The Changeling (46 page)

Sara exhaled and appeared slightly annoyed. “Don’t lose yourself in the part…Faye.”

“Says the girl using an Irish accent,” Faye snipped.

Sara shook her head. “Point taken.”

With satisfaction written all over her face, Faye bent her head toward me, her full lips curving up at the edges. “Mags?”

“Yes?”

“Why don’t ya take me inside and introduce me to your friends.”

As we crossed the threshold, the high-pitched squealing of a LAM siren greeted us like being hit with a bucket of ice water and nails. Faye was an immediate hit with Candace and Ronnie.

Rhonda smiled and seemed friendly, acting like the official welcoming committee. “Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, too. Rhonda, isn’t it? I’ve heard so much about you.”

I grinned and shrugged my shoulders as Rhonda shot me a quick look. She frowned, spun and strutted down the hall, flinging her hips so hard I was afraid she’d dislocate something.

Faye whispered, “Pleasant, isn’t she?”

We were both laughing when I sensed a Fae heading across the parking lot toward the building. Sara and Faye were tracking him too.

“Maggie, stay here. Faye, don’t leave her side
,” Sara said silently to both of us.

We exchanged a quick look and I shook my head. Sara let out an exasperated sigh when I turned and headed for the door. “I forgot my book bag, I’ll be right back,” I said to Candace and Ronnie.

Sara and Faye marched along beside me. When we cleared the door, Sara quickly checked to make sure nobody was watching, and then from thirty feet away she grabbed Drevek and slung him into the side of the building, pinning him.

“I’m not here to hurt…”

“Shut up.” Sara said softly. “I’ll ask the questions—you’ll give me answers. Understood?”

He didn’t blink or attempt to free himself. “Yes.”

“I thought we made it clear that if any of you came within a half-mile of Maggie, her family, or her friends, you’d be destroyed.”

“I’m not…”

“Shut up,” Sara said, a little louder this time.

“I need to talk to Maggie,” he said.

Sara squeezed him hard enough that I heard the bones in his arm break. Drevek grimaced, but didn’t scream. I did.

“Stop, Sara!”

She turned to me, “Maggie, the Council has given us specific instructions. It’s for your own safety.”

“He’s not going to hurt me,” I protested softly. “Let me talk to him, Sara—please?”

She studied him for a moment and I felt her relax her grip.

Faye stepped between us, moved her face just inches from him, and whispered, “Drevek, if you so much as breathe in her direction, I’ll feed you parts of your own body.”

He stared at her without moving.

Faye flashed her long white teeth and growled, “Do you understand me?”

“Yes,” he said, sheepishly.

She turned and walked away about twenty feet. Sara joined her.

“So,” I started, “Are the Unseelie making you enroll in school?”

“No, they are not.”

“Well, then what’s up?”

His face relaxed and he smiled. “I had to thank you for saving my life.”

I blushed. “You’re welcome.”

“I also wanted to apologize again. Mitch all right?”

“Yes,” I said.

“Good.” He exhaled and appeared…well,
relieved
.

His demeanor surprised me almost as much as his words. “Drevek, I don’t get it. Why is an Unseelie risking his life to say thank you to a human? It doesn’t make sense.”

“I am not Unseelie…at least not anymore.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot. You’re a rogue, right?”

“No, I left them.”

Faye interjected. “I don’t believe that.”

He shot her a dismissive look, “It’s the truth. I’m Ohanzee now.”

“What!” I screeched.

“It’s true,” he insisted.

I tried not to shake my head, but I couldn’t help it.

“I knew I had to leave the clan when the Seelie spared me. The others will never trust me again—they’ll kill me now. That’s the only reason Ozara set me free—she knew what they’d do. I tried to hide, went out west, but they found me—Dresha found me.”

“And?” Sara asked.

“And I was saved.”

Faye shook her head. “That’s not possible. If she intended to kill you, you would not be here. You’re too young…too weak.”

“By myself, yes, you’re correct, but Tse-xo-be saved me. He drove off Dresha and…”

“Stop!” I snapped, interrupting him. Sara didn’t know about Chalen yet, and I could not afford for her to have Drevek’s words floating around in her mind for Ozara to see. Drevek paused, appearing completely confused.

I threw my shield around us, cutting Sara and Faye out of the conversation.

“Now you can speak without them hearing.”

He nodded. “Tse-xo-be saved me from Dresha and…well…you know who. They do not know about him, do they?”

“No, they don’t.”

“The Ohanzee wanted to destroy me as well—I thought Wakinyan would. Tse-xo-be would not let him. He sent me to Europe for several weeks. I’ve just returned. I need to tell you two things.”

“Okay, shoot.”

“Gavin found me.”

My heart raced in my chest and I felt tears well up in my eyes. “And?”

“He said to tell you that he is well and still lingers over the words he spoke to you in the locker room. I’m not sure I know what that means.”

“I know what it means,” I said. It meant Drevek was telling the truth since no one but Gavin, Wakinyan, and Tse-xo-be knew that I had talked to Gavin at Nationals.

“He also wanted me to tell you to concentrate on Ozara. Do you know what that means?”

“Yes,” I said.

“He wanted me to give this to you as well.” Drevek pulled a small black leather drawstring pouch from his pocket and held it out to me. Inside the small bag was a gold coin. It was uneven, worn, and looked ancient. On one side a naked man knelt with a bow. I started laughing when I realized it was a depiction of Adonis.

“Thank you,” I said.

“I need to leave before I put you in any more danger,” he said.

“I’ll see you again won’t I?”

“Yes.” Emotion filled his face as he stared intensely at me. His eyes were kind and his striking features soft. We had a mutual understanding, connected by circumstance, bound by mutual acts of kindness. It struck me how our views of each other had changed, and it gave me hope that the rift between the Unseelie and humans might not be as irreconcilable as I had feared.

Drevek transformed into Naeshura and shot away the moment I dropped the barrier. Sara didn’t ask me what he said, but Faye did. I sidestepped everything I thought might be dangerous for them to know. Eventually Faye realized I wasn’t going to divulge anything of value, and she dropped the impromptu inquisition.

“Mags, why did you spare him that night with Ozara?”

I exhaled slowly. “Too many people have died. Too many Fae have died—I didn’t see the point in another.”

THIRTY-TWO

CHASING DEMONS

The first few weeks of September flew by and I settled into a routine. Balancing school, friends, family time, and swimming practice would have been difficult if those were the only things I had going on, but I was tracking Fae, too. When any opportunity presented itself, I slipped up to my bedroom and concentrated on Ozara just as I’d done with Mitch. Gavin was right again. Each time I concentrated, I found her regardless of where she was. If only I had known to concentrate on the individual rather than the place, I would have found Mitch months before I did.

Nearly every time I focused on Ozara, she was with the Council. They debated whether the Fae could have been responsible for the rash of recent disasters. A few on the Council believed it was possible, but the others were waiting for more evidence. Even if the Fae were involved, every member of the Council agreed that no single Fae could be responsible for each event.

On a few occasions, they speculated about which Fae might have been capable of carrying out the various attacks. The question of who it might be always preceded a debate on who it wasn’t. From what I gathered, a majority of the Council feared that if Fae were involved, the Unseelie were orchestrating everything. The rest of the Council, along with Ozara, believed the attacks were the work of rogues. They pointed to the recent series of fatal attacks on the Unseelie, and their willingness to aid the Seelie when the rogues came after me on the lake. I had to admit, it didn’t make sense for the Unseelie to kill their own. If the Council was correct, the Unseelie were weaker now than they had been in centuries.

But who was responsible for the disasters? After eliminating members of the Seelie and Unseelie Clans, the Council determined that the pool of possible culprits was rather small. Directing and strengthening a hurricane, apparently, could have only been the work of a few very old and powerful Fae. The number of Fae capable of creating a 9.4 earthquake was even smaller.

The central theme that emerged was the belief that rogues, led by the Second Aetherfae, had changed strategies and were concentrating on weakening both clans by starting a war. None of the Council members knew who the Second was. It seemed the possible number of Fae who could have developed the power was relatively minuscule. Ozara and the Council decided to go on the offensive. They were determined to flush the Second out of hiding and destroy it before tensions with the Unseelie got any worse.

***

On September twenty-fifth, after I left school and before I went to practice, I found the cottage empty and hurried up to my room. It was a rare afternoon when I could track Ozara.

When my mind raced to her, I realized that she was not in Arkansas. She was in the form of a snowy owl sitting alone in a gnarled old tree in an unfamiliar place.

With practice and concentration, my field of vision had expanded from a few yards to several hundred. Through the haze, the tree appeared to be in a grove of similar trees, a species I didn’t recognize. It grew on the edge of a rolling hill tucked beneath snow capped granite mountains that were among the tallest I’d ever seen. The hill gently gave way to a narrow valley that wound between the mountains and disappeared from my view in the dense mist.

It was a beautiful place that reminded me of postcards I’d seen from Switzerland and Austria. The low light of the setting sun cast long shadows across the peaceful valley floor and slowly turned the blue-gray granite wall into a rich shade of purple.

Ozara didn’t move or even blink. She focused on something well beyond my extended range of vision. A few minutes stretched into several, and then into what seemed like an hour or more. At twilight, she transformed into Naeshura and disappeared down the hill. Fearing that she’d escape like Cassandra always had, I willed myself back to her. At once I sensed her beneath me and could make out her shimmering essence as we streaked across verdant fields only a few feet off the ground.

She abruptly changed directions, flashing between two craggy peaks of granite. Ozara took a position just above the shorter peak and transformed back into a snowy owl. She was hunting and, though I could not see it, her quarry was somewhere below. I desperately searched for whatever it was she tracked, but from my vantage, I could only just make out the green color of the valley floor. Clouds and mist blocked my view.

The unmistakable glow of Aether spread down the mountain wall toward the valley like an avalanche of pure energy, but infinitely faster. I willed myself to the valley floor, and an instant later I was there, reaching it just as three Fae flashed out of existence. They were gone too quickly to make out their faces, and didn’t I recognize their essences, but I did witness their futile struggle for life as each frantically searched for an opening in the green veil before it was over.

The valley fell quiet except for the whistling sound of tall grass blowing in the wind. Lingering only for a moment, I concentrated on Ozara again and was dizzied by the speed of her movement. She was in her natural form, moving at an incredible speed high above the clouds and away from the Fae she had destroyed. I followed her to a cluster of boulders piled at the base of a mountain. She entered and disappeared. A Seoladán. My connection to her broke and I felt the tug of my body. In a blur I was back in my bedroom staring at the wood beams in my ceiling—it was just late afternoon at the Weald.

***

After practice, I played a couple games of pool with Mitch and then lounged around with Candace and Ronnie in the living room. Sara, Faye and Billy were close, keeping an eye on all of us. Candace and Ronnie kept the conversation completely benign. They had become experts at playing it cool. Doug was equally adept at acting, but football practice kept him in Fayetteville. At ten, Candace and Ronnie left and I headed to my room for another round of astral hide-and-go-seek.

Ozara was back with the Council discussing the latest attacks by the Second Aetherfae. Asharyu, the Fae who took the form of a handsome African man, told Ozara that four Unseelie had been killed and three Seelie were missing and presumed dead. Guanyin, a Council member who appeared as a beautiful Asian woman with lustrous black hair, black eyes, and porcelain skin, told them how
the Ancient Ones,
an independent clan I assumed, had prevented disaster at a dam in the Hubei province—I had no idea where that was. She said the Ancient Ones were unable to identify the Fae, but they drove it away before the earthquake it created did any damage to the structure.