The Changeling (Book One of The Síofra Chronicles) (17 page)

"As long as you travel between the worlds, your soul is his food source." Niall said maliciously, and I jerked my eyes back to him.  He smiled wide, enjoying my discomfort as he crossed the Court in an instant and pushed Aleksander aside, standing over me. His eyes twinkled cruelly as he leaned in and whispered in my ear, his cold breath tickling my ear and sending ripples of fear down my spine.  "When he finds you, he's going to reach down that pretty mouth of yours and rip it screaming from your body.  I am sure it must be painful.  Perhaps if your friend had survived, she could have told us firsthand."

Aleksander's face contorted with rage and he
sprang at him, knocking him to the ground.  His tapered fingers wrapped around Niall's throat, trying to stifle the laughter that was bubbling over his lips at the horrified expression on my face.  I was going to be sick.

“Don’t watch,”
a low voice said in my ear.  I jerked my gaze from the violence in front of me and saw Finnian standing next to me, his warm palm pressing into my lower back.  “Don’t let Niall see he’s upsetting you or he’ll continue to taunt you. I’m sorry you’re hurting, but you cannot let him see that.” 

I stepped back away from him, my breath
catching in my throat as I stared at him, confused.  Why was he giving me advice?

King Oberon roared his displeasure and instantly Aleksander was pulled off Niall and restrained.  Niall lay on the ground and continued to chortle.  Finnian shot me an apologetic look before dragging Niall off the ground, glaring at him and growling something to him that made him stop his maniacal laughter immediately.

"Enough!" Oberon yelled, his face turning red with rage as he pointed at Niall.  "I will not have you terrorizing my Síofra.  You are in my Court. You will abide by my rules."

"My friend?" I whispered to Aleksander as he
moved back to stand beside me.

Panic bubbled in my chest.  He tried to pull me into his side to comfort me but I could feel my anxiety turning to hysteria as I searched the crowds.

No, no, no, no, no. This couldn't be happening.  I searched for her face, but the crowd was too dense to see her slight frame.  When I saw Erik towering over the throng, his eyes red and his complexion wan, looking like a broken man, tears dripping from his face as his head bowed and his shoulders shaking with the force of his sobs, I had my answer. 

"Aleksander, who is missing?" I demanded, my voice high with fear.  I
’d known what he would say before I’d asked but I needed him to confirm it.  I needed him to say it out loud. It wasn't real until he said it.

"It is Caroline who has been lost to us," a quiet voice tinkled in my ear, heavy with sorrow. 

I jerked my eyes to the sound and saw that the Queen was next to me, her warm arms surrounding me, pulling me to her chest as a loud keening pierced the air.  I realized belatedly that the sound was coming from me and my legs went out from underneath me. 

Chapter Twenty

Lawrence Teen Found Dead, Police Baffled

Police are at a loss to explain the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of Caroline Walters, 19
, of Lawrence, whose body was found yesterday behind the Bob’s Burger Shack, where Walters was employed.  Despite signs of a struggle and the body being found concealed behind a waste receptacle, the autopsy showed that Walters died from natural causes.  The coroner, Doctor M. Hensley, confirms Walters suffered a sudden coronary incident, most likely stemming from an undiagnosed heart murmur.  However, this does not explain why Walters’s body appeared to be hidden behind the restaurant after what looked like a robbery gone wrong. 

Anyone with information should call the Lawrence Police Department. 

I stared blankly at the computer screen, tears filling my eyes as my worst fears were confirmed. The picture on the screen was an old school photograph, but I recognized her dazzling green eyes and mischievous grin.  I felt a combination of rage and sorrow fill my chest like a balloon that was going to burst at any moment. I shut down the computer, refusing to read the rest of the article.  Instead, I crawled back into my bed and buried my face in my pillow.  I couldn't imagine a world without Caroline in it somewhere.  I stayed in my bed curled into a ball and tried to block out reality until my mother came looking for me.

"You feeling okay
, baby?" she asked as she sat next to me on the bed, pressing her cool hand against my forehead, checking for fever.  "You look like you've been crying.  What's wrong?"

I sniffed back my tears and grimaced at her as if I were in pain.  "It’s just a
stomachache, Mom.  I think I'm going to take some Tylenol and stay in bed today."  I clutched at my stomach as if the pain were normal rather than the deep ache that had settled into my heart.

"Sorry to hear that
, baby," she murmured, running her fingers through my hair and pressing a kiss to my cheek. 

I swallowed down a sob and the urge to hurl myself into her arms and tell her what's wrong.  I want
ed my mother to soothe me, to tell me everything will be okay and that the monsters weren't real.  Instead, I bit back my tears and tried to smile at her.

"You get some rest.  I'll bring you up something to eat in a little bit when you’re feeling up to it
.”

I thanked her and waited until she left the room before
I buried myself back under the covers and tried not to feel like I'd been abandoned.

I spent most of the day
in my room, alternating between bouts of panic and grief wringing every tear from me until my eyes were swollen and puffy. A thousand questions ran through my mind, none of them bringing comfort.

Had she known what it was?

Had it hurt her?

Had she felt fear?

Was her mom okay?

Niall's cold laughter filled my ears and gave voice to all of my darkest thoughts and fears because I knew now
that I wasn't safe.  I didn't know when I would ever feel safe again. She hadn't known. None of us had. They had kept us in the dark, unprepared and unprotected. My mind danced this vicious circle until I drifted off to sleep again, knowing there would be no comfort there either.

Aleksander was waiting for me on the beach, perched on a rock and staring out into the ocean as if it could take away all the pain on his face. For the first time ever, dark gray clouds hung over the horizon
, blotting out the light from the moons.  It was if Otherworld was grieving with us.  He didn't even look in my direction, so I went to him, leaning against the rock and reaching for his hand.

"How is Erik?" I asked,
resting my head on his shoulder, desperate for any kind of comfort his touch could bring. 

"He's dying inside,"
he said, his voice hoarse with emotion.  "His heart is shattered and he'll never recover." 

I felt my lip quiver as tears filled my eyes again.  I inhaled deeply, trying desperately to keep them from falling.  As much as I felt like there was a hole in my heart, I couldn't begin to imagine what Erik was going through. He and Caroline had loved each other
intensely. I knew I would never be able to see him without imaging her at his side.

I squeezed Aleksander's hand, wishing I could take
on some of his sorrow for myself. A thousand overused phrases and words flew through my mind, things people said at funerals when nothing could be said.

No words could ever ease that grief, especially not here.  In my world
, death came for everyone eventually.  We were better prepared for the pain knowing that life goes on and the despair eventually faded to a dull ache before disappearing altogether with time.  The Fae had no such consolation.  They had nothing to fear from death and probably forgot it existed altogether.

"How is the Queen?" I asked.  She had been so tender with me, holding me close to her chest while
I had cried.  Her skin had been so warm against mine, like laying out in the sunshine, as she murmured low, gentle things in a language I couldn't understand until my tears turned into hiccups.  She had soothed me like a mother, and we had shared our grief.  Her empathy had made it hard for her not to share my sorrow and want to comfort me.  I would be forever grateful to her.

"Not well
, actually," he answered, a catch in his voice.  "She's trying to ease Erik's passing, but it's hard on everyone.  He has lived for a millennium and is a great favorite of theirs.  He will be missed."

I jerked my head up, and bile bubbled up my throat. 
"What do you mean his passing?" I demanded incredulously.  "What happened?  What did he do?  I thought you couldn't die?" My voice grew shrill with panic and rising fear.  I struggled to catch my breath, but I felt dizzy and disoriented.

Aleksander looked at me, his blank face coming alive with horror as he realized what he had said.
"His heart is broken," he said, as if that explained everything.

I stared at him, confused
, and waited for an explanation that would make sense.  He sighed and looked back out at the water, watching the turbulent waves in the distance.

"Care to elaborate?" I snapped, growing frustrated at his lack of response. I was quickly reaching the end of my rope and felt my sorrow shift into anger in an instant. I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him.

"You already know we can survive physical wounds, illnesses, poisons without any effort at all," he said quietly.  "It would be like a human child catching a cold. For all the physical hurts we can survive, a broken heart is a literal thing for us, and it will kill us. It's a slow and painful death, withering away like a plant denied sunlight. It's agonizing, and it isn't anything I would wish on anybody.  Erik's heart is broken, and now he'll waste away until he dies too."

I gasped and pushed myself away from him, stunned as my mind refused to process what he
had said.  "People don't die of broken hearts, Aleksander.”

He watched me, his eyes carefully devoid of emotion.  "We’re not people
, Cassie.  You need to understand that.  All the things you think are true because you’re mortal aren’t here. Your rules don’t apply."

I sat down in the damp sand and pulled my knees into my chest. My stomach rolled and threatened to be ill
, and I hastily gulped the clean air. 

I remembered the way they
had been together. The looks they snuck at each other.  The glow on her face when she talked about him. 

"
He feels the same, so no fear of heartbreak there."

She had known.  She had known the risks and they
’d chosen to take them anyway.  I wondered if they would have made the same choices if they had known what would happen, but I already knew the answer.  They would have.  They would have risked anything to be together, if only for a moment.

"It hardly ever happens.  When it does
, it's usually because some fool falls in love with their Síofra and then they decide to stay a mortal after all. Or they get themselves
eaten
," he said dryly, as if it were Caroline's fault she had been murdered and her body thrown behind a dumpster, leaving her boyfriend to waste away from grief.  Like a flash, the rage is back and I want to drive my fist into his stupid face.

"Well
maybe,
" I seethed," if someone could maybe
tell
the Síofra there are exiled elves running around the world and eating their
souls,
we might be a little more prepared!" 

My chest
was heaving with my anger, and he blinked at me like he was seeing me for the first time.

"She didn't
want
to leave him. She loved him! She told me so. She just wanted to have one last holiday with her mom before she stayed here with him. Maybe if she had known she was in danger she would have made her choice already.  It wasn't her fault, Aleksander, and it’s not fair of you to blame this on her.   This wasn’t her fault! If she had known, she could have protected herself!"  

"And what could she have done if she had known?" he asked, his voice growing louder until he
was shouting back at me. "Nothing!  There's nothing that can be done!  There's nothing you can do! Every moment you're not here, you're in danger and there's not a damn thing I can do to protect you! You don't know what these things are, what they're capable of. Nobody does! It's been generations since anyone on this side has seen an Erlking!  We don’t even know what they look like anymore, Cassie. They could look like anyone. Even if Caroline had known, she never would have stood a chance, and neither do you."

My lip trembled and my face crumpled at the same time my knees gave out until I was kneeling on the grass.  Terrible sobs ripped out of my chest
, and instantly he fell to his knees in front of me, wrapping me in his arms and dragging me onto his lap.  I wept as he rocked me gently and tenderly held me to his chest.

He was wrong.  I wasn't powerless.  I wasn't weak and I wasn't going to be caught off guard.  Caroline
hadn’t had a fighting chance because she hadn’t known, but I wouldn't be a victim.  I was going to have to learn how to defend myself, and if Aleksander wouldn't teach me how, then I was going to have to ask someone else to do it.

***

I was Xena. I was Wonder Woman.  I was an Amazon.  I was getting my butt handed to me.

"Stop letting your wrists fall limp
, Cass," Elliott yelled at me.  "That's a quick way to break your wrists.  You need to line your wrists up right. Hold your hand like this so your forearm to your knuckles is like one bone."  He moved my hand where he wanted it and then demonstrated how to pivot, swinging my hips so that it was the force of my body coming around and driving my fist into the pad instead of my weak arms. 

We had been at it for hours
, and the sweat was pouring off my face from exertion.  I knew for a fact that I wouldn't be able to lift my arms tomorrow.  He had been excited when I told him I wanted to learn some self-defense from him.  He’d spent most of his leave boasting about how he was going to go to school to be the combative instructor for his unit and lectured Brittany, Becca, and me until we were blue in the face about what douchebags men were and how we had to be ready to defend ourselves at a moment’s notice.

I wasn't so sure about frat boys
, but I knew I needed to learn to protect myself in case the Erlking came for me like it had come for Caroline.  Aleksander thought I couldn't protect myself, but even he’d admitted that nobody knew what to expect with the Erlking.  Nobody who even knew what it was had seen it in hundreds of years, so there was no telling how it had adapted over time.

"Oomph!" The air fled my lungs as I struck the ground hard.  I struggled to inhale and gather my wits again after Elliot
t had knocked me flat on my back.

"Pay attention! Geez
, Cassie. You're going to get your fifth point of contact handed to you if you're trying to fight like that."

"Well it's not like I'm going to get into a bar brawl
, Elliott," I snarled as I rolled onto my side and struggled back to my feet. "I don't need 'the eye of the tiger' for cripes’ sake. All I want is to know what to do to defend myself if I have to."

Becca nodded in agreement and offered me a hand, pulling me to standing and helping me dust the grass off my back while I glared at my brother.

"She's right, Elliott," she smiled at him as she tossed her hair over shoulder.  He grinned at her, dazed, and I rolled my eyes at them both.  He was under her spell now.  He was doomed, and I didn't feel an ounce of sympathy for him.    "We're not brawlers.  We just need to know what to do if someone gets a little too...friendly."

His eyes darkened and his face turned an ugly
tomato-red shade that clashed horribly with his ginger-colored hair.  Apparently the thought of someone touching Becca without invitation—or probably even with invitation—was enough to set him off.

"Yeah
." He frowned, flexing his fingers like he was aching for someone to try to put his hands on his girl. 
Or his sisters,
I thought snarkily.  "Yeah you're right.  Okay, so let's try something else."