Page 43 of Sincerely, Secretary of Doom

“Mor,” Cress said. Just his name. Nothing else felt good enough.

Even though Mor’s back was turned, he slowed his escape just a little. Cress knew Mor’s fairy ears would pick up on his next words past the distance between them. “You have one more week to settle this. Then I’m coming for you.”

By the grace of the sky deities, Mor did not react.

Mor did, however, leave his human behind in the café for Cress to glare at for the next twenty-four hours. The Prince of the North could hardly keep his distance. It took every faeborn ounce of his self control not to pin her in the corner and release a mountain of questions about what Mor was doing, where he was going, and what was so good and magical about her that Mor had let her near him in the first place?

Third:

The human had escaped. Cress didn’t hear about it until he came down from the apartment in the morning and learned that Dranian had taken Violet Miller out on a cursed stroll. Shayne was nowhere to be found, and Kate… Well. She’d orchestrated the whole evil plot to let the human go.

“Are you out of your faeborn mind, Human?!” Cress said to Kate in a fit of panic. “You helped her escape?”

“She’s not our prisoner, Cress,” Kate rebutted as she dusted the café bookshelf with a large, plush fluffy thing.

“That ispreciselywhat she is, Katherine!” He only used her real name anymore when she’d done something he adored or disproved of. It seemed she knew it, too. She paused her dusting and turned to face him with her hands on her hips.

“She needed her medicine. It was important,” Kate stated. “You can’t deprive someone of their health. It’s a basic human right in this country.”

Cress huffed and spun toward the door, dragging his hand through his silken hair. He spun back to her again.

“Where did they go? I cannot let that human escapeorcome into harm’s way,” he said.

“I thought you found her vile and hideous,” Kate challenged, going back to her dusting.

“I do. But Mor asked us for thisonething, and if we fail, he won’t ask us for help again.” Cress looked around for his fairsaber handle. “I’m sure she’s fine,” he coached himself. “She’s probably fine.” He did another full spin, making himself dizzy. He could not remember where he’d left his faeborn weapon.

The café door burst open; both Cress and Kate jumped.

Dranian marched in, spear in his hand, fairy sweat on his brow, his chest pumping.

“Queensbane, what happened?!” It was more of an accusation than a question. “You lost her, didn’t you? Oh, sky deities have mercy, we’re doomed!” Cress moaned. Yes, now was the right time to panic.

“I’m afraid I failed to protect Mor’s human,” Dranian stated, and Kate dropped the fluffy dust thing.

“What?” Her weak human-y voice lifted from beside Cress. “Seriously?”

“I will take whatever punishment is necessary.” Dranian dropped to a knee. “I forfeit my right to guard humans ever again in this lifetime.”

Kate shook her head. “Dranian, this isn’t your fault! You don’t have to—”

“I should make you eat rocks!” Cress bellowed.

“What? No way!” Kate swooped in and dropped beside Dranian, and soon Cress had two subjects kneeling before him. Kate clasped her hands together in a begging sort of way. “Cress,” she reasoned, “this is my fault, not his.”

“Thenyoueat rocks,” he said to Kate. But his mouth twitched as she gazed up at him with her large, hazel, human eyes. He could never truly make her do that. Queensbane, he hated the thought of it. “Oh, forget it!” he said, marching back to the counter to hunt for his fairsaber. “I’ll fix this myself.”

“Mor was there,” Dranian said, and Cress stopped.

“You saw Mor—Where?”

“In the street. And the Shadow Fairy showed up. I saw him with my own eyes; the one Mor has been hunting.”

Cress came right back, slower this time. “You saw the Shadow.”

Dranian’s green gaze flickered up to the Prince. “I did. I smelled him too, even past his dandelion cloak. This war fairy…” Dranian looked off, his green eyes glazing over like he was in another place. “I’ve never crossed a scent like his.” His gaze shot back to Cress. “He’s not quite like us. We’ve faced many fairy kinds before, but this one makes me afraid.”

There was a shift in the café’s air. Cress felt the old North magic murmur over his flesh. “What exactly are we dealing with, Dranian?” he asked his assassin.

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