Page 51 of Welcome to Fae Cafe
Cress set the pen down and turned in his seat to face her. He felt the North’s cruelest cold frost over his eyes, and he was sure he was startling the old woman even though she didn’t react. “You want me to write your farewell letters?”
Thelma nodded and raised her ever-shaking hands to show him. “I can’t do it myself.” She drifted to the counter and filled the kettle. Then she pulled her tea tin from the cupboard.
Cress took in a deep breath and huffed it out. “One should always write theirownfarewell letters,” he mumbled. But he turned and snatched the pen back up. “Dearest neighbours,” he read aloud as the pen soared over the paper in beautiful, elegant strokes. “I’ll have you know that my granddaughter is a deadly, powerful, menacing—”
Thelma’s deep laugh roared through the kitchen.
Cress smacked the pen down on the table. “Do you insist on letting your neighbours harass you, then? I am excellent at writing letters, Thelma. Allow me to take care of this for you.” But Thelma’s laughter didn’t cease, and he bristled.
“Just call meGrandma Lewis,” she said when she finally collected herself. “And only write what I tell you, all right? I can’t really send Lily after them anyway. If I tell her what was going on, she’ll lose it.”
Cress dragged a hand through his short hair and rolled his eyes. “Fine.”
“Dear neighbours,” Thelma began. “I’d like to politely inform you that I’m aware you’ve been dropping your leaf piles into my yard.”
“That’s terrible,” Cress mumbled. “This won’t frighten them at all.”
“I’d also like to give you a fair chance to come apologize before I send my granddaughter to see you. She is a member of the Police Department. Sincerely, Thelma Lewis.”
“I amnotusing the word ‘politely’,” Cress stated.
Thelma drifted over and read what Cress had written so far. She jabbed the page with her finger. “I didn’t say that part. Take it out.”
Cress released a quiet growl as he dragged the page aside and started over.
It took Cress an hour. After he ate twelvefreshly baked chocolate chip cookies, drank himself full of warm beast milk, and scribed a noteexactlyas Thelma told him to, she passed him a fresh page.
“Now for Katherine,” she said.
Cress chewed on the inside of his cheek. “Katherine,” he said, mulling over her name. “Katherine Lewis?” he guessed.
The old woman set down a fresh plate of muffins like she didn’t hear him. “You sure have an appetite,” she remarked. Then she added, “And don’t get any ideas. My granddaughter is off limits. She’s way too good for you.”
Cress’s thoughts spat objections. If only this old human knew who Cress was, his title, his power. He cast his attention on the blank page instead of pointing it all out. “Just tell me whatever nonsense you wish for me to write to her.”
“Katherine,” Thelma began. The old woman hobbled around the kitchen as she thought aloud. “You are the best kind of human there is—”
Cress sighed loudly.
“—You’re kind and caring. You’re always helping those weaker than you, even when it doesn’t make a lick of sense.”
Cress stopped writing. Thelma continued to speak, but his fingers lifted to trace over a warm spot in his chest. It had been many faeborn years since he felt a spot of warmth.
“You were never the same after the accident,” Thelma went on. “That day was terrible for all of us, but it was the worst for you. Something like that would have broken most people, but—”
“What accident?” Cress asked quietly, and Thelma stopped pacing.
Rain began spitting against the window from outside. The sound filled the kitchen as Thelma drifted back to the table.
“The day her parents were killed. She was in the back seat of the car. She survived, and they didn’t.” The old woman swallowed. “Katherine woke up in the hospital and asked for them, but they were already gone.”
Thelma stared out at the rain. “It’s why she’s afraid of thunderstorms,” she added.
Cress folded his hands, and squeezed his eyes shut. He’d gone several full days without feeling the affects of the enchantment. He thought that meant it had worn off. But it knocked at the door now as it dawned on him why he hadn’t been able to hear any tricks in his human target’s laugh.
Why he hadn’t been able to detect any cruelty on her when he first saw her.
Why she’d raced across the street to save the red-haired female in the middle of the night and got smacked for it.
