Free Incarnate (A Spellmason Chronicle) by Anton Strout

asked.
    “Breakfast,” I said. “I figured it’s been a while since we’ve all just hung out, so I thought I’d bring everything to you.”
    Rory picked through a few of the bags, pulling an icing-drizzled muffin from one of them. “And you do mean
everything
,” she said.
    “Oh!” I said, excited. “That’s a cruffin!”
    “A
what
-fin?” Marshall asked.
    Rory’s face transformed to a look of awe and she went from just holding it to cradling it with care in her hands.
    “I’ve heard of them, but I’ve never seen one,” she said. “How long did you have to wait?”
    “About two hours,” I said. “There was already a line when I got there.”
    Marshall walked over to Rory, staring at the treat.
    “But what
is
it?” he asked.
    “It’s all the rage,” I said. “It’s a muffin on the outside, but inside it’s got the flaky layer of a croissant. Every food blog in the city has been losing their minds over them, so I figured, why not get the best for my besties? You got lucky. They limit them to two per person, but I promised them a discount here at your store to snag a third.”
    Marshall looked up. “So generous of you,” he said.
    Rory held the cruffin up to her mouth, not daring to bite into it yet. “It will be worth it,” she said to Marshall. “Trust me.”
    “And if you don’t like it, I hit up a bunch of other places, too.” I pointed off to a red and yellow bag at the far end of the counter. “There’s an egg sandwich in that one where the ‘bread’ is made of maple-bacon pancakes.”
    Marshall turned away from Rory and dove for the other bag. “You had me at bacon,” he said, unwrapping one of the sandwiches and tearing into it.
    He and Rory fell silent for a few minutes as they devoured their first breakfast treats while I simply enjoyed watching them. When Marshall had polished off his sandwich, he basked in the glow for a moment with a big smile before coming back to earth.
    “How’s the arm feel today?” he asked.
    I flexed it back and forth. “Feels a little tight,” I said, “but good. Thanks again for the potion.”
    “So what’s all this
really
about?” Rory asked, licking her fingers clean. “Last night neither of us could talk sense to you and you were practically biting our heads off. Today you’re either killing us with kindness or just trying to kill us by way of caloric intake.”
    A twinge of guilt knotted my stomach. “Consider this a peace offering,” I said.
    Marshall narrowed his eyes at me with skepticism. “I didn’t realize the three of us were at war with each other.”
    Being honest with myself was one thing, but steeling my resolve to admit my shortcomings to my friends was far more uncomfortable.
    Still, I needed to verbalize it out loud to them because just shoving food down their throats wasn’t going to be enough. I took in a deep breath, letting out the tension that was starting to build in my shoulders.
    “I
know
I’ve been pushing myself too hard,” I said. “And Rory. And you, when we can drag you away from the store. If we keep going like this, we’re going to make mistakes, and someone besides me is going to get hurt. I don’t know if I can live with that.”
    “What about the rest of New York?” Marshall said. “Last night you were so concerned with stopping every bit of gargoyle violence before it even had a chance to happen.”
    “Caleb
might
have pointed out to me that I can’t help anyone if we’re not careful,” I said. “We’ll end up too dead to do anyone any good.”
    “Hey, I’m all for not dying,” Marshall said.
    “So
we
didn’t get through to you, but Caleb did?” Rory asked, crossing her arms.
    “Oh, I went down kicking and screaming,” I said. “I fought him on it for a bit, but then we made a discovery that changed my mind.”
    “Which is . . . ?”
    Rory grabbed a chocolate-covered doughnut out of one of the boxes and sat herself up on the edge of Marshall’s