AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He took the key off the ring and handed it to me. “The wards won’t stop you. He needs you. He doesn’t need to be alone, even if it takes barging in.”
There was a flutter of wings, and Sam and several other gargoyles alit in the trees in front of Owen’s building. “Looks like you two found him,” Sam said.
“I was just about to go up and check on him,” I said, reluctantly taking the key from Rod.
“I’ll leave some people here to keep an eye on the place, make sure no one tries anything funny,” Sam said.
“Thanks, Sam,” I said. I glanced at Rod, then held up the key and said, “Well, let’s see how this goes.”
“Give me a signal to let me know he’s okay,” Rod said. “I’ll wait out here until then.”
I unlocked the front door, then went up the stairs. At Owen’s door, I hesitated, then rapped lightly on it. “Owen?” I called out. “It’s Katie. Rod gave me his key. I need to talk to you. I’m alone.” There wasn’t a response, so I said a little louder, “Okay, then I’m coming in. If you don’t want me to come in, you’d better throw an interior deadbolt or put up the chain. You’ve got a count of ten.” I counted down from ten, then said, “Ready or not, here I come,” and unlocked the door. I felt the magic of his wards as a slight shiver when I passed through the doorway, but they didn’t stop me.
Loony met me at the door, meowing loudly and twining herself around my legs. I wasn’t a cat person, but I could still tell that she was agitated. That made me wonder what I’d find inside. “Where is he?” I asked her. She flicked her tail at me, then ran into the living room.
“Owen? It’s me!” I called out as I followed her. “Are you okay?” Then I came to a stop just inside the living room.
The place was always untidy. For such an ordered thinker, Owen could be a real slob, especially with books and paper. This was a different kind of mess. There was a pile of books on the floor in front of the bookcase, like he’d pulled them out one-by-one, then hadn’t bothered to reshelve each one when he didn’t find what he was looking for and moved on to the next book. He must have finally found the right book because he was leaning over his desk, peering intently at an open book.
I’d anticipated that he might be in a severe sulk or a serious, soul-searching depression. After all, he’d just learned his true identity after a lifetime of contented ignorance, and it was a horrifying truth. According to what I’d read, his alleged birth parents had been worse than anything Idris aspired to be, and now he’d been accused of being a monster like them. That was the kind of news that tended to make people want to slit their wrists.
But he didn’t look all that different from any other time when he was focused on a problem. I supposed research mode was a comfort zone for him. He was still wearing the slacks and shirt of the suit he’d worn that day, with the collar undone and the sleeves rolled up. His jacket and tie were thrown across the arm of a chair. His hair fell across his eyes and stood up in every direction, like he’d been running his fingers through it. He glanced up as I entered and said mildly, “Oh, there you are. I was wondering when you’d get here.”
I shook my head to clear the fuzz. I felt like I’d just walked onstage expecting to act in one scene and found myself in an entirely different one from a different part of the play—or even from a different play. “Well, you haven’t exactly put out the welcome mat,” I said. “You’re not answering the phone—by the way, I’ve got your cell—or the doorbell, and you’ve got the place more heavily warded than Rod’s little black book.” Mentioning Rod reminded me that I’d promised to signal him. I stepped to the front window, pulled back the curtain and gave a thumbs-up before returning my attention to Owen.
“Like that could stop you,” Owen said with a shrug. “And don’t tell Rod, but I got past the wards on his little black book when we were in high school. It’s very interesting reading. When I was fourteen, I considered it quite educational.”
“Are you okay?” I asked. “I’ve been worried sick about you.”
“I haven’t had the best day ever, if that’s what you mean. But I’ll have my existential crisis later.”
I gestured at the pile of books. “If this isn’t an existential crisis, what do you call it?”
“Fact finding. Before I collapsed in despair, I thought I ought to get to the bottom of things. First, is it true?”
I leaned against the edge of the desk and crossed my arms over my chest. “Is it?”
“Well, since I don’t have a handy home DNA test kit or samples from my alleged parents, I can’t say with absolute certainty, but the dates do work out. The Morgans died very soon after I was born, so of course I don’t remember them.” He pointed to a couple of photos in the book on his desk, which looked like an old club membership directory. “There is some resemblance, I guess. I hadn’t ever seen a picture of the Morgans before. For all the disruption they caused, they don’t get a lot of play in the histories. I’m lucky I bought this old university magical society annual for one of the articles in it, so I have these pictures.”
I had to squint and peer closely at the tiny photos. Owen apparently got his looks from his mother. She was strikingly beautiful and dark-haired. His father had a vague, absent-minded genius look about him, and his eyes were similar to Owen’s, but I couldn’t tell their color in the black-and-white photo. “I suppose if someone merged these two, they might get you,” I said.
“The next question is who knew? Was I just some orphaned kid with magical powers, and whoever’s behind Idris managed to unearth the truth, or have they known all along behind the scenes while keeping it a secret, even from me?”
I squirmed uncomfortably, then said, “Rod said—” I broke off, unsure if I should share what Rod had told me, but then I decided that there’d been enough secrets. “Rod said that when you were kids, James and Gloria told him to keep an eye on you. He thought it was because you were so little and needed someone to look after you, but now he’s wondering.”
I wasn’t sure how he’d react to that bit of news, but he took it calmly enough, just nodding. “Yeah, I remember that. But I was so little that I was bully bait and I didn’t have good control over my power yet. That’s a dangerous combination, so having a bigger kid stick with me made sense. On the other hand, I often felt like a prisoner on parole with James and Gloria, so maybe I was.” He gave a bitter laugh that was the first sign he wasn’t as okay as he was trying to act. I caught his hand in mine and gave it a squeeze, noticing as I did so that he was trembling. “I do wonder who knew.”
“And how did Idris know?” I asked. “Then there’s the part where they’re trying to make it look like you were following in your parents’ footsteps and doing all of this negative magical stuff.”
“I missed that. I was already out of there.”
“I don’t blame you.”
His grip tightened on my hand as he ran his other hand through his hair. “So, now what do I do?” he asked.
“I think we need a plan.”
“A plan? For what?”
