The snowstorm finally ceased at noon, paving the way for sunlight to make the sidewalks glow. Kate found herself searching the alleys and rooftops for stalking fae with silvery brown eyes. Nothing showed itself during their walk back to the café, and she assumed Cress was the reason. His command for her to not go outside alone didn’t seem so crazy now.
A new garland wreath hung on the café door, and a string of golden Christmas lights surrounded the wooden Fae Café sign. There was even new, decorative writing on the window about the butter tarts. But the one thing the café was missing was customers.
“Wait…” Cress took Kate’s arm before she opened the door. “Something is happening inside. I can hear human fury.”
Kate leaned to squint through the sun’s reflection on the window. She shrieked when she saw Ben—the loan shark—tied to a chair with a pastry clogging his mouth.
She flung the door open. The bell rang as she raced in.
“We’re closed!” Dranian growled, but he shut his mouth when he saw Kate and Cress.
Ben glared at Kate from his chair. He couldn’t move his mouth to shout at her, at least. It didn’t make his facial expression any less quiet.
Mor rested in one of the chairs by the fireplace, reading a newspaper with his feet up and stuffed into Kate’s favourite pair of slippers. Kate yelled at him, “You let them do this?”
Mor flipped down the page corner to peer over it. “He came in demanding money, and those faeborn fools didn’t like it. This has nothing to do with me.” He nodded toward Shayne and Dranian and went back to his paper. “What is Desmount Tech Industries? Every scroll column is babbling on about them,” he added, and then with a mutter, “This text is simple, yet astoundingly informative. I could create a news scroll like this. I’m a faeborn vessel of information.”
Shayne had one hand in his pocket and the other around a coffee-filled mug. He leaned with his shoulder against the wall. “Perhaps you should. You could call it the Fairy Post and warn the humans of all the fairy action among them,” he said as though they were just having a normal conversation on a normal day and there wasn’t a living person tied to a chair five feet away.
Mor snorted. “Then I should warn them of the enchantments you put in the baking,” he said.
Kate looked from Mor to the glass display of tarts and cakes, then back to Mor. “Did you just say there are enchantments in the baking?”
“Yes. Those two mixed the batter with magic to ensure that every human who tries it is compelled to come back. The coffee is enchanted, too,” he said. “The bad news is that no one really came back here because they liked your coffee, Human. The good news is you have hundreds of lifetime customers,” Mor said, and Kate’s jaw dropped. Her gaze darted to Shayne’s writing in the window that said, COME TRY THE BUTTER TARTS. WE GUARANTEE YOU’LL COME BACK FOR MORE IF YOU DO.
“Are you kidding me?!” she shrieked.
“You’re always such a tattletale, Mor,” Shayne said as he rolled his eyes.
“We all have roles here. That’s mine.” Mor shook his newspaper to straighten it again.
Kate slapped a hand over her forehead. “I can’t believe…” She shook her head and jutted a thumb toward Ben in the hostage chair. “Can we deal with this first, please?”
On cue, Cress sauntered over to Ben. “Are you the fool who’s forcing our human to pay so many taxes?” he asked him.
“He’s not a tax collector, I just owe him money,” Kate said. “Seriously, you guys can’t freak out like this every time someone you don’t like comes in here.”
Shayne sipped a coffee. “This human insect called you names,” he said, kicking a leg of Ben’s chair. “So Dranian picked him up by his ugly human throat and tied him to that seat.”
Kate almost objected, but she looked at Dranian in surprise. “Really? I could have sworn you didn’t like me.”
Dranian lifted one shoulder into a shrug. Kate bit back a small, flattered smile.
“Let’s throw him to the road in front of a speeding human chariot,” Cress suggested.
“No way!” Kate yanked the ropes holding Ben, but she stopped when she realized they were torn strips of pink fabric. A big, loud moan lifted through the café. “Please tell me these aren’t my bed sheets?” she asked the assassins.
“You keep no ropes here, Human,” Dranian grumbled.
Kate removed the pastry from Ben’s mouth, and he spat a wad of it to the floor. “You—” he started, so Kate stuck the pastry back in. Her cheeks warmed as she wondered how much Ben had already told these fae about how she’d grovelled to get him to lend her money in the first place.
“You can keep this, on the house.” She flicked the pastry in Ben’s mouth, then swallowed and shifted her footing when his eyes sharpened. “Let me go get you your money. I don’t have all of it yet but—”
“That is preposterous! She’ll be giving you no money,” Cress announced.
Ben released a guttural noise of objection.
Shayne peeled himself off the wall. The assassin drank the last drops of his coffee then turned the precious Fae Café mug over in his fingers. “Shall I go fetch my crossbow to finish this human off?” he asked then held the mug before Ben’s face. “Or should I just beat the human snot out of him with this?”
Kate’s jaw dropped, and Ben’s face paled. Ben shook his head quickly.
“Do we have an understanding then, Human?” Shayne asked, wiggling the mug a little.
White-faced Ben nodded, but Shayne pressed on, “Do you understand what kinds of terrible, tricky, mind-bending, body harming things will happen if you ever come back here?”
“Nothing,” Kate objected. “Nothing will happen—” Cress wrapped an arm around Kate with his hand smothering her mouth.
“Excellent.” Shayne took a hold of the bedsheet ropes and ripped them all off at once. “See you never, then.” He yanked Ben to his feet by his shirt and half-carried him to the door.
The bell jingled.
Ben was tossed out.
Kate was sure she would faint. Ben wasn’t the sort to let things go, and apparently Lily hadn’t been around to inform the fae of that important little fact. “Where’s Lily?” she asked.
“She read her letter from Thelma Lewis, then she said she had to work. She told us all to leave her alone for a while,” Mor said from behind the newspaper.
“Oh.”
Kate imagined Lily reading the letter from their grandmother in front of the fae, without Kate there. Lily must have felt the same heavy dread Kate had, the same surprise, the same numbness. Kate felt a pinch of guilt for not being here when the letter was delivered. She thought about calling Lily at work, to tell her to come home, but she wasn’t sure if Lily’s request to be left alone included her.
She spotted her phone resting on a bistro table. The Fae Café social media pages were open. Twelve new posts had been published since yesterday—posts Kate hadn’t done herself. She picked up her phone and scrolled through the photos. One was of Mor staring at the camera with a death glare like he didn’t want his photo taken. The caption below said:
AN INTRODUCTION TO
THE HIGH COURT OF THE COFFEE BEAN
MEET MOR: A HANDSOME, COLD-BLOODED FAE ASSASSIN IN A CUTE BURGUNDY APRON, READY TO STAB YOUR ENEMIES AND POUR YOU A TASTY LATTE AT YOUR BECKONING.
Kate squeaked a laugh and scrolled to the next photo of Shayne modelling beside a whipped drink. She read the caption aloud, “Come to Fae Café where the coffee is hot, and the fairies are even hotter.”
Mor grunted from the corner, and Shayne bit his lip over a grin.
Kate kept reading, “This official announcement has been approved by High King Shayne, ruler of the Coffee Bean High Court.” She sighed through a smile and shook her phone in the air. “I’m totally not over that act you just pulled with Ben, but thank you for this. I needed a laugh today.” Her thumb hovered over the call button as she thought about Lily again.
A police car rolled up outside. Kate lunged to pick up the pink ropes off the floor and stuff them into the garbage can. “Everyone act normal!” she shouted as Lily climbed out of the passenger side. Connor got out, too. “Lily can not find out what happened here this morning or she’ll flip.”
“What is he doing here?” Cress pointed at Connor through the window as the officers walked up.
The café door swung open, and Lily halted. She looked around at the abandoned tables, the empty counter, and the four fae looking off at the walls avoiding eye contact.
“Where is everyone?” she asked. “I was just telling Connor that this place was buzzing with customers.”
Connor rolled his eyes. “I knew you were lying.” But his face changed when he noticed Cress there. “You,” he said.
Lily glanced at Kate, and their eyes locked for a moment.
“Are you okay?” Kate asked first.
“Are you okay?” Lily folded her arms, hugging them to herself.
“You shouldn’t be working today. You should take a few days off until the funeral. Or at least work here with us,” Kate said.
“I’ve been searching everywhere for you,” Connor interrupted to say to Cress. “Just so you know, I informed the department about that stunt you pulled on the docks. You’re in big trouble.”
Cress tilted his head. “Shall I inform the department of what you were trying to do to Kate that night?” he asked, and Lily’s eyes widened. She pushed Connor—his back slammed against the door.
“I’m going to beat the idiocy out of you, Connor! You can report me for threatening you, I don’t care!” she shouted at him. “I’ve warned you to stay away from Kate too many times!”
Connor pointed at Cress. “He threw me off a dock!”
A wicked smile found Cress’s face. “I did.”
“What is your deal, anyway?” Connor shoved off the door and took a hostile step toward Cress. “You don’t show up for work, and then you mess around in my personal life? Who do you think you are?”
Cress blinked down at the policeman. He took Kate’s hand. “I’m Kate’s boyfriend,” he announced. “We go on dates.”
Kate tried to tug her hand away, but Cress’s grip turned to stone around hers. “Cress… You’re not—”
The bell rang through the café again. A sunburnt, hazel-eyed teenager in a hoodie came in, and everything Kate had just been thinking evaporated. “Wow!” he said, looking around.
“Greyson!” she said.
Cress dropped her hand when she rushed for her brother.
Greyson caught Kate into a hug. He patted her back and rubbed back and forth across her shoulders. It said enough about the loss they both felt. “The police called yesterday. I took the first redeye flight home,” he said. “I didn’t even know I was Grandma’s emergency contact. It makes no sense when Lil is a cop, but whatever. I tried calling you.”
“Watch your human hands,” Cress mumbled as he eyed Greyson’s gestures on Kate’s back.
Lily rolled her eyes. “This is Kate’s brother, Greyson,” she explained, still glaring at Connor as she marched to the counter and dragged over the coffee maker.
The coldness dropped from Cress’s stare. He still looked Greyson over as though recognizing him from somewhere.
Greyson let Kate go and smirked. “Who the heck is this whack job?” He jutted his thumb at Cress.
Kate opened her mouth to explain but, “He’s an assassin who came to kill me,” didn’t quite have a nice ring to it. She sighed and took Cress’s hand against every warning in her body. She patted his knuckles. “This is my boyfriend,” she said.
Cress’s smile widened. He looked right at Connor.
Without missing a beat, Greyson nodded. “Oh, that makes sense then,” he said. He grabbed Cress’s free hand, shook it, then headed over to the counter where Lily was. “One Americano, please. And one Canadian police officer bestie to go with it.” He winked, and Lily shot Kate an odd smirk.
“We’re not finished,” Connor promised Cress. His hand rested on the hilt of his gun. “I’m friends with all the captains on the force. You don’t want to mess with someone like me.”
Mor’s chuckle lifted from behind the newspaper, and cold malice filled Cress’s smile. “I can’t wait to mess with someone like you,” Cress assured.
Lily reached for a paper to-go cup, seeming determined to ignore the tension in the air. She shook her head as she poured a coffee, slid it over to Greyson, and said, “Welcome to Fae Café.”
It wasn’t easy to sneak out without Lily noticing. Thankfully, Lily was so tired from being overworked and emotionally spent that she was sleeping like a log by midnight.
Kate waited until she was outside breathing in the cool night air to zip her coat, not risking the noise. She trudged through the crunchy snow, shivering as flakes left the black sky and turned to glittering confetti beneath the streetlamps. Her last conversation with Lily rang through her mind:
“I’ve fallen in love with them, Lil. I’ve gotten too attached to four fairy-beings who came here to kill me. I’m crazy, right?”
“Maybe a little. But I think I’ve fallen for them, too. And crazy doesn’t even begin to cover it.” Lily had been brushing her teeth, but she stuck her head out of the bathroom to say it.
“So how do I keep him here?”
“Cress?” Lily’s spitting had been loud enough to wake the neighbourhood, but she came out of the bathroom wiping her mouth and said, “I guess we have to figure out what’s forcing him to go back and get rid of the problem.”
Even several blocks away, it was still Lily’s voice ruling Kate’s conscience as she kicked through the snow on the sidewalk.
The parking lots at the university were empty of cars, and the buildings seemed like haunted castles at night. Only the student housing across the campus had a few lamps on inside.
Kate wandered into her literature class building, relieved to see the hall lit up with murky yellow bulbs. All the doors were closed, the classrooms left in darkness. Her footsteps echoed as she made her way through.
The crime scene tape remained across the library doors. Kate ducked beneath it and pushed her way in, instantly met with the smells of drywall and fresh paint. The floor was cleared of damaged books, but dust and a few torn page corners weren’t swept up yet. The desks were pushed to the middle, leaving two large aisles down each side where it looked like construction had begun to patch up the holes and fix all the broken shelves.
Kate wandered around the mess and made her way to the back. The map of pink yarn was gone, but she followed her memory to the shelf where the Fairy Book of Rules and Masteries was hidden.
She spotted it on a higher shelf than before. It was almost like someone had tried to make it difficult for her to get it again. Kate grunted and started climbing. She reached for the book, her fingers barely brushing the spine, and she flicked it out inch by inch until the tome tipped off and landed on the floor with a bang.
Dust trickled down, and Kate coughed as she knelt and flipped the book open. She got to the page about enslaving a fae, and she ran her finger down the list of names, ignoring the written cautions and warnings. She slid her phone out of her pocket and snapped a picture.
One picture was all she would need when she approached the Shadow Fairies and spoke their names to enslave them. One chance was all she would have to keep Cress from having to go back.
