Loose Changeling: A Changeling Wars Novel (6 page)

“Oh.” It was the only word I could force out of my mouth. None of this really added up for me, but I knew a conversational wall when I ran into one. How could the Fae be cut off from this world and still send hobgoblins after me? And what was Kailen's story? How did he end up here?

He took the ramp onto the I-84 West, toward Mount Hood. After about twenty minutes, he pulled into the parking lot of a bed and breakfast, bordered on three sides by a thick forest. It was a quaint Victorian building, probably a faded violet or blue, but gray by the lights on the porch. “I booked a room here a couple days ago. Thought I might have need of it.” He cradled the old sweater with Jane in it and stepped into the night. Again, he opened my door and then handed me the old sweater. “You'll need to carry her, at least until we get inside. I need my hands free in case we're attacked.”

I took Jane reluctantly, slung my bag over my shoulder, and got out of the car. She was still curled up and fast asleep, a tiny weightless lump in the folds of the sweater. Being a mouse didn't look so bad right now. Beyond the porch lights, both parking lot and inn faded rapidly into the forest surrounding them. I could imagine all sorts of creatures coming out of that darkness, so I followed on Kailen’s heels as he went around to the back of the building, climbed a set of stairs, and unlocked a door with a brass number four on it.

He flipped the lights. The room was spacious, decorated in warm reds, golds, and whites. Striped cream and gold wallpaper covered the top half of the walls; white wainscoting covered the bottom half. A queen-sized bed with red bedding dominated the space, complemented by a loveseat and sofa in the same color. I glanced to the left and spotted a luxuriant bathroom, complete with two-person Jacuzzi tub.

“You can take the bed,” he said. He took Jane from my hands and placed her, still sleeping, on the nightstand. “I’ll sleep on the couch. It’s closer to the door anyways, in case anything tries to break in.”

Definitely not reassuring. “Fine.” I slipped off my shoes, pulled my toiletries kit from my bag, and headed for the bathroom. Once I closed the door I let out a long breath. I took the requisite two steps to the sink and gazed at my reflection in the oval mirror.

I looked tired. My eyes were puffy with lack of sleep, and my thick black hair, already untamable most days, swirled about my head like the unholy lovechild of a storm cloud and a bird’s nest. I frowned at my reflection. “This is messy,” I said, and I didn’t mean my hair. How had I gotten myself into this situation? I could blame my biological parents first, for giving birth to me and placing me up for adoption. And then my adoptive parents for taking me in and lying to me about it. Finding out you weren’t at all human wasn’t the sort of thing you planned for at the start of the day.

“So you believe it then?” I asked my reflection. “You think you’re actually Fae?” It stared back at me, features blank. I studied my face closer, looking for clues. Maybe my skin did look more sallow than the day before. Was that an unfamiliar freckle? My knee bumped the cupboard beneath, sending a sharp pain up my leg and distracting me from my task. I snorted. What was I doing? I pulled out my toothbrush and started to brush my teeth. Unnecessary, since I’d brushed them before going to bed the first time, but the routine was soothing and familiar.

When I’d finished, I crept back into the bedroom. The lights were out, but I could make out the outline of the bed in front of me, a dark shape. Across the room, Kailen curled up on the sofa, his head pillowed on one of the armrests. I tiptoed across the carpet, pulled back the covers, and tried to slip quietly into bed.

“You can see the bed,” Kailen said.

I rolled over, pulling the sheets around me. “So what?” I shrugged and felt for an instant like Lainey, gesturing over the telephone.

“It's pitch dark in here,” Kailen said. “If you were human, you wouldn't be able to see anything.”

He was right. I sat bolt upright and looked for any sources of light. All I could make out were the stars shining through the gauzy curtains. “What else?” I said, my voice shaky. “What other changes can I expect?”

“A lot,” Kailen said with a yawn. “I'll start teaching you tomorrow.”

“Teach me what? Kailen?”

Nothing answered me except his snores. I sighed, turned over in the bed for the second time, and tried to get some sleep.

CHAPTER SIX

When I woke at 6:00 a.m., my customary time, Kailen still lay on the sofa, a thin blanket stretched over his shoulders. Jane, too, was asleep on the table by the window. I grabbed the work clothes from my bag and headed to the bathroom. I took a longer shower than usual, luxuriating in the feel of the rain showerhead. When I was done I dried off, pulled my hair into a business-like bun, and dressed in a pair of black pinstriped pants and a green collared shirt. The pants were slightly wrinkled from their stay in my overnight bag, but I had no time to iron them. I’d left my phone on the nightstand. My car was still in the driveway at home, so I’d have to call a cab. It was probably close to six forty-five now, after the extra long shower. Breakfast would have to be in-office.

I ran through the list of things I had to do that morning as I bundled my pajamas under one arm and opened the bathroom door.

Kailen stood next to the sofa, dressed in jeans and a striped collared shirt. He had Jane in hand and he trailed his gaze over me. “I thought this might be a problem,” he murmured.

“What?” I looked down at my clothes, expecting to find a stain or a loose thread. Nothing. I looked back at Kailen. When he didn’t elaborate, I went to the nightstand. My phone was gone.

“Are you looking for this?” Kailen pulled my phone out of his pocket.

I narrowed my eyes. “Give me back my phone.”

“I will. If you call into your work and quit.”

If my eyes could have fallen out of my head, they would have. “Quit? Who do you think you are? Okay, so maybe I’m Fae, or whatever it is, but I still have to eat. I have to pay my mortgage. And if I want to get promoted, I certainly have to show up to work.”

“Hate to break it to you, but that isn’t your life anymore.”

I’d always had a long stride. Four swift steps and I stood in front of Kailen. “Like hell it isn’t my life anymore. The only person who gets to decide that is me.” I tried to snatch my phone. Kailen slid out of the way with maddening ease. Jane, sitting in his palm, wasn’t even stirred by the movement, not one hair out of place.

“I hope you realize you’re forcing my hand,” he said. He gave me a mock regretful look and then started touching the screen of my phone.

“What are you doing?”

“What you should be doing. We have a full schedule today, you and I, and I have a job to do as well. It doesn’t involve waiting for you to finish your workday.”

I grabbed for the phone again. He evaded me as easily as he did the first time, moving to the side and putting the coffee table between us. He put the phone up to his ear.

“Hello?” I heard a faint feminine voice.

“Who is that?” I said. “Who are you calling?”

Kailen put out a finger to his lips, gesturing for me to be quiet. “Ah, hello? You must be Nicole’s office administrator.”

I tried twice more to seize the phone. All I received were bruised shins. I almost screamed at him, but the last thing I wanted was for anyone at work to hear me being unprofessional.

“This is her husband. She’s not feeling well today. She would have called herself but”—he turned to the side, covered his mouth, and made a retching sound—“she’s a bit indisposed right now.”

I heard the administrator say something in a sympathetic tone.

“Yes, well, the doctor said these things can take a week or more to clear up.” Pause. “Thanks. That’s kind of you. Bye.”

When I reached for the phone this time, Kailen didn’t move out of the way. I snatched it from his grasp. “I can’t keep missing work like this,” I hissed.

Kailen shrugged. “In my opinion, you have more important things to attend to right now. You sell daily planners, right? I think that can wait.” He held Jane out on his palm. “You may not like this woman, and with good reason, but she has been a mouse for four days. I've had to use my elicitation Talent to help her stay calm. She has family and friends who are wondering what happened to her and are assuming the worst. You did this, Nicole. You have to undo it.”

He had a point. I looked at the mouse and felt really awful (after all, what had she been
eating
?), until a thought occurred to me. I pocketed the phone and waved a hand at him. “Why don’t
you
undo it?”

Calm, self-assured Kailen looked suddenly uncomfortable. He shifted from one foot to the next, his gaze going to the ceiling as if he’d spotted something truly interesting there. “I mean, sure I could, but that’s not the point. Are you hungry?”

I blinked at the quick change of subject. “I guess?”

“They have a great breakfast here. I think we got off on the wrong foot this morning.”

“Which could have been avoided if you hadn’t stolen my phone,” I muttered.

He continued as though he hadn’t heard this. “Come eat with me. We can talk over breakfast.” He hesitated. “This has probably been as hard on you as it has been on me. Maybe I haven’t gone about this the right way.” Kailen looked pained, as if getting this close to an apology physically hurt him.

I softened. Clearly the guy had issues. “Okay. Breakfast. I can do that.”

He dropped Jane into his breast pocket and opened the door for me.

The dining room of the inn was decorated in the same quaint Victorian way the room was, with its own little touches of modernity. Floral-patterned chairs contrasted with an LCD television mounted on the wall, CNN playing on mute, subtitles marching across the bottom of the screen. Although there were four other tables, we were the only people there. An elderly woman, probably the proprietress, took our orders for how we liked our eggs: me—scrambled, Kailen—hard-boiled.

As soon as she’d left for the kitchen, I leaned forward. “So what are you supposed to teach me?”

He only gave me an odd look. “You don’t need to whisper.”

“What? Isn’t the whole Fae thing a big secret or something?”

He shook his head as he unfolded his napkin and laid it in his lap. “No, not really. I told you already. The Fae world and this one have been disconnected for quite some time. People don’t exactly encounter it often. You can talk as loudly as you’d like. If anyone overhears, they’ll assume you’re a big nerd, or crazy. Trust me.”

I snorted.

Kailen ignored it. “You need to learn to focus and use your powers. Right now you’re firing off like a gun in a game of Russian roulette. No one knows when it’s going to happen, but they know it will, eventually.”

“So I’m dangerous?” I asked.

Again, Kailen’s gaze slid from mine. “It’s actually a lot like cooking.”

“I’m a terrible cook. I burn things. A lot.”

He laughed, a tight, nervous sound to it. “It’s just a metaphor. There are recipes, but the best cooks know how to improvise. You get an idea, you form it and focus it, and then you pack it with an emotional punch. Bam! You’ve done some magic.”

I thought back to finding Owen and Jane in bed together. “It can happen quickly,” I said.

“Yes. Just like in cooking, however, you need to clean up afterward. Doing magic leaves a signature. The longer you let this signature go without cleaning it up, the stronger it gets. If you don’t clean up, the signature will start to fade after a day’s time, but not before it attracts a number of unpleasant creatures. Believe me, hobgoblins are the tip of the iceberg.”

The proprietress reappeared, two cups of tea in hand. She set them down on the table, smiling at us in that grandmotherly manner that only the elderly can manage. “I hope you don’t mind my saying, but you two make such a handsome couple,” she said.

My hand went immediately to tug at my wedding ring, which I still hadn’t removed. Heat gathered at my chest, creeping up to my cheeks. “No,” I sputtered, “that’s not—”

“Thank you,” Kailen broke in. “That’s very kind of you. My wife is so modest, I’m afraid it embarrasses her terribly when she’s told that.”

She laughed and looked to me. “Don’t be embarrassed, dear. You’re only young and beautiful once.”

I only sat there, my face burning, as she turned and went back to the kitchen.

Kailen sipped his tea, his expression unconcerned. “Better than explaining that we’re both Fae, that I’m a widower, and that you’re freshly separated.”

I tugged again at the ring, only to find that it would not come off. I hadn’t wanted to take it off before, now I couldn’t imagine wearing it a minute longer. I'd bet Owen didn't wear his. I pulled and sucked in my breath. The ring didn’t budge. Instead, I could have sworn that it became tighter. I tried to nudge it back and forth and this time it unmistakably shrank around my finger. My ring finger began to turn purple. “Kailen!” I said, panicked.

He was out of his chair and at my side before I’d even seen him move. “Breathe,” he said, “slowly.”

I did as he told me, and the panic receded only a little. Nothing happened to the ring. “Now what?” I said.

“Keep breathing. Close your eyes. Focus on the ring. Imagine the jaws of a snake as it swallows its prey. It opens its mouth, wider, then its jaws unhinge. A tiny little snake can swallow something many times larger than its mouth. The ring on your finger is like the jaws of a snake.”

His voice passed over me like waves on a beach. The tightness around my finger eased. I didn't dare open my eyes yet. I kept breathing as Kailen's hand touched mine. He slipped the ring off. “You can open your eyes,” he said.

I did. Redness marked the area on my finger where the ring had been.

He shook his head. “Like Russian roulette. Now watch.” He dropped the ring onto the surface of the table. A smell began to build, dark chocolate, emanating from the table's surface. “Touch the table.”

I placed my palm flat against its surface. The smell disappeared.