Cate Tiernan - Changeling

I turned and ran. Surely, Brother Colin, this Nuala Riordan is the devil’s own agent.

— Brother Sinestus Tor, to Colin, May 1768

By the time I left Suzanna Mearis’s house that night, she was still unconscious, and Alyce had finally made the decision to call an ambulance. Whatever had happened to Suzanna, she wasn’t waking up. We could only pray that the doctors at the local hospital might be able to offer some help.

I spent the rest of the night wide awake in my bed, terrified by every little sound I heard. Tuesday was another meaningless day: moving through classes, lunch, classes, without any of it registering. It was endless and foggy, clouded by my worries for Suzanna and the possibility of more dark presences to come, not to mention my misery over Hunter and the deep dread I had of failing Starlocket. Eleven days, I kept thinking miserably. I had eleven days before all of Starlocket was hit by something even stronger than what had happened to Suzanna.

When the final bell rang, I shuffled out with the other students, lost in thought.

“Hey, sis.” My head snapped up at the voice.

“Killian!” I couldn’t believe he had come back after yesterday. As I walked toward the stone bench, I felt a renewed sense of purpose: today I would get useful information out of him. Yes, I liked him. But I had to save Starlocket. And my time was running out.

An hour later I was sitting at a huge table in a local chain restaurant, feeling more relaxed than I had in days. We were a huge party, with emphasis on the word party . While I had been talking to Killian at school, he had managed to charm all the other Widow’s Vale High members of Kithic, including Alisa Soto, who had never joined us on the basement steps before. Now we were sitting at four tables pushed together, eating potato skins, fried mozzarella sticks, popcorn shrimp—every kind of appetizer on the menu.

Killian was the center of attention—right now he was in the middle of a story about magick gone wrong— “Oh, Goddess, and there I was in that field, with a flipping angry bull, and me in my robe and nothing else…”

Bree was laughing, leaning against Robbie. She hadn’t been impressed with Killian in New York, but she seemed to have accepted him now that she knew he was my half brother. Anyway, I was glad that Bree hadn’t been attracted to Killian. In the past, she had always gone after whoever she wanted and had always gotten them—except Cal. But she was definitely not flirting with Killian, and she had deliberately sat next to Robbie at the table. True, Robbie was better looking than Killian.

Raven was another matter. If Sky could see her with Killian’s hands all over her, well, it could get pretty ugly. With any luck, Sky wouldn’t find out.

“Pass the salt, please,” Matt said. He had been smiling and chuckling tonight for the first time in months.

“Cheers,” Killian said, and looked at the saltshaker. It began to slide quickly down the tables, hopping over the cracks between them, and stopped in front of Matt. After a moment of surprise I gave in to the fun and giggled at this casual show of magick. Everyone else laughed and seemed to admire Killian’s power, and he basked in the attention like a sunflower.

“Too much,” Jenna laughed, her face flushed and pretty. Matt’s dark eyes met hers, and she looked away.

“What do you think, sis?” Killian asked me. “Do you think it’s too much?” His smile was wide, his face wide, his face open, but I sensed a challenge there. Was this a test?

I shook my head. “No. But this might be too much.” Remembering what I had done on Saturday, I concentrated on the saltshaker. Light as air, I thought, and then the shaker rose slowly of the table. Everyone went quiet in surprise. Quickly I lowered the shaker, feeling my face color with self-consciousness. Everyone was staring at me, and I felt Alisa’s huge dark eyes on me, as if she was afraid. I shouldn’t have done that, I realized. It was too much, especially for a public place. Why did I feel like I had to impress Killian?

“I didn’t know you where initiated,” Killian said.

“I’m not. I just—” I shrugged.

Robbie was looking at me. I couldn’t meet his gaze, I knew what I’d see in there: the lack of trust I’d seen in his eyes in New York.

Bree was staring at me, too. “You move things?” she demanded. “You levitate things?”

“Uh, just recently,” I said feeling guilty. Hunter would so kill me if he had seen that. Speaking of Hunter, I realized that I should probably tell him where I was. After what had happened last night, the seriousness of the situation seemed much more real.

“Why did you call Morgan sis?” Matt asked. My stomach fell. I didn’t know if I was ready to deal with Kithic knowing we were half siblings.

Killian grinned broadly and stretched his arm across the back of my chair. “Oh, you know—Morgan and I, we’re kindred spirits.”

Startled I caught Killian’s eye, and he winked.

“You and Morgan ?” Robbie looked at me questioningly, and when I shrugged, he gave me one of his skeptical half smiles. “Whatever you say…”

“Can I borrow your phone? I was supposed to call Eileen,” I asked Bree. She took out her tiny red cell phone and handed it to me. I got up and moved ten feet away.

I punched in Hunter’s phone number from memory. Crap! His phone was busy. Get call waiting, I thought. I’d have to try him again later.

“Hey, I know what,” Killian was saying as I returned to the table. “I found a pub over at Nortonville. What say we adjourn there?” Nortonville was slightly bigger town about twenty minutes away.

“Ooh, yeah,” said Raven at once.

“I’m up for it,” Bree said, glancing at her watch. It wasn’t eight yet. She looked at Robbie, and he nodded at her.

In the end everyone but Alisa, who asked to be dropped off at home, claiming that she needed to cram for geometry test, piled into three cars and drove over to Nortonville. I was in front, with Matt’s white pickup and Breezy, Bree’s BMW, behind me. Jenna, Ethan, and Sharon were laughing in the backseat of my car. Next to me, Killian was humming cheerfully and keeping time by hitting his knee with his palm.

My brain was already in the pub, trying to plan a way to get closer to Killian. If Killian started drinking, maybe he would let something slip. Maybe then it would be easier to talk to him about Ciaran, ask him to get Ciaran to come to Widow’s Vale. Tonight was the night to get him to open up. Eoife had made sense last night, but right now Suzanna Mears lay in a coma. Every time I thought of Imbolic and the remaining members that could be hurt before then, I felt sick. Time was all too short.

“Turn down this road,” Killian directed.

“Oh, this is old Highway 60,” I realized. “We’re not quite in Nortonville. We come down this road to get to the mall.”

Killian shrugged. “Up there.” He pointed. “There it is.”

When Killian had said “pub,” I had pictured a pub-like restaurant, maybe with and Olde English theme. But this was an actual bar. It was called the Twilite, and it looked like a converted Dairy Queen with it’s windows painted over and red light bulbs blinking out front.

The three cars parked, and we gathered in the cold night air. “So, Killian,” said Jenna. “How do we plan to get in? We are all underage.”

“Not a problem,” Killian said lightly. “Leave it to me.”

From the corner of my eye, I saw Sharon and Ethan having a whispered conference. In the end Sharon sighed, and they joined us by the bar’s door. It was a Tuesday, so there were only a few other cars in the lot. The battered pink door opened, and a big guy leaned out to look at us.

“Yeah?”

Here’s where we get bounced, I thought, but Killian looked at the guy and said quietly, “There are nine of us.”

The man frowned and glanced at us. Killian waited patiently, and when the bouncer looked back at Killian, he seemed confused for a moment. “Right, nine,” he said finally, as if from a distance.

Killian smiled broadly, clapped the bouncer on the back, and strode into the bar. The rest of us followed him like baby ducks. Inside it was dark and smelled like spilled beer and sawdust and fried food. With my mage sight I could see clearly at once, but Bree and Robbie hesitated next to me. I touched Bree’s arm lightly, and she followed me deeper into Twilite.

“And another Jell-O shot for me and my friend!” Killian called loudly. The waitress smiled and nodded and headed to the bar. It was ten-thirty, and the Twilite had picked up a lot.

“This place isn’t so bad,” Bree said loudly into my ear. Music was streaming from the old-fashioned jukebox that Killian kept feeding with quarters. By now we were all used to the noise and the dim light and the flickering of a TV that was mounted high in one corner. There were two pool tables in an alcove in the back, and a group of townies was playing and getting progressively louder.

I nodded in agreement. “It looks like a dive from outside.” This felt similar to being with Killian in that club in New York, except this place was smaller, much less cool, and much less crowded. And of course, this place wasn’t packed with blood witches. And Hunter and I were no longer together… Oh, Goddess, don’t go down that road, I told myself. Still, the festive air that surrounded my half brother had caught up to us in the Twilite, and once again we were all laughing until our faces hurt, even me. The fact that most of us were drinking, underage or not, wasn’t hurting.

“Hey, are you all right?” Bree spoke into my ear again, struggling to be heard over the music but still quiet enough so the whole pub wouldn’t hear. “I know it must be hard for you, being out but not having Hunter anymore.”

I nodded. I was grateful for Bree’s concern, but this didn’t seem like the time or place to talk about it. “It’s hard,” I agreed. “Thanks for asking. I’m okay, though.”

“If you need to talk…” Robbie came up behind Bree and kissed her cheek. She giggles, and suddenly I felt very single. Bree gave me one last concerned look, and I smiled to show her I was okay.

“Sip?” Bree asked Robbie, holding out her screwdriver.

He shook his head, half smiling. “No—some of us have to be able to drive.” Bree was being extremely friendly to him, pressing close and talking in his ear. I looked around the table, feeling like everyone here was my good friend, that we could celebrate Wicca together. Not having Hunter with me, being a single girl among all the couples—I missed what I’d had with Hunter more than I could say. But still, having a group of friends I loved helped ease the pain inside me, just a little.

Jenna, on her third beer, giggled and leaned against Sharon, who wasn’t drinking at all. She looked like she wasn’t having as good a time as the rest of us. Ethan wasn’t drinking, either, but he’d been getting twitchier and twitchier, and I wondered if they’d had a fight. To keep everyone else company, I had ordered a whiskey sour, which was what my mom usually drank. It hadn’t been too bad, and I had ordered another. Killian and Raven had downed so many Jell-O shots that I had lost count. Now seemed a good time to talk to him. Smiling at him, I edged closer.

“Killian, I wanted to ask you—” I began.

“I love this song!” Killian shouted as the jukebox started another number. “Come on!” Clambering out of the booth, he grabbed Bree’s hand, who grabbed Robbie’s hand, who grabbed my hand, and then we were all dancing together on the tiny dance floor with sawdust slipping under our feet. And my opportunity was lost.