as vile as a changeling would leave Jason and Richie alive was next to none, and the only justification he had for believing to the contrary was his gut instinct. Nonetheless, that instinct had never let him down before while cold rationality had plenty of times.
Besides, if Jason was gone, nothing else mattered. Certainly not the Kinship.
“He’s right, you know.”
A familiar childlike voice echoed through the darkness. Colt looked around, but couldn’t pinpoint where it was coming from. It didn’t seem to be getting any closer, either. “You really can’t trust a changeling. You can’t trust anyone, but then, I think you’ve already started to figure that out, haven’t you?”
The voice was cherubic, but those weren’t the words of a child. Christopher was trying frantically to break out of his restraints, his skin smoking as the contact seared the metal. Colt picked up his machete and backed a bit closer to the tree, liking his odds against Christopher better than the changeling.
When a small, unimposing figure became silhouetted in the evening fog, Colt’s first instinct was to relax, but common sense told him not to drop his guard. The changeling had already been in his head, so he knew from experience the monster didn’t need to use physical force to take him out.
“I must admit, I’m pleasantly surprised you followed through,” the changeling said, stepping out of the fog to reveal himself as being the angel-faced kid Colt had expected. The boy had thick, light brown curls halfway covering his eyes, but Colt could see enough of them to recognize that those weren’t the eyes of a child, and there was nothing innocent about that twisted grin on his pale face. “I suppose you’ve outgrown your tendency to cut and run.”
Colt was still trying to make sense of the jab when Christopher’s eyes filled with recognition. “You,” he breathed in the voice of a haunted man. “It can’t be. We killed you.”
“No, you sent a Plague Doctor to do your job,” the changeling said in a biting falsetto. “That was a grave error, Christopher. But I’m sure you already know that.”
“Enough,” Colt snarled. “You two can walk down memory lane later. I brought what you asked for, so it’s time for you to hold up your end of the deal.”
The changeling watched him with those glimmering eyes. The amusement was the only childlike quality about them. “So devoted.” He shook his head, a patronizing smile on his lips. “A wolf raised among sheep will think himself one of them. For a time. Until nature kicks in.”
“Poetic,” Colt said, gripping the handle of his machete as he took a step forward. “Where are they?”
“You’ll get them, just like I promised.” His head tilted slightly to one side. “It’s been such a long time, but you haven’t changed at all.”
Colt frowned. He knew the changeling was just trying to get into his head. “What the hell are you talking about? Pretty sure I’d remember crossing paths with a psychopathic shrimp.”
The changeling laughed. The same piercing, melodic laugh that had echoed through his mind, no less disconcerting now that he could see where it was coming from. “The memory deceives, Colt. You of all people should know that.”
Before he could ask what the changeling was talking about, the grinning ghoul took a step toward Christopher. Colt immediately put himself between them, his machete bared. “I’m not asking you again,” he snarled. “Where. Are. They?”
The changeling stopped and stared at Colt for a few long seconds, his face completely devoid of any emotion save for curiosity. When he finally spoke, his voice was even softer and more cherubic than before. “You’ll find the boy where I left his friends. Better hurry. He was going through air rather recklessly when I last saw him.”
Colt’s chest seized in horror as he realized the damn thing had buried Richie alive. That poor kid. He had to be so fucking scared. Colt didn’t miss the fact that he left out Jason’s whereabouts.
“And where is Jason?” he demanded, feeling the shift come into the edges of his eyes and his fingertips as his claws broke through the skin. The taste of blood filled his mouth as his second set of teeth pierced his gums.
“Ah-ah,” the changeling said in a melodic tone with a little wag of his finger. “Two for the price of one is hardly fair.”
A snarl of rage tore from Colt’s throat as he lunged only for a piercing shriek to stop him in his tracks. He