Once Upon a Changeling Read online

  It was Keiler. He was screaming away in Marcos’ arms. Marcos’ blood from the wounds the dogs inflicted on him was dripping onto Keiler, and it must have been upsetting him or bothering him or … wait.

  Keiler never cried. It was one of the ways we’d known something was wrong with him. That he wasn’t an average baby. That wasn’t Keiler. That was … .

  Sean.

  Cindi never named him. She left him, and I got to name him. Funny how after I named him, I never called him by his name. I always just called him the kid. I didn’t want any connection to him. But there he was. The real Sean Knight. Except I guessed he wouldn’t have my last name anymore, would he?

  “No,” said the Queen. “Give him back.”

  Where had he come from, anyway? Where was Keiler?

  “Damn your bleeding,” growled the Queen.

  Marcos’ blood. She must have needed to spill it to bring back the real baby. That bitch was going to kill him when she only needed a drop. She was going to drain Marcos dry, when all Marcos had to do was bleed on Keiler. From the sounds of it, she wasn’t too happy about the new turn of events, either.

  “Run!” I yelled. “Run, Marcos, run!”

  Marcos turned, clutching Sean tightly to his chest, and sprinted toward the opening to the tunnels. I followed on his heels. Behind us, the Queen continued to roar. I shot a glance over my shoulder and saw her entire body explode into a swarm of bees. They buzzed behind us.

  I ran as fast as I could.

  Marcos and I just weren’t fast enough. There were so many bees and they swarmed around us, stinging and drawing blood. We tried to keep moving as best we could, but the bees were so thick around us, they clouded the air so that everything was dark, and we couldn’t see anything. We ran, insects colliding with our faces and bodies, stinging us. Bees went into our mouths, into our nostrils, into our ears. It was harder and harder to move. What were we going to do?

  I began to panic. I couldn’t even see Marcos anymore, let alone Sean. It wasn’t right that the Queen could do this to us. We’d gotten the baby back, and she couldn’t trap us here and keep us from taking him home. She was evil and greedy. I didn’t want to let her win. We had to fight, but I didn’t know how. I didn’t know how to get out of this swarm of insects that was penetrating my orifices and stinging and bleeding me inside. I could feel the bees flying down my throat and into my stomach. I could feel them stinging through my clothes to the bare skin of my belly. I wanted to scream, but my mouth was full. It was then, I knew, for the second time that night that I was going to die. I couldn’t breathe.

  And then I remembered what had happened last time I thought I was going to die. I’d dumped pixie dust all over the opposition.

  It couldn’t hurt, right?

  I struggled to get the pixie dust pouch out of my back pocket and began dousing the bees and myself with it liberally. I was glad I still had some left after tossing it all over the skeleton dogs. And … .

  It worked. The bees shriveled into the air, popping out of existence. I could breathe! I dumped pixie dust on Marcos and Sean and the bees that had swarmed around them disappeared as well. Immediately, the stings I’d felt faded as well, as if they’d never been. That pixie dust was some kind of amazing. We kept running, all the way through the tunnels, into the welcoming cool night air.

  Marcos and I didn’t know where to go once we were back on the road. Sean was yelling his head off. He wasn’t at all pleased with the bee stings he’d received. Marcos and I weren’t either, but we weren’t screaming. Oddly enough, hearing the baby cry like that was very comforting. I liked the sound of it. After all, the whole time I’d had the changeling, he’d never made a peep. This crying meant that Sean was real, that he was human.

  Marcos clearly wasn’t finding Sean’s screaming calming. “What should we do?” he asked frantically, searching my car for baby paraphernalia. I handed him a pacifier. “Give him the passy,” I said. “Keiler liked it.”

  Marcos took the pacifier from me and reached back to the car seat to put it in Sean’s mouth. Sean immediately quieted. “That was good,” said Marcos. “How do you know this stuff?”

  “I don’t,” I said. “It was a lucky guess.”

  We drove in silence for a while, until we both realized we had no idea where we should go. I didn’t want to go back to my house. My mother was ready to kill me when I got back and besides, this new baby was Sean, not the kid. She wouldn’t know how to deal with him. My family had really had it pretty easy with the changeling. They wouldn’t know what to do with a real baby.

  We couldn’t take the baby back to Marcos’ place. Marcos had no idea what to do with a baby, and his family would be even less able to handle it than mine. I told him this, but he still was on the kick about keeping the kid. “He’s mine,” he kept saying. “You just don’t understand, Russ. I don’t want to let go of him.”

  Maybe I didn’t understand. But I knew one thing. I was not sleeping in my car with Marcos and Sean. There was no way I was doing that. We had to do something. I thought, given our options, the least of two evils was my house.

  I finally got Marcos to agree with me. I said that we’d both go in and try to talk to my parents, and see if we couldn’t try to figure something out. Technically, my parents had custody of Sean, so if we didn’t take him back, we’d sort of be kidnapping him.

  My mom and dad met us at the door. They both looked pretty freaked out, but they were relieved to see us. Sean had spit the pacifier out and was crying again, really screaming, his little face all squinty and red.

  “Can you make a bottle, Mom?” I asked.

  “I’ll do it,” said Marcos. “I need to learn.”

  “He’s crying!” said my mother. “The baby is crying. Oh, thank God.”

  Marcos and I exchanged a look. That wasn’t a typical response, was it?

  My father was a little less thrilled with the situation. “Where have you boys been? We need to talk.”

  “That baby needs a bottle,” said my mother. “Then we’ll talk.” My mom tried to take the baby from Marcos, but he didn’t want to let go of him. Finally, I convinced Marcos that he couldn’t make a bottle if he didn’t give Sean to someone, so Marcos surrendered the baby to my mom.

  My mother hovered behind us while I instructed Marcos in the art of mixing formula and water. Marcos was pleased with the ease of the process. Once he had a bottle made, though, he insisted on feeding Sean.

  The four of us sat down at the dining room table.

  “You’re grounded, Russ,” said my father.

  “Don’t ground him, Mr. Knight,” said Marcos. “He was just helping me out.”

  “I don’t see why your friend is still here,” said my dad.

  My mother chewed on her lip. “I think I do.” She reached across the table and put her hand on my arm. “You were telling us the truth before, weren’t you, Russ? When you said that Sean wasn’t yours?”

  How could my mom tell? I guessed moms were good that way sometimes.

  I nodded. “Yeah, Marcos is his dad.”

  My mother’s eyes filled with tears. “I can tell.”

  “What?” said my dad. “How could you know that?”

  “That’s, um, why we took the baby,” I said in a burst of insight. “We were getting a paternity test.” Okay, so why we were getting a paternity test in the middle of the night I couldn’t explain, but hopefully they’d buy it.

  My dad folded his arms over his chest. “You said the way that you knew that it wasn’t your responsibility was that you hadn’t had sex with Cindi. What would you need a paternity test for?”

  Okay, I hadn’t really thought that part through, either.

  “I just wanted to make sure, sir,” said Marcos. “I had suspicions, but I thought if there was a chance that Russ was … well, I wanted Sean to have a good life. I thought I could just let it be, but I couldn’t. When I babysat that night, I just knew I needed to know.”

  My mother got up from the t
able and went to Marcos. She put her hand on his cheek. “It’s different after you see the baby, isn’t it?”

  Marcos nodded. He looked down at Sean. “It’s completely different.” He was in awe.

  My mother looked at my dad. “What are we going to do? We can’t keep Sean from his real dad.”

  “I am so confused right now,” said my father. He turned to me. “You’re telling me that all this time, you’ve known that Sean was not your son, and you’ve been letting your mother and I raise this baby?”

  I hung my head. Trust my dad to make me feel guilty. “I’m sorry, Dad.”

  “Why didn’t you talk to this Marcos here about it before now?” asked my dad.

  “Sir,” said Marcos. “This isn’t Russ’s fault. It’s all my fault. Russ didn’t know. He didn’t know about Cindi and me, and I guess, I felt guilty about all of it, so I started hanging out with him this year. Your son’s done the right thing here. He’s a great guy. It’s me that’s been irresponsible.”

  My father made a tent with his fingers and rested them against the bridge of his nose. “Russell, you mean that you didn’t know about any of it? When Cindi had the baby, you realized she’d been—” He broke off, shaking his head. “That’s rough.”

  Wait, was my dad sympathizing with me? I half-smiled at him. “I should have said something earlier.”

  My father raised his eyebrows. “Well, your mother and I might not have made that exactly easy for you. I was very angry.” He sighed. “I’m sorry, Russ.”

  Whoa. I didn’t know if my father had ever apologized to me before. I sat back in my chair, shocked. “It’s, um, it’s okay.”

  “We’ll figure this out,” my mother promised. “Marcos, you will get to see your baby.”

  Things might have gotten even warmer and fuzzier if Puck hadn’t burst into my house at that moment. She slammed the front door, rushed into the dining room, and glared at Marcos and me, her hands on her hips. “What,” she said, “have you two done?”

  Puck was ready to lay into us right then and there, but my parents weren’t having it. They were weirded out enough by Marcos, and let’s just say Puck’s blue hair and multiple piercings did not, er, endear her to them.

  After she and I discussed things in whispers—

  Me: “We got the baby back.”

  Her: “You fucking idiots! You’re going to get yourselves killed.”

  —my parents convinced her to talk to me in the morning at school. She wasn’t happy about it, but she left, shooting murderous glances at Marcos and me. Marcos wasn’t about to let Sean out of his sight, so my parents agreed to let him sleep over. Marcos camped out in the baby’s room with some sleeping bags. I could tell that my parents didn’t think Marcos staying with us could really be a permanent solution, but I think they were tired and stunned.

  I must have been too, because I fell asleep immediately. I didn’t even have time to wonder why Puck had said we were going to get ourselves killed.

  Puck banged on the door the next morning and informed my parents she was driving Marcos and me to school. Marcos didn’t want to leave Sean, but Puck made it clear that he needed to hear what she had to tell us. Instead of taking us to school, however, she drove right past it.

  As we cruised down Fruitville Avenue, I said, “Um, Puck, are we skipping school or something, because I did just have detention, and—”

  “Shut up, Russ,” she said. “You’ve got way bigger problems than getting in trouble at school.”

  She took us to an apartment complex on University, one of the rent-controlled ones with a gross pool. We made our way across the parking lot and up the steps to a third floor apartment. Puck rapped on the door.

  A voice from inside said something in a different language.

  Puck responded in the same language. What was this, like some kind of secret code or something?

  The door opened, and we all stepped into the apartment. Inside, the walls were covered with black light posters. There were beaded curtains in the doorway, and a ratty tapestry-covered couch against one wall. The air smelled of incense and cigarettes. Great. Puck had us skip school to hang out with New College potheads. Wonderful.

  The person who’d let us in was a tall guy with long light blond hair and a delicate nose. He looked like something from one of those Japanime cartoons—or maybe like Legolas from The Lord of the Rings. Heck, maybe he was an elf. What did I know? Near as I could tell, none of the faeries I’d met actually looked like faeries. “Welcome to the Resistance,” he said, bowing low to us.

  Puck made us sit down on the couch. She introduced the blond guy to us as Finn.

  He folded his long, thin arms over his chest. “I suppose you’ve got a good reason for bringing humans here, Puck.”

  “We’re the Resistance,” Puck said, rolling her eyes. “We like humans, remember? Besides, these are the ones who stole the changeling from the Korrigan Queen last night.”

  Finn arched a blond eyebrow. Then he grinned, settling into a chair opposite the couch. “That was pretty sweet. Nice going, you two.”

  For a minute, he seemed like a normal guy. My head was hurting.

  Puck flopped down on the couch next to Marcos and me. “No, it was not sweet. It was bad. Now, they’re at the top of the faerie hit list.”

  Oh. Crap.

  Finn chuckled. “This is why you shouldn’t go off all half-cocked on your own, Puck. You should have brought us in on this. Ever since you decided to go to that human school, you’ve backed further and further away from the Fey, even those of us on your side. You should have known something like this would happen.”

  And now he sounded all formal. What was up with that, anyway?

  Puck rubbed her face with her hand. “I just wanted to help Russ get the baby back.” She glared at me. “Besides, he’s the one who went off all half-cocked. I was going to bring you guys in on this. I had a plan.”

  “Um,” I said, “I don’t mean to interrupt, but are the faeries going to come into my house and kill my family now? Because if that was going to happen, it would have been cool if someone had mentioned it before I pissed off the Korrigan Queen.”

  “You’re safe enough as long as you aren’t on faerie turf,” said Finn. “Don’t go into any of the nightclubs or visit the Hill again.”

  I sagged against the couch in relief.

  “For now, you’re safe,” said Puck. “But not after the Equinox.”

  What? Why?

  But Finn was talking again. “What was your plan, Puck?”

  “I wanted to get all of the babies at the Equinox. I figured Russ could create a distraction with his bid for his kid—oh, I’m sorry, Marcos’ kid—and we could totally stop the entire ritual,” said Puck.

  “Hmm,” said Finn, considering. “That would be quite a blow to the old ones wouldn’t it?”

  “Excuse me,” said Marcos, “but what do you mean we aren’t safe after the Equinox? I have a kid to protect these days, you know?”

  “At the Equinox,” said Finn, “the Korrigan Queen sacrifices the babies to the Magic. And until Nos Calan Gaeaf, the queen and all of the other Fey will have the ability to leave the Hill and to use their power anywhere they wish.”

  I gulped. “What’s Nos Calan Gaeaf?”

  “Halloween,” said Puck.

  “So the Equinox is in like two days,” I said. “Then the faeries are going to come into my house and kill my family?”

  “It’s a possibility, yeah,” said Finn. He shrugged. “Sorry, dude. Sucks to be you.”

  Yeah, okay, I didn’t think I really liked this Finn guy.

  “Well, then, we’ve got to get all the babies back,” said Marcos. “No sacrifice, no power, right?”

  Puck and Finn just stared at him.

  “Right?” he repeated.

  “Right,” said Finn. “Technically.”

  “But,” said Puck, “We don’t have a distraction anymore, so I don’t think that’s going to work.”

  “We�
�ve got to do something, though,” I said.

  Puck shrugged. “There’s nothing we can do. You screwed everything up.”

  I took a moment to digest this. She was saying that we were just going to have to wait for the faeries to come and kill us? I didn’t think that was a really great option. “Nothing?”

  “It’s pointless,” said Puck. “The Korrigan Queen is powerful. I can’t do anything about it. If you’d waited until the Equinox, everything would have been different. There’s a huge faerie gathering that night, and we’d have all been there. While you kept the Korrigan Queen busy, we could have made a huge mess of things. But now, everything’s completely ruined. I don’t know what’s going to happen. And now I have to worry about protecting you, which is a huge pain. And I can’t accomplish anything.”

  She was pissed off. Her little rebellion against her queen was ruined. And apparently, protecting me was a pain. “This is just a game to you, isn’t it, Puck?” I muttered. I thought back on all the times she’d dragged me from one dangerous place to another, talking to all the faeries like they were her favorite uncles. She really had no idea.

  “Game?” She sat forward on the couch and leaned around Marcos to face me. “I’m trying to change the world.”

  “Right.” I scooted forward as well. “And this is just some crusade for you or whatever. But no one you care about is in danger. Not really.”

  Puck stood up. “I care about you, Russ Knight.”

  I stood up too. “Sure you do. That’s why you’re so freaked out about your plan being screwed up and saying there’s nothing you can do about me getting killed.”

  “I brought you here so Finn could hide you! So you’d be safe!”

  “What about my family?” I demanded. “What about Sean? What about Marcos’ family?”

  I looked at Marcos for support. He was looking confused. “Puck, you care about Russ?” He shot me a look. “Are you guys still in denial about whether or not you’re dating?”

  “Screw dating,” I said. “We’re different species, for God’s sake. How could I possibly think something like that could possibly actually care about me?” I started for the door. “Come on, Marcos. We’re leaving.”