A Sacrifice of Names

Chapter 6

The ears. If there was anything Earie could keep staring at for hours it were the delicately elongated tips. This was not her body, that much was sure. And although she felt fascinated by her own reflection in the mirror, it made her feel particularly uncomfortable at the same time. She winked at it, her reflection copying her every move.

Not a doppelgänger this time. Yet, this was who she had to pretend to be until she had found a way out of here. A way back to her friends, her family. Her stomach felt heavy at the thought of her parents. Would they already know she had disappeared? Would they have gotten on the first flight back to Scotland to join the search for her?

Would there even be a search? She did not want to give that question much thought. Of course there would be a search for her. After two months they had still been investigating the disappearance of the first woman from campus. They would not give up on them that easily, right?

She had lied to these creatures here. Lied that she was the changeling they had been looking for for so long. A fae could not utter lies, and thus they had believed her. With this glamour she could play that part for a little while longer. But how long would it still take for them to find out the truth? She knew absolutely nothing about this place, or the fae, for that matter. They were waiting for her to regain lost powers. Powers she did not even possess.

Her reflection was a lie. A beautiful lie. In truth, the only thing she still recognised as herself were her eyes, a part of bright green orbs staring right back at her. Everything else still was her, but otherworldly, just like her grandmother had described the fae. Creatures that could enchant you by merely gazing upon them.

Her glamour did not resemble one of the lesser fae, as Keely had described the difference between the two, but a true, pureblood fae.

Keely grinned triumphantly from behind her. She had been born from a fae and a sea spirit. Something that happened a lot more nowadays, Earie learned. The fea could bear children with other fae, but often needed a mortal woman to nurse them. It explained the changeling matter, and why pureblooded children were a rare sight nowadays. Where, in the past, fae children could easily be swapped with mortal children till they were strong enough to survive, nowadays it had become a lot more difficult to cross the border to the mortal world, not to mention swap a mortal's child with their own unseen.

The fae were weakened, that was what Earie understood from Keely's words. But more importantly, she learned there was a way that would bring her back home. A border she could cross over into her own world.

Be cunning, play the part, gain more information and survive. That was the only plan she had for now.

"Shows them for thinking I could not do it." Keely hummed, bony fingers lifting a few strands of Earie's brown locks just to take another look at her ears.

"The glow is there, I wouldn't be able to tell it's a glamour. Your posture is still terrible. You definitely need to work on that if you ever want to convince anyone out there."

Earie tore her gaze away from the mirror, part of her wanting to swat away the other's hand. Don't let anyone close, don't let anyone suspect that she was truly nothing other than a simple human being.

"The human girl who was taken when they swapped me, is she still here?"

Keely shrugged. "No idea. I assume it is getting more difficult to take those back here. And those who are taken across the border and grow up here, well."

Earie could feel a shiver creep down her spine, not wanting Keely to finish that sentence. It promised nothing good.

"But if you need wet nurses..."