Page 60 of Welcome to Fae Cafe

Kate was torn back out of the shop, her shoulders hitting a broad chest. She was tossed in the other direction—she barely caught her footing as the person who’d pulled her out marched past and entered the yarn store. An earthy and floral scent swept over her, and she gasped.

The fae Prince stood in the entryway of theYarn & Stitch. He glared at the shelves of yarn, at the snack table with the steaming teapot, and at the group of knitting women on couches.

Freida stood, knocking the teapot to the floor and soaking the carpet with hot liquid. Gretchen and the others dropped their knitting, too, and soon, every fae woman faced the Prince—Cress.

“I thought I recognized that dreadful smell of wool and tea.” Cress’s words were ice-cold. He dared another step in. “So, this is where you’ve been hiding, Sisterhood. I can’t wait to inform my Queene of this treachery.”

Kate looked from the Prince to the knitting club as it dawned on her how he must have found this place. She hadn’t even felt his gaze on her back as he’d followed her. She never would have brought him here on her own. She never would have sold out the knitting club…

Her attention fell on the handle of a decorative dagger sticking out from Cress’s back pocket, and tightness bloomed in her chest. She crept in behind him, her fingers reaching toward his weapon. But Freida’s emotionless words filled the shop, and Kate halted.

“Kill him.”

Kate staggered back against the wall as Hazel leapt over the couch. The fae girl’s knitting needles were out like claws. The Prince caught her whole body and hurled her back into a shelf of yarn just as two older women slid over the floor and stabbed him in his legs.

Cress growled, yanking the dagger handle from his pocket. A long silver blade appeared from the handle, binding together out of thin air. He aimed for both women in one terrible swing, and Kate screamed, grabbing his arm, and making him miss.

Freida appeared out of nowhere and kicked Cress out the front door. He tumbled into Kate and took her down the stairs with him, landing on top of her and forcing the breath from her lungs on the sidewalk. A strange look crossed Cress’s face when his eyes settled on Kate wheezing under his weight. He rolled to his feet, bringing her up with him. He spun her around, pulled her back against his chest, and placed his blade at her throat.

The knitting club spilled from the shop with their needles raised. Freida looked unnaturally calm, frightening almost.

“Surrender,” Cress commanded them.

Hazel wiped a bead of blood from her lip as she glared at the Prince. A bone in her arm looked broken. She snapped it back into place without breaking eye contact.

Cress’s heartbeat punched Kate’s back. One of his hands was flat on her stomach, holding her in place, and the other nudged his cold sword closer to her throat.

“W… Where’s Mor?” Kate whispered, trying to steal a look at the street without letting her jaw brush his blade.

Cress released a dark chuckle. “Mor will not come for you, Human. He is well distracted with the others you left behind.”

Kate’s mind filled with Lily’s sad blue eyes. A sob slipped from her mouth. She hadn’t patched things up with Lily. She meant to—she’d thought about doing it every day—but she was so preoccupied with teaching the fae how to run the café. And maybe she’d been scared Lily wouldn’t come back even if she asked.

The pressure of Cress’s hand tightened against her stomach. “Don’t do that,” he mumbled through his teeth. It sounded like begging. “Don’t you dare cry, Human—”

“Not to worry, Kate Kole.” A savage look entered Freida’s eyes, and a strange smile crept over her mouth. “He’s come here to die. All your troubles are about to end. Just”—she inched a step toward Kate and the Prince—“hold still.”

Freida’s needle shot like a dart. Kate felt Cress’s body flinch; his sword clattered to the ground. Gretchen vanished, and a set of tiny, glowing wings the size of a walnut took her place.

The knitting club charged. Cress pushed Kate away, and Kate collided with Hazel, eating a lock of the girl’s curly hair. Gretchen zipped by like a firefly.

Kate spun and saw chaos. She expected Cress to be overrun, but terror fumbled her heartbeat as she watched him stab and snap bones with inhuman speed. He didn’t even need his sword to inflict harm, but after tossing half the club to the ground, he scooped it up with menacing intensity and swung at them. A fast, heavy wind lifted through the street, flapping the women’s hair into their eyes. A black patch spread over the road like a burning puddle from Cress’s boots, and the scent of ash filled the air. More women stumbled and fell, their boots melting right off their feet.

Kate backed toward theYarn & Stitchstore until she was against it. Rain speckled her cheeks as the sky changed its mood, and Toronto citizens halted in their tracks at the sight of the young man destroying a mob of knit-covered women in the street. People who tried to race away were chased by the remaining members of the knitting club who vanished and appeared to cut them off. The fae grabbed people’s hands, and afterward it was like the citizens forgot where they were.

Moaning knitting club members lay across the road in Cress’s wake. The few remaining women smothered the Prince; biting, clawing, and kicking. The knitting club took hit after hit, and some who were on the ground snapped their arms and legs back into place and got up again. Kate’s breath caught in her throat as she watched them persevere by a miracle.

Cress was a monster.

A turquoise-eyed monster.

She led him here.

Kate sank to a sitting position as the women stole the Prince’s sword, broke his fingers with a gruesomesnap, and struck him until he stopped hurtling them. They forced him backward into the alley where Kate couldn’t see. Her feet were frozen to the ground—she couldn’t follow. She couldn’t watch what would happen next.

Gretchen reappeared in her full size. She drew out the longest needle of all and marched into the alley after the others. Her high voice sang from around the corner, “Goodbye, Your Highness.”

“Wait!” Kate heard her own scream echo into the alley. She leapt up and scrambled around the store just as Gretchen raised the needle over the Prince’s exposed throat. Gretchen hesitated, looking back at Kate with wild, questioning eyes.

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