Page 31 of Welcome to Fae Cafe
He marched in the direction the pair of humans went, muttering, “Coffee, coffee, coffee,” all the while so he would not forget.
“Are you drinking coffee? You shouldn’t do that, Your Highness. It’s how the bravest humans poison themselves.” Shayne’s voice appeared, and Cress stopped marching. He turned once, then twice.
“Where are you?” Cress demanded because he hadn’t smelled Shayne approach.
“You didn’t end our conversation,” Shayne said. “I’m still in your mirror.”
Cress glanced down at his pocket. He drew the thing back out, and lo and behold, there was Shayne’s chin again.
“You need to touch the red circle if you want to be free of the mirror,” Shayne explained. “Otherwise, we’re trapped in this conversation forever.”
Cress turned the mirror over to study it. “What a terrible, binding spell,” he said.
“Only if you don’t poke the red circle.”
“Well, since you’re stuck in my mirror, you should know the human target may have the gift of siren-song,” Cress said first. “You three are forbidden from approaching the female now until she is absolutely, mind-sputteringly in love with me. We all know that a female who singscannotbe trusted.”
A long pause followed. Shayne was still there.
“Are we finished speaking now?” Shayne asked.
“Yes.”
Cress squinted at the mirror again. He lifted a finger, and he stabbed the red button with it.
Shayne vanished.
He got lost.
By the time Cress had searched every hall and sorted through the old meat scents of un-showered humans to locate his target, she was already sitting in her class, halfway to the front. He watched her flick the corner of her book as he pushed into the classroom and headed down the outer aisle toward her.
Several whispered conversations came to a halt. Human females turned in their seats to look at him, but not Kate Kole.Shepaid him no attention as he chose the seat at her side and plastered on his most beautiful smile.
“What did I miss?” he asked in a melodic, low voice.
“A really boring chat about character-driven plots,” she answered after a moment without looking up. Her speaking voice was filled with the same sweet rasp as her singing voice, and Cress’s mind flooded with that song:“Daffodils sway and the golden sun sings, la, la, la, la…”It was a voice filled with curves and cracks and likely tasted of the human beverage of fresh coffee.
But what was insufferably irritating about it was that her speaking voice sounded just as innocent as her song one.
Cress’s smile faded.
What a clever, deceitful thing she was. When underneath that pretty mask of innocence, she was a cold-blooded killer.
He slid his jaw back and forth and mumbled, “Ah. My favourite.” He watched her slide off a pair of silver-rimmed spectacles and set them on the table, revealing her human-y green-brown eyes. His gaze travelled down to the brown stain on the corner of the book below her hand. It was the very book he’d seen in Whyp’s memories. The book that had made him believe her real name was Kate Kole. He reached to tap it. “You must drinkcoffee—”
“I’m not really in the mood for chit-chat,” his human target stated with a tone as icy as the Queene’s.
Ah. There it was.
So, she was cruel after all.
Cress’s smile returned, and he released a chuckle. “As you wish. Human.”
A shrill sound exploded over the classroom, and around the room, humans stood from their seats. Cress eyed his target who stayed in place, his smile broadening as he concluded she must have figured out who he was.
She tried to pack away her book, but Cress reached for her delicate little human chin, and redirected that pretty face of hers toward his.
“Officer Riley…” she rasped with that adorably innocent sounding, pathetic human voice.
