Page 99 of Welcome to Fae Cafe

Bonswick’s eyes sparkled as he lifted his hand toward the zipper that held the back of Kate’s dress together. Cress shoved him off the side of the cathedral stairs before the fairy’s fingers made contact.

Bonswick didn’t fight as Cress followed and dragged him around the side of the building. The fairy howled in laughter when Cress drew his fairsaber and pointed it at his chest. The tip pressed delicately over the High Lord’s heart.

“Let’s settle this now,” Cress said in a deep voice. As the words left his lips, creatures of the inhuman sort emerged from behind trees, around the side of the building, and out of the snowy shadows. They stared at Cress with silver-brown eyes, a long past of hatred, and a hunger for blood.

Bonswick drew his own fairsaber. “I volunteered my services to the North. I’m here to ensure you’re slayed, Prince Cressica. You’ve been black marked for betraying the High Queene.”

Cress found his cold blood slink back to its slow, warm river of red.

Levress knew.

Cress stood taller, his boots digging into the snow and bracing for impact. “Try to slay me then,” he invited the High Lord.

Bonswick angled his head. “It’s not just you I’ll kill, Prince. It’s your brothers, too, including that leech you love so much.”

Cress’s grip tightened on his saber, his gaze flickering to the Shadow Fairies around the cathedral yard drawing weapons. “Funny, I thought you hated Mor for being a Shadow. How strange when you’re a Shadow Fairy yourself.”

“No, you fool. I hate that leech forbetrayingthe Shadows.” Bonswick’s face grew repulsed. “But hearing him cry for mercy will only be a bonus. You’re the real prize. I’m to save you for last and bring you back to the North with me, alive. You cannot imagine the terrible death that awaits you there.”

Cress nodded. “At last, I know why you’re here,” he said. He repositioned his fairsaber toward the Shadow Fairies inching in. “Shall we?”

“Careful, Cressica,” Bonswick said. “They despise you almost as much as I do.”

“It’s mutual,” Cress assured.

Before he took his next breath, ten Shadow Fairies swung at once. Cress stopped six with his fairsaber, and turned his skin to stone to deflect three, but one left a cruel, cold iron slash along his midsection. He released a guttural growl and aimed for Bonswick next, but Bonswick vanished, and Cress’s saber sliced through air. The High Lord reappeared at the back of the yard.

The Prince kicked a fairy aside and marched toward the High Lord of the East. An arrow zipped past, the wind of it fluttering Cress’s hair, and he halted.

Bonswick leaned to avoid the arrow before it could scathe his fair cheek. The Lord’s glassy eyes narrowed on someone behind Cress, and Cress’s flesh tightened.

Shayne’s scent drifted over the yard.

“Leave,” Cress commanded as the white-haired fairy appeared at his side with his crossbow raised.

“Absolutely not, Your Highness,” Shayne said.

“That’s an order.”

A warped grin found Shayne’s face. “So then punish me. Put me to death. Do whatever you want, Cress.” Shayne dropped his crossbow to the ground and drew out a set of short fairsabers instead. “But let me fight a little first.”

There wasn’t time to argue before growls tore over the snow and Shadow Fairies lunged. Shayne smashed the first one away as Cress blocked the next, the pain of his cold iron wound sizzling deeper into him. Cress turned his body feather-light, rising into the air and rushing toward Bonswick.

Bonswick redrew his fairsaber as Cress came above him, turned his body to stone, and dropped.

The Prince nearly crushed the High Lord of the East. Bonswick spun out of the way, but Cress’s blade caught his chin. The glassy-eyed Lord recoiled, his fairy blood speckling the snow. He looked back with rage.

“You’ll be the fairy to die today,” Cress promised him.

Bonswick touched the blood on his face. “No, Prince.Hewill be the fairy to die today.” He pointed to where the Shadow Fairies drove Shayne against the cathedral wall. Shayne’s sabers were torn from his grip. Fairy blood covered the frost where six Shadow Fairy bodies lay in his wake.

“Wait!” Cress shouted when a Shadow Fairy placed his saber at Shayne’s throat. “Wait, Bonswick! I’ll make you a bargain!”

The Shadow hesitated, looking to Bonswick.

“For that insubordinate fool?” Bonswick chuckled. “I thought you’d save all your bargains for that human you’ve allowed yourself to bond to as your forever mate. Did you really think I wouldn’t pick up the taste of fairy crush in the air?”

“Let them have me, Cress!” Shayne spat blood in the Shadow Fairy’s face. “Never make a bargain with a—”

---