Page 1 of Five for Silver

Chapter One

They chattered.

They chortled.

The noise of them invaded Chad’s sleep.

Magpies.

Romeo’s winged demons in the field.

When they’d first moved in, they were a raresight. There were blackbirds, robins, and other small songbirds,but under Romeo’s favoritism and discrimination, the magpieslearned to stick around.

They had an ally in Romeo, and just likethat, he established order in the outside world with the magpies asthe top predator.

Chad blinked the ceiling into focus while his heartskipped and tripped. A low, long groaned escaped him as he grabbeda pillow and pressed it to his face.

It didn’t help.

The sharp birdcalls went through the barrier,spearing into his skull and rattling his brain.

Chad would’ve preferred the sound of roosters or carhorns, or a catastrophic explosion to Romeo’s army of magpiesclacking out their machine gun call. It got worse when Romeo joinedthem, clacking his tongue to the roof of his mouth, calling moredown from the trees around their field. If it hadn’t been going onfor weeks, Chad would’ve been impressed with how well Romeomimicked them, but for six consecutive weekends, he’d wokendisoriented and inside a war zone with the sun only just peekingout from the horizon.

Chad stumbled as he got out of bed, taking the duvetwith him as he trudged to the window and yanked open the curtains.Romeo stood in a tornado of wings and claws in their field of thedead, arms aloft, scattering seed. He watched, clacking, andgreeting his feathered friends who twirled around him in asynchronized dance.

Romeo Knight.

Their God.

Chad rolled his eyes.

He rapped the glass, but the sound of magpiesdrowned him out.

“Damn it!”

He gripped the bottom of the window and heaved itopen. Romeo didn’t notice, too engrossed in the birds flying aroundhim. The hood of his coat covered his head to protect from birdshit Chad imagined.

Chad opened his mouth to yell, but one bird brokefree from the frenzy and headed his way. His frantic shooing didnothing to discourage the magpie. It swooped, Chad shivered at thewind from its wings, and the proximity of its claws to hisface.

“Jesus,” he hissed, lifting his arm to defendhimself.

They were getting bolder, angrier, and if any otherbird dared try to join in, they dove for it and took it from thesky. Chad had seen them kill.

It needed dealing with and the solution had fourlegs, a wagging tail and a lolling tongue.

Mercutio.

The stray magpie retreated to rejoin Romeo. Chadkept his arm ready in case another became brash and attackedhim.

“It’s 6:00 in the morning!”

Romeo turned to face him with his eyebrow raised. Noapology, only amusement at a shirtless Chad hanging out of thewindow.

Chad rubbed his eyes, waiting for Romeo to at leastlook sheepish. But this was Romeo, and all Chad got was a wolfishsmile.

“Exactly.” Romeo called back.

“What?”

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