Hex unleashes one of his devastating smiles. “Tis a human custom, is it not?”
I nod weakly.
“Then go get ready, My Love.”
I push back from the table. I am almost at the door when I stop. My gaze has fallen on the bookshelf in the hallway.
“Did you move my books?”
A pause. “They’re alphabetical now.”
“Hex.”
“Yes?”
“I organised them by genre.”
“That’s not an efficient system.”
I walk away before I say something I’ll regret. Behind me, I can hear him laugh. Low and warm and rich, rolling through the flat like it belongs there.
After my shower, I put on the blue jumper. My own decision. Nothing to do with anything.
IwalkintoCoffeeliciousandmy shadow walks in with me, slightly larger than it should be, slightly darker than the light warrants. Nobody glances at it.
Felix looks up from the espresso machine. His eyes go to me, then down to my shadow, then back up to me.
“The usual?” he says with studied casualness.
“Please.”
His eyes drop to my shadow briefly. “Just the one coffee, then.”
“Just the one.”
I take the table at the back. My shadow stretches out in front of me. I glance frantically around the busy coffee shop. Nobody is paying the slightest bit of attention. Even though I’m sure that my shadow should be behind me, not joining me for coffee.
But I guess people really aren’t observant. And actually, come to think of it, when was the last time I paid attention to shadows? I don’t think I ever have. I don’t even usually see them. It’s as if my mind doesn’t even register them.
Which come to think of it, is deeply unsettling. What if that’s a whole shadow being thing? A collective curse on humanity so that we don’t see them?
I take a deep breath and force myself to relax. I am not going to spiral into panic and conspiracy theories.
I’m going to enjoy coffee with my… not-date. That’s what I’m going to do.
If I peer very intently, I can just about make out Hex’s face, and he is looking around with the expression of someone visiting a foreign country and finding it charming in ways they hadn’t anticipated. It’s oddly endearing and exactly what I should be focusing on.
Felix arrives with my flat white, pulls out the chair next to me uninvited, and peers at the space where Hex is with the focused attention of someone trying to tune a radio to the right frequency. I get the sudden, uncanny feeling that Hex is far more visible to me than he is to anyone else.
“So,” he says, addressing the air with admirable confidence. “You’re the shadow prince.”
“I am,” rumbles Hex, sounding pleased.
Felix doesn’t jump scare at all. In fact, he looks completely non-plussed at having a shadow talk back to him.
He purses his lips. “You crashed the family dinner. In someone else’s body.”
“A temporary arrangement.”
