The Revelation of Light and Dark (Chronicles of the Stone Veil 1)

And once he told me that, I realized how true it was. I remembered the more I took over managerial duties for Rich over the years, the more it left it open for him to be the face of One Bean. To smile and chat with people over their coffees and to have an eagle eye view to make sure things were running the best that they could. Rich knew all the regulars who came in, and I knew about half. I made it my goal to get to know every one of them, and, luckily for me, that’s not a hard job. I have a genuine interest in people. I like listening more than talking.

Over the past few weeks, it’s become my favorite part of the day to be out in the bustle of the main restaurant rather than stuck in the back office reconciling accounts and inventory.

There’s another benefit to spending time behind the counter or walking around the tables to check in on patrons. I get to practice more of my skills when it comes to fae and daemons. Not only recognizing them by feel and sight, but also by honing my poker face skills so that even the most hideous that might walk in won’t cause me to flinch.

Just yesterday, I carried on a fifteen-minute conversation with a daemon with a sludgy aura who was positively awful to look at and converse with. I’m not sure why his aura was so thick with darkness, but being as he had no idea I knew he wasn’t human, he shamelessly hit on me in the nastiest of ways. Made overt sexual innuendos and openly leered at my breasts, and I just played along the entire time. I considered it a victory that I knew who he was, but he had no clue what I could do.

I also had an encounter with what I think was a Dark Fae. The minute he stepped up to where I was working the register, I got a roiling sensation in my stomach that almost made me nauseous. His human glamour was incredibly handsome, and when I went beneath his glamour, I found him to be just as attractive. But as with all fae and daemon, the ones who have humanoid faces have just a bit of otherworldliness to make them different. In this fae’s case, his facial angles were a bit sharper, and his almond-shaped eyes were near pitch black and glimmering with malice.

He was one of those types that were naturally off-putting, so I didn’t attempt conversation past wishing him a good day after I handed over his coffee. He went to a table in the corner, pulled out a laptop, and immediately started up a conversation with someone on his wireless earbud. He was too far away for me to hear him with my natural skills, but I focused on him with my supernatural skills, and I was able to listen in on a dreadfully boring conversation about stocks. I’d even managed to drop eye contact on him and was still able to hear him talk. That wasn’t easy to maintain, though, because as soon as my attention was taken by another customer, I lost the connection.

But that’s okay… I learned my ability to hear wasn’t directly tied with my line of sight and it was a skill I could polish, which would serve me well.

The other important thing I learned in all of my experimenting at One Bean was that this super-hearing ability only worked on fae and daemons, not on humans. If a fae was talking to a human, I could only hear the fae’s side of the conversation.

Currently, I’m working on the secondary cash register, the lunch rush starting to die down now, and I’ll be heading back to the office soon. Carrick’s going to be coming here to go over the human resources manual I’d drafted and he’d reviewed. I was surprised when I set the meeting per his secretary’s instructions, that he wanted to come here rather than have me go to his office.

Wherever that may be.

I’m still not sure where Carrick works from, as I don’t think it’s at the Olympic Dreams headquarters for some reason. That’s but one company in his conglomerate.

There’s only one more person in my line. As soon as she steps up, I place a little “Closed” plaque in front of the register. She orders a chicken panini sandwich and an iced coffee. When she steps off to the side to wait for her order, I tell Carmen—the girl on the other register—that I’m going to head back to my office.

She smiles and nods, but as I start to turn away, something out the front door catches my eye.

A brief glimpse, but I’m positive it’s Echo in tattered clothes with a dirty beanie on her head. She’s walking beside a man who I can’t tell with just a brief glimpse if he’s human or other, but what I do notice is her pointing to the front door of One Bean as they pass by.