“It’s not that simple. Governments around the world are cracking down on magically created wealth. The Senate proposed legislation adding a minimum twenty-year sentence for magical counterfeiting. They’re worried about inflation and consumer confidence.”

“Maybe they should be worried about getting the riots under control,” I said. “Not to mention beatings, lynchings, and, oh yeah, the fact that half the world is using magic as an excuse to rekindle old wars or start new ones.”

“And the rest are preparing for the spillover,” Lena commented. “Near the end of my testimony, Senator Tindill asked what it would take for me to enlist in the Marines. Russia instituted a mandatory draft for inhumans eight months ago.”

“Along with seventeen other nations we know of.” I shook my head. “Did Tindill explain how you’re supposed to enlist if they refuse to recognize you as a citizen?”

Lena was my . . . girlfriend wasn’t strong enough, but the law wouldn’t allow us to be husband and wife, on account of her not being human. Lover and partner were the two words that came closest, and also accommodated Nidhi as Lena’s other romantic companion. We’d built our own little three-person family over the past few years, though the process hadn’t always been smooth. What relationship was?

Lena had stopped hiding her dryad nature after the revelation of magic. Today that meant a crown of budding leaves growing directly from the skin of her brow and poking from beneath her thick hair. It gave her a playful, otherworldly air.

Short, plump, and dark-skinned, with endless energy and a gorgeous smile, Lena was one of only three nonhumans who had been allowed to testify. I wondered how fast they’d have crossed her off the witness list if they’d truly understood what she could do, but she didn’t come across as the kind of person who could knock out a minotaur with one punch.

Whereas the rest of us had dressed up for the hearings, Lena wore old jeans and a black leather motorcycle jacket over a tight-fitting T-shirt of Groot and Treebeard. The caption beneath the two walking trees read, GOT WOOD?

We stopped in the lobby to give Nicola time to compose herself. As frustrating as today had been for me, these hearings and the publicity had been harder on her. As the only member of the Porter Council residing in the U.S., she’d been under more scrutiny than any of us.

New strands of silver threaded through her black hair. Her eyes were shadowed, and from the way her jacket hung on her taut shoulders, she’d lost weight. Overuse of magic could do that, but so could good old-fashioned stress. She fidgeted with a pair of silver rings on her left hand as she looked through the glass doors at the waiting crowd.