And without further adieu, here's the tenth chapter! Thank you all for your continued support on this fic! It's meant so much to me. When I first started posting this fic over a year ago, I was in a very dark place mentally and living in the midst of an abusive situation, and I never would have imagined my life would improve so much so soon.
Please enjoy this chapter. You all deserve only the best!
CHAPTER TEN
Shion met up with Safu in the early afternoon the next morning. She was perched on a bench on the outskirts of the public park in the center of Kronos, carefully watching a flock of birds peck at scraps of bread some kindly old woman on another bench tossed to them.
Shion shoved his hands into his pockets and huffed as he trudged over toward her. He hadn't stopped being frustrated since yesterday morning. Nezumi's words swirled in his head like a hive of agitated bees; Shion clenched his fists as he remembered the irritated flash in those haunting silver irises. Shion had a great many things to say to him before his mother came bustling around the corner, giving Nezumi the perfect opportunity to slip away unnoticed.
For the rest of the day, while he busied himself in the bakery, Shion glanced out the window in case Nezumi returned. His heart plummeted when his findings turned up empty.
He'd half-expected to see the dark-haired faerie standing in the alley outside his window again when he woke up in the morning. But Nezumi had vanished completely; even the faeries that normally frequented the spaces around the bakery seemed scarce. Their absence worried him.
That was another abnormality. Shion should have been thrilled that the faerie who'd discovered his secret wasn't following him around; he should have enjoyed being able to walk outside with seeing creepy things lurking in the shadows. Keeping distance from the faerie world meant the chances of his folly being discovered would eventually decrease. Nezumi showing up to get his knife back had been simply a means of tying up loose ends.
"Although, given your track record, it's only a matter of time before you do something stupid."
Shion frowned.
Stupid Nezumi. What the hell does he know?
If Shion hadn't shown up and bandaged his arm, Nezumi might not have survived the night. And yet he had the gall to show up and get aggravated with him?
Shion kicked a loose stone and sent it skittering across the pavement. Safu heard the sound and lifted her head; her cheeks were flushed from the crisp mid-autumn air, her short hair fluttering gently in the breeze.
"Well, now," she said, furrowing her brow, "that's a face. What's got you so ticked off?"
"Nothing," Shion lied. It weighed heavily on his tongue, but the truth hurt worse. "A bad night, that's all." Bad week, more like.
"You sure?" Safu rose from the bench. She wore a pair of dark fleece leggings beneath a worn gray skirt. Her cream-colored jacket had been buttoned all the way up, where a beautiful, handknit scarf wrapped its way around her neck. "If you aren't feeling up to hanging out with Anne and Roy, we can cancel."
It was certainly tempting, but Shion shook his head. "No, it's fine. It'll be fun. Let's get going, yeah?"
They headed down the sidewalk, keeping pace with each other easily enough. Shion watched the world as they drifted steadily through it. The midmorning sky stretched above them like a blue pane of glass, dotted with fluffy white clouds. In the summer months, the skies came alive with chittering birds; as winter approached, they disappeared, replaced with glassy-winged pixies that darted around the snowflakes.
Safu's boots thumped against the pavement. She hurried along like a spirit, moving with a grace and poise that Shion had never seen anywhere else. Safu might not have been an explicitly social person, but she had a skill for thriving in the world in a way Shion had never perfected.
He caught his own reflection in a shop window as they walked down the sidewalk. He grimaced at his messy brown hair and pale face. Though he'd managed to sleep the past two nights, amidst the chaos and uncertainty that came with breaking the rules, it hadn't been well. He'd tossed and turned, dreading each creak that echoed through the floorboards.
Nezumi hadn't come to steal him away the night before—but that didn't mean he was completely safe. Nezumi might have owed him a debt, but no other faeries had offered him that same luxury. And if Nezumi's reaction to the mention of his king had been any indication, getting on his radar would be a fatal mistake.
Shion pursed his lips. He didn't think Nezumi would risk selling him out. Doing so would mean Nezumi admitting that he'd let Shion go after learning that he had the Sight. It would reflect poorly on Nezumi, undermining whatever reputation he had in the faerie world. Shion didn't think he'd risk it. Nezumi seemed the type of value his own survival above all else. He'd never be foolish enough to risk another faerie, especially not whatever dark monarch he served, discovering his mistake.
"...listening to me?"
"Huh?" Shion jolted from his thoughts and looked over at Safu. She stared back at him, a slender eyebrow raised. "I-I'm sorry, what?"
Safu exhaled. "Geez, you really are out of it. I said, what do you want the safe word to be this time?"
"Oh, right." Whenever they went out in public with each other, Shion and Safu came up with a safe word. If either of them saw something that concerned them, whether it be a human threat or a fae one, the safe word would be dropped and they'd immediately vacate the premises.
"Um," Shion glanced around the street. "How about... fire hydrant?"
"Fire hydrant?"
"Yeah. We could be like, 'Check out that fire hydrant!' Or, 'Gosh, I wonder how long that fire hydrant's been there'."
"You're so weird," Safu replied, but her lips quirked up in a smile. "Well, there is a fire hydrant near the café, so that checks out. All right. Fire hydrant it is, then."
Shion smiled.
"Are you sure you're feeling OK?"
"What do you mean?"
Safu lifted her hand and lowered it carefully through the air; her long fingers fluttered delicately in the wind, her nails shimmery from a layer of clear, glittery nail polish. "You just seem out of it. Moreso than usual. Are you still thinking about... what happened?"
Shion closed his eyes and took a breath. He couldn't tell her the truth. Forgetting her grandmother's rules entirely and risking his life for something so stupid would make Safu extremely angry with him―and worse, she'd worry for him. When she worried, Safu did reckless things. Shion couldn't risk the Fair Folk discovering that Safu had the Sight, too.
"A little," he admitted, because it was at least a half-truth. Heading back to the cafe where the faerie girl had been murdered made him just a bit anxious. Had the other Folk come inside and lapped up the blood? Did faeries collect their dead and bury them, or simply let nature take its course?
"Maybe we should pick another spot." Safu reached into her pocket for her cell phone. "I'll call Anne―"
"It's OK." Shion didn't want to make things awkward. Since Anne and Roy couldn't see the Fair Folk, they might find it a little strange for Safu to suggest changing plans at the last minute and meeting up elsewhere. "I can't avoid it forever, you know. That's not how we deal with it."
"If you're sure." Safu nudged his shoulder with hers. "Just remember: when in doubt, fire hydrant."
Shion exhaled through his nose and grinned. It felt good to slip back into some semblance of normalcy. These moments with Safu comprised most of Shion's life, and he enjoyed their presence. When he was with Safu, it didn't matter what the whole world thought. It didn't matter if there were faeries lurking around each dark corner.
Safu was with him, and nothing would ever harm him.
⁂
The cafe sat in the dead center of Kronos. In the morning, it bustled with activity―men and women hurried inside, ordered their coffees, and disappeared out the door to get on with their days. The Fair Folk seemed to enjoy it, as well. The building was old and crafted primarily of stone and wood. As one of the oldest buildings in Kronos, it made sense that the Folk would find comfort in it.
Shion looked at the table where Nezumi had murdered the faerie girl. The wooden floor had a dull smear of crimson streaked over it, but no other signs of death. His heart hammered. Safu followed his gaze, and her eyes widened. She quickly shoved the surprise down, but she nudged Shion again sympathetically.
He relaxed. It was old blood. The body had been devoured or removed by other Folk. There wasn't anything he could do to prevent it, and getting freaked out wouldn't help. It happened, and the only thing he could do was continue to move forward.
"Oh," Safu said, cutting him from his thoughts, "there they are."
Anne and Roy were sitting at a four-seater table close to the door, sitting opposite from each other. Anne's vibrant red hair sat at the nape of her neck in a loose ponytail, and she wore a pretty blue blouse. Roy's dyed-blond hair was cropped shorter than it'd been the last time Shion saw him a few months ago.
"Hey, Safu!" Anne waved them over. "Hi, Shion. Long time, no see."
"Hi," Shion said, shoving his hands in the pockets of his coat. It was a little too warm to be wearing it inside, but he didn't feel comfortable removing it. The thick fabric felt like a barrier between him and whatever strange things lingered outside in the daylight.
"Hey," Roy greeted, raising his hand in a loose wave.
Safu and Shion slid into their chairs; Safu plopped down beside Anne, and Shion took a seat beside Roy. He didn't know either of them well, but it was nice to have a distraction from the Fair Folk. Sometimes Shion forgot that there was a whole world outside the one he could see.
There were countless people—like Anne and Roy—who went through their days oblivious to the haunting creatures hanging over their shoulders. Sometimes it was jarring to remember that he was part of a minority.
"How's business at the bakery?" Anne's brow furrowed. "Your mom owns a bakery, right?"
"She does," Shion agreed. "And it's been good. Summer's a busy month for us."
"Slows down in autumn?" Roy inquired.
"A little. It usually picks back up around wintertime. Holidays keep us pretty busy."
"That's so cool." Anne rested her elbows on the table and cradled her head with her hands; her nails were painted a vibrant apple-green. "Maybe I'll swing by and place an order for Christmas. My mom loves homemade cookies. Your bakery does big orders, right?"
Shion smiled. This was normal. These were conversations he should have been having his whole life with kids his own age—conversations he would be having if he hadn't been cursed with the Sight. His mother didn't have it. He didn't know much about his father or his grandparents on either side of his family, so he didn't know if any of them had it, either. For all Shion knew, he was an anomaly in a family line that had never once been aware of the Fair Folk. Safu's grandmother insisted the Sight tended to skip a generation, but there were always exceptions.
Safu, Anne, and Roy had lapsed into a discussion about local businesses, and Shion nodded along as if he were paying attention. The wonderful scent of coffee beans filled the air, and the thin hum of conversation drowned out the anxiety creeping up his spine like a fat spider.
He'd never had the opportunity to be a regular teenager. Or a regular kid, for that matter. He worked in his mother's bakery and visited Safu during his downtime. He pretended not to see strange things in the other world. He'd been envious of the people who went through their days oblivious. He still envied them, especially now that he'd made the worst mistake of his life.
"So, how's your grandmother doing, Safu?" Roy asked.
"She's doing well." Safu folded her hands on the table. "She's tired these days, but that happens when it gets cold."
Anne nodded. "She's such a sweet woman. I'll have to come by and visit! I miss her."
Safu smiled. "She'd like that."
Shion itched to move; he'd never been very good at sitting in one place for long. "Is everyone ready to order? I'll get the first round." Karan had given him a few extra dollars, and Shion didn't plan to spend it on anything else.
"That's so sweet," Anne said, grinning. "I'll have a caramel latte, hot. A small's fine, thank you."
"Black coffee for me," Roy added. "Please."
"Do you want me to come up with you?" Safu asked, starting to ease up from her chair.
"No, I've got it," Shion assured. "Green tea, right?"
Safu nodded, and Shion hurried to the counter to place their orders. The line had diminished; most of the patrons didn't stick around, grabbing their coffees to go and getting quickly out of the way. Shion made his way up to the cashier and placed the order, deciding on a simple iced coffee with cream and sugar for himself. He glanced over at the case of baked goods, admiring the croissants and muffins. His mother's were far superior in comparison, but Shion couldn't deny their beauty.
The cashier, a pretty girl with curly black hair, flashed him a smile and gave him the total. Shion pulled out his wallet, extracted the cash, quickly handed it over―and then he spotted it.
A tall, bony woman with icy skin crawled on all fours along the back wall. Her spindly fingers stretched across the tiles stacked together in a beautiful pattern of blue waves. Her nails dripped with crimson paint―until Shion looked closer and saw bits of hair and pulp peppered on them. Not paint.
Blood.
His heart clenched, and the cash slipped from his fingers. It fluttered to the ground, and the soft sound from the cashier jarred Shion back to awareness. "O-oh, sorry!" Shion quickly swooped down and gathered the cash from the ground. His heart pounded in his ears as he flashed the cashier a wobbly grin. "Clumsy me. Here." He handed over the money, his fingers trembling as the cashier handed a few coins back to him.
"No worries," she replied. "We've all had those days."
"Y-yeah." Shion looked back up at the bone woman.
She hadn't seen him staring. She continued to crawl her way slowly across the wall. Wiry white hair clung to her skull, fluttering down her cheeks and trailing down her exposed spine. Massive canines jutted from her lower jaw, pointed toward the sky like a set of jagged knives.
Shion bustled to the end of the counter to wait for his drinks. He tried to look anywhere but at the bone woman, but his gaze kept drifting back to her. She approached the door in careful, measured movements. She angled her head down, and Shion caught a quick glance of blue flames dancing in the empty sockets comprising her eyes. The thing of nightmares.
The drinks couldn't arrive fast enough. As soon as they were placed on the counter and his order was called out, Shion grasped the drink tray, thanked the barista, and hurried back to the table. Anything to get the bone woman out of his sight.
Safu turned to greet him―and she, too, saw the bone woman. She made a sudden, choking sound, but quickly disguised it as a cough into her fist.
Anne didn't notice. She took her latte from Shion with a loud, "thank you!", and then handed Roy's black coffee to him. Safu's trembling fingers took her green tea from the tray, and Shion set his own iced coffee down on the table.
"Um," he said, placing the empty drink tray down. "I'm gonna run to the restroom. Be right back."
"Shion―," Safu said.
He hurried toward the bathrooms stationed at the far back of the cafe. One of them sat vacant; Shion ducked inside, locking the door behind him. He pressed his spine against the door. His face burned, his chest aching from the intensity of his heartbeat.
The bone woman didn't know he could see her.
She hadn't come for him.
Shion pressed his palms against his eyes and exhaled. Just because Nezumi knew didn't mean the rest of them did. The cool wooden door sat against his spine, seeping in through the fabric of his jacket and shirt. It chilled him to the bone, scattering goosebumps over his arms.
Calm down. Just calm down. You're OK.
The bathroom wasn't too large―designed to only occupy a single person, or someone with a toddler―but it was the perfect size for pacing. Shion did a few laps around the room, working the anxiety out of his tangled mind. He thought about something other than the wretched thing scratching its way across the cafe walls, the silver-eyed boy he'd rescued in the woods two nights ago.
Only when his heart had stopped hammering like a set of drums did Shion decide it was time to go back out. Taking a deep breath, he washed his hands in the sink and splashed some cool water on his face. He inspected his reflection in the mirror, searching for signs of stress. Not finding any, he exhaled and ruffled his wet hands through his hair. He didn't need Safu worrying about him any more than she already did.
"Are you all right, Shion?" Anne asked when Shion finally emerged from the bathroom and eased back down in his seat.
"I'm fine," Shion said. Behind him, the piercing sound of the bell announcing the arrival of yet another customer made his heart rate spike. "Just didn't sleep well last night."
"You sure?" Safu's brows knit together. "If you're not feeling well, we can always―"
Her eyes widened.
"Safu, what's―," Shion began.
"Shion," said an achingly familiar voice behind him.
Shion froze. His heart slammed in his ribcage, his blood freezing. Faeries had never walked up to him before. They'd never breached that paper-thin line between his world and theirs. That night in the forest had been an exception, a mistake Shion could never erase. It was one thing to see the Folk from a distance and pretend not to notice them; it was another thing to have them approach in broad daylight and make contact.
He turned. Nezumi stood next to the table. He was glamoured to look human―his dark hair was black and long, pulled in a messy knot high on his head. His silver eyes flashed in the cafe lights, darkened to a humanistic gray but no less piercing. His ears were rounded, but he wore the same black leather jacket Shion had always seen him in.
Anne gawked at him, stricken by his unnatural beauty. Even Roy seemed a bit flustered.
Shion relaxed, but only a little. Nezumi standing in a human glamour meant communicating with him was acceptable. He wouldn't have to waste energy trying to make up an excuse for Anne and Roy as to why his attention had shifted so abruptly. The other patrons at the cafe watched them, similarly struck by Nezumi's inhuman beauty even when it had been severely dulled by the glamour.
"Uh," Shion said dumbly. "Hi."
"What the hell?" Safu breathed, eyes wide with horror. Her coffee cup hung loosely in his fingers; Shion feared she'd drop it.
Nezumi glanced over at Safu, only briefly, but paid her little mind. He surveyed Anne and Roy and seemed disinterested. His pale eyes shifted back to Shion, and he jerked his head toward the front door. "Got a moment?"
Shion's hands trembled. He could feel Safu staring at his back. The rules her grandmother had ingrained in them since childhood came flooding to the forefront of his mind. Never go off with faeries. Never give them your name. Never let them know you can see them. Shion had broken two of those sacred rules already.
And he was about to break the third.
"All right."
"Shion," Safu hissed.
"It's OK," Shion said, giving her a disarming smile. "Just give me a second?"
"But―"
Shion felt incapable of doing anything else as he rose from the table and quickly followed Nezumi out of the cafe. His chest ached with anxiety, his hands shaking as he stuffed them deep inside his pockets. Nezumi being visible to humans meant Shion didn't have to find a place to hide to speak to him―not in front of humans and not in front of the other Folk.
In the mid-afternoon sunlight, the glamour Nezumi wore like a cloak seemed even more strange. His hair looked too dark, his skin too plain and his eyes not quite right. It was even stranger to see him with rounded ears than the beautiful points Shion often saw knifing through the silky locks of his hair.
The crisp wind tickled Shion's cheeks; he lowered his gaze, pretending to snuggle into his coat.
"Is, um," Shion said, after a moment of silence. "Is everything all right?"
Nezumi's eyes flickered. "We need to talk."
To Be Continued...