“We didn’t realize another Redcap was tracking you, or we would have taken care of it.” But that voice…that was the one from mydreams.
I looked up, peering through my tears to find the four strange guys standing before me. The ones from the club. The ones from the theatre. The ones who had battled the monster. But their fighting hadn’t helped. Because another monster had come along and killed myfriend.
“Who are you?” I asked in a harsh whisper. “Why are you following me? And what the hell was thatthing?”
“That’s a lot of questions to explain in one conversation,” the golden one said. “It would be easiest if you just came with us. I’m Rourke, and this is Liam, Kael, andFinn.”
“Came with you?” I fisted my hands. “Are you insane? After what just happened, do you really think I’m going to go with four random strangers who cornered me in a darkalley?”
Rourke frowned, and my eyes caught on his eyes. They were a deep golden color that matched his hair. There was something strange about him, more so than the others. He reminded me of dry cracking trees and the smell of fresh dirt. He was mesmerizing, a fact that I found more than a little annoying. Right now, I needed to getanswers.
“I suppose that means you don’t remember your little tumble yesterday,” Finn said in that quiet, curious voice of his. He was like the opposite of the Rourke. His eyes were a sapling green, and everything about him seemed vibrant, as if death and despair were foreign things tohim.
The other two hadn’t spoken, but I couldn’t help but stare at them, too. The one from the club’s eyes were still that strange endless black, his dark hair curling around pointed ears. I sucked in a sharp breath when I finally registered what I’d seen. Yes, his ears were very much pointed. Like…what mine werebecoming.
I looked to the next, the fourth, the last. He was alight, his eyes a bonfire red with hair that matched. I’d never seen anything like him before. Everything about his presence was full and commanding, the very opposite of soft and weak. He looked like someone who you didn’t want to get in the way of…of course, none of them seemed particularlymeek.
“I need to know what’s happening,” I finally said. “What killed Bree? Please tell me what’s goingon.”
My voice cracked as tears refilled my eyes. The shock of her death was beginning to wear off, and with that came emotions I didn’t know how I could handle. My entire body ached, as if a part of it had been ripped from my guts and thrown all over the pavement. I couldn’t imagine life without her. I couldn’t imagine that smile as bright as the sun never brightening up the world. She had been a star amongst a world full of darkness, and now she would no longershine.
“Shit,” Liam muttered. “She’s crying again. I don’t know what to do with cryinggirls.”
“Here’s a thought, Liam. Be a little more sensitive. Understand that she just saw her best friend get killed by aRedcap.”
Sniffling, I glanced up. “You said that before. A Redcap. What isthat?”
The guys exchanged gazes before Rourke stepped forward. Suddenly, my nose filled with the scent of forest mushrooms, rotting leaves, and dirt. So much dirt. Why would someone smell like that? I glanced at his ears again, my eyes locked on the sharp points. A strange thought was beginning to sprout in my brain, but I didn’t dare let myself believeit.
I’d heard stories growing up. Anyone who had been born in the city had. Legends of the fae folk. Mysterious sightings in Central Park at dusk and dawn. Men and women who were not men but something more. Something other. Of course, they had only ever been stories with no more realism thanLittle Red Riding Hood. But I couldn’t help but make connections between those stories and these fourboys.
No, not boys, but not men either. They were fresh-faced and young, probably around twenty, but they held a strange kind of strength and power that made them appear older thanthat.
As if they were ancient, as if they weren’t really men atall.
Finn was finally the one to speak up. “What attacked your friend was a Redcap. What attacked the man at the theatre where you work was a Redcap. Though, I don’t believe they were the same one. It seems they are drawn to you, and they’re coming out of thewoodwork.”
My heart thumped hard. “But what are they? Some kind of wolf? And why would they be attracted tome?”
The guys exchanged glances again. Clearly, there were things about these Redcaps that they didn’t want to tell me. They were hiding something, and I was determined to find out what. One of those things just killed my oldest friend in the world, and I was barely able to concentrate on the conversation with the grief consuming my mind. I needed to know what the hell was goingon.
“We should probably give her some more details or she’s not going to come with us willingly,” Finnsaid.
Rourke pursed his lips and frowned. “That’s not typically how we do things, and we still need to collect the othertwo.”
Kael spoke, ignoring the others. “Long story short, Norah. You’re a changeling, a fae who was swapped at birth with a human child. Now that it’s the Summer Solstice of your eighteenth year, it’s time for you to return to the faerie realm, Otherworld, and train at the academy to learn how to use your various…gifts. You’ll belong to one of four courts, but we won’t know which until we test your abilities. That said, Redcaps are typically drawn to Winter fae, likeme.”
I gaped at him, his words tumbling over each other in my head. A changeling swapped at birth. A fae. A realm where they expected me to go. None of this was logical. None of it could be real. But words from the stories also tumbled through my brain, melting together with what he had said. The legends had talked of this, too. Of children stolen from their cribs to replaced with faeyoung.
But how could this be true? How could magic be real? And how the hell couldI, of all people, be one ofthem?
“You do realize this sounds crazy,” was the only thing I couldsay.
Kael lifted his shoulder in a slight shrug. “Perhaps. But tell me, deep down inside, do you not sense this as the truth? Are you anything like your mother? Have you always felt as though you were an outsider? You’ve seen things, felt things, that no one else could. The Redcaps, your ears. It’s really not difficult to see the truth if you just open your eyes toit.”
“There must be some otherexplanation.”
“Usually it’s much easier to introduce a changeling to our world, but you’ve made it a little difficult.” Kael sighed. “Normally we just take you straight to the Faerie Ring, so you can see it foryourself.”
