The Changeling (5 page)

“Your hands are perfect,” I said. “Not a single callus—amazing.”

Cassandra smiled at me. “I always wear gloves.”

“We’re going to take Mitch inside, so don’t be too long,” Mom said, oblivious to the clue I’d left.

“How is he?” I looked back over to Drevek, who was slumped over on the bench.

Mom said he wasn’t any better yet, but she seemed relieved, saying the doctor suspected it was just a bug. Nonetheless, she said they were going to take him to a specialist in Fayetteville in the morning to run a few more tests. Drevek looked up wearily as Sara walked over to me. Billy, who was still invisible to mortal eyes, moved closer to the changeling and followed them inside.

When the front door closed, Doug said goodnight and drove home, staring at Cassandra as he made his way to his Jeep. She watched him leave and turned to me, smiling. She appeared to be no older than twenty-five.
Looks can be deceiving.

“You’re awfully pretty to be a caretaker.” I stared at her without blinking.

“Yes, it wasn’t a role I asked for, but I could never refuse Zarkus.”

“Were you working for Zarkus the night I saw you on the island.”

“I haven’t been on the island in years.” She feigned shock, but I wasn’t convinced. The Unseelie lie as easily as they breathe.

“Maggie,” Ozara said. She took the form of a white owl and perched on the stone wall. “Cassandra was not on the island. I think you’re mistaken. So much happened that night—it was dark.”

I studied Cassandra’s face for a moment and considered the possibility that I could be mistaken. I wasn’t. Still, I had no intention of challenging Ozara.

“Oh, I’m so sorry. My mistake,” I said. “You look so much like a Fae I saw that night.”

“Yes, well, we can take any form we want.”

“Yes, I am aware.” I barely managed to keep the snide tone out of my voice, though I felt it to my core.

“I do look forward to working with you, Maggie. And if it isn’t too impertinent of me to say, I’m very sorry about your brother. Changelings, humph, such terrible business.” She frowned.

Once again, I knew I recognized her. The frown, while less vicious than I remembered, was exactly as I’d seen it on the island. Then a terrible possibility struck me. Either this Fae was on the island and Ozara was lying about it, or Ozara was simply in the dark. That seemed even more dangerous. Of course, I admitted, I could be mistaken. Cassandra could be identical to the Fae I encountered on the island. Either way, I played along.

In an apparent attempt to allay my fears, Ozara said, “Cassandra, forgive me for being blunt. This poor family has already been through so much at the hands of your clan. I will not allow any further victimization. You must follow the rules of the accord. I will hold you personally accountable for any deviation, regardless of how slight.”

“I understand the rules, and surely you understand the attacks were not the work of the Unseelie Clan, but rather a few rogues who claimed allegiance.” Her voice was silky, and while she showed deference to Ozara, she clearly wasn’t afraid of her. “Were there not two or three Seelie complicit as well?”

“I must apologize. Something I said led you to believe that I wanted your opinion. I do not. I want your obedience. Do you understand me, Cassandra?” Ozara said with metered authority.

Cassandra turned her head and faced the snowy owl. “You have my word—I will bring no harm to the O’Shea family or any of your
other
human pets.” She glanced back and cast a cruel smile toward me—the same one I saw on the island.

FOUR

SECOND GUESSING

After telling me that she was in the process of restoring the
Seoladán,
Cassandra, in an oddly pleasant voice, invited me to visit before she darted up the hill in a wake of dead leaves. It still seemed bizarre that Ozara and the Council would trust an Unseelie to do anything with the
Seoladán
—the single most important attribute of the Weald. I’d feel a lot more comfortable with a Seelie keeping tabs on the Fae gateway to our world.

When Cassandra and Ozara departed, Sara and Billy followed me to the basement where we sat outside Mitch’s room. They took turns trying to convince me that Cassandra wasn’t on the island with me that night.

“Maggie, I don’t doubt that you saw an Unseelie in that form, but I promise you, I know each and every Unseelie who fought with us. Cassandra was not among them. She is very old, nearly five-hundred thousand years, and Air inclined. She could have snapped though your shield in a moment.”

I didn’t like hearing that she was older and more powerful than any I’d faced—it made me feel vulnerable. Considering what Billy said for a moment, I searched my memories and couldn’t remember seeing her on the shore, but I knew she was in the clearing. There were forty-nine of them in the clearing and forty-nine on the shore, but I hadn’t thought to memorize every face.

Even though the Fae are capable of taking any form they desire, my gut was telling me she was one and the same.

“Is she older than either of you?”

“It’s rude to ask a lady her age.” Sara shot me an amused look.

“Oh…um, sorry.”

“I’m kidding, of course,” Sara said. “She and I are approximately the same age, give or take a hundred years. If I read the meaning of your question correctly, we are evenly matched in ability, though I have spent more time in physical form and am, theoretically, more powerful.,”

Billy nodded his head. “I’m not as old. I
rud
a
aireachtáil
bheith
, became conscious of existence, slightly before Gavin did, but he is more powerful. None of the Fae who were on the island that night are older than one hundred thousand years, including Chalen. Many are not half that old. The point is, Cassandra could have pierced your shield with relative ease—keep that in mind.”

“Oh, thanks, just rip my piece of mind to shreds why don’t you.”

Billy laughed, or rather the form he’d taken, a blue-tailed skink perched on the fireplace, laughed. “I will work with you to strengthen your shield, and given the likely case of misidentification with Cassandra, I think your training should also focus on learning to recognize individual Fae, especially given our propensity to take forms freely.”

Misidentification? A part of me wanted to challenge him on that point, but arguing with Sara and Billy wasn’t going to get me anywhere. They were as intransigent as always and hadn’t learned to trust my instincts. So I dropped the subject.

“Billy, no human has ever learned to identify us in our natural form. It may not be possible for her.”

“I know, Sara, but she has greater skill at isolating individual Fae than any human I’ve ever encountered. It is simply a matter of expanding on what she can already do, of learning our nuances. You and I do it intuitively, and if any human is capable, it would be Maggie.”

“That is true, actually. I’m ashamed to admit I’d not considered it.”

He chuckled. “That’s why I’m her
Treoraí.”

Sara rolled her black eyes and offered a reluctant smile. “Perhaps I should work with her on the shield—that is my specialty after
all. If she can learn to resist me, Cassandra shouldn’t pose too much difficulty.”

“If you think that’s best.” Billy said, despondently.

“Don’t be glum Billy, it was
your idea
.” Her words dripp
ed
with sarcasm.

For the first time in my life, I witnessed a lizard give someone a dirty look and I cackled.

“Thanks. I’m going check on Drevek and then go to bed. I’m exhausted.”

“Do you want one of us to go with you
?
” Sara
asked
with a concerned look on her face.

“No, I’ll be all right. He’s no danger to me.”

Her eyebrows raised. “It’s not you we’re worried about.”

I laughed again. “Not necessary. I promise I’ll be on my best behavior. Can we continue this conversation, soon
?
There’s still a lot about you I don’t know, and since I’m in a holding pattern for a year I think it’s high time that changes.”

“Of course, soon.
I promise,” said the skink.

Drevek had dark circles under his eyes, and he appeared to be losing weight. It was hard to look at him because I knew in my gut he was a surrogate displaying Mitch’s condition. After I sat with Drevek, who never opened his eyes, I found myself talking to Mitch. I begged him to have faith and promised him, again, that I’d find him. Unconsciously, I ran my finger though his hair. I recoiled as soon as I realized what I was doing, but then I relaxed and tucked the comforter around him. He wasn’t Mitch, but Drevek was the closest thing I had at the moment.

It took me only a few moments to fall asleep when I returned to my room, but I awoke several times that night when I subconsciously detected Fae movement in the garden. For better or worse, my senses had expanded and I felt the Fae all the time.

Ozara had brought three
loyal Seelie
, as she called them, to watch over the garden and the cottage. They, of course, did not reveal themselves in human form, happy instead to take turns as animals and Naeshura. Unlike the guards, these Seelie meandered about as they had done before the Fire trial. It was less ominous, I admitted, and so was having Cassandra at the
Seoladán in
the place of Chalen. She was just as dangerous, perhaps more for all I knew, but she didn’t try to compel fear and she wasn’t as repulsive to look at.

Sometime around five o’clock in the morning, I woke up startled. My senses told me a dozen Fae had entered the garden and taken places around the cottage. Moving to the window, I felt where each was located and readied myself to defend the house. The Fae that had been there all night took positions as well. I panicked.

“Billy, Sara,” I whispered.

There was no response.

I could sense them both downstairs in the basement. I threw up a blank sheet of paper in my mind and quickly scribbled “What’s going on? Why are there so many Fae in the garden?”

Billy’s tender voice entered my head like a whisper. “Maggie, settle down. They’re Seelie.”

I began to scribble again. “Why are they…”

“I can hear you, Maggie.”

“Okay, why are they here?” I whispered.

“The Council has left the area, so they placed the guards here for protection until they return.”

“Return? From where?”

“Maggie, they’re only going to investigate the oil spill.”

“What oil spill?”

“The one in Alaska of course. Haven’t you seen the news?” he gently chided me.

“No, I don’t watch the news—it’s too depressing.”

“Being uninformed is depressing. There has been a major oil spill in a remote area of Alaska, near a place the Fae use as a retreat. The Council is going to see how bad it is and to determine whether to intervene.”

I grew sick to my stomach. “Oh.”

“Just relax, you’re safer now than you’ve ever been.”

“Billy?”

“Yes?”

“Are they listening in?”

“To your part of the conversation, yes, very likely.”

“I hate that.”

He laughed. “Well, then go back to sleep.”

His advice would have been great had my heart not been beating out of my chest. I took a deep breath to relax, but sleep wasn’t an option. Instead, I went to my Mac and pulled up CNN. There, on the front page, were several articles about the spill. The headline of one read
Alaskan Oil Spill Feared Largest in History.
Another read
Wildlife Refuge Threatened by Tragic Spill.
The amount of oil the experts projected had spilled was as mind boggling as the amount of damage they expected the spill to have to the environment. I closed my computer without reading another word. I knew how bad the Gulf spill had been a few years ago and, honestly, I couldn’t bring myself to read more.

It was so bad the Council had gone to investigate, and I didn’t know whether that course of action was common practice during such events. While I hoped the Council could avert some of the damage projected in the article, any damage was a reminder of the Unseelie warnings, and it made me numb. The human race kept screwing up.
Oh crap, that’s why I don’t read the news!

I was downstairs making breakfast when Mom and Dad got up. They were puzzled when they saw me working away at the island, but simply smiled and went down to check on Drevek. Both of them tried to mask their concern for Mitch, but it did no good. We were all worried, though only I knew what the real danger was.

When they came back upstairs, Dad was carrying what he thought was his son, talking softly to him and kissing him on the forehead. Sara and Billy were close by—a moth fluttering overhead and a skink scurrying across the wall. Mom and Dad didn’t notice.