Page 44 of Twisted Fates
Owen shrugged. “I… maybe?” he asked more than said.
I chuckled. “Everyone can stand down. I was just testing my abilities to discern energy. I’m sorry if I caused any upset.”
All four witches scrutinized me, but it was Cary who shifted the tension. “As always, Damian, we are grateful for your patronage. Owen, why don’t you go on and have lunch now? I’ll take mine when you return.”
Owen nodded, then rushed back to his office to get his jacket. I followed him outside and couldn’t help but laugh once we were out of earshot, and I was pretty sure it was out of range for the witches to magically detect me.
“What was that about?” Owen asked.
“My homework from Elias seems to have caused a little upset with your employer.”
Owen looked at me funny, then asked, “The discernment thing you mentioned?”
I nodded. “Yes, Elias said I need to discern the spirit. Not all dark is bad. Not all light is good. He put me on the path to figuring out which is which. I’m sure it was a bit of a setup, though. Luckily, the witches you work for are friendly. Otherwise, I think my snooping around would’ve been seen as a challenge.”
“So, Elias is setting you up?” he asked concerned.
“Yeah, I mean, learning not to piss off the magical beings around me is a big part of being a wizard. I don’t think it’s possible to avoid it entirely though. Sometimes, as a wizard, I think my job will be to challenge the different powers that be. My intuition tells me that as well.”
Owen shook his head. “Where are we going?” he asked, and at first I didn’t know what he meant. When I turned to him with a confused expression, he chuckled. “You said you’d come to meet me for lunch. Where are we going to have lunch?”
“Oh, yeah, um, I want to go check on Molly. Hopefully, she’s at her favorite hang-out. It’s on the other side of the neighborhood though. Do you think you have time to go all the way over there?”
Owen thought for a moment, then smiled. “Yeah, I have a potential client…Shadow. I think that’s her name?” he asked, and I nodded.
“It’s hard to forget Shadow, and trust me, I’ve known her a lot longer than you. Why?”
“She told me the day we met that she wanted to hire me, remember?”
I nodded. He’d told me that after we left the bar. She did well financially in her musical performances, and he’d do well to sign up as her attorney.
“Okay, well, let’s go,” I said, and Owen nodded, then took out his phone. I could tell he was texting Cary, telling him he’d be late getting back.
I doubted they’d mind unless something was going on at work I wasn’t aware of. Which it could’ve been. Owen didn’t discuss his work with me that much.
I hoped that changed soon though. I had tried hard not to leave Owen out of my experiences as a wizard, and I wanted to know about his life too. Yes, they were vastly different, but that didn’t mean I wanted my world to overshadow his.
We walked hand in hand all the way across the neighborhood to the little bar Molly and her friends had adopted long before I started coming along. The place was small and tucked in the back corner of an alley behind one of the neighborhood commercial pockets the area was known for.
I’d never felt uncomfortable there before, never felt anything really, but the moment I saw the bar, chills rolled down my spine. I hadn’t been there since the day I met Owen. That had been before I’d begun to hone my wizard powers.
I paused before going in. The atmosphere was anything but welcoming now that I felt it through my magic. I took a deep breath, knowing my friends were in there, and followed Owen through the front door.
Shadows played along the walls, and not all were there because of where the light cast them. There were also magical creatures lurking in the corners. I recognized some of them, but none had felt particularly dangerous before. Now, they eyed me warily as I walked toward where my friends and I always hung out.
Molly wasn’t there. In fact, the only ones in our group that were there were two of the guys I’d dated in the past and a couple I didn’t recognize. Luckily, none of them seemed to be dark, although as I stared at my exes, I realized I’d missed the glimpses of darkness that skirted around them. They were the opposite of Owen. They were like dark torches. “Have any of you seen Molly lately?” I asked.
They all shook their heads, and then Owen asked about Shadow, getting the same response.
“If you see Molly, please tell her I’m looking for her,” I said, and the four of them nodded but didn’t respond. Not that I expected them to. My exes might not totally hate me, but they weren’t fond of me either.
“Don’t you want to get a drink or something to eat?” Owen said as I began pulling him out the front door.
I shook my head. “No, not here,” I said, not even trying to hide my thoughts or opinions. I might have just seen the place for what it was, but I couldn’t help but guess the threatening characters that lined the walls certainly knew who and what I was—probably had for a while.
Once outside the bar, I took a deep cleansing breath and immediately recognized spells stuck to me and Owen. “Well, shit,” I said as I let my intuition show me how to break them.
“What?” Owen asked.
