Free The Demon Signet by Shawn Hopkins Page B

encouraging them to follow. “How long you been driving?”
    Ian rubbed his jaw as they neared an empty booth. “A few hours.”
    “A few hours? Where you coming from?”
    “Quebec.”
    He stopped at a booth near the back of the diner, surprised. “Canada? And it only took you three hours?”
    As they all slid into the booth, Marcus explained, “Our flight had to make an emergency stop at Adirondack Regional. They didn’t have any other flights out of there, and we heard bad weather was coming so…”
    “Ah. Well, it’s here all right. Question is: how long’s it gonna stay?” He distributed the menus. As he did so, he took notice of their attire, their shoes and light shirts peeking out from beneath their coats. “You folks don’t look to be dressed for this sort of weather.”
    “Our luggage is still at the airport,” Ashley said.
    He smiled a warm smile. “Hmm. I imagine you’d like something hot, then. Coffee? Tea?”
    “Coffee,” they all said in unison.
    He smiled again. “Name’s George, by the way.”
    Ian was leaning against the table with his arms crossed and managed to lift a couple fingers in a curt wave. “Nice to meet you, George.”
    George nodded and turned away from them, walking back to the kitchen.
    Ashley looked around the diner again until she found the two people who’d come in right before them. A young boy and girl. The place was empty otherwise.
    “How late do you think he’s open?” she asked.
    Marcus placed a hand on her knee and squeezed it while leaning over and giving her a peck on the cheek. “Don’t know.”
    Ashley watched as Heather pulled her cell phone from her pocket and set it on the table. She punched the first three numbers of her four-digit code…and paused. Her forefinger hesitated, hovering dumbly over the final key as if afraid to unlock the phone. Ashley was sure no one else noticed, but her sister’s hand was still trembling even after unlocking it and turning it around so that everyone could see the radar on her AccuWeather app. The whole state was covered in white.
    “Doesn’t look like it’s letting up anytime soon,” she said, and Ashley thought she could detect a slight tremble in her voice.
    Letting Heather’s shaking hand go for now, Ashley said, “Mom and Dad gotta be freakin’ out.”
    Marcus frowned. “I wonder why they haven’t called any of us.”
    Something in Ashley’s gut twisted in response to hearing those words, but Ian just shrugged, still staring at the menu. “Maybe they’ve been trying, and they just can’t get through.”
    Heather already had the number dialed and the phone held to her ear, waiting. But she shook her head in frustration. “Line’s busy or something.”
    “Let me try.” Ashley took out her phone and called. “Same. That’s weird.”
    “Tomato pie!” Ian announced from behind his menu. “It’s your lucky day, babe.” He put his arm around Heather and gave her a playful squeeze, trying to lighten the mood.
    George was back to their table with a pitcher of coffee, mugs, and packets of sugar and cream. “I’ll give you folks a few more minutes,” he said happily, and he turned and disappeared again.
    Ashley wrapped her hands around her mug, relishing the heat’s upward crawl through her arms. She was instantly transfixed by the wispy fingers rising from the black liquid.
    “It’s good coffee,” she heard Ian saying from across the table. She didn’t look up, though. It seemed she couldn’t. There was another small slurping sound and Marcus’ voice whispering an “amen” to Ian’s pronouncement, but still Ashley couldn’t lift her eyes away from the twirling tendrils of steam spinning toward her face. They churned inwardly, the eye of a hurricane hovering above her coffee mug, hypnotizing her.
    The letter R appeared.
    Ashley’s eyes, still under some spell, narrowed. There was no mistaking it for anything else. It was as clear as a 3D image coming out of a movie screen, growing,