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32. Owen

Chapter thirty-two

Owen

I had texted Cary, telling him I'd be late, mostly because I had wanted to reconnect with Damian and Molly's friend Shadow. He already knew I was pursuing her as a client, and truth be known, I was just doing paperwork at the office at this point.

If I didn't round up some clients, I'd be relegated to that from now on. He sent back a thumbs-up, which was a good indication of how much Damian had freaked them out. Cary, even though we were becoming friends, still gave me a lot of shit about being gone from the office, even when I had every reason and excuse.

It was almost like he was one of the partners. Come to think of it, in more ways than not, he was. I might not be a powerful witch or wizard, but I knew my bosses trusted Cary to run the practice.

I rehashed in my mind what had happened. When Damian and I had stepped into the bar, I immediately knew something wasn't right. I might not have magic, but I did have good instincts about people and places. Damian stiffened before we even got inside. He was looking around the bar, and after asking about Molly, he wasted no time getting us out.

The whole spell thing was strange. He led me to a small park not far away and used the well water to wipe away the negativity. I had actually felt the change. I probably wouldn't have known it had he not told me what was happening, but once we left the bar, I felt heavy. Like I'd put on a heavy jacket or something.

Once he finished with the water spell thing, it was like the jacket had been removed. Subtle, but definitely detectable.

He was worried about Molly. I could tell that, and although he offered to treat me to lunch, I wanted him to check on her as well. I had a feeling something wasn't right. Maybe that was my own source of intuition, but it was as if the universe was telling me to let him go.

The taxi took me back to my office, and I sidestepped the front door to go to my favorite little restaurant to order a salad. I didn't get a hundred feet before someone blocked my path. I glanced up to say excuse me when I recognized the man from a few weeks ago who'd left bruises on my arms.

He grabbed me before I could step away, but this time, he pulled his hands back the moment they touched me. His face seemed to waver, and I glimpsed what appeared to be a snake's face instead of human. "Witch," I heard him say, although his mouth didn't move .

I was just about to argue that I wasn't a witch when I heard footsteps behind me. "Owen, are you okay?" Cary asked.

I turned to nod, but when I glanced back, the weird man was gone. "What the hell just happened?" I asked, surprised by his sudden disappearance.

"Nothing good, that's for sure," Mr. Stages said. "Owen, we need you to come back to the office now. Cary, run ahead and ask Mrs. Patterson to prepare the scrying spell. We need to figure out what just attacked Owen."

Cary nodded and ran back to the office. Mr. Harrison and Mr. Stages both checked me over then. They examined my arms where the man or snake thing, whatever he was, had tried to grab me and looked at one another strangely.

"Have you seen the man before?" Mr. Harrison asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, a few weeks ago, why?"

"Did he touch you?" Mr. Stages asked, and I nodded.

"Show me," he said and I undid my shirt sleeve and pushed it up to show him where the bruise still showed.

"Because it appears that he marked you when he did," Mr. Stages said. "I'm guessing had you not been wearing Cary's amulet, he'd have done much worse this time."

I reached up and touched the necklace. "He jerked back when he touched me. Was that because of this?" I asked, pulling the necklace out of my shirt.

"Likely, but we need to remove the marks from your arm. Then you should have your wizard create his own security around you. "

"Wait, he marked me. Is that why I had the nightmare?" I asked.

The partners turned to one another and, without saying another word, began pulling me toward the office.

Once I was securely back in the building, Mr. Harrison picked my phone up and called someone. I heard Damian's voice on the other end of the line and Mr. Harrison telling him he should return to their office.

"Is Owen okay?" I heard him ask.

"He will be, but you need to come soon."

He hung up without saying goodbye, then Mrs. Patterson came in with a bowl of water. "Now, you sit still. I need to see what's going on," she said, placing the bowl on my desk after Mr. Harrison neatly stacked all the paperwork and laid it on the floor beside the file cabinet.

I watched, mesmerized, as she began to hum. The water rippled, and the partners, Mrs. Patterson, and I stared into it.

I didn't see anything, but Mrs. Patterson gasped and put her hand to her mouth. "Could it be? After all this time?"

The partners didn't respond, just watched whatever images they were seeing in the water. Then Mr. Stages reached into his pocket and pulled out an ancient-looking whiskey flask. He opened the lid and poured a greenish liquid into the water. It sizzled for several seconds before the water went placid again.

"Mrs. Patterson, take this outside and dump it into the sewer drain. I'll send Cary to remove any other residue once you're done. "

The legal assistant nodded and disappeared to do as she'd been told. "Son," Mr. Harrison said. "You are in a great deal of trouble, and it's a total mess that none of us saw it. Your boyfriend is a new wizard, or he probably would've sniffed it out earlier. However, if we don't do something about it soon, I'm afraid there will be some serious consequences. Serious indeed."

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