The Záchari & Nik Show - Episode 6 - Open Your Heart part 2 (Patreon)

Once again, this comic page is not quite following Adam's story, so I think both can and should be enjoyed in their own right.

Thanks again to Adam for collaborating with me on this side project, I'm enjoying it tremendously and I hope all of you do too! It's almost over, the next Z&N episode is the last one before the next story arc. I will miss these two.

Fortune Cookie

Short story by Adam Lunter

Nik was about to dig in to the massive amount of Chinese takeout spread out on the table before him when he had the most peculiar feeling that someone was watching him. He shifted his eyes to the side and saw Zachari staring him down with a look in his eyes that was equal parts hopeful and pitiful. For a moment, Nik could have sworn he heard Sarah MacLachlan singing that song about the arms of an angel and sighed. He jabbed a spoon into a container of pork fried rice and set it in front of the little wolf.

“Here,” he said.

Zachari’s face cleared instantly. “Oh great! I love this stuff!” he exclaimed as he sat down on the table with the carton between his legs. His face just barely peered over the edge of one of the flaps.

“You’re welcome,” Nik muttered after a moment of watching the faerie eat with gusto.

“Mmmm!” Zachari said holding up the spoon in a small salute.

“Want a fortune cookie too?” Nik asked bitterly. His face was host to a sticky smile.

“Yeah!” Zachari said with a mouth full of pork fried rice.

Nik scooted one over to Zachari who dropped his spoon back into the container. He picked it up, cracked it open, and unrolled the little piece of paper inside.

“What’s it say?” Nik asked.

“A tall, dark, handsome stranger is in your future,” read Zachari.

“There’s one in your present, actually,” said Nik.

Zachari looked up at Nik. “Yeah? Who?”

Nik closed his eyes and rested his forehead on the fist in which he was holding his chopsticks. I’m going to mail this fucking thing to a poor child in Bolivia, he thought.