The Changelings by Elle Casey
"Me too," Tim said, rising up from the table to hover next to my shoulder. "Those are my godchildren down there, and I will not have anyone picking on them."
"Tim stands with us as well." I gestured down at the kids. "Go say hi, Father Tim."
He turned slowly, his face going blank. "Do I…get an actual title?"
"Sure. Why not? Father Tim…The Godfather…whatever you want."
He actually squealed. "I love The Godfather." He paused and went serious. "You don't think it's too much? Is it me? Because I think it's so me."
"Too much? For you? Never."
He took off, flying toward the center aisle. "Never fear, children! The Godfather is here!"
There was some commotion at the back of the room, and Sam appeared with a group of witches. "We stand with our Mother and her children." Sam lifted her staff, shooting a big old lightning bolt out of it that splintered into a million tiny points of light and lit up the room.
"As do the green elves," said Finn, standing with Robin at his side. A group of elves near them stood and then another group across the room joined them.
"Here we go again," said Red in his typical grouchy voice, rolling his eyes to the ceiling.
I looked over at him and smiled, feeling like the champion of all champions. "Don't be jealous."
He snorted, but his face wasn't totally cranky looking. It was possible there was a tiny hint of a smile there, buried deep in one of his old man wrinkles.
The entire audience was on their feet, banging the chairs, stomping on the floor, whistling and shouting and basically causing a huge ruckus. It felt like we were at a rock concert. The kids were talking hurriedly to Spike and he began ushering them up to the front of the room. When they got to the spot in front of the Council's table, I came around and bent down to hear what they had to say.
"We don't have a lot of time," Little Abby said. "The Forsaken are coming."
"Yes, we know. On the equinox." I seriously wanted to squeeze her little cheeks. She was beyond adorable when she wasn't trying to kill me.
She shook her head. "No. Sooner than that."
I could feel the blood drain from my face. "How much sooner?"
The kids exchanged a glance and then Little Tim looked up at me. "Tomorrow."
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
THE MOOD AT dinner time was subdued to say the least. Fae filtered in and out of the dining room, many of them—including me, Spike, the kids, and all my friends—grabbing food and taking it back to their rooms. The gray elves would be working late into the night with their last-minute strategies, but we were going to eat and get some rest before the final showdown. The emergency meeting with the Council had finally finished ten minutes earlier, and our plan was in place. I was trying to stay positive that everything was going to work out, but doubts kept creeping in. It was why I had asked all of our friends to meet up in my room. I wanted the chance to say goodbye…just in case.
"This is just incredible," Tim said, sitting next to me on the couch as we ate our dinner next to Spike. The kids were on the floor, listening to their awesome dad play guitar and sing. They were fascinated by his talent. "To think you have two kids, the same age as you are, sitting here in our room… I mean, think about it—my godchildren are here and in your belly."
"Do you really think the witches can fix things?" I asked quietly. They'd assured us that the kids could be restored to the proper time and place, but I'd experienced enough witchy screwups to be skeptical.
"This time, I think they've got it. Heck, they worked all the kinks out with you, right? And the kids know now that you're not the enemy. They'll find you. They'll get away from Malena and Leck and find you and Spike again. Everything is going to be okay for them. Tony will make sure of it."
"I wish they could stay with us," I said, wiping away the stupid tear that tried to show itself to the world.
"You know that's not possible," Tim said, sounding way too much like a parent.
"I know." I nudged my daughter with my toe.
She looked up at me and grinned, intentionally showing me her chewed up food while giving me a double thumbs-up.
I sighed with both happiness and sadness. My heart was so confused, it didn't know what to feel. It turned out that my kids—when they weren't trying to kill me or tell me what a dumbass I am—were pretty awesome. Funny, smart, protective of one another…everything I had hoped they would be, minus the murderous streak.
The door to my living room opened and Aidan walked in with a couple of his wolf buddies. He smiled and lifted a hand in greeting. I waved a french fry at him. They found a seat among our friends and started digging into their dinners.
Becky and Finn were sitting with Scrum, Long, and Mike. Scrum was gazing at Long with love in his eyes and she was smiling back. I actually had high hopes for them. After he showed up at the compound nearly drowned from Little Abby's waterfall and Long saved him using her water dragon mojo, they'd become very close. It was an instant connection. I could almost see this bond between them, a slight shimmering in the air that always surrounded them now. I laughed when I realized Mike was like their adopted ogre kid. It seemed to work for them, and I had a feeling the three of them had the perfect personalities that would make it work not just for now, but for as long as they wanted. Earlier, I'd watched Mike trying to show Scrum how to execute a Hulk-smash punch and Scrum trying to show Mike how to squeeze someone into submission. It was entertaining if nothing else. Finally, Scrum had found someone who could appreciate how awesome he was.
I was pushing the last french fry around on my plate when I heard a strange noise. It started as a hissing and changed to a weird whisper. It was coming from the door that led into Ben's room.
I put my plate down on the coffee table and stood. "I'll be right back," I said to anyone who was listening. No one acknowledged me as I stepped around bodies sitting all over the floor.
I pushed open the door and walked through. Movement to the left caught my eye. The tapestry was alive with dragons and shapeless shadows. Their movements seemed hurried. Agitated. My palm started to glow red.
"What's going on?" I asked, walking up to it and stopping a few feet away.
Heryon flew past, but said nothing to me. Biad came next, breathing fire at something in front of her, but she passed by too. It was like they were involved in a battle, too busy to talk to me, although I sensed they had something important to say.
Then the golden dragon appeared, first off in the corner and then moving toward the center. He was Ben…I could feel his energy, and he turned to face me, his wings keeping him aloft in position. You have come, he said.
"Yep. I heard you guys slithering around in here and figured you had something to say. We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow. I guess you already know that."
"The battle has already begun," he said, sounding uber serious. "You must call to The Others. You will need them."
"The Others? You mean the transformators?"
"The Others who you woke from the shadows. These winged warriors are the only ones with the energy you need to defeat the Forsaken."
"Okay, cool. How do I do that? How do I call them?" My brain was picturing me with a cell phone in my hand, but I had a very strong suspicion that they wouldn't have a phone number for me to dial.
"Call them," was all he said.
A dark shadow was racing for him. It appeared on the right side of the tapestry. "Watch out!" I yelled, pointing at it. I didn't know how I knew that this thing had bad intentions, but I did. I could feel it somehow.
The golden dragon dropped down at the last second and missed being whatevered by this thing. Was it stabbing dragons? Slicing and dicing them? Melting them with boogieman acid? Dropping dark magic on their heads and destroying their souls? I didn't know, but I could sense the evil, and it was daaaark.
I placed my hand on the tapestry. "Ben! Fly! Go away! Don't let that thing get you!" Somewhere deep down inside of me I knew that to be touched by these creat
A screech that I will forever hear in my nightmares came out of the tapestry when Ben managed to fly off and The Dark of Blackthorn came in behind him and flamed the shadow beast. I grabbed my dragon fang weapon from my leg and stabbed it into the tapestry where the darkest part of the Forsaken presence was moving, hoping I could help the dragons in their battle. But all I did was stop the movement in the fabric entirely. There was the solid thunking sound of my weapon hitting the wall behind it and then nothing. The dragons were once again suspended in the threads, and the shadows had disappeared.
"What are you doing in here?" Jared asked, closing the door behind him. He walked up to me and stopped a foot away, looking at the tapestry with a frown on his face.
"Oh, Jared!" I said, throwing myself at him. I hadn't seen him in forever, and I really needed his strong presence there in that moment. I was worried I'd fucked Ben's situation up big time. I hugged the old daemon around the neck, pulling him in tight. "Everything is so fucked up. Where have you been?"
He held me tight too, putting his face on my neck. "Out and about."
His voice sounded weird. And his voice never sounded weird. I tried to pull back, but his arms were strong, and he wasn't getting the signal that the hug was over.
"Out and about where?" I asked, patting him a couple times, letting him know that I was good now. Crisis over. Girly emotions in check.
"In the city. In the forest. In the Gray. Wherever I'm needed, that's where I go. You know how it works, Jayne, right? We do whatever we need to do to make things happen the way they should."
For the first time ever, Jared didn't smell so good. Normally, he at least had the scent of the outdoors or occasionally the faintest hint of tobacco, but tonight, he smelled like something else. Something…not good. Something…Leckish.
I struggled to break free. "No. No!"
Jared held tighter. "What's the matter, Mother? Don't you want to welcome me back from my latest visit out into the human world? I found some interesting recruits this time around. They're really looking forward to meeting you."
Sweat broke out all over my body. My nerves were jangling. We had a plan to defeat the Forsaken, but it was not going to work if I got assassinated the night before the big moment!
"Jared, this isn't you. I don't know what happened, but obviously Leck got to you. Please let me go. Please!"
Jared threw me away from him, his face twisted up in anger. "Leck did nothing to me. This is me." He slapped himself on the chest. "I'm the guy who picked you up at the train station and offered you a home. I'm the guy who helped you through the Green Forest obstacle course so you could become the fae you'd always been. And I'm the one who lost the love of my life in the forest, that day that you decided to stab her in the stomach with that ridiculous weapon you had no right to wield." He gestured at the dragon fang on my leg.
"What?" I looked down at it. Then I looked at him. My mind raced through memories, trying to bring up the ones he was referring to. "Jared?" I had assumed this was Leck pretending to be my daemon friend, but Leck didn't know about those things. He was Dark Fae at the time, and not at all involved in the Light Fae rituals.
Jared lost the nasty look on his face and went back to being his regular self. He even smiled. "Yep. It's me." He held out his hands and shrugged.
"But…is this a joke of some kind? Some super-twisted massively fucked up joke? Hey, I know what'll be funny…let's pretend to want to kill Jayne on the night before she has to go out and try to save the world." I was so mad, I was ready to slap him. This was not funny at all.
He tipped his head back and laughed. When he could finally control himself again, he looked at me. The smile slipped away and his expression went completely bland. "Save the world? Please, Jayne. Not even on your best day."
I started to cry. I couldn't help it. Jared had always been kind to me. He'd always been in my corner. He'd always stood up for what was right and good with the fae. His behavior had always been on the side of right in my mind. "What happened to you?"
The door between Ben's and mine opened and Sam was standing in the threshold.
"Sam, could you give us a minute?" Jared asked.
"No!" I screamed. I held out my hand at her. "Don't go. Something's going on with him."
She slowly closed the door behind her. "I know." She walked over and stood next to him.
He slung his arm over her shoulders. "What's up, babe?"
My jaw dropped open. I could not close it.
Sam just stared at me. "Not much. You tell her yet?"
"I was just getting ready to." His smile was positively evil.
"Want me to do it?" she asked. She was still staring.
"Be my guest." He dropped his arm and gestured in my direction.
Sam took a step closer.
I moved back. I did not like the look in her eyes. Intense didn't even begin to cover it.
"Jayne, do you remember when we were in the cage together, in the Overworld dwarf mountain?"
I nodded. "Yes. Very clearly." It was when she and I had realized that we'd been manipulated and messed with, turned into enemies when we should have been friends. Sam had so desperately wanted to belong, but she'd been rejected. Jared had left her behind, and she'd always remained hurt over it. She'd crushed on him for so long, and for a little while it had looked like they might end up being a couple, but it had all fallen apart. Sam had never wanted to talk about it. I guess that was what we were about to do…catch up on her love life.
"You gave me some advice, and I followed it," she said. "But it didn't work out. Because some things just aren't meant to be."
I had told her to talk to Jared, tell her how she felt.
Jared went up to her and kissed her cheek. "You're gorgeous."
She ignored him completely. All her focus was on me. "Tell me you understand what's happening here."
I really, really wanted to do that. I would have loved to understand what was going on. But Sam was making zero sense. Jared, the one guy in the entire compound who I thought was totally incapable of turning against me, had turned against me. Or he'd been possessed by a serious asshole. And she was telling me her relationship with Jared hadn't worked out, but there he was kissing her and telling her how hot she was.
"This makes no sense," I said. "I don't get any of…this." I gestured at the two of them.
Sam rolled her eyes. "Sometimes I really wonder if there's any hope for you at all."
The fact that she was positive about the idea of having hope for me seemed like a good sign. But it sure didn't jibe with the fact that Jared and she were about to assassinate me.
"I hate you, Jayne," she said. "I hate you more than anyone who ever walked the earth."
Lie. The alarm bell was ringing in my head loud and clear. I tried not to let it show, but my entire body started to vibrate with the knowledge that this crazy witch was lying her fine ass off.
"I love Jared."
Lie! Lie! Ring a ding ding, this girl was lying through her teeth!
"And because Jared wants you dead, because he wants revenge for you killing the fae he loved before me, I am going to kill you."
Lie! Lie! Lie!
"Well…okay then," I said, wondering where we were going from here. Jared was standing right there, and he seemed very happy about Sam's plans for me.
She lifted her arm and started moving it in a slow circle. Words that sounded like Latin slipped from between her lips. Her voice was low, a whisper that immediately got under my skin.
Jared could feel it too. He leaned toward me, his eyes going black with hatred for me. I could literally feel how badly he wanted my life force to be extinguished. He started to smile.
Lie, lie, lie, lie…everything she's saying is a lie…
I pulled my elements into me, p
Sam's hand shot out toward me at the same time that I released a flow of the four elements entwined together. "So mote it be!" she yelled in a deep voice.
A spark of light came from her hand and met my elements in the space between us. Together, they came toward my face, and I saw the awesome power they created, woven into an intricate design of elemental magic. The moment before it hit me full in the face, it made a u-turn and headed right for Jared.
He only had a split second to contemplate what was happening before it made impact. His expression went from triumph to defeat, a nanosecond before he disappeared.
The explosion threw me off my feet. I landed against Ben's couch, banging my head on one of the heavy wooden feet. "Mother fucker," I moaned, reaching back to feel for blood.
Sam came running over, her robes swirling around her legs. "Are you okay?"
I used her help to get to my feet and then fell into her arms. "Holy shit, Sam. What the fuck was that all about?" I looked at the door over her shoulder, but no one came in. I couldn't believe after that loud explosion that we were still alone in the room.
"It's a long story. You want the short version or the long one?"
I sighed and pulled away, sitting down on the couch and gesturing for her to do the same. "Short version. I need to sleep at least a couple hours before someone tries to kill me again."
She half smiled and took a seat. Facing me she began her story. "Remember that hag you killed in the forest during your changeling test?"
I nodded. "Yes. She tried to get frisky with Tony and convince him to kill me, so I had to stab her."
"Right. Well, she was Jared's soulmate."
"Oh. I think I remember hearing something about her and him."
"Yeah. Well, everyone thought he was over her, or fully appreciated the fact that she knew what she was signing up for when she agreed to be part of the testing grounds, but apparently, he wasn't cool with it."