Page 23 of Welcome to Fae Cafe
Panic swelled in Kate’s throat. “Wait… that’s it? You’re just going to leave me here?” she called after him, sure all the students who whispered about this man being a lunatic were spot on. “Wait!”
“You should keep moving!” Palmer called back. “Waiting in one place will let them catch up with you!”
A bus swept to a stop and Kate watched the professor step on. He walked past the bus aisle windows and found a seat at the back. The bus snorted out a puff of exhaust and took off again a second later. Palmer didn’t even look back at Kate from his window seat.
Kate slowly lifted a hand to her chest, feeling the wild thudding of her heart as the bus reached the end of the road, turned left, and disappeared around the buildings.
Everything that happened in the last half hour felt like a dream. Even the last moments of Professor Palmer bringing her here.
Where was here?
Kate looked around, realizing she hadn’t paid attention to the turns they took, and she had no idea how to get back to her apartment.
It was early afternoon by the time Kate found the right police patrol car parked on the curb in front of theStreet Meatfood truck. Lily and Connor were cleaning up their lunchtime garbage. Both of them had exhaustion rings around their eyes and looked like they’d give their whole life savings to be able to crawl into bed and sleep for days.
Kate fiddled with a loose string on her coat sleeve as she waited for the crosswalk light to turn. She sprinted across the road the second it changed, and she reached the officers out of breath.
“Lil.”
Both Lily and Connor turned at the sound of her voice.
“We need to talk.” Kate cleared her throat and smoothed down her wild hair that looked more purple than normal in the direct sunlight.
Lily looked her over. “No kidding.” She grabbed Connor’s garbage, too, and carried it over to the trash can. “Give us a minute, Connor,” she said when she came back.
“No.” Connor flashed a gloating smile. “You two don’t have secrets from me.”
Lily glared at her partner.
“Forget it. Our shift ends in thirty minutes. Longest shift of mylife,” she said to Kate. “Can you wait until then to talk? We can meet back at the café.”
Kate scratched her head. “Uh… yeah.”
Lily mumbled something about going to use the bathroom and turned for the nearest storefront. Connor stood a little taller after she left, his chest puffing out. He reached to flick a loose hair away from Kate’s face.
Kate pushed his hand off.
“Keep your paws to yourself, Connor,” she said. “I’m seriously not in the mood.”
Connor snorted. “You’re in no position to make demands. I know your secret, Kate,” he reminded her. “You’ve always kind of liked me anyway.”
Suddenly Kate wondered why she was still standing there with the one person she hated most in the world.
“Tell Lily I’ll see her later.” She turned toward the street again, but Connor chuckled.
“Don’t boss me around. Wait here and tell her yourself.”
Kate pretended not to hear and crossed back to her side of the street. Connor must have given up because he didn’t shout anything else as she left.
She walked for twenty minutes through the busy downtown crowd, fiddling with the loose string on her coat cuff until she ripped it off. When she rounded the block toward the café, her back warmed. It was like a light finger was tracing up her spine and over her shoulder—
Kate spun around.
People shifted to walk around her. Car engines and chatter washed the air, and Kate pressed her fingers against her chest to feel the fresh thuds. She inhaled and exhaled, pulling her cell phone from her pocket as she walked.
“Yes, run from me little human. I’ll only play games with you.”
She spun around again.
