A Thousand Second Chances (A Dash of Modern Magic Book 1) by Elric Shaw

Author:Elric Shaw [Shaw, Elric]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2023-10-30T00:00:00+00:00

twenty-four

Percy

I’m eating a lemon poppyseed muffin at my usual table by the door when Chris slumps into the chair across from me. He grabs the cappuccino I’d purchased from a sullen Owen and takes a sip, leaning back in his seat and closing his eyes. I nibble on my muffin, watching him in silence.

“It didn’t work,” he grunts eventually, sitting up to take a deeper gulp of his drink.

“No,” I agree. “It didn’t.”

I hadn’t been that surprised when I’d woken up this morning back in the Royal Lilac to the obnoxious beeping of my usual alarm. There’d been no real reason to think leaving Mackinac Island would change anything, and sure enough, the time loop doesn’t seem to care whether we’re here or on the mainland.

Chris frowns and casually flips his bangs out of his eyes, giving me a sheepish look. “Sorry for falling asleep last night. I should’ve grabbed some extra caffeine.”

I raise an eyebrow. “Or maybe sat up instead of burrowing under the covers?”

“Or that,” he replies with a grin.

“It’s fine. I stayed awake, and it didn’t make a difference.”

Chris perks up at that, peering at me over the rim of his coffee. “Did you figure out when the loop resets?”

It’s my turn to look sheepish. “I wasn’t watching my phone closely enough to get an exact measurement, but I think it was a little after one. One minute, Gordon Ramsey was eviscerating a chef for messing up an order. The next, I was blinking awake back here.”

His brow furrows. “Why one AM and not something more significant like midnight?”

“Dunno. But I mean, it’s not like much about this whole thing has made much sense. It could be random.”

“I suppose…” He doesn’t sound convinced. To be honest, neither am I.

“Or maybe there’s a hidden meaning to the time we haven’t figured out yet,” I suggest with a shrug. “After all, we still don’t know why the day keeps resetting in the first place.”

“You think something significant happens at one AM?”

“Possibly.” I fight down my growing frustration at our lack of answers. “Three loops in, and we’ve still determined practically nothing that can help us.”

Chris gives me a lopsided grin. “Hey, yesterday wasn’t a total loss. Disproving hypotheses and all that. Plus, you’ve got to admit, it was a lot of fun.”

Remembering the adventure course, I groan and cover my face with my hands. “God, I can’t believe you talked me into doing that. Only you could convince me to risk my life for an adrenaline rush.”

As soon as I say the words, I regret them. There’s something a bit too vulnerable in them—too revealing of the way my heart had thudded at each shared touch or the heat his impromptu hug had sent searing through me. I really hope he hadn’t noticed the way I’d sniffed him like a total creep. Though, judging by how awkward things had gotten afterward, that’s probably a lost cause.

I’m worried my admission might make him pull away again now, but his grin merely widens.

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