In the village, stalls for the fair littered one side of the road. A group of locals from the pub crouched on the ground, cutting plastic sheets to go above the stalls. Tom and Ezra stood awkwardly together, wondering what to do and where to start.
He spotted Finn by planks of wood and decided that he would start with someone familiar. Hand in hand, they wandered through the working people, who glanced at them, and then glanced again at Ezra.
"Hey," Tom said, and Finn looked up, shielding his eyes from the sun. "What can we do to help with the fair?"
Finn handed Ezra a hammer and said, "I was looking for an excuse to leave. You boys can take over here." He got up and left.
"Uh . . . " Tom looked around. "I'm not really sure how to build stalls."
"I'll show you," Ezra said. He must've seen the surprise on Tom's face when he added, "I have lived a long time. You pick up skills."
"Oh yeah?" Tom said with a grin. "You've helped out with the village fair before?"
"When I was an angel."
Tom squeezed his shoulder and crouched down to listen to his instructions. They built the stall quickly and one local asked if they could help with theirs. Through the day, Tom and Ezra moved down the street, helping where they could and being as polite as they could.
Some of the older locals glared, but they didn't go out of their way to comment about their disapproval because Ezra was useful. He was strong and tall, and eager to please anyone who needed the help.
Tom soon found himself standing out of the way, watching Ezra listening intensely to Farmer Joel who wanted shelves on the back of his stall, so he could show off his homemade jams.
"You were here a long time ago, weren't you?" Farmer Joel asked Ezra.
He looked up and nodded shyly.
"When did you leave?"
"The year nineteen seventeen."
"Ah, so you must have known my great grandfather."
"Yes." Ezra studied the shelf in his hands. "He used to make a very spicy chilli jam."
Farmer Joel sat up straight, staring at the demon with intrigue. "I still use his recipe."
Ezra relaxed his anxious gaze. "He would be happy about that."
As they started talking about the history of the farm, and how much Ezra remembered about the village he had left a hundred years ago, Tom wandered around the stalls.
With the fair only a few days away, people were hanging bunting from roof to roof, followed by strings of twinkling lights that filled his mind with wonder when he was a child. He adored the town fair when he was young. He and Cal would get so excited because it meant a day full of sweets and fun.
As he got older and started working in the pub, he lost that buzz. The fair became an inconvenience because of the tourists. They didn't realise that their pub was demon friendly, and always made the atmosphere uncomfortable. The fair was the one day of the year that guaranteed a fight.
He spotted his father chatting with a few of his friends by the fountain. Glancing back to Ezra, he was still deep in a conversation with Farmer Joel, so he left him to it. "Hey dad," he said, standing behind him.
Declan turned with a big grin. "Ah son, I wondered where you went this morning! Where's Ez?"
Tom pointed down the street, and Declan nodded happily. "Good lads for helping out. Your mother is in the library, can you tell her we have to go back home and open up in a minute?"
Tom tapped his fingers together. "Haisley banned me from the library."
Declan paused. "Excuse me?"
"She did what?" his father's friend asked with raised brows.
"Son, you were born here, raised here, and you are a part of this place. Now you go in that building and tell Haisley to piss off if she even dares to tell you you're not welcome." Declan lightly shoved him in the direction of the library.
"She wouldn't dream of it in front of Moira," Declan's friend commented, chuckling. "Not unless she has a death wish."
Tom swallowed thickly and entered. His mother stood by the reception desk, talking to the local gardener about shaping the bushes around the pub into neat circles.
Haisley noticed him before anyone else, and her apple hovered by her lips. She pulled her glasses up to sit on her scalp, and slowly stood up. "Tom," she said sadly.
"I'm just here for my mum," he mumbled.
"Can you wait outside please?" she asked before pursing her lips.
"Why?" Moira asked suddenly, walking over.
Haisley struggled to meet her gaze. "Your son is banned from my library."
"Excuse me?" Moira asked in the same tone his father had used.
"Demons and anyone associated with demons are banned," she said quietly, staring down at her half-eaten apple.
"Oh so I'm banned too then?"
"No-"
"Yes, because a demon is staying with us in our home, and he is working for us in our pub. I'm guessing all the locals who say goodnight to him at the end of his shift are also banned?"
"No-"
"And I guess Farmer Joel is banned too because he's out there now, working with Ez to build the stalls for the fair. And I guess Othrowan is also banned for knowing him too? Hm?" Haisley said nothing, so Moira leaned over the reception desk. "Get a grip, Haisley. You know Tom is a good kid. Don't punish him because you're too spineless to live among demons."
The gardener scoffed. "Moira, I'll give you twenty percent off this month purely for witnessing that. Hey Tom." As he left, Haisley ground her jaw and sat back down.
Tom smiled at his mother, though his cheeks burnt with embarrassment, wishing he had stuck up for himself the way those who loved him stuck up for him too.
"Come on son, lets go." They walked away together. Declan stood in the doorway, staring at his wife with a proud, loving smile.
"Moira my darling, I love you," he said wrapping a loose arm around her shoulders.
Tom looked around for Ezra and found him sitting on the kerb with Cal, untangling some of the lights that needed hanging around the stalls. He had a sudden craving to be looked at the same way his father looked at his mother. "I'll see you guys later," he said to his parents, and manoeuvred around the busy street.
He settled next to Ezra who waited for Cal to stop talking about what he had eaten that day to whisper, "I saw you go into the library. Everything okay?"
Tom nodded. "Everything is fine." He took the lights and helped untangle them. Ezra's gaze never left his face as he shuffled a little closer, leaning his body into him.
"Good." He kissed his temple, and Tom's heart fluttered.
Cal got up to help hang some bunting around the newly made stall, but a sudden roar of screeching tires yanked everyone's attention towards the country road. A silver sports car skidded around the corner, narrowly missing a stall and the fountain as it swerved. The car stopped a foot in front of the entrance to the library with smoke swirling from the tires.
Tom leapt to his feet, but his parents had dashed out of the way just in time. "Cal, that's your dad," he muttered as Andy tumbled from the driver's seat with his hands up, ready to apologise.
"Someone take his goddamn driver's licence," Farmer Joel grumbled, rolling up his sleeves and storming over to give him a piece of his mind. Cal stormed over too, but enough people were yelling at Andy already, so Tom hung back.
As he listened to their angry concern, he clocked eyes with Phil who stood on the other side of the street with Torin. Tom hadn't seen them since they decided to fight him and a young demon a few months ago. Their fighting with a demon led him to Ezra, where he had to make a contract for knowing his full name. He had a lot to thank them for, though they wouldn't see it like that. And they didn't deserve his gratitude.
Phil glared at him while Torin watched the commotion at the end of the street.
"That's the man who nearly ran you over," Ezra said, not noticing Phil sticking his middle finger up like a frustrated teenager.
"Yeah, I thought I was his wakeup call. I guess not." Tom ignored Phil, thankful to see an angel exiting the library to deal with Andy who had been lucky not to run anyone over.
"If he doesn't get his licence taken away now, those angels really are as corrupt as everyone's saying," a woman grumbled in front of them.
Tom and Ezra shared a quick glance. "What are everyone saying?" Tom blurted. The woman looked at him, and then at Ezra, and her expression shaped with pity.
"Well, if that old one is ruthless enough to change an innocent angel into a demon to keep control, what else is he capable of? And the rest of them follow him so eagerly. What else have they done and not told us about?"
Very good question, Tom thought.