upload

I returned her smile and turned back to the cash register. I loved our friendly customers. Increasingly, people treated me like a nuisance, an inconvenient distraction from whatever they were doing on their phones—even though they themselves were the ones who’d chosen to come to the coffee shop.

“It’s a good day. Beautiful,” I answered, even though I couldn’t remember much of it so far. But no customer—no matter how friendly—wanted to hear the ravings of a mad barista.

Because I was going crazy, right?

Or losing it?

It being my memories.

I took the customer’s order and cashed her out. As soon as she left, another came to take her place.

Then another.

And another.

I had no downtime between orders. Granted, Harold’s always tended to be busy, but this was ridiculous. I didn’t even recognize a single person who came in, and normally we had a steady flow of regulars.

“Kelley?” I asked, walking away from the register and the new customer who stood waiting.

“Hmmm?” she asked as she continued to work the espresso machine.

“Does anything seem off to you today?” I ventured, shifting my weight to one side.

She continued her work without even taking a second to glance up at me, but at least she answered.“Off how?”

I shrugged, wishing I could explain it.

Kelley chuckled.“Looks like someone had a few too many cold ones last night.”

I grabbed her arm, but still she didn’t look at me. “I don’t drink, Kelley. You know that.”

“Must have slipped my mind,” she said coolly. “Now get back to the register. You have a line.”

I followed my boss’s orders, even though I now felt more out of sorts than ever. Kelley always made time for small talk, no matter how busy we got. It was important to her to keep up staff morale. And I was one of her best friends. If I came to her because something was wrong, she’d stop everything to help me through it.

“Welcome to Harold’s. I’ll be right back,” I told the customer at the front of the line, then zipped back toward Kelley to test a theory I’d just developed.

“Do you think Drake could be cheating on you?” I asked her. Admittedly, this was a risk. Last time we’d spoken, she’d been intensely worried that Drake’s sudden trip away meant he had another woman on the side.

I didn’t want to rekindle that worry in my friend, but I also needed to get a stronger response out of Kelley. That would at least ease my own worry, that nagging feeling that something just wasn’t right here.

“He wouldn’t cheat on me,” she said with a dreamy smile. “We’re way too happy for him to go and mess things up like that.”

Okay, that did it!

Where was I and who was this standing before me? Because it definitely wasn’t the Kelley Carmine I knew and loved.

“Sorry, but I’ve gotta go,” I told her, tearing off my apron and dropping it onto the floor.

“You can’t just walk away mid-shift!” she shouted.

“Watch me,” I called back as I raced around the counter and toward the exit.

21

Before I could make it to the door, a strong hand reached out and grasped my arm.

Drake.

“Hey. Where are you off to in such a hurry?” he asked with his usual chill demeanor, a stark contrast to the sobbing heap he’d become when last we met.

“Something’s not right here,” I informed him, my voice low to keep the milling herd of customers from overhearing. “I have to go.”

“It’s weird, right?” came his reply. “One second I was hanging out with Fluffikins and the gang in Beech Grove, and the next I’m here at work.”

I took a second to process this.“So you were somewhere else, and then suddenly you ended up here? I think maybe that’s what happened to me, too.” I racked my brain trying to remember but still came up infuriatingly short.

Drake rocked on his heels.“Yeah, probably, considering this is an illusion.”

“A what?” That word sounded familiar, but why?

“An illusion,” Drake repeated slowly. “You know, as in, fake. Not real.”

“Illusion,” I mumbled aloud, tasting the word, meditating on it.

And at last everything came into focus.

Dash!

He’d done this. Illusions were his specialty, and he’d had almost a thousand years to practice this particular skill. He’d captured me and Merlin, taken us to the top of that mountain. He was going to use our blood to do something terrible. He already had some of mine, but I didn’t know if he’d gotten to Merlin yet.

I had to get back, just in case there was still time.

“Merlin’s in trouble,” I told Drake as fear squeezed at my heart. “I have to get to him.”

“Okay,” he said with a shrug. “See you later, then.”

He let go of my arm, and I pushed through the door into the blinding sunlight.

No, it was all white. When the light faded, I realized I was back at the cash register staring at the numbers$4.15. By trying to leave, I’d reset the illusion.

I ran to Drake, who seemed to be the only sane person in this place.

“That was trippy,” he confided.

“How come you’re you when nobody else is?” I demanded, staying close and keeping my voice to a whisper.

“That’s a weird thing to ask,” he said with wide eyes as if I was blowing his mind right now.