Ronnie passes Luna to Derek and approaches me. “I’m sorry I got so angry with you.”

“You had a reason to be,” I say, hugging her. “I should have told you about my suspicions.”

“You helped bring Luna back to me. That’s all that matters now.”

Skye picks up the toddler. “What do we do with the children? We have to return them to their parents without them knowing.”

“But won’t they remember what happened?” Tyler asks.

Leslie observes the children. “We’ll have to cast a spell of lapsed memory on them.”

“Who will sneak the wee ones into their homes?” Archie asks.

Trinity addresses the young witches. “Can I rely on you youngins to return the three kidnapped children to their beds tonight?”

“What do we do with the changelings?” Skye asks.

“Hide them in the Pumpkin House until nightfall,” Trinity says. “Elijah, Archie, Shane, you’ll need to sneak Alys’s body into the trunk of my car. I’ll park it at Agnes’s farm until later. We’ll all meet up in the Celestial Gardens tonight. Make it late—around midnight.”

“Splendid,” Leslie says. “You all have your assignments, except for Ronnie. You should go home and tend to Luna. The rest of you, we gather in the dead of night.”

Later, under indigo blue skies, the coven’s plan unfolds. The young witches exchange the human children for their changeling clones after their parents are fast asleep, cloaking themselves with a spell to complete their task. They meet up with the rest of the Bearsden Coven in the Celestial Gardens under the illumination of the full moon.

Bitter winds cut across my face as my fellow witches gather at the mound with the changelings and a still-unconscious Alys Morgan. The poor clones are shaking, cold and confused by being snatched from their temporary homes. But they must go to the fairy realm in the Otherworld. Agnes pulls up a hex from the database on the phone Leslie bought her, and we recite an incantation to banish her.

“Spirits of the Otherworld, receive this Tylwyth Teg in haste. Never to return to Bearsden, Alys Morgan is banned and disgraced.”

We repeat the incantation while Elijah and Archie push Alys through the portal, which sucks her in with a whoosh.

“That was fucking awesome,” Agnes says. “Good riddance, bitch.”

Trinity approaches the portal. “Gwyn, now would be an excellent time to ask the fae children for their help.”

“Sure.” I call on the Seelie Fae. “Shailagh. Aonghas. I have some friends for you to play with.”

The opening in the mound turns bright white and the Seelie Fae cross over. “Aunt Gwyn, you found our friends!”

“Yes. Would you like to help them find their way back home to the Otherworld?”

They giggle and dance. “Yes! Yes! We can play all the time!”

“Wonderful,” I say, motioning to Skye, who’s holding the baby.

I guide the older changelings to the portal, and Skye passes the baby to Aonghas. He giggles at the infant. Shailagh clasps the hands of the others, one in each hand. The Seelie Fae approach the aperture.

“Thank you, Shailagh and Aonghas,” I say.

We wave goodbye as the Seelie Fae guide the changelings through the portal. I sigh, knowing this is not just the end of one saga, but the beginning of a whole lot more headaches for the coven. Once the mayor learns about the invasion of Tylwyth Teg, she and our allies on the council will pressure us more than ever to find a spell to close the gateway in the mound.

Suddenly, an aura stronger than I’ve ever experienced washes over me. I become dizzy as the vision plays out in my head…

Fairies, one after another, cross over through the portal, moving so swiftly I can’t identify who they are. Like a turnstile, they pass through back and forth with no one to stop them. Are they Tylwyth Teg? Tuatha Dé Danann? Seelie? Unseelie? The gray-skinned monster appears in a flash and blinks at me…

I wobble, and Archie catches me. The others huddle close, concern gripping their faces. “Gwyn, are you OK?” “Did you pass out?” “Did you trip?”

Tyler rushes to me. “Mom, should you go to the hospital?”

“What happened, Gwyn?” Archie asks. “Why did you lose your balance?”

I stare into his icy-blue eyes and then scan the faces of my friends. “We have to close the portal. More of them are coming soon. And not just the Tylwyth Teg.”

Chapter twenty-nineChange Is Easy

A week has passed since we banished Alys Morgan and returned her, along with the changelings, to the Otherworld, but the days flitted by like months had passed. The local paper reported complaints of popping sounds in the North Basin Creek Park. By the time the Bearsden Police arrived to check out the area, they found evidence of a recent fire—nothing more.

The Bearsden Coven couldn’t risk another missing person report, begging questions from the curious Detective Jack Schmidt. Mayor Devine wasn’t thrilled about what transpired in the clandestine gathering but agreed to falsify paperwork to coverup Alys’s disappearance, anyway. John wrote up a letter of resignation from the missing councilwoman and created a power of attorney to close out her bank accounts and settle up with her landlord. As far as the public knew, he and Alys were good friends. Since she had no other acquaintances, who’s going to miss her? Certainly not the townies she pissed off.

Ronnie is back to worrying about running out of diapers and getting enough sleep, although the knowledge of Tylwyth Teg fairies living in our world ferments in the back of her mind. We’ve heard rumblings of the kidnapped children’s behavior improving with such speed, their parents may stop therapy altogether. The situation could have ended so much worse. I wish my witch’s intuition had worked with more accuracy. We could have discovered Alys’s true identity sooner.

The Fall Semester has ended, and I’ll finish my master’s degree in May. I’ll have to stop working at Mystic Sage and find a full-time job. I should begin searching for my own place, too. The proceeds from the sale of my house have collected a fair amount of interest. But should I buy another place? I imagine Leslie will be a little sad to see me move out, but not as much as Mr. Yeats.

Jeff Williams enters the front of the store carrying a box full of children’s puzzles to replenish the shelf. With the holidays upon us, last-minute shoppers wiped out the store. I finish ringing up a customer and smile at Jeff as she turns to leave.

“Thank you for shopping at Mystic Sage, and enjoy your holiday,” I say as the shopper exists. “Boss, would you like some help while the store is empty?”

“Sure,” Jeff replies, dropping the box on the floor. “I hate putting these tiny stickers on. Somewhere there’s a price tag demon, and he’s getting even with me.”

I chuckle. “For what? Loving a woman and her kid?”

“No. They’re the best things to happen to me since…” His voice trails off, his eyes growing misty.

“I’m glad Ashley and Aidan found you.” I lay a hand on his shoulder. “You needed them as much as they did you.”

He lowers his head. “I never apologized for keeping her secret from you. I was worried about how the coven would respond. She was sure the Tylwyth Teg fairy, whoever she was, would take Aidan, and she couldn’t trust anyone else.”

“An apology isn’t necessary. You had every right to protect them. Ashley told me she didn’t know who the fairy was, and I believed her. She came clean about Aidan, after all.”

“She’s befriended Courtney Erickson since she’s having a half-human, half-fairy baby, too.”

A faint smile curls my mouth. “Everyone should have a friend they can trust. Someone who understands their life experiences. You knew Courtney went after Archie early on, right? It’s why she helped Audrey infiltrate the coven. I never imagined she was a fairy, though.”

“Audrey told me after she got rid of the hex her mom put on her. But I don’t think she was aware of Courtney’s fairy background.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter now.”

“No. But…do you believe Courtney after all that’s happened? Should Ashley trust her?”

I take a cleansing breath. “At some point, you have to use your best judgment. Courtney has a unique situation, just like Ashley. They need to trust each other so their half-fairy babies can survive in an Unremarkable’s world.”