The door opened again and Silver stared as a human-looking figure with the telltale shimmer of a Fae under glamor walked in.
"Devon," he said flatly. Even though he hadn't seen Devon as an adult with a human face, he recognized his friend. Whether he was recognizing Devon's Fae features but with pale, freckled skin, rounded ears, and a tell-tale lack of wings, or whether he saw a suggestion of the natural maturation of the child he'd known years ago, Silver couldn't say.
Devon stopped and eyed Silver warily. "What's wrong?"
Silver glanced at the painting behind him. Was Kaelen watching him again? He had no idea how to tell. He stood up. "Let's go grab some coffee," he suggested.
Of course, if Kaelen was watching it would be pretty suspicious that a Fae just walked in, Silver glanced at the painting, and then immediately decided to leave.
Still, it was better to leave than to talk in front of the painting. And maybe he hadn't had time yet to get back to where he could watch Silver.
He grabbed his blue and grey plaid flannel and pushed his arms through the soft fabric of the sleeves.
Picking up a stack of flexible plastic signs from the desk in front of him, Silver sorted through them until he found the correct sign, a blue square with white block letters that read Back in 15 minutes. Please excuse the delay. At the top of the sign was a small, round hole.
Striding over to the exit, he carefully removed the current sign — it read Yes, we're open! Come on in — from its suction-cup hook on the window beside the door and hung up the new one. It swung from side to side a couple of times before settling in.
Silver opened the door wide and marched out into the cold drizzle, pausing to hold it open for Devon before releasing it to close with a dull THUD. Then he entered the code to lock the door on the metal keypad, each of the four numbers beeping as he pressed them.
Finally, as he pressed the star key, the mechanism let out one louder beep and the lock slid shut with a whir.
"Let's go." Without waiting for a response, Silver led Devon toward The Cozy Carafe down the street, skipping Dragon's Blood Coffee, which he knew was run by a friend of Kaelen's.
Of course, it was possible that The Cozy Carafe was also enemy territory, but at least he didn't know for sure it was. He hadn't seen any Fae in there this week either, which seemed like a good sign.
“Are you sure it’s safe?” asked Devon, following closely behind him.
Warm, aromatic air caressed Silver’s face as he pulled open the heavy wooden door to the cafe. A low drone of merriment drifted out. “No,” he responded. “But is anything safe?”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
“Not really,” Devon conceded.
Silver strode toward the counter and the human barista looked up from the tablet she was examining and gave him a bright smile. “Welcome in,” she chirped. “The usual for you, Silver?
Silver smiled warmly back. “Thank you, Amy. I don’t think I have time for a cappuccino today. How about just a doppio espresso con panna?”
“You betcha.” She looked expectantly at Devon.
“Oh. Uh. Same,” he said.
She poked her tablet’s screen a couple of times. “Six fifty.”
Silver dipped his fingers into the breast pocket of his flannel shirt, extracting a cold plastic debit card and holding it against the white slanted card reader until it gave a cheerful little beep.
“All right,” said Amy. “I’ll have that right out.”
Replacing the card in his pocket, Silver looked around and spotted a discreet two-person table in the corner of the room. He nodded toward it. “Have a seat. I’ll grab the coffees.”
He watched Devon winding his way through the busy coffee shop with narrowed eyes. There was something odd about his friend today, but he couldn’t put his finger on what it was.
The timing was very coincidental — there was no denying that. Maybe that’s all that was nagging at him. Then again, Silver believed in synchronicity, so convenient timing didn’t usually bother him.
He could feel a small pressure building in his skull, the beginnings of a tension headache. Hopefully the espresso would help.
“Here you go, hun,” said Amy, setting two tiny brown mugs with matching saucers on the counter, each topped with a perfect swirl of whipped cream. A miniature spoon rested on the saucers beside each. The demitasses clinked against their seats as he picked them up and carefully, step-by-step, carried them over to where Devon waited.
Silver slid the espressos onto the table and sat down in the cushy green booth across from his old friend.
“What is this, exactly?” asked Devon, eying the drinks.
“Two shots of strong coffee with a dollop of whipped cream,” said Silver. “If you’re not a big coffee drinker, I highly recommend mixing them together before you drink it.”
Ignoring his own advice, Silver closed his eyes and sipped his espresso, letting the bitter liquid slide out from beneath the sweet cream and onto his tongue, savoring the warmth and the deep, rich flavor for a moment before swallowing it.
He opened his eyes and for a split second, in the space between darkness and seeing, Devon appeared twisted and shadowed.
Hastily, to hide his reaction, Silver picked up his spoon and stirred, staring intently at his drink as the cream mixed with the espresso, turning it a pale tan color. He clinked the spoon against the side of the demitasse and set it back down, his eyes moving back up to watch as Devon — was it Devon? —- lifted his own cup to his artificially pink lips.
Internally, Silver isolated the shimmer surrounding Devon. He formed a mental knife, poked a hole in the glamor, and slashed it away.
He struggled not to show any external signs of distress as he stared at the Fae in front of him, who was absolutely not Devon.
How had Kaelon managed to put on a Devon-faced glamor so quickly? And how had he known that Silver would trust Devon?
Before he could decide what to do, Silver felt a heavy wave of disorientation crash over him. His head felt like it was filled with cotton and dark circles swam before his eyes.
Silver swayed and then the table in front of him seemed to rise to meet his face. Too late, he realized he was falling forward. And then everything went black.