Rest and Reanimation: An Action Packed Urban Fantasy Thriller (Faerie Protective Services Inc Book 12) by McKinney Robert

Author:McKinney, Robert
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McKinney Can't Press
Published: 2022-03-25T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

As it turns out, pancakes are what’s better than coffee in Tati’s book. I’m more of a waffle man myself, but I had to admit, as the first short stack arrived alongside a full pot of caffeine, that pancakes alongside coffee on a cold night are greater than the sum of their parts.

According to Tati, the diner now sheltering us was somewhere in Washington state near the border with Canada. She’d brought us there via a crossing, the magical kind, not Customs, but I’d been too out of it to pay attention to exactly where everything was.

None of that mattered right now, though. The diner was warm, and the weather outside was some mind-boggling smear of frigid rainwater and snow that the waitress had called a ‘wintery mix’. The view of that through the diner’s window made me happy for the feast before me, even as the last tinges of nausea made me pause from time to time to get ahold of my stomach before I could continue on eating.

Hiding the wooden plank growing out of my skull had been an issue before we’d entered the place, but Tati had accounted for that with a glamour that hid it away from mortal view. I could still feel it, though. A not-quite stiffness. A not-quite itch. A nuisance through and through.

I took another bite of my pancakes and glanced away from the window to where Tati was reading on the other side of the booth. A half full cup of coffee steamed by her elbow, and a near empty plate of pancakes rested beside that.

“Any luck?” I asked her.

“Plenty.” she replied. “That’s the problem.”

“I’m not sure that’s how luck works.” I said. “Usually the more of it, the better.”

“Not in this case.” she said. “The last five pages of this folio have danced around exactly what we need.”

“Right, that’s good.” I said.

“And I’m pretty sure that the next fifty will tell us more than what the hell is happening to both of us.” said Tati. “It may tell us how to speed up the change, or even stop it all together if that’s what we want.”

“Even better.” I said.

“Here’s the thing, though.” said Tati as she held up the ripped book in question. “I’ve only got two pages left to read of this thing. And I’m pretty sure what we need won’t be in it.”

“Two pages?” I asked.

“Two.” confirmed Tati.

“And you’re pretty sure that the missing half of book has what we need?” I asked.

“It’ll at least have some of it.” she replied.

“Fuck.” I said and put down my fork. I wasn’t afraid to admit that I was feeling pretty beat up. Half-orcs like myself are unusually tough by mortal standards, but we still felt pain. We still got tired.

Here’s the thing about toughness, though. About grit. It’s not about how well one functions when they’re well rested or feeling good. It’s about how much they can grind past that when the suffering sets in.

And say what you will about me, I’m tough by any standard.

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