaking in,” Sebastian told Austin, getting back to the conversation. “She was right there. I would assume so, though, unless businesses here leave their doors unlocked.”

“If there was a break-in, someone would’ve reported it,” Austin said.

“They took off quickly tonight.” Sebastian looked out toward the trees, something Aljoe had learned was him magically searching for something that might be out there. “They didn’t wait around until the gargoyles and shifters left, though they could have. I’m guessing, actually. Let’s hurry and talk to Nessa.”

She was in the sitting room sipping hot tea. The second they’d all filed in, she said, “Well, did you get something?”

“I got digits!” Fred put up her fist. “Might be a burner phone, but even that will have something useful. I already slipped in spyware through an unpatched security vulnerability. Now I’ll go try to crack it open like an egg.”

“And what will that tell you that grabbing the mage wouldn’t?” Aljoe asked, but Fred didn’t seem to hear him. She was already meandering out of the room. She tended to make this place her home when she was here. They all did, really.

Sebastian explained about the magical safeguards the mages had in their heads, something that would kill them if someone tried to extract information.

“Sometimes I can work around it,” he said, “but sometimes I can’t. Given this mage had an extremely powerful potion masking him or her, I worried I wouldn’t be able to pry my way in. This way, Fred can track them and maybe get something useful from their phone.”

“We know they got in,” Austin said. “Now we do a better sweep to see if we can find any other signs they’ve done this before. And we figure out what they’re after to give us a clue about Momar’s plans.”

“Speaking of.” Sebastian motioned at Nessa. “What happened?”

After everyone was seated, Nessa ran through her experience.

“They were trying to pick the lock when we interrupted,” she said. “I could hear them doing it. The invisibility potion must form a tight bubble around them.”

“But…” Sebastian shook his head, dumbfounded. “Why in the world would they assume Agnes had something they’d want?”

“Agnes?” Nessa frowned at him. “They weren’t trying to get into Agnes’s. She’s next door. They were trying to get into the tourist place.”

Everyone stared at her in confusion. Except Aljoe’s sisters, of course, who were just trying to take it all in.