The Changeling (Book One of The Síofra Chronicles)

by K. R. Wilburn

  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 wanted 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!"

&nbs
p; 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 Elliott 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."

  He had Becca lie on the ground and climbed over her, trapping her. She giggled at him and he turned red again, blushing this time, and I felt slightly nauseated.

  "Not to be rude or anything," Brittany drawled, her voice sounding bored as she picked at her manicure, "but can you guys do that on your own time? I'd kind of like to keep my breakfast down over here."

  Becca had the grace to blush, but Elliott grinned at us like an idiot. I briefly considered kicking him in his oversized head, but Mom would have had me washing dishes for the rest of the day if I tried, so I stuck my tongue out at him instead.

  "So say the guy has you down like this," he said loudly, all business again. "He's heavy, and you're not, so you're gonna have a helluva time getting out of this."

  "I don't know," Becca interjected with a playful smile. "I kind of like where I'm at." He grinned at her again with a dopey smile, and I'd had enough.

  I picked up a clod of soil and lobbed it at his head. It exploded everywhere, and he shot me an evil glare while Becca spat the dirt out of her mouth and brushed it out of her eyes. Brittany chortled as I smirked and arched an eyebrow at them both.

  "You're distracting her, Elliott. Get off," I ordered him, putting my foot on his side and giving him a strong shove. "I'll be the guy. You go be the pervy dude peeping through the windows. Over there." I pointed to the other side of the yard. Becca laughed at him and whispered something in his ear before shoving him off.

  He glared at me and mouthed something that looked remarkably like a threat.

  "Bring it, jerk," I taunted him as he walked past me and we switched spots.

  The next hour was far more productive as he taught us to use our thumbs to tighten someone’s shirt collar until it choked them out and how to twist our hips to flip our attackers over so we can get loose and run away. Brittany got bored not long after and bailed on me, leaving me alone with my lovesick brother and best friend.

  I had the most fun when we learned to use our elbows and our knees. As skinny as I was, mine were pretty sharp and deadly accurate. I giggled every time I got to drive my elbow into his gut and knock the air out of him. He finally called it quits because he was bruised and sore.

  "Are you going to tell all your Army buddies your little sister kicked your butt?" I teased him as we walked back to the house.

  "Absolutely not," he scoffed, holding the door open for me. "If I tell them my little sister beat me up, they're all going to want to meet you and I would hate to have to kill a battle buddy for making a pass at my little sister. I'm going to tell them it was all Becca."

  I grinned at him, and for the first time since I’d learned Caroline had died, I felt the tight ball of pain in my chest loosen up some. My smile didn't feel fake, and it made me feel horribly guilty. Feeling the tears pricking at the back of my eyes, I made up an excuse about being tired to Becca and Elliott and fled upstairs.

  I somehow doubted they’d even heard me with the heated glances they ‘d been giving one another. I was glad they had each other even if right then I felt like I needed my best friend. Besides, it wasn’t like I couldn't even tell her why I was a wreck. Not for the first time I felt isolated and alone and wished I had someone—anyone—to share my pain with.

  I collapsed on my bed and sobbed into my pillow until the tears ran dry. I had never felt so alone in my life, and the feeling was so horrible I could barely stand it. I didn't know how other people could do it—handle loss and tragedy without family and friends to ease their pain. All I wanted was to escape from everything, and irrationally, I thought of Dom. I missed Dom. He always knew what to say to ma
ke me feel better, and before I could talk myself out of it, I had my phone in my hand.

  You back in town yet?

  I put my phone on the nightstand and stared at my ceiling, running the moves Elliott had taught me through my head, only in my imagination it wasn’t a drunken jerk I was fighting off, but a giant formless black shadow moving through the darkness, calling my name and laughing like ice as he attacked.

  My phone buzzed and I started, caught up in my daydream—or day-mare. My imagination was far too vivid. I had goose bumps down my arms. I shivered and picked up my phone.

  Got back in town this morning. Did you want to grab something to eat?

  I did, but it was a two-hour drive back to the school and we weren't supposed to leave until the next morning. Elliott was flying out tomorrow afternoon and I wanted to give him and Becca as much time together as I could before he left so they could work out whatever it was between them. I didn't want to have to use my sharp, pointy elbow on my brother if he broke my best friend’s heart again.

  I wish I could. Still at home until tomorrow.

  Not having fun?

  I didn't even know how to address that. No, no I was not having fun at all, but that couldn't be blamed on my family. They had been great. It was my secret life making me miserable and putting me in danger.

  Not really. Ramen sounds so much better than more leftovers.

  Now I know you're full of crap. Miss you anyway.

  Miss you too.

  I stared awkwardly at the screen. I did miss him. I'd avoided seeing him since I’d said I wanted to be friends, but the truth was that I missed him a great deal, even if it wasn't in the way he wished I would. He made me feel normal even when everything else was crazy.

  The phone rang, and I blinked in surprise when Dom's number registered on the screen. Dom never called me. He just sent text messages.

  I answered the phone hesitantly. "Hello?"