Page 54 of Faking with the Fae King

“No, I mean it!” I touch his soft forehead in a gentle pet. “From other animals, I get one or two words at best, but you and I have entire conversations! And your vocabulary blows all of them away.”

“Well, of course it does.” He immediately perks back up, living fully in the now in that special way animals have. “I’m special.”

“You sure are.” I hug him, his musky floral smell comforting. “Now let me get ready, and we’ll go have brunch.”

“What’s brunch?” he asks as he follows me into my bedroom.

“It’s breakfast and lunch combined into one meal.”

“That’s horrible!” Finn sounds offended. “Why would you tell me I’m only getting one meal instead of two?”

“Because it’s a bigger meal and you get to eat things you don’t normally eat.”

“Treats?” His ears perk up. “You should have led with that.”

I grin. “I’ll know better next time.”

I get ready in a flash, taking the world’s fastest shower and throwing on comfy weekend clothes, yoga pants and a T-shirt. In no time at all, my little car is puttering down Main Street, with Finn in the front seat and Rune overflowing the back, his head hanging out the window so the wind ripples through his hair. Already the town feels different, more alive. People are enjoying the green, couples sit on blankets while their kids play. A dog catches a Frisbee.

Finn sticks his head out the window to watch, then turnsto me. “Do noteverexpect me to do that.”

The werewolf huffs a laugh of agreement.

“No Frisbees. Got it.”

A batch of tulips run past, a little boy making meowing noises following, so Severin already got the spell changed to show the walking flowers as cats. That’s so sweet of him to remember.

More people stroll the sidewalks, a mix of humans and fae. Bling It On is full of shopping shadow fae, the little gnomes whirling about in a frenzy to help all of them. There are orcs inside I Touch My Shelf. And there’s even a line outside Slice of Life!

Ferndale Falls feels vital again. It’s everything I hoped for.

I swerve around the infamous pothole and park in the municipal lot. Then we hurry back down the sidewalk to the pizzeria/waffle place. Rune slips away from my peripheral view, which feels like it should be impossible for someone so massive, but he’s good at his job.

Skye and Autumn are already in line when I join them, and I give them big hugs. “I’m so glad you could meet me.”

“Uh, oh.” Autumn points at me. “Is that guy trouble I detect?”

“Yep.”

“How can you have guy trouble if it’s all fa—” Skye catches herself right in time, slapping a hand over her mouth. Then she whispers from between her fingers a muffled, “Sorry.”

Blue streaks out the open front door and stops, hovering in front of my face. “Mayor Wylde! You are a specialcustomer. You do not have to wait!” Her little arms gesture me inside.

Skye’s slip made me realize a crowded and public café might not be the best place to talk about everything. Dammit.

“Excuse me, Blue. Is there a special table where my friends and I can sit without being overheard by other people?” I lean forward and whisper. “We need to talk about magic.”

“Don’t worry. We have special candles for that! We buy them from the shadow fae.”

She escorts us inside to one of the tables along the wall, not batting a tiny eyelash at the fact that Finn comes with us. At her sharp whistle, three pixies fly a purple pillar candle to our table. “When you light this, no one will be able to eavesdrop on you.”

I make the newbie mistake of trying to order a waffle and get a three-minute lecture on how that word shouldn’t exist, because all the best foods are, of course, pizza.

Properly chastened, and trying really freaking hard not to laugh, we order coffee and “sweet pizzas” for the three of us, with un-spiced “meat pizzas” for Finn, which from the menu description should be hamburger patties.

The pixies drop off an insulated carafe of coffee, and by the time we’ve poured and doctored them, the food arrives, teams of pixies flying each plate over to us, the one with the burgers going to Finn on the floor.

They let out happy cheers of “Pizza” and all the pixies in the café echo them. As soon as they leave, I light the candle, and a bubble of silence surrounds us, as if someone turneddown the volume on the rest of the world. It’s like Severin’s sound-cloaking spell, but in candle form!

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