Weald Fae 02 - The Changeling

  “He didn’t stay away, did he?”

  “No, I hadn’t told him enough about us. I hadn’t scared him enough. So he returned looking for me. He wandered down the same trail we just walked and they found him here. When Ozara saw in his mind that he knew what we were, she killed him.” Billy’s voice cracked.

  “I’m so sorry, Billy.” My lower lip was trembling and I’d already started wiping tears.

  “Yes, so am I.”

  “How are you able to cope with the pain?”

  “I believe the appropriate human term is denial. This is the first time in eighty-three years I’ve spoken about what happened, and you’re the first to know everything. Even now, it doesn’t seem real.” Billy slumped forward and his shoulders heaved. “The pain is terrifying—it festers each day, growing stronger, more difficult to control.”

  “From what Gavin said, it’s remarkable you have it under control at all.”

  “I’m not in control of it, Maggie. It controls me completely.” He looked up at me, his tears evaporating as soon as they touched his cheeks.

  “Is there anything I can do?”

  His face softened and he quietly laughed. “You give me hope, Maggie. I don’t need anything else from you. What I told you the day we met was the truth. Mankind has failed the Seelie, failed the world, failed itself—failed so miserably that I considered joining Zarkus for a while. Then Maggie O’Shea wandered over to Vada’s pen and changed everything. The free-thinking, courageous, and exasperating Steward of the Weald. Just when I’d stopped looking for it, you forced me to see the good in humanity once again. I knew it was there—I’ve always known. I simply didn’t want to see it.” He shook his head.

  “If only you were right about humans, if only Sara was right. The elusive human soul. You know, I once believed as she does, that there was more to people than a tragically short existence.” Billy’s voice crescendoed until he was yelling. “I spent eighty years searching for it—some trace of what Patrick once was. Here, where he’s buried, where he lived, and from time to time I’ve even lingered in the room where he was born. If I could be in his presence in any way, sense him even for a moment, I know it would be easier to go on.”

  “Go on?” The words scared me.

  He smiled and began to calm down—it was growing cooler again and he spoke at a loud whisper. “Maggie, I don’t want you to worry about that. I’ve made you a promise, remember. I’ll be here as long as you’re here.”

  A lump formed in my throat. “Billy, what do you mean to do?”

  In a whisper that was barely audible, he said, “Nothing you need to be concerned about.”

  “That’s not an answer,” I said angrily.

  “No, it isn’t, I suppose.” He laughed and it made me uneasy. “Well, why not tell you? I’ve told you everything else. I mean to avenge Patrick, or die trying.”

  His words frightened me. If he tried to challenge Ozara, he’d die—I knew it and he did, too. I couldn’t imagine a world without Billy in it. “No! You can’t mean that! Suicide is never the answer!” I protested.

  Billy began laughing.

  “Why are you laughing at me?”

  “Suicide?”

  “Well, that’s what it means…”

  He waved his hands and cut me off. “Maggie, I said I’d avenge Patrick or die trying. To be honest, I’d rather avoid obliteration, but I realize that might happen. I never said anything about suicide.”

  “Okay, fair enough, you didn’t. But doesn’t the loss of a significant other drive the Fae crazy?”

  “Yes, usually, or at least that is what the eldest among us have said. I won’t pretend that losing Patrick has been anything short of the most searing pain I’ve ever experienced, and I won’t deny that I have a desire to bring suffering to all those responsible, but I’ve managed to keep from raining fire down on cities for over eighty years. Yes, his death was horrific and my anguish hasn’t abated, but I suspect the stories of grief-crazed Fae have more to do with Fae bigotry regarding cross-species pairing than they have to do with any real danger.”

  “You aren’t planning something reckless, then?”

  “As of yet, I have no concrete plan, but I’ve been working on one for eighty-three years, six months, three days, eleven hours and forty-two minutes.” He grinned broadly. “I’ll be sure to keep you posted on my progress from now on.”

  I laughed despite trying to keep a stern face. “Okay, that makes me feel a little better.”

  Somewhere in the back of my mind, a nagging possibility began to take shape. It’s too terrible to be possible, but honestly it makes sense. Though if Billy knew how to create Aether, wouldn’t he have used it already? Wouldn’t Ozara have sensed it? No, I told myself, it isn’t possible.

  TEN

  SHADOWS

  Billy grew quiet—he was distracted despite trying to act like he was focused on me. When I concentrated, I realized that beyond the dead leaves rattling across one another on the dormant forest floor, there were five Fae positioned between us and the Seoladán, and none of them were moving. If I didn’t know better, I’d say they were watching us. Billy’s eyes never shifted from the ground and his expression remained unchanged, as if he were merely hanging out with me, but I knew he was concentrating on them. How long they’d been there I didn’t know, and without conjuring the energy field I couldn’t tell if they were communicating with Billy.

  He glanced up and saw me staring in their direction. Almost immediately the visitors disappeared, drifting back into the trees and hills beyond my range. My frown lingered too long, and Billy reacted.

  “They’re of no concern to you,” Billy said, his voice gentle and reassuring.

  “Were they Seelie?”

  His expression intensified for a moment, creases forming across his otherwise smooth forehead, and then he sighed.

  “For the time being, I think you should return to the cottage. I really need to go now.”

  His answer made me uncomfortable. “Am I in danger?”

  He smiled easily. “No. I simply have some business that needs my immediate attention, and you have a visitor on the way.”

  “I do?”

  “Yes, Doug.” He gave me a sympathetic and understanding look. Doug was more persistent than ever, and clearly dissatisfied with only seeing me at swim practice.

  Despite wanting to know who the Fae were, Billy wasn’t going to say anything else. Briefly, I considered trying to guilt the information out of him, but if Ozara couldn’t make him talk, I had no chance.

  “Okay, Billy, hint taken.” The frustration in my voice matched my mood.

  He gave me a coy look and began walking toward the cottage.

  At the edge of my senses I felt the Fae return. They were following us back, drifting in and out of my perceptive range, and it unnerved me. Billy didn’t appear concerned, however, even though I knew he was also aware of them.

  We followed the trail back to the driveway, and I noticed that the yellowwood trees were blooming. It caught me off-guard: it was a few weeks too soon and they hadn’t been blooming when we left the cottage earlier. As the garden wall came into view, my feeling of being caught off-guard turned to astonishment. The flowers and shrubs were all blooming early, just as they had last spring. My breath caught in my throat and my heart began to pound as I thought about him.

  “Gavin.” His name escaped my throat in little more than whisper, but Billy heard it. He put his hand on my shoulder when I froze in place. “I don’t understand…”

  “He made you a promise last year and I thought I’d help him keep it,” Billy said, cutting me off. “Your birthday is in two weeks, and this is my gift—a reminder if you will. Maggie, you shouldn’t despair or give up. You should always have faith, because none of us, human or Fae, knows what the future holds. You’re both in this world, and as long as that’s true, there’s hope.”

  For a few moments, I allowed myself to forget that Gavin was gone. I forgot that it had been
nine months since I’d seen him. And for a brief moment, I even forgot that Mitch was held captive somewhere. The Fae who’d been tracking us moved silently through the trees in the distance, jarring me back to the present. The flowers were a beautiful gesture and a welcome sight after months of winter, but they were a façade, a bittersweet reminder that Gavin wasn’t here. An image of him smiling forced its way to the front of my mind, and I forgot about the Fae. I embraced the memories of his smile for several seconds until I sensed them moving again. Wrestling with which to focus on, I chose to lose myself in the image of his full perfect lips, chocolate eyes, and sculpted form. My eyes misted and my chest hurt.

  “Are you all right?” Billy whispered.

  “Honestly, I don’t know what I am. But thank you for doing this.”

  ***

  Doug had arrived a few minutes after Billy left, and stayed until Mom and Dad came home several hours later. Doug was so fixated on being near me that he didn’t notice how preoccupied I was, or he simply chose to ignore it. We walked down to the lake edge and spent some time staring at the water. He talked the entire time. Despite trying hard to pay attention to what he said, I stared at the water for another reason: two Fae were watching us from there as well. I noticed that each time we moved, the Fae following us moved too, those behind us on the hill and those in the lake. They were stalking me.

  It was nerve racking, and I resented the invasion of privacy. Walking back up to the cottage after we heard the exhaust of Mom’s ‘65 Thunderbird coming down the hill, my resentment turned to annoyance. The Fae tracked us back up the hill, always keeping roughly the same distance but never getting too close to the garden wall and the Seelie guards. I studied all of them, trying to commit each one to memory so I could recognize them later.

  One of the Fae in the water gave me the impression of fearlessness. The Intrepid One. The other gave me the sense of being filled with distrust. The Cautious One. Of the six on the hill, I got mixed feelings and impressions, but one made me particularly uneasy. It seemed fiery and impetuous. The Fierce One. I made a note to avoid contact with that one if at all possible. I named the rest the same way. The Coy One, the Wise One, the Strong One, the Curious One and the Playful One. When I considered all the Fae I’d sensed since the Air trial, I laughed to myself. Good lord, you’re going to need a thesaurus to keep them straight.

  Doug reached for the iron gate and turned to me with a pensive look on his face. “Are you all right? You seem distant.”

  I apologized and forced a smile. “I’m just preoccupied.”

  “I know. Mitch, right?”

  Nodding, I said, “I’m sorry.” It was a half-truth.

  “Hopefully, your parents have some good news. I read that encephalitis can go away once the doctors treat the virus.”

  I laughed, and said, “Yeah, that’s what we’re hoping. So, you’ve been reading medical websites?”

  “I’m thinking about majoring in pre-med and then going to UAMS for med school. All this with Mitch got me to thinking about what I want to do with my life.”

  “No pro football?”

  “Well, let’s just call medicine a backup plan.” He kept a straight face for a few seconds and then laughed.

  When he finally swung the gate open, he shook his head. “What is it with this place? Nothing else in the entire state is blooming. Do you guys use atomic Miracle-Gro or something?”

  “Yeah, something like that.”

  ***

  Sara returned when my parents did—I recognized her presence immediately. Mom and Dad didn’t have good news. Drevek’s condition had not improved, but the garden had a profound impact on them both. They were awestruck and smiling. For that I was grateful. The eight Fae who’d followed me around the Weald never got close, and disappeared before Sara could determine who they were and why they were watching me.

  During my drive to school three days later, the Curious One and the Fierce One shadowed me from the time I left the front gate. Sara had gone to the hospital with my parents, so it seemed they took advantage of her absence. They never came very close, and I never saw them, but they were there all the way to the campus.

  At my locker, while talking to Candace and Rachel, I sensed the Wise One enter the building. The other two remained outside, but stayed close by. In second period, the Wise One crawled across the ceiling in the form of a spider and took a position in the corner of the room. I should have been frightened, but anger dominated my emotions. Why was it in the room, and what did it hope to learn by watching me in Spanish class? The Wise One didn’t seem threatening, but then again, all I could sense was its essence.

  Mr. Dow called on me twice before it registered in my brain that the room was quiet and all eyes were on me. I hadn’t heard the question.

  “I’m sorry, Mr. Dow, could you repeat that?”

  After a pithy remark urging me to pay attention, he smiled and moved on to Rhonda, who was more than eager to show me up. She answered him and rolled her eyes for my benefit. I ignored her, and tried to do likewise with the Fae in the corner.

  It followed me into calculus, my next class, and lingered above Ms. Johnston. I fidgeted the entire period, and then gave up trying to concentrate on anything she said. My full attention was on my stalker. At lunch, it moved out of the school and joined the two others near the parking lot, where they all disappeared into the distance. I went to the girl’s room and locked myself in a stall. Relaxing, I concentrated on the fluorescent light and drew energy from it. As soon as I did, my range expanded and I noticed that all eight of them were lingering some distance away. They were by the highway, apparently waiting for me to go home. A knot grew in my stomach when I considered the possibility that the Second Aetherfae might have finally made it to Eureka.

  The more I considered it, the faster my heart beat. More than ever, I wished that Sara and Billy carried cell phones. “Calm down, Maggie,” I whispered to myself.

  A laugh caught me off-guard. I pushed the door open and found Rhonda smirking.

  “Talking to yourself in the toilet? Pathetic. It’s almost as pathetic as your Spanish. I expected you to be an expert.”

  “Give it up, Rhonda. I’m not in the mood for you today.” I started walking past her.

  She grabbed my arm and I fought the urge to blow her into the wall. “I know what you are, Maggie. Everyone does.”

  “Don’t care.”

  In a seething tone, she growled, “Doug only likes you because you’re a slut, a filthy slut!”

  Anger flushed through my face and down my neck, but I checked it quickly. I peeled her fingers off my arm and smiled. “If I were you, I’d keep my hands to myself and I’d keep my mouth shut.”

  “Or what?” she said, yanking her hand from my grasp.

  I considered what I’d say next—dozens of things raced through my head, but I decided not to say a word. I simply balled up my fists and stared at her. Rhonda stared at my hands and backed up a step. She laughed and turned to enter a stall, muttering a curse word in Spanish under her breath. It was the perfect opening. The fluorescent lights buzzed above me, one flickering on and off—the sound dominated the small room. I heard the latch slide shut on the stall door, then Rhonda’s footsteps. I slowly counted to three, and then reached out with my mind to the water in the stool. I blew all of it out of the bowl, swirling it around to make sure it found the mark.

  “I may talk to myself in the toilet, but at least I don’t bathe there.”

  She was still gasping, trying to catch her breath, when I let the lavatory door close behind me. I was in the hall before I heard her scream in anger the first time. After several shrieks, Candace, Rachel, and two other girls went in to find out what was wrong. Candace walked out trying not to laugh, and I managed to keep my own amusement buried when she explained what happened. Rhonda streaked out of the building, soaking wet, embarrassed, and infuriated, leaving a trail of toilet water in her wake.

  The next three hours were among the most ple
asant I’d spent at Eureka Springs High, despite feeling a tinge of guilt each time I chuckled. When the final period ended, I walked with Candace to the parking lot. We’d planned to get coffee, but I begged her for a rain check the moment I sensed the Fae nearby. Candace pursed her lips and twisted a lock of my hair in her fingers while she made me promise to call her later.

  The engine of my pink convertible rumbled to life, and I waved to her. As I steered the car through the parking lot, I formed a plan. My first option was to avoid the Fae, drive to Turpentine Creek to find Billy, and inform him that I was being followed. If they followed me, I would confront them.

  I paused at the street for a moment, wiping my sweaty palms, and tried to calm down. At the bluff, Billy had said there was nothing to worry about and I hoped he was right. One thing was certain: had these Fae wanted to hurt me they could have tried when I was alone in my car on the way to school. My gut told me they were old and powerful, and I’d learned to trust my intuition, but that was all I could glean at the moment.

  When I got to Highway 23 and headed south, they were in the same place they’d been earlier, congregated in the woods to the west. The hair on the back of my neck stood up when they quickly moved to pursue me. I drove past a few hotels and accelerated. Thanks to Gavin’s lessons, I was a much better driver. I tried to imitate what he did the night Candace woke up, accelerating halfway through the corners, and had the tires of the car squealing in protest in the first sharp turn.

  I glanced at my speedometer down the first straight stretch. It read ninety-five miles-per-hour. Turpentine Creek was only a few miles to the south, but I wouldn’t make it. They were infinitely faster, catching and passing me in moments. Jabbing the brakes, I decided to confront them. My gut told me it was an idiotic plan and my hands were shaking, but I was determined to end the cat and mouse game.