Loose Changeling: A Changeling Wars Novel (21 page)

I swallowed. “How do I know you're telling me the truth?”

Dorian glanced at me, pale blue eyes catching my gaze. “Who's been more forthcoming with you—me or Kailen?” He turned back to the road. “Besides, if you don't believe me, next time you see him, ask him. Ask him whose son he is and where he got his moonstone. Don't let the hobgoblins fool you,” Dorian said. “I'm not a bad guy.”

Kailen, why did you lie?
How could I trust him now, knowing who he was and what he'd done? I buried my face in my hands. “What am I going to do?”

“Let me guess,” Dorian said. “He's a good-looking Sidhe, with a Talent for elicitation. He's been reeling you in, bestowing some physical favors on you, telling you no one has made him feel this way, yadda, yadda. He's good at it. Sometimes you can't even tell he's doing it.”

“Oh, God. I'm such an idiot.” I rubbed at my temples, trying to dispel the growing headache.

He patted me awkwardly on the back. “Hey, I'm sorry you had to hear it from me. Someone should tell you these things.”

“What does it even matter?” I said. I gritted my teeth and shook my head. “I'm going to die.”

Dorian cleared his throat. “Challenges are a great spectacle in the Fae world. Very primal, like the heartbeat of the earth. The winner receives a crown of roses from the Queen. She allows them close, very close, in order to bestow this honor. She is good at crafting, but all crafted items have a weakness. The weakness has to do with what the crafter fears.”

He told me this casually, but I could hear the undertone in his words. He was trying to help. If I could win and get close to the Queen, I might find a way to dispel the magic of the golden ball and take my nephew back. I wound my hands together in my lap. I’d have to do it. I’d have to find a way.

The faint scent of black pepper drifted by my nose. When I looked up, the car was pulling into a street near my sister’s home. There was no sign of the road we’d just traversed. “How?”

“One of my Talents,” Dorian said. “Travel.” He pulled the car to the curb and stopped.

I gripped the handle of the door. “Thank you,” I said. “For the ride and the information.”

“Hold on a second.” He slid out of his door and came around to my side. He opened my door. “I forgot. It doesn’t open from the inside. Broken.”

This was all too weird. "Why are you doing this?" I burst out as I slid from the car. "You tried to kill me, and now you're giving me advice?"

He glanced back at the car and licked his lips. "Things in the Fae world are not as stable as you might think. Grian hasn't always been in power." He went back to the driver's side and started the car.

"Wait! Does this mean I have a chance? There are Fae, other than the Aranhods, that don’t care for her?"

He gave me a quick grin, and then he and the beater car were gone.

I puzzled out our conversation as I walked to the stoop. He hadn't shown up at my parents' home with any intention except to kill me. Now he wanted to help. I didn't keep up too much with politics, but I knew a flip-flopper when I saw one. Something had changed between then and now. I'd done something, or Grian had done something, to make Dorian hedge his bets.

The door to Lainey’s home was still unlocked. I knocked a couple times, but when no one replied, I stepped inside. No one was in the house, so I went to the backyard, opening the door quietly. Owen sat on the edge of one of the garden beds, bouncing Justine on his knee. She babbled and giggled. To my left, near the gate, Kailen consoled Lainey.

“You can’t go through,” he told her.

“My
son
went through there, and so did my sister! You can’t tell me I can’t go in there after them.”

“If you do, you’ll die.”

“Then
you
go. You get them back.”

“I can’t,” Kailen said. “I might be able to take a peek, but I’m exiled from the Fae world.”

“Then peek!”

I stepped toward them. “That won’t be necessary,” I said. I brushed past them, touched the doorway, and closed it. “I’ve challenged the Guardians. I’m going to find a way to get Tristan back, Lainey. I promise.”

“Has he eaten her food or drunk her water?” Kailen asked.

I rounded on him. “Both. Now you answer some questions for
me
. Is Grian your mother?”

He shrank before my eyes. “She told you, then. Yes. Grian is my mother.”

“You used to be a Guardian.”

“Yes.” This time, a whisper.

“You stole the moonstone from Dorian.”

“I did.”

“You’ve been using your elicitation on me from the very beginning.”

“I—Nicole, no! After the first time, I haven’t, not once. I swear it.”

I shook my head, an ugly feeling strangling the breath in my lungs, making my voice come out two shades higher than normal. “You’ve lied to me, over and over again. How do I know you’re even telling me the truth now? I’m tired of your lies, of trying to figure out whether or not you’re withholding information. Who
are
you?”

Kailen didn’t flinch at any of this, only stood there, head low, like a dog suffering his master’s reprimand. “I am who I said I was. I wasn’t a very good person before. I tried to put all that behind me when I left the Guardians. Faolan and Maera believed in me. I came to the mortal world so I didn’t have to see her again. It gave me hope that I didn’t have to be my mother’s son.” He let out a sigh. “But I am. I am sorry, Nicole. I should have told you everything from the beginning. You should have heard it from me.”

I felt it this time, the response of the world around me to my anger. The grass writhed at my feet, the tiles of Lainey’s small patio threatened to pull free, Tristan’s toys rose an inch from the ground. I could control it. I let the anger simmer. “No,” I said. “You don’t get this many chances.”

Kailen’s head snapped up. No doubt he had expected me to forgive him and to accept him back into my confidence. “But you only have three days before the challenge. I know the Guardians, who they are, what they can do.”

“I’ll manage without you,” I said. “I’d rather face them alone than with the advice of a man I can’t trust.”

“Nicole, please.”

I closed my eyes against the sudden tug on my heart. I couldn’t deny that I felt something for Kailen—some spark, mostly unexplored. Maera and Faolan trusted him. There was so much I didn’t know about him. Too much. I opened my eyes. “You will leave, or I will make you leave.” As soon as I said the words, I knew I
could
make him leave. The power gathered within me, waiting for me to direct it. A hundred ways I could eject him from Lainey’s yard filtered through my mind.

Kailen stepped back, eyes widening slightly. I wondered, briefly, what he saw in my gaze. “No. I’ll go.” He turned, unlatched the gate, and was gone.

For a moment, silence reigned.

“Oh,
honey
,” Lainey finally said. “Are you sure that was a good idea?”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Now that Kailen was gone, I couldn’t be sure I’d done the right thing. The green fairies’ words echoed in my mind. Though I felt more in control of my Fae powers than ever, I still knew little of the world I would fight for my life in.

“Nicole?” Lainey touched my shoulder.

“I don’t know if it was a good idea,” I said. “But I can’t take it back now. He’s gone.” I turned to her. “I saw Tristan. He’s alive. And well.”

My sister nearly collapsed with relief, her pale cheeks flushing with color. I caught her, helped her over to one of the garden beds to sit.

“The Queen has him, and she’s enchanted him. If I win the challenge, I’ll get the chance to get close to him. The spell she has on him is strong. I’m going to find a way to break it and bring him home. I’ll bring him back in three days. I promise, Lainey.”

She started to cry.

I let her go on for a while, rubbing her back and making comforting noises in the back of my throat. She finally quieted, sniffed, and rubbed at her nose with the back of her hand. “I just hear you say it, and I know you’re going to get him back. At least,” she said, “at least I’m not as bad as Mom.”

I laughed. “Never. Where’s Mark?”

“He’s out looking for Tristan. He’ll be back in time for dinner.”

“You said before that he used to fence, right?”

“Back in college,” Lainey said. She wiped her eyes and ran a hand through her hair. “He used to be good, but didn’t have time for the local fencing club after Tristan was born. Still has some of his equipment. He's such a geek—he loves collecting weapons, but he wouldn't hurt a fly.” She paused. “I’m babbling, aren’t I?”

Behind us, Justine started to wail. “I’m sorry,” Owen said, walking over, “I don’t know what I did.”

“She just needs to be fed,” Lainey said. She took Justine from him and carried her inside. “You two are welcome to stay for dinner,” she called over her shoulder.

Owen gave her departing back a wistful look. “Do you ever think, you and I, maybe we should have had one?”

“One what?”

He gestured into the air. “One, you know. A baby. A family.”

Babies. They made people crazy, one way or another. “I’m not even human. We might not have been able to have a family.” It hadn’t even crossed my mind, honestly. That bio-clock that my girlfriends spoke of—I didn’t seem to have one. Now that I knew I would live for hundreds of years, it made sense.

“Oh. Right,” Owen said. “It just seems nice.” He stood close to me, as he would have before this whole mess with Jane and Kailen had happened.

“Owen,” I rubbed my forehead with my fingers, “this isn’t the time. Maybe we can talk when this is all over, but I have my nephew to worry about, and a fight to the death in three days. Give me some space, please?”

He took a step back, as though he thought I’d only meant physically. For all I knew, perhaps he did. I headed inside the house.

Mark was at the front door with Lainey, who was explaining to him what I’d told her. He looked to me as I approached. “Am I right in thinking there was a reason you asked about my fencing?”

I nodded.

“You should stay here with us for the next few days,” Mark said.

“Then you believe all this stuff? About Fae and Changelings?”

He lifted his chin. “If Lainey believes it, then so do I. Besides, this is the only lead I’ve got into where my son is.”

Solid as a rock, Lainey and Mark. Why couldn’t I find something like that? “I’ll need to practice.”

“You can use our backyard,” Lainey said.

“And I’ll take the next few days off from work,” Mark said.

I heard the backyard door open and close behind me. “I want to help,” Owen said. “I can cook, and clean, at the very least.”

“That would be great,” Lainey said. She looked exhausted. Clearly, Owen hadn’t understood what I’d said about space. But I couldn’t deny my sister the free help, especially when her nerves were frayed so thin.

Dinner was a somber affair. No one said much. Lainey let me sleep in Tristan’s room, while Owen got the couch. Before I fell asleep, I spent an hour or so staring up at the glowing stars Lainey and Mark had so carefully placed in constellation patterns.

The next morning I borrowed Lainey’s cell phone to call work. I called Landon’s direct number, unsure of whether or not he’d hired on a temporary secretary.

“Frank Gibbons, Incorporated, this is Landon.”

“Hi, it’s Nicole. I’m sorry about what happened on Tuesday. I’ve had some crazy things going on in my life lately,” I said.

“Clearly. The police came by later that day, looking for you.”

“That’s been cleared up,” I said.

“That doesn’t explain a man with a sword in our office, nor does it explain the mess with the flowers, nor your absence on Wednesday. Things are hard enough with Anne gone.”

“Can you give me until Monday to patch everything up?”

Landon let out a heavy sigh. “Fine. But I’m only doing this because you’re the best salesperson in the office. You work hard; you’re dedicated. I've never seen you go off the rails like this, Nicole, and I want to see you back here the way you were. I’ll give you until Monday. If you’re not in the office first thing Monday morning, I’m terminating your position. Are we clear?”

“Perfectly,” I said. “Thank you.” I wasn’t ready to give up the job, not just yet. Even if I was Fae, I lived in the mortal world in a house I loved, and who knew if any of my job skills was even transferable to the Fae realms? I still needed a way to earn a living. If I didn’t turn up on Monday, it would probably be because I was dead. I didn’t say that to Landon, though. “See you on Monday.”

“Fine. Very good.” Click.

Owen cooked us all breakfast, after which Mark and I went to the shed.

“So, don’t be alarmed,” he said as he unlocked the padlock. “I know this place makes me look all kinds of crazy, but collecting weapons used to be a hobby of mine.” He slipped inside and flipped on the light. “I’ll probably have to get rid of all of it when the kids get older, just in case.”

The inside of the building had that musty, unfinished smell that most sheds do. The concrete floor was littered with scattered dried leaves, cobwebs, and dust. On the right side of the shed hung the gardening tools Lainey used. On the left, lined up in neatly spaced rows, were a number of implements that had nothing to do with gardening.

“You weren’t kidding,” I said. Knives, swords, spears, and things I couldn’t even identify shared wall space. “Do you know how to use them?”

Mark grinned. “Not even half of them. It was a hobby, not a lifestyle.”

I walked along the left wall, reaching out to touch a few of the weapons. All were sharpened, with finely honed points. I stopped at the pistol and Kailen’s words flooded into my mind. The Fae families weren’t very familiar with technology. If Dorian couldn't even dress himself properly, then how much did the Fae know about human weapons? Mark could teach me how to fence, intensely, for three days. But I probably wasn’t going to win against Haldor through skill. I had to outwit him.

I gestured to the gun. “What about this? Do you know how to use it?”