With a deep breath, I shook my head, even though I’d seen her transform right in front of my eyes. “That can’t be right. It must be something else. Some kind of weird magic that makes you look likeone.”
“No,” she breathed as she slowly lifted her eyes to meet mine. “And it’s worse than youthink.”
“What do you mean?” My heart hammered hard. I couldn’t even wrap my head around Bree being alive, much less the fact that she was now one of the very monsters I’d been training to fight. She was Bree. My best friend. My family. And now she was here. Alive and well, though a hell of a lot worse for wear. All I wanted to do was hug her tight and wipe away the tears, but there was a cloud of dread hanging over ourreunion.
“I followed you through the Faerie Ring,” she began. “At first, I was going to try to talk to you, but you’re constantly surrounded by those four fae who would kill me in a heartbeat if they sawme.”
Frowning, I shook my head. “Theywouldn’t.”
“Yes, they would,” she said in a harsh voice, wrapping the sheet tighter around her shoulders. “To them, I’m a Redcap. A thing to be hunted and killed, even thoughtheyare the ones who created them in the firstplace.”
Dread dripped down my spine. “That can’t beright.”
“Oh, it is,” she said bitterly. “When I realized I couldn’t get to you, I went in search of other answers. I ended up stumbling on a pack of Redcaps, ones who can still change back into humans like I can. Have they taught you where the wolves come from yet? Have they told you what happens to the human babies theysteal?”
My heart jumped around in my chest. Because I knew without a doubt that I would not like whatever would come next. These had been questions I’d been asking. Questions that had been expertly dodged for days. The Academy didn’t yet want the recruits to know the truth about the human changelings, a fact that had been niggling at me since I’d arrived. And yet, I’d blindly accepted it. The vague answers. The dodges. The carefully changedconversations.
“Tell me,Bree.”
She winced and placed a trembling hand on her neck. Deep red scars crisscrossed her skin. The place where the Redcap had slashed her with its massiveclaws.
“The pack of Redcaps told me that the humans who are brought to Otherworld are corrupted by the magic and the power here. Humans weren’t built for this world. So, they change. Into something dark, something vicious. Something part-fae themselves. They become these monsters.” She took a deep breath. “And then they’re let loose in the human realm, spreading their disease with a swipe of theirclaws.”
“No,” I whispered, eyes full of burning tears. “They must have been wrong. The fae wouldn’t do something likethat.”
Or would they? I’d only been here a couple of weeks and already I’d come face-to-face with how devious, dangerous, and dark they couldbe.
“It’s part of their Tithe to the demon realm,” Bree continued. “In exchange for the demons leaving Otherworld alone, the fae create sixteen Redcaps every year. On the Summer Solstice, they’re sent to prey onhumans.”
With a shuddering breath, I stood the floor and began to pace across the hardwood. As happy as I was to see Bree, the news she brought me was worse than anything I could have imagined on my own. To hear that the fae were behindthis...
“But they have a team specifically formed to fight the Redcaps. Why wouldthey—”
“The Tithe only says they have to return the monsters to the human realm. It doesn’t say they can’t kill them after they do. And don’t forget that it’s more than just the human changelings who get transformed. Any innocent who comes into contact with one, well...look at me. I got attacked, and now I’m one, too. And there are hundreds of us. Some have come back to Otherworld, likeme.”
“Hundreds,” I repeated before I dropped to my knees in front of her. “But Bree, you seemso...”
“Normal?” She let out a bitter laugh. “I’m far from it. When I’m in my wolf form, all I can see and smell is blood. I haven’t killed anyone though. Not yetanyway.”
That last bit she muttered so softly that I almost didn’t hearher.
Her hand snatched my wrist, and her fingernails sunk into my skin. So hard that my veins began to pulse. “Not all of them are able to control themselves as well as I can, Norah. They’re more beast than human. I came here to warn you. You need to learn how to fight. One day, they’re going to come foryou.”
Soft footsteps thudded on the living room floor, and Bree’s body went razor sharp. She stood, letting the sheet pool around her feet. Slowly, she backed up to the window, her eyes so wide that they reminded me of twin fullmoons.
“Norah?” Sophia called out. “Who are you talkingto?”
“Go,” I whispered furiously, my gaze locked on Bree’s waxen face. “If you’re right about all of this, you need to get out ofhere.”
“You’re not safe here, Norah,” she hissedback.
“I’m safe enough.” In two quick strides, I crossed the room and took Bree’s arms tight in my hands. She was so solid, so real. And I had to make sure she stayed that way. “I don’t know what they’ll do if they find you in here, and I don’t aim to find out. There’s a few small villages on the edge of the Autumn woods. Go there. Hide. Steal food when you need it. I may be able to fix this, but I need sometime.”
A soft knock sounded on mydoor.
Bree swallowed hard and nodded. She backed up to the window and disappeared behind the billowing curtain just as Sophia cracked open my door. I stayed there, gazing outside with my back turned her way. My heart trembled, but I suddenly felt a clarity of mind that calmed the frantic beat in mychest.
Bree was alive. She might be in some serious trouble, but she wasalive.
