Page 14
“Answer me, and we can go inside.”
Blair’s eyes rolled back up to meet Gabriel’s. “The ocean.”
“The ocean.” Gabriel repeated dryly.
Blair suppressed another shiver, making Gabriel feel an unsettling mix of vexation and guilt. He wasn’t at all certain where to go from here. Forbidding Iris from talking to Blair clearly hadn’t worked, but how could Gabriel even begin to trust him, when he refused to answer the most basic of questions?
Gabriel narrowed his eyes. “At least tell me why you’re following us.”
“I’m not.” Blair inched away from the car as a gust of wind ruffled the trees, branches scraping the house like quills against parchment.
“Right. Okay.”
They both gave a start as a loud slam slashed the air like a whip. Iris had thrown open the door and was marching in their direction. She stopped to stand between them, hands on her hips. Her glare was sharp enough to mince vegetables. “Inside. Now.”
The men exchanged a final mutinous look before Blair smiled at Iris and turned to follow her back through the door like an obedient hound.
Gabriel’s stomach churned. Whatever this was, whatever this Similar wanted from them…none of this felt simple.
7
Afeeling of peace draped over Gabriel’s shoulders like a warm scarf the moment he caught sight of his oldest friend. They shared a quick embrace before settling in at one of the cafe’s quiet back tables.
It was just after sundown a few days after he’d come home from work to find Iris and Blair at the house. The tension between him and Iris had lifted slightly since then…but only slightly.
Clement smirked, opening the menu with a careless flick of his ring-adorned hand. “So, how is the Similar?” He glanced at Gabriel, whose mouth had dropped open in surprise. “Come now, Gabriel. Given my profession, you can’t seriously be surprised that I’ve noticed his proximity to the two of you since his arrival. You give your human companion such credit for her intelligence. Why don’t you offer me the same courtesy?”
They both looked up as a young waitress with bubblegum-pink hair stopped by their table. “Can I get you something to drink?”
“Yes, we’ll have two cokes and two house salads. Italian dressing on the side.” Clement snapped his menu closed and held it out to her. The woman blinked, then gave a bland smile and accepted the menus. She walked away without writing anything down on her notepad.
Normally, Gabriel would have found Clement’s self-righteous behavior irritating, though certainly not unexpected. Now he had more pressing matters. “Iris invited him to Thanksgiving,” Gabriel admitted, scrubbing a weary hand over his face. “I can’t say no to her.”
“I thought as much.” Clement observed his friend with an amused glint in his amber eyes. “This is what happens when you get caught up in the lives of mortals, Gabriel, a fact I have long warned you about.”
“I’ve never listened.”
“Nor have I once expected you to.”
They’d kept their voices low, but Gabriel still found himself observing the surrounding diners for signs of eavesdroppers. There weren’t many guests, which meant less ears to overhear, but also fewer conversations to fill the air and distract from their own.
He peered out the window. A flimsy plastic light-up witch with its face plastered against a tree trunk—designed to look as though it had smashed headlong into the spruce—flickered on in the yard across the street. Its owners hadn’t bothered to remove the decoration after Halloween, and it still came on at the same time every evening.
Speaking of which, was it really five-thirty already? The cafe would be closing in just half an hour.
Clement cleared his throat. “Have you ascertained what exactly this…” He waved a vague hand through the air, waiting for Gabriel to fill in the gap in his information.
“Blair,” Gabriel supplied. The name still tasted sour on his tongue.
“…this Blair is, precisely?
The waitress bustled back over, placing two tall plastic cups in front of them, along with a couple of paper-covered straws. Gabriel waited until she’d moved away before answering. “I’m getting there.” He narrowed his eyes on his friend. “Anyway, isn’t that your job?”
Clement swirled a straw around his cup, the left corner of his lips lifting into a half smile. “Don’t fret, Gabriel. I expect I will have the answers long before you do.”
Gabriel peeled the paper off his straw and rolled it into a tiny ball between his fingers, lost in thought. Iris had tried to assure him that Blair hadn’t done or said a single thing on Saturday to cause concern. She’d pleaded with Gabriel to tell her what he was so worried about.
But how could Gabriel explain without showing his hand? Iris knew nothing about the existence of Similars, and she certainly couldn’t see auras. She hadn’t witnessed the flashes of lightning interspersed with a penetrating darkness at the edges of Blair’s pale gray aura, staining his soul like ink-poisoned water. She would never be able to perceive the suppressed magic that radiated from every inch of him.
