Page 68 of The Fantastic Fluke

She didn’t say anything else, just continued holding onto me, cheek pressed against the back of my shoulder.

A while later, we moved to the couch, sitting there tossing a balled-up piece of paper back and forth as Fluke lazily tried to snatch it out of the air.

At some point I glanced to the front of the shop, and the window was getting dark. According to my phone, it was almost six. Almost closing time. “Didn’t you have classes?”

She shrugged carelessly. “I cancelled them. The undergrads won’t mind having a few days extra to finish their homework.”

“You didn’t have to do that for me.” No doubt the students would appreciate it, but Beez was scrupulously ethical. She didn’t call in sick just because she didn’t feel like going.

She reached out with a bare foot and prodded my thigh. “You don’t have to be a dumbass, but apparently you’re good at it. You’re my best friend. Of course I had to. But it’s not like it’s a bad-time-ugh responsibility. I want to be here. Now lock up so we can go get dinner.”

So I did. It didn’t take too long to count the register down, clean up the superficial messes left by customers, and flip off the lights, especially with two of us to do the work. I set the alarm, Beez locked the front door, and we turned to head for her car.

The swooping sensation in my stomach was a surprise as the convergence opened up inside me like a chasm in my chest. The magic flooded me like hot chocolate on a cold day, warming me from the inside out, and I looked down to see my arms glowing with magic.

Then there was a pull, as though the magic was all rushing in one direction. It went somewhere behind me, but most importantly, I had to reach for something to lean on, because the world started to spin around me as it went out and out and out and—

The world went dark.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Iwoke to the sounds of Fluke whining and an obnoxious alarm blaring.

“I know,” I muttered. “The alarm sucks. But we’ve gotta get to the shop, buddy.”

But wait, it was supposed to be Wednesday, wasn’t it? It was my day off. Had I forgotten to turn my alarm off? No, in fact, I’d turned it off on Tuesday morning after it woke me, to be sure I could sleep in the next day.

“Dammit, Sage, wake the hell up,” Beez demanded, and at that, my eyes shot open. I loved my best friend, but we hadn’t had a sleepover since we were teenagers and her parents decided that even if I was gay, teenagers were prone to pregnancy, and they didn’t want to be grandparents just yet.

There was a man leaning over me, but he didn’t seem put off by my sudden consciousness. “Can you speak, Mr. McKinley?” An EMT. He was an EMT, unless he’d stolen an EMT’s uniform, and why would anyone do that?

“I think so?” I asked, and my voice came out rough and garbled.

He cleared his throat and glanced down at my groin, which was warm and heavy. Oh hell, had I fucking wet myself? That was so embarrassing. My cheeks flushed hot, but a nervous voice grabbed my attention. “Then could you possibly call your familiar off?”

My eyes ached as I looked down to find not a wet spot on my pants, but Fluke planted on my legs, glaring at the man, alternately whining and growling, one of my wrists clutched gently between his teeth. “Fluke?” I asked. “Whatcha doing, buddy?”

He looked up and met my eye, letting out a pitiful whine.

“He got rid of them,” Beez announced, and she was giving the EMT the same evil eye as Fluke. I wondered what the hell the guy had done to deserve that. “Fluke chased off whoever it was who attacked you.”

“Someone attacked me?” I asked, but the question was drowned out by the screech of tires—a small sedan pulling up next to the ambulance they were trying to put me in.

I finally took a real look around. We were right at the mouth of the alley between the bookstore and the office next door, the ambulance pulled up in front of the office.

They had managed to strap my chest to the gurney, but Fluke was keeping them from strapping my legs down with his own body.

The car that had pulled up was black, and for a wild moment, I imagined it was Gideon riding to my rescue. But of course, Gideon was a ghost. He didn’t have a car. He probably didn’t even know anything about driving.

Most importantly, Gideon wasn’t there at all.

It was David.

He jumped out of the car, slamming the door behind him and rushing over to where the four of us sat, stood, and lay. “Sage, are you okay?”

“Of course he’s not okay,” Beez said, her voice tight. She had always seemed to like David before, but tonight she seemed as unimpressed as Gideon. Maybe the whole attitude was just stress talking. “Someone attacked him. As we were heading out for the night, Sage just started... glowing. The glow got sucked down the alley, and Sage collapsed. Fluke barked and ran down there, and a second later, the sucking stopped, and the glow snapped back.”

David looked down at Fluke, who was now growling in his direction. “Quite the little protector you have there.”

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