Chapter 16 Faye
FAYE
TWO MONTHS LATER
“Have you spoken to Peter recently?” Faye asked Benedict, making his evening coffee. She had, every night in her dreams for two months, so she couldn’t help but ask. He’d kept his promise to help keep the nightmares away.
“He’s away on assignment. He tends to disappear for weeks at a time,” Benedict said, resigned. However, he wouldn’t meet her gaze, and she wondered if he was hiding something from her. “I’ll tell Peter you’re looking for him if he comes by the Manor.”
“No need.” Faye placed his order on the counter in a tray.
He always brought tea and coffee to the library for Rosie and Lucy, who were working on some last-minute grimoire translation for the Order.
“I’ve a batch of his favourite chocolate cupcakes about to come out of the oven.
If he was at the Manor, I thought you could give them to him.
” She couldn’t say that Peter had mentioned craving the cakes in her dream last night without sounding bonkers.
“I’m sure if Peter knew he’d be here in a second,” Benedict chuckled, but the hint of trouble in his eyes made her worry. “If anything was going to bring him back to town, it would be you.”
Faye raised her eyebrows.
“Your baking,” Benedict clarified.
“Right, I knew what you meant.”
Lucy, Rosie, and Benedict had become even more frequent customers for the past two months.
She didn’t mind, but she felt they were checking on her in shifts, ever since the night she had seen the haunting red eyes in her kitchen window.
Thankfully, Rosie hadn’t come across the scent again, so they’d chalked it up to nothing.
No red eyes, no Ian – life was starting to feel normal.
The cherry on the cake would be Peter returning from the goddess knew where.
Her dreams felt so convincing, but what if they were just a lie her mind made up to make her feel safe, to protect her from the nightmares?
She’d thought about asking him, but she didn’t want to spoil the fantasy with reality.
At her last appointment with Dr Ocean, she’d mentioned them.
Dr Ocean had asked if she wanted them to stop, but she didn’t.
Instead of being afraid to sleep, of her nightmares, she looked forward to the end of the day now.
Dr Ocean had been relieved she was finally sleeping and reminded her that she held power over her own mind.
All Faye had to do was ask Peter to stop visiting.
Every night, she considered testing the theory, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it.
Every time the café door chimed, she hoped to find Peter with his floppy hair and disarmingly goofy grin staring at her.
Instead, each chime brought disappointment.
“Is there something else on your mind? Are you worried about him?” she asked Benedict. Since Peter had disappeared the morning after they had almost kissed, she wondered if he was avoiding her. Maybe that was why Benedict was acting weird.
“Peter doesn’t tend to come home the closer it gets to the anniversary of his death. It’s hard for our mum to see him that way. We sometimes forget the past when he’s in town for a while,” Benedict explained with a sad smile.
“Sorry! I forgot his anniversary is next month. If you or your mum need anything, let me know,” Faye said, hoping she hadn’t made him uncomfortable.
“No need to be sorry, and thank you for the offer,” Benedict said, paying her and leaving a tip in the jar on the counter.
“If I see him, I’ll send him your way. Some of your cupcakes will cheer him up.
I’m sure he’d also be happy to hear that you’ve decided to go ahead with the baking competition in Ravenstown. ”
Faye’s eyes widened. “How did you know? I haven’t even told Lucy that I RSVPed!
I was trying to keep it quiet in case I chickened out last minute.
” She’d been secretly working on prepping some recipes to ease her way into the idea of attending.
Since Ian had stayed away, the thought of leaving the sanctuary didn’t seem so daunting.
“I know the manager at the castle it’s being held at in Ravenstown.
She asked if I knew the baker coming from Foxford – I knew it had to be you.
My chef was fuming when Lucy and Rosie served the judge your dessert, but I managed to talk him round and I can’t think of anyone more deserving to partake. ”
“Sorry about upsetting your chef! I had no idea what they were up to,” she said, hating the thought of causing a rift between him and his staff.
“Don’t be – I never get in the way of my wife’s scheming. Last time I did, we ended up engaged,” he chuckled. “I’m sure you’ll do great.”
“Can you not tell Lucy for now? I want to be 100% sure before I tell her or anyone else.”
“My lips are sealed.”
“Thank you.”
Faye moved on to the next customer as Benedict left, finding some solace in the knowledge that Peter wasn’t just avoiding her.
At least she was happy never to see the other man in her life again.
Without Ian’s feedings, her anaemia had cleared up, and she’d stopped experiencing dizzy spells whenever she stood up or moved too quickly.
Despite the mental toll of their memories together, she had started to feel like a version of herself she’d thought had died long ago.
Ian had returned from the vampire gathering, yet there had been no calls to the shop or her phone.
Part of her thought it was too good to be true; reacting to her disappearance so calmly wasn’t in his nature.
She’d originally thought he might have stayed longer at the gathering, but Luisa, who travelled between Willow Valley and Foxford for dragonia feed, told Faye she had seen him working in Clover’s.
Benedict had pinned the coven’s banishment order to the door at their old cottage.
If Ian tried to cross the boundary into Foxford, the coven would be alerted, and he would suffer severe consequences.
Lucy said Ian hadn’t even reached out to the coven to challenge their banishment, which seemed to confirm his indifference.
Faye hoped his desire for self-preservation would keep him away for good.
Still, doubt lingered in the back of her mind.
She wasn’t sure what troubled her more: him coming after her, or his silence.
After closing the café, Faye set to testing a new pistachio and white chocolate ganache cake for tomorrow’s special. If it was a hit with her customers, she might use it for the competition.
Suddenly, a rustling noise was followed by a loud crash. Faye walked around the counter to find a steel bowl that had held the remnants of some cream cheese frosting upside down on the floor by the industrial sink. When she lifted the bowl, there sat a guilty-looking Scarlett covered in frosting.
“What did you do?” Faye chuckled, putting the bowl in the packed sink. She knew better than to let the dishes build up, but without a kitchen porter to help, it was impossible to stay on top of things. If only Lucy could enchant her with super speed or extra hands.
Scarlett licked her scales and claws clean, ignoring Faye.
“I’m going to have to get a safe for the icing!
You love it so much I’m afraid you’re going to figure out how to get into the fridge.
It’s not safe to leave it around with you flying about,” Faye said, picking up the dragonia and placing her in the small handwashing sink to rinse her off before icing got all over the rest of the kitchen and her apartment.
Scarlett playfully snapped at Faye; she wasn’t pleased with her sweet treat being washed away.
“Go upstairs and to bed,” Faye ordered, placing her on the stairs. Scarlett shook out her wings with a huff.
After cleaning up the mess, Faye took the rubbish bag out into the alley behind the shop.
A rustling further down the alley startled her – probably a fox looking for scraps.
Shrugging it off, she placed the bags in the bin.
A loud bang made her jump, and she turned to see the door to the shop had closed.
She laughed at herself for being so nervy. It must have been the wind.
She reached for the handle, but a familiar scent enveloped her, sweet and heavy, a cologne she would never forget.
“My darling, how I have missed you.”
Ian’s gentle voice made her stomach drop. He spoke as if they were long-lost lovers separated by tragedy, rather than acknowledging how his actions had nearly cost Faye her life.
Please, no, she thought, frozen in place as she felt his arms wrap around her waist. She wanted to recoil, to push him away, but overpowering him physically was out of the question. Making him angry could escalate the situation, so she needed to appeal to whatever better self he might have left.
“Aren’t you going to embrace me? It’s been so long since we’ve held each other. I’m sorry it took me so long to get to you, but they were trying to keep us apart,” Ian said calmly.
“Ian, I can explain,” she started as he kissed the top of her head.
“You don’t have to be frightened or explain a thing. I’m just so happy to see you safe,” he told her. “When Benedict served me those papers, I knew it had to be the coven’s doing. They got in your head while I was gone. I never should’ve left you.”
Faye forced herself to face him, settling her hands on his chest. She wanted to say something, but the words lodged in her throat.
Ian had waited for her and her friends to let their guard down, like a predator watching for the perfect opportunity to strike.
She glanced to the end of the alley. It was only about ten feet away from where she would be visible to others.
Given his speed, it might as well be a hundred feet.