"She's got magic,"
Harry whispered. He studied Bethany through the curtains while the emcee warmed
up the audience for Alexi and Megan's last show of the night.
"You might be right."
Megan adjusted her top hat. "There is something about her that makes my fingertips
tingle. I just can't figure out what. If there's Fae blood, it's mixed with
something that muddies the waters." She patted his back. "You're starting
to fade."
"Oh? Sorry."
Harry concentrated on his anti-invisibility spell and turned back to watching Bethany
Miller in her shadowy corner table. That big, floppy hat and garish muumuu couldn't
hide her, yet dressing in loud, obnoxious clothes did trick people into ignoring
her. Somewhat.
Harry turned his vision
sideways, looking into the 'tweening spaces, those half-step areas between dimensions.
His long-term invisibility made it easy to slip halfway into the next dimension.
A soft, rainbow-streaked
corona shimmered around Bethany, marking her as someone who had been touched by
magic for so long, it had become embedded in her essence. The colors didn't quite
clash with her outfit, but it was enough to make his eyes ache after a while. Still,
he kept watching. She fascinated him. He loved puzzles, and Bethany had just presented
him with one.
"So, she wants to
be invisible?"
"She wants to spend the holidays with her father without being mobbed every time she steps outside," Megan said. "She's a nice girl who doesn't enjoy the rat-race of stardom. She refuses to change and act like a star, and that makes her even more popular. Kind of like a girl who isn't in Need is a whole lot more attractive."
Harry blushed, and his concentration slipped so he felt himself fading out. Which was actually a good thing. He wasn't about to admit to anyone he wished he knew the terror of being the target of a woman in Need. None of the girls he had grown up with had targeted him. It was humiliating. Hera-Jane maintained that if he socialized more, so people realized he had grown up into something of a stud, he would be hunted. Harry was too busy with his experiments to find out. Although, this adventure would be an experiment, wouldn't it?
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