Haffling (The Haffling series)

by Caleb James

  The mantis woman made a tsking noise as she scurried forward on her jointed legs.

  I braced for what was coming. In the audience I spotted the elf family, including the father I’d kicked downfield. They were clustered together, and I knew if they had to count off by three or whatever…. I caught the eye of elf mom, shear panic on her face as she looked over her brood.

  “Stop now!” I shouted. “This is getting you nowhere.”

  “Fine.” May turned on me. Her bun had unraveled and her hair streamed out. “Then give me what I want. Or I will take a life.” She stared at Jerod. “His.”

  I felt Jerod’s hand seek out mine. “This has to be a dream,” he said.

  “I wish,” I replied, not taking my eyes off May and stuffing down my panic. There had to be a way out of this…. “You want me to give you my name… but that’s not all you want. Not really.” I needed time. I had to figure this out.

  “Truth,” she said.

  I thought through everything I’d seen, all the weird fairy stuff. I knew she wanted to push back the mist that threatened her existence, but more… she wanted access to the human realm. And somehow, as a haffling, I was tied into her plans. Yet judging by her disregard for life—fey or otherwise—setting her loose in lower Manhattan… a bad idea. What I hadn’t figured… what was with all these TV shows? “There’s a purpose to this,” I said, trying to read her face. And then it came… like kids at Stuy who have thousands of friends on Facebook or ridiculous numbers of followers on Twitter. “You want to be famous.”

  She nodded. There was a hint of a smile.

  “You need to be famous.”

  “Worshiped,” Jerod added. His fingers twined through mine. “She is May,” he said. “Queen of the Fey. It’s a children’s book, Alex.”

  I nearly blurted, What? He was scared, but the look he gave me, with his mop of hair over his forehead. I wanted to kill May for outing me, for saying the thing I was too scared to admit. But yeah, this wasn’t just a crush. Jerod was smart and kind and… going out with a beautiful girl named Ashley… and holding my hand. Oh God… and in May’s crosshairs.

  “I used to read it to Clay. It was one of his favorites.” He looked across at her. “This is so weird…. In the story you have two sisters.”

  “More truth,” she said. Her anger gone, replaced by rapt attention.

  “Katie and Elizabeth,” Jerod continued.

  “Close enough,” she said. “Continue.” Her body, draped in webs of silver, started to sway. The frog and bird band played something soft and sweet on a flute and harps.

  “In the book, there are three worlds,” Jerod said. “One is lost, one is human, and the third where you are trapped.”

  “Yes. Tell me the story,” she said. “Tell me how it ends.”

  “It doesn’t,” Jerod said. “It was meant to be a series, and I kept looking for the second book, but it never came out. The queen of the fairies… you stole a child. You raised her as your own, and when she was grown you tried to possess her as a way to enter the human world. It didn’t work because she was human, and you’d have to give up your magic. You weren’t willing to do that. The child escaped, and that’s where it ended with a cliff-hanger. The girl knows she’s safe, but knows you’ll try again…. Oh my God!” Jerod clasped his free hand to his mouth. He looked at me; he’d started to shake. He whispered, “In the book… her name is Alice.”

  Sixteen

  MAY paced frantic circles, her progress followed by a mirror-cam ogre. I glanced back to the bleachers—mostly empty, the audience having fled from her homicidal rage. A small band of anxious, pastel-faced sprites, along with Dorothea, hung to the periphery. “That was good information,” May said. She stared at Dorothea.

  The mantis woman looked at her book. “It was, your highness. It cleared his debt.”

  “Fine.” She smiled at Jerod. “It’s in a book,” she muttered. She stepped like a ballerina onto a pointed toe. She started to dance. “A book about me I did not write.” Her movements were smooth as water. She kicked out a gauze-draped leg and whipped it around in ever-faster pirouettes. “Someone wrote that book. Books don’t write themselves. Someone who knows May, Queen of the Fey.”

  The harp and flute played a jig. Her dance shifted, and she leapt gracefully from foot to foot. Her hands swayed from side to side. “There are answers here, sweet Alex.” She skipped toward us and held out her hands. “Dance with me.”

  “I don’t know how,” I admitted, and was horrified to see Jerod’s free hand make contact with hers. His other still held mine. I glanced at him and was horrified to remember what Nimby had said—“Whole creatures can’t pass between the realms without paying a terrible price.” For Mom it was her sanity. Jerod shouldn’t have come. He shouldn’t have followed me… and he had. What have I done?

  “It doesn’t matter,” she said.

  That was most certainly the truth, as the connection between her, to him, to me was instant and electric. Like a circuit being thrown, my feet were off the floor and moving fast. It wasn’t just the movement… it was pure emotion. Joy. My jaw ached, and I realized it was from smiling. Jerod grinned like a maniac. May’s head was thrown back. Her long hair was unbound and threaded with silver.

  “I hate to dance,” she said as we whipped around in circles.

  The piper changed his tune, and May let go of Jerod’s hand but held tight to mine. I thought he’d let go of mine, as well. He didn’t. We were no longer a circle, but a line of three. Our steps were intricate, her dipping beneath our arms, pivoting around, me following behind, and then finally Jerod. Like a serpent turning back on itself, no end and no beginning.

  “I hate to dance,” she repeated, “yet it is necessary. At times you must dance.” She let go of my hand and skipped lightly from side to side.

  He and I, like escapees from Glee, gavotted back and forth in sync. My feet touched down and pushed back up again. My body felt loose and free. With every shift in the music, I had no hesitation, just followed along with the crazy jigs and reels. At times I was connected to May and Jerod, and then we’d break free, only to find one another again. Each time his fingers met mine, I felt a rush of emotions—joy, fear, and something I could only describe as recklessness. I was going to get my heart broken. It seemed inevitable. This joy was bad; it would get me hurt. If Nimby was right—and why wouldn’t she be—it had already extracted an awful price from Jerod.

  “You are so beautiful,” he said.

  I didn’t care if it was drugs or fairy dust or a hallucination or whatever. The boy I was crushing on had just said I was beautiful. Was this the truth, or had May scrambled his brains?

  As quickly as the dance had started, the music stopped, and May froze. Her right hand was overhead, as though she was reaching for something. She balanced on the toes of one foot, her gaze on the ceiling. Her fingers uncurled, and her arm slid down. “It’s time to strike a deal, Alex Nevus. I shall start. You may keep your name… for now. You want to take your mother…. Clearly, she does not want to go. Still, you have your reasons. Stupid reasons, but reasons, nevertheless. You may not have her…. She’s thick with child.”

  The giddy joy I’d felt vanished. She spoke fast, and I knew that everything out of her mouth was suspect. Yes, truth, but mined with traps. “Marilyn needs to come home to her children,” I said.

  “Ridiculous! And, yes… children should be with their mother,” she parried. “Bring your sister here, you can all stay. It’s a better choice, Alex. Look at the trouble you’re in. Social workers wanting to snatch precious Alice.” Her expression shifted, her tone was warm.

  “Like you care. No, the truth is you do care. Too much.” I thought of the book Jerod had described. Was that the plan, inhabit Alice and then invade New York? Only, in the book he said it didn’t work; the fairy queen couldn’t possess the human child, not if she wanted to keep her magic. I stared at May, her golden eyes unblinking.

  A woman screamed from the distance.<
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  “Mom!” I shouted.

  She was running toward us, followed by… my father the fairy. “Marilyn, don’t! Stay away from her!” he shouted after her.

  Mom, her flowery dress billowing in the breeze, planted herself between May and Jerod and me, like a pregnant human shield. “You cannot have Alice,” she said. “My child is human!”

  “Half human,” May corrected. “She is a haffling, as is Alex. Alex, it’s time you formally met your father, Cedric Summer.”

  Ever since I could form thought, I’d imagined my father… my dad. Who he was… why he didn’t stick around. Here he was. My height, green eyes… like mine. Blond like Alice, pointy ears like neither of us—thank you, God. Not human, and dressed like a glam rocker in a purple-and-gold brocade overcoat, white pirate shirt, and tight canary-yellow britches. My throat was dry.

  “Hello, Alex.” He stepped forward, his expression solemn. He extended his hand.

  “You’re not what I expected.” Not prepared to touch him, I felt a shiver of repulsion. What are you?

  He nodded, not taking his eyes off me. As we stood sizing each other up, I felt a tingle along the back of my neck; he’s trying to speak directly into my head. I heard his voice: “Careful… say little… or say nothing… listen to her words… look below their surface.” And then something else: “I love you, Alex. I have always loved you… and your sister… and your mother.”

  I lost it. “You have got to be kidding.”

  He shook his head. “Guard your tongue, Alex. Hate me if you must, but now is the time to think of whom you love. Protect them. It’s what you do.”

  It was too much. This handsome… no, not handsome. There weren’t really words for how gorgeous Cedric was. Stick him in a Prada suit, fix the ears, and he’d be on the cover of GQ. But he was pissing me off. Keep the people I love safe? For sixteen years I’d had a fairy father off cavorting in the woods—or whatever it was he did. Did he even have a profession? Did he ever wonder what was happening with his two kids…? Did he care that someone had done horrible things to Alice? Or that I’d had to kill the bastard to keep her safe? Or that right now we had OCFS wanting to haul her away? Or that this whacked-out fairy queen wanted to hijack Alice… or me… and rule the world while making bad reality shows?

  “I do care,” he said.

  “Get out of my head!” My hands balled into fists. I wanted to punch his perfect face.

  “As you wish. But I do care, Alex. It is no lie.”

  “Touching,” May said. She glanced at Mom’s belly. “Your mother stays. Bring Alice, Alex. You can all stay.” She glanced at Jerod. “Even your boyfriend. It’s simple here, but not back there. He has a girlfriend, Alex. It’s truth. She’s pretty, and people won’t call him vicious names if he’s with her. She’s bought a lilac dress, and he has a tuxedo with a matching cummerbund. He intends to give her a flower. She intends to return the favor.” May ran her tongue lewdly over her upper lip. “It’s a simple choice. All that waits on the other side is pain and heartbreak.”

  Mom was frightened and angry, and I heard Cedric inside my head. “Keep Alice safe. Keep her from May.” And then Jerod… what was the cost for him following me here? There was a dazed expression on his face, as though he was still in the dance. In that moment I realized several things, and suspected a couple more. I needed to get Jerod out of there; maybe it wasn’t too late… although—the fey don’t lie. Mom was looking and doing a hell of a lot better here than in the real world. Yes, I needed her, desperately. But the OCFS wheels were in motion, and having a raving lunatic of a mother wouldn’t keep Alice out of foster care. Her pregnancy also complicated things. The instant OCFS realized she was pregnant, they’d be relentless. They’d watch her like a hawk and snatch the baby and say it was in their best interest.

  I didn’t have a plan B…. I grabbed Jerod’s hand. “We’re leaving.” I yanked hard.

  He blinked. “What’s going—”

  “No questions.” I clamped my hand over his mouth.

  Cedric shouted, “Alex, wait!”

  And in my head, his voice. “I can help… some.”

  He turned on May. “My queen, balance must be restored. You have taken the boy’s mother. You have left a hole on the other side.”

  I stared back, clueless at his intent, but his words were like Nimby’s. May’s face was red, and I knew her looks could kill. I felt frightened for this father I never knew I had… and kind of proud. He was standing up to her. He was doing it for me.

  “She came of her own will!” May spat back. “You know that.”

  Cedric looked down, and then at Mom. “She has left a hole on the other side.” His voice was as persuasive as an attorney arguing in court. “It must be filled.”

  “Lawyers and bean counters!” May shrieked as she advanced on Cedric and Mom. He stepped aside, leaving Mom in front of the enraged fairy queen.

  I started to run to protect her, but Cedric shouted inside my head, “Hold back!”

  “Fine!” May raised her hand and raked it down Mom’s side.

  It was unexpected and brutal. May’s movement too fast, her fingers like eagle talons. Mom screamed as May’s claws tore her flesh.

  “Help her!” I shouted toward Cedric.

  He shook his head. “Watch,” he said.

  I couldn’t.… What the?

  Mom screamed as May’s fingers pulled back, clutching what at first appeared to be a meaty slab of Mom’s side covered in torn fabric… but it was moving… growing. May shook it off her hand, and hurled it to the ground. “Disgusting!” She wiped the blood on her shimmery gown.

  Jerod stood close. His words gave a name to the blob of meat as it grew, shooting out a leg, then a second. An arm popped out of a stumpy neck, and then its mate. “She’s making a changeling,” he whispered. And then a tumorous mass of slick tissue bubbled and surged. Black hair sprouted and twisted back into an exact replica of Mom’s thick braid. A face formed; even the dress became a duplicate of Mom’s flowery print.

  May stepped back as Mom rubbed her side. She winced in pain but seemed physically intact. Even her dress was undamaged. “The ground upon which you walk, Cedric Summer, grows thinner by the year. Careful it does not break. And remember… I know your secret.”

  He winced and bowed his head. He spoke. “Your majesty, my every breath is at your whim.”

  “Yes,” she said. “That is truth. Do not forget it.”

  I stared at Mom, as Cedric… my dad… wrapped an arm around her waist. From there I looked at the changeling, who was an exact duplicate of her… only her expression. Not quite dazed, as she stared at her feet and wiggled her toes from beneath the hem of her dress.

  I felt Jerod next to me. “Wha….”

  Before he could finish the word, I screamed, “Shut up!” I saw the hurt on his face… like I’d slapped him. “Please, no questions.”

  “Right.” He shook his head, looking from Mom, to other Mom, who was playing with her dress, her expression wide-eyed and goofy.

  I looked at Cedric. He was in my head. “Take her and leave this place. Keep May away from Alice. Keep her safe.” And then something I’d never known I’d wanted: “I love you, son. I’m proud of what you’ve done… and I’m sorry for the pain I’ve caused. But leave fast. Now!”

  In all of this insanity, his voice in my head was the only thing that made sense. It was time to move. I whispered to Jerod, “We’re getting out of here. Stay close.” Then, in a loud voice, “That’s way cool, May!” I ran across the space, dragging Jerod by the hand. I stopped inches from my new duplicate mother. “Hi, Mom.”

  The changeling looked at me, her eyes on my face, her mouth moved as though uncertain what to do with it.

  I smiled.

  She smiled back.

  I brought the corners of my lips down.

  She did the same.

  “You’re my mom,” I said.

  “I’m your mom,” she replied.

  This could work.
“Come on, Mom.” Overcoming my revulsion at touching her hand. I expected it to be slick and bloody, but no, just a warm, dry hand. She was solid.

  “You’re not going anywhere,” May said.

  “Jerod.” My eyes left hers to find his. “Block May out. It’s easy. Imagine bricks being built around your thoughts, one on top of the next. Mortar them down, fill the cracks. Hold my hand.” I grabbed his and closed my eyes. Time to build walls. I had a lifetime of practice, and he had none. “Thick bricks.” Feeling his hand in mine, changeling Mom’s in my other. I gripped hers, he gripped mine. “Just wall them out. None of this is real. It’s make-believe.”

  “A dream,” he whispered. “It’s just a dream.”

  “Dream,” she echoed.

  “Exactly. And we’re going to wake up soon.” I spun bricks from thin air, laying them down inside my mind. I felt their hands in mine and willed bricks around them. It was surprisingly easy. So many years of blocking out Nimby, blocking out pain… memories. But I’d never thought to include others. I pictured the thick brick wall that surrounded the church across from Jerod’s house. Like that. “This is make-believe,” I said, spinning bricks into place, snapping them together like fairy-repellant building blocks. I pushed away doubt, and all the questions that could shatter my fortress. I held them tight as my walls grew thick and strong.

  Something scratched my face… branches.

  I cracked my eyes open. It was dark. The air was cool and moist. The three of us were under the mulberry tree. I took a breath and heard Cedric’s voice in the distance. “Find Katye.”

  Jerod, still holding my hand, tripped on a tree root, and we tumbled through the wall of branches. Cedric’s voice was gone, and the only sounds were our breath and the croaking of frogs.

  Seventeen

  WE LAY winded outside the tree’s canopy. It was daylight. Jerod’s hand in my right, changeling Mom’s in my left. He let go first. I felt an ache at the loss of his touch… and fear. He’d followed me into Fey and now.… Tears welled. He’d done something heroic, and according to Nimby, his selfless actions would be rewarded with a horrible cost. He was so beautiful, and now, it was like I’d broken him.