It was almost five AM, but I’d been up since three. There wasn’t much time for sleep these days. Plus, working in the café early in the morning, without anyone else around, was the highlight of my day. It was the reason I’d opened our second location in our first year—because we had exploded to a point of absolute ridiculousness, and I’d wanted a cafe I could live above.
Two locations had turned into three.
Then four.
Then five.
We were up to twenty-three now, officially making us the biggest chain in the city and scattered throughout every part of Rumor. The Shadow District had even welcomed The Werewolf Café, despite their own Shadow Brewery, which was our biggest competitor.
Their coffee wasn't as good as ours, but people loved their beer.
I could already see a few vehicles lined up in our drive-through, and hear the morning crew's murmurs as they greeted each other.
"I should change the opening time to four-thirty at this location," I said absent-mindedly, pulling up the notes app on my phone. "The one on Fuel, and the one in the corner of Monster Alley, too."
There was always a line in the mornings at those three.
I probably should’ve bumped the opening time up years ago, but business had never been my strong point. I’d hired an advisor, so everything was going pretty well, but I was barely staying afloat. And the business just kept getting bigger.
"Kat," Jonah said, louder. "Hello?"
"Hmm? Sorry." I finally looked up from my laptop and met my best friend's hazel eyes.
His black hair was shaved almost completely, but slightly longer on the top than the sides. His dark brown skin was smooth, and strangely, there was a lot of it on display.
He usually wore clothes.
Why was he wearing nothing but sweatpants, and holding the coffee cup so tightly?
I wasn’t sure I had the energy to ask.
"Have you seen the news?" he repeated.
There was something in his eyes that told me I should’ve.
"No. I’m swamped with these orders. Three of the locations ran out of beans last week—beans, Jonah. How does a coffee shop run out of beans?" I rubbed my dry, itchy eyes. "And my stupid arm is aching again, which keeps distracting me."
The mark from my deal with Callum did that sometimes. The aching thing. I wasn’t sure why. Probably because that piece of my soul was missing.
"Read the news," Jonah said yet again.
He knew I checked it at some point every day.
We didn’t talk about it, but I was slightly obsessive with the way I followed the media’s updates about Callum.
I liked to tell myself it was because of our bargain, but that was a lie.
I sighed, taking a bite of the cinnamon roll he'd brought me as I navigated away from the many spreadsheets that I considered my arch nemeses, and over to our little section of the internet.
Rumor was a sanctuary for immortals, and our media was inaccessible to anyone outside the wards.We had our own laws, businesses, farms, news outlets, and so much more. Though we called Rumor a city, it was more like multiple cities that were all connected. That was why different parts had different labels.
I pulled up the news site, and went still when I saw the headline at the top of the page.
FAE KING CALLUM FROST ANNOUNCES ENGAGEMENT TO KAT DAVISOF THE WEREWOLF CAFÉ
I blinked.
Then read the headline again, hoping it might’ve changed in themillisecondsince I read it.
