I turned fully in my seat. “No, you don’t get it. I’m not worried you’ll become an addict.”
“What then?” He set his jaw in a stubborn line.
“You need to see that there’s a very real human cost to the potion game. The Adepts who cook and sell potions are profiting off people’s misery and desperation. And in the process, they’re ruining lives.”
“Kate, I don’t want to sell potions. I just want to learn how magic works.”
“To what end, Danny?”
He sighed and leaned back with his arms crossed. The pleading vanished and a ruthless glare replaced it. It was an expression I’d seen on Uncle Abe’s face more times than I could count, and seeing it on Danny made me go cold. “Maybe you’re just afraid I’ll be better at it than you.”
“You know what? I bet you would be.” I shook my head sadly. “In fact, I’m sure of it.” Danny was a lot smarter than I was as a kid.
He paused, as if sensing a trap. “Really?”
I nodded. “Which is why I’m terrified to let you try. If you show talent, it will only be a matter of time before the covens come calling.”
For a moment the only sound in the car was the echo of the wheels slapping pavement. Morales kept his eyes on the road, but I could feel the tension coming off him as if he was holding himself back from jumping into the argument. Part of me was embarrassed for him to see this personal drama at all, but making Danny see was more important than my pride.
“You know what your problem is, Kate?” Danny said quietly.
“No, but I’m sure you’ll tell me.”
“You assume everyone’s like you.” He speared me with a look. “Just because you couldn’t handle your power doesn’t mean I can’t.”
“That’s not fair.”
“You know what’s not fair?” he shot back. “The fact that I’ve done nothing but follow your rules, but you still treat me like I’m a criminal.”
I felt like he’d punched me. I opened my mouth to say—I don’t know what, but he turned away, as though he couldn’t stand to look at me.
Morales, whose presence I’d forgotten, cleared his throat. “We’re here.”
* * *
When we got back to the office, the entire team was waiting for us with grim expressions. Needless to say, when Gardner saw me leading my sulky teenaged brother behind me on the stairs, her expression did not improve.
“Who’s the kid?” she snapped.
After shooting Danny a warning look, I walked over and pulled her aside. “That’s Danny, my little brother.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Why isn’t he in school?”
“Look, I could bullshit you, but the truth is he ran away from school to go see John Volos.”
Gardner’s eyes widened.
“He’s been wanting to learn magic—Danny, that is,” I rushed ahead. “When I told him I wouldn’t teach him he decided to go see John.” She blinked. “Sir, I know how this looks, but Danny had no idea we were investigating Volos. He thought he was just going to see an old friend to ask for a favor. Obviously I shut that option down,” I said quickly. “Anyway, I brought him here because it’s too late in the day to go back to school and I don’t trust him home alone given the circumstances.” I would have called Baba to help, but it was Bingo Day at the senior center and she wouldn’t be home for at least another hour.
Gardner looked as if she could chew through nails. “When I brought you on this team I thought your connections would help our case, but all they’ve done is complicate the shit out of it.”
“The case was already complicated without my help, sir.”
Her lip quirked. “Ain’t that the damned truth?” She sighed. “All right, he can stay but keep him out of the way.”
I nodded eagerly. “No problem.”
By the time we’d rejoined the others, Morales had already introduced Danny around. When I returned, Mez—today in red dreads pulled back into a thick ponytail—was giving my brother a tour of the lab. Danny’s eyes were huge as he took in all the beakers and burners and gadgets. When Mez spoke, the kid looked at him as if he were his own personal Jesus. Crap. I rushed forward to intervene. “All right, kid,” I said in a forced cheery voice, “we need to get to work. Why don’t you go play one of your games at my desk?”
Danny looked at me like I’d just walked in with shit on my shoe. “I want to hear the meeting.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Since when did you get interested in my work?”
“Since Mez here told me how much he loves being a wizard for the MEA.”
The look I shot the wiz made him freeze. “I just, uh, meant—why are you looking at me like that?”
Danny rolled his eyes. “She’s got a bug up her butt because she doesn’t want me to learn to cook.”
“What? That’s”—Mez glanced at me and cringed—“probably for the best. This job is, uh, superboring.”
“But you just said—” Danny started to protest.
“Everyone circle up!” Gardner yelled.
“My desk, now,” I said. “And wear your headphones.”
Danny’s face morphed from confusion to resentment. He muttered “Bye” to Mez and stalked over to my desk. I watched to make sure he put the headphones on before I turned to the wiz. “Thanks.”
He shrugged. “No sweat. Maybe later you can tell me what that was about?”
“Now, people!” Gardner sounded ready to nail some asses to walls. Instead of replying to Mez, I rushed out of the lab. Gardner stood in the ring with Morales and Shadi. Judging from her look, this wasn’t going to be a fun talk. Maybe that’s why she’d decided to deliver her news in the fighting ring.
“Okay, now that we’re all here,” she began, “we have a lot to cover. Mez, why don’t you start?”
Gone was the jokey wizard I’d been talking to a few minutes earlier. Now he looked like a doctor about to tell someone they had six months to live. “I analyzed the samples Prospero and Morales gathered yesterday. The good news, if you can call it that, is that Marvin definitely had fur under his nails, which supports the theory this was another Gray Wolf murder.”
“You’re sure it was fur and not just hair?” Shadi asked.
Mez shot her a quelling look. She flushed and muttered an apology. “Anyway,” he continued, “the bad news is that the DNA I got from the fur didn’t match anyone’s in the ACD.”