The Changeling's Ghost (Thirteen Gates #1)

Saying Goodbye

     "Mum, dad?" I lean into the doorway of their study.

     My mum looks up, her makeup smudged, she's got tear stains on her face. Dad's hands are shaky as Mum wraps her arms around me like England's most stern boa constrictor.

     "Mum, can't breathe." I wheeze.

     "Asher Northcott." Her voice shakes. "You're grounded for the rest of your life."

    "Understandable," I agree.

     Dad joins in our group hug and I let myself sink into it. I let them love me. Then he steps back and my Mum instantly starts checking me over. She holds my head in his hand and her head tilts to the side like a bird, a very concerned one who might peck my eyes out if I try to run away again.

     "Where were you?" Dad asks. "We were up all night looking for you and Gus."

     "I don't care is he's from America, I'm grounding him too." Mum clicks her tongue.

     "I ran off because I was angry, it was stupid and I've learned my lesson." I shrug away from her prying fingers. "We uh... Greta... she's moved on."

     Mum brings a hand up to her mouth. "She's passed? And you're not hurt?"

     "I'm fine, takes a little more than a tempermental ex to bring me down." I laugh dryly.

     They smile, Mum visibly relaxes, probably releasing a few hundred pounds of stress off her shoulders. Then the unsaid question hangs in the air.

     Dad's eyes are lined with dark circles. "Conway?"

     My hands curl up. "He's okay."

     They do their eye thing again, a quickly shared glance. Unsaid communication about long-kept secrets concerning my siblings. I want them to care about him, but there's something in the air, almost a smell, that makes me think maybe they do.

   "We're sorry." Mum says first. "We... we love him just as much as we love you. We're sorry if it came off like we didn't-"

     "It's okay." I interrupt. "Why didn't you tell me about him when you found out?"

  "Oh darling! Do you know where the photobook is?" Mum asks, gesturing for me to sit down.

     Dad nods, already knowing what she was getting at and strode out of the room. She turns back towards me with a softer look and placed a hand on my knee.

"You were so young when we found out you wouldn't have understood." She explains.
Dad appears once more, one of our older family albums in hand, then hands it to her. I scoot closer as she flips through it. There's lots of baby picture in here, Mum always likes to talk about how we were adorable babies. We had shorter hair back then, before we both decided we would grow it out and keep it natural.

     "It must have been right about this time," She points to one of the pictures.

     It's an image of Conway as a toddler, he's collected about twenty leaves and organized on the kitchen tiles according to color and size. I barely remember that day, only the fuzzy recollection of accidently slipping and messing up his leaf collection. He cried for a few hours after, and Mum told me I also cried because he was sad.

     "Do you remember when I drove you into town and you picked out that stuff animal to give him?" She smiles, it's warm. "Because you felt bad?"

      I blinked, "The Serperior plush?" We all know the name because he's explained the Pokémon and it's obvious superiority to other Pokemon to each of us only about a million times.

     "Should have just picked out the teddy." Dad huffs, with a smile on his face.

     "That's when you found out?" I ask.

     Mum's smile fades a little. "We found out after his autism diagnosis, some of his little ticks didn't completely line up."

     "Sensitivity to textures that we discovered all had iron in them, etcetera." Dad offers. "He lured a whole bunch of his peers from daycare into a faerie ring once, that was a nightmare to sort out."

     "Our worries were confirmed when a representative from the Kept came to our door and alerted us that a changeling has been living with us for a few years. By that time it was too late. It was... a struggle... for a long time... but we found our peace. He's... not exactly our kid-"

     "But we are his legal guardians." Dad finishes.

     "And we knew the time would come when he would go back to the fae world, and that it would be dangerous for both us and him." Mum sighes. "I'm afraid we didn't handle that as well as we would have liked."

     "It turned out alright." I point out. "We're okay now."

     "And by the Queen, God save her, we're going to make sure of that." Dad says, ruffling my hair.

     "Alright alright." I shug their hands off me. "I'm going to bed, it's been a long night."

     Mum keeps nostalgically looking through the photo album when I turn in, I think I hear Dad say something about dad going to fetch her some tea. The last thing I realize before I pass out is that Gus still hasn't moved back in.

     "Asher."

     I open my eyes to find him standing over my bed and shaking my slightly. I'm annoyed for a moment, until my brain fully wakes up and I take him fully dressed appearance, the bags under his eyes. I think he's holding something in his hands. He looks tired.

     "Oh my God, you're leaving today." I remember, starting my scramble to get ready.

     He put a hand on my arm to stop me, his multiple bracelet sliding around. "I'm not, actually."

     I pause. "What? What time is it? What's going on?"

     Gus chuckles. "Uh, it's about dinner time. I elected for a transfer, and Sheryl approved."

     My heart skips a few beats, I feel faint. "Transfer?"

     A coy smirk settles onto his face like a bald eagle alighting upon its nest. "Yep, turns out your wacky little violation of a town still needs me."

     "Oh. Just when we almost got rid of you too." I can't help the grin that spreads over my face.

     He laughs and the room becomes twenty percent brighter. "Darn, right? Guess you'll just have to keep putting up with my pancakes and blasting out my obscene electronic remixes of the Star Spangled Banner."

     "The horror." I agree. "Does this mean you're moving back to this room?"

     He rubs the back of his head. "I suppose I'll have too eventually. But uh... I've got something for you first."

     I blink. "For me?"

     He glances down at his shoes "Yeah."

     Gus opens up his fingers and in the palm of his hands is a small braided bracelet that's red, white, and blue, both out flag's colors. I think he might be... blushing? His face is definitely a little red as he looks away and shoves the bracelet into my hands. I stare at it, taking a few seconds to process he's made this for me. A friendship bracelet? That was... that was adorable, oh my God.

     "Uh, I know it's not for everyone." He says, as I stare at it. "I don't know I figured you might like it but it's okay if you d-"

     I cut him off by pulling myself up to my feet, holding onto my bunk bed, and wrap my arms around him. I like hugging people, Conway doesn't. I've wanted to hug Gus for almost two months now, and despite him being a huge annoyance, he's also very soft.

     "I love it." I mumble into his shirt.

     "Th-thanks, bud." He pats my back gently, caught off guard.

     I let go of him and slid back down to my bed and reach for my leg brace. Gus doesn't move from the spot for a good three seconds. I securely tie his bracelet around my wrist, it looks good. A part of me feels safer. I glance up at him and he's still staring at me in a mixture of disbelief and something else? Something warm.

     "You ready for another adventure?" I ask.

     He blinks, then smiles. "With Asher Northcott? Always."

THE END OF BOOK ONE

________________
when we have more info on the next book I'll update this but for now stay tuned! Hope you enjoyed the first part of this story <3