“You should trust Senator Gray because he’s leading the charge to repeal the Twenty-fifth Amendment,” Lydia said to Peter, who raised his eyebrows. Turning to Gray, she added, “And you should trust Omnimancer Blackwell. If not for him, I’d be dead.”
Gray’s mouth fell open. “What? Whathappened?”
“Wait a minute,” Peter said, and Beatrix could see from his expression that he wasn’t convinced. “What happened to you that you suddenly don’t like wizards?”
Gray leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. “My office’s been bugged.”
“Join the club,” Ella muttered, quietly enough that Gray didn’t catch it.
“Bugged how?” Rosemarie said.
“The phone’s tapped. I haven’t seen the tap, but it has to be, because they know things I’ve only said on that phone.” Gray glared at the floor. “I’ll talk to a legislator who seems supportive of the bill, and the next time I run into them—complete one-eighty. The third time that happened, I said, ‘What the—the heck,’” he said, in such a way that Beatrix knew “heck” was not the word he used, “and eventually the guy admitted he’d gotten a visit. From a Wizard Smith.”
Beatrix looked at Peter, heart kicking up. “Wizard Smith” was the name two different wizards gave to the League’s treasurer when she was taking money from the magiocracy to inform on them.
Peter cleared his throat. “High forehead, dark glasses, square jaw?”
Gray made a disgusted sound. “No idea. I couldn’t get much out of him.”
“‘Smith’ threatened him?”
“I think it was more subtle than that. And I’m sure the fact that a wizard was onto him immediately didn’t help.”
“OK,” Peter said. “This is what we’ll do. Drive me to your office while I’m under an invisibility spell, and I’ll see what’s there. We should check your home, too. And your car.”
“Thank you,” Gray said, the words clipped. “But Miss Harper, first tell me why you needed your life saved.”
Lydia explained—with more detail than Beatrix would have given, including the run-up to the conference and all the sabotage attempts, but without any hint of female magic use. She implied that Beatrix had been standing close enough to push her out of the way when Peter called out his warning.
“And now our house is bugged,” she said.
Gray, who’d looked increasingly horrified through this recitation, let out a long breath. “Why didn’t youtellme?”
“Would you have believed it before last week?”
He pressed his lips together, deflating. “Well—I don’t know.”
“Exactly.”
“But you’ve let me go blithely along without telling me the true risks involved,” he said. He sounded angry, not afraid, which was something.
“Their specialty is sabotage,” Lydia said. “Their most recent action targeting us was to bug the house, and that speaks volumes about their intentions.”
Beatrix almost objected, but she caught herself in time. Of course Lydia sounded nonchalant. She was trying to calm Gray.
Gray, for his part, gave a bitter huff of a laugh. “Oh, so it’s just my career and reputation I have to worry about.”
“High risk, high reward,” Rosemarie said. “If nothing changes, your career will never include a seat in Congress.”
“We just need to keep pace with them, Senator,” Lydia said. “That’s all—not even a step ahead. We have numbers on our side. How many wizards sit on state legislatures?”
“Not many,” he admitted.
“And how many state legislators would rather sit in Congress?”
“Miss Harper?—”
“If they’re trying to sabotage you, they’re worried you’ll succeed.”
