Page 88 of Changeling
There was practice that night and both Jennifer and Tina would be there. Jennifer was the other female lead in the play, Amneris, the Egyptian princess. Their scenes were often together, which meant they would be offstage together, too. Nathan and the others needed Leven to keep the people on stage occupied so they could make certain Tina was the culprit. A runic trap set up to look like spilled paint was an easy way to test if she was what she appeared to be before they confronted her.
Before practice started the group made sure the main curtain was drawn. There was plenty of room to practice in front of the curtain since the cast was only doing simple blocking at this point and would assume the set was being worked on backstage. It was Nathan’s job to lure Tina into the right location.
“You promise you’ll be sure she’s an evil faerie before you kill her?” Leven asked for probably the hundredth time.
Nathan placed a firm hand on the kid’s shoulder and squeezed. “We’re not gonna let some sweet high school kid get killed on accident, okay? We’ll be sure.”
“I just…I can’t believe it’s her. She’s been acting weird like a lot of people, but…but she’s nice. Super nice. You better bereallysure.” Leven clutched his script like it held all the answers to the universe.
Cam came over and patted Leven’s other shoulder before giving the kid a good push towards the front of the stage. “Don’t worry, Lev. Now go do your part or the whole thing’s screwed. Keep the cast out front where they belong and just get Tina to come back here. That’s all ya gotta do. If we’re wrong…well, just hope she is the villain coz otherwise we’re pretty much shooting blanks back here and we’re gonna have to start from square one.” He tried to grin to make Leven feel better but didn’t have much success.
Once they proved Tina was dark fae all they would need to do was play it cool. They didn’t want to kill her—not right away. They wanted her to call for the bounty holder so that Jim could compel him—orthem—to release Nathan. They didn’t plan to kill the bounty holder either unless they had to, though killing the dark fae terrorizing these poor kids was probably a must once they were done. Getting a body or two out of the school without attracting attention would require a little stealth, but they would deal with that when the time came.
Nathan waited near the edge of the curtain for Leven to get Tina backstage. He could hear when practice started, eyeing the others in their various positions—Cam and Sasha up above in the catwalk and Jim around the other side hiding behind unpainted flats.
With everything in place, Nathan was surprised when his phone vibrated with a text message from Jim:Jennifer’s with Tina. Heading your way.’
“Just a few minutes,” Nathan heard from Tina as the girls neared him. “We really should talk about—”
“Hey there, girls, aren’t you supposed to be out there?” Nathan said as soon as they came into view, looking like he was just casually hanging out backstage to check on things.
Jennifer turned terrified eyes on Nathan—beseeching.
“You remember me,” Nathan said, taking Tina’s arm and pulling her toward him to free Jennifer from the other girl’s hold. “Mind if I ask you a few more questions while you’re not busy? You should probably run back around,” Nathan said with a wink at Jennifer.
The redhead nodded eagerly and was instantly gone.
Tina was good though; she turned to Nathan and didn’t appear at all put out. “Of course,officer. Or is it just Mr…whatever it was. Sorry, I forget. But then…you’re not really an officer, are you?”
Nathan smirked. “I suppose not. But I never did like the term PrivateDick. Just call me Nathan. Now…” Nathan had a whole crapload of, well,craphe could spew at her while he got her in position, but getting her in position was key.
He chatted away as he led Tina to the center of backstage just beneath the catwalk. The runic trap was near impossible to see until you were in it, but just as Nathan almost had her across the line inside, Tina looked down and noticed the paint.
“That’s bad,” she said, crouching down for a moment. “Lars will be pissed someone spilled.” She touched her fingers to it but came up dry. Then she shrugged, stood, and continued walking with Nathan right through the trap…and safely to the other side.
Nathan was pretty sure he gaped at her for a split second, but kept his cool as best he could. “Well I…guess that’s all I needed. You should probably get back.” He had all intentions of turning around and walking to where Jim was watching Jennifer so he could smack him one, since somehow the mistake had to behis fault, when he figured he should at least be completely sure before he counted Tina out.
It was a little mean if she was just a normal girl, but Nathan feigned tripping on the last of the still wet paint, which was slippery enough to make the fall completely natural looking. A second later, he knocked into Tina and brought both of them down hard to the floor of the stage.
Tina howled, a sound thankfully drowned out by the singing coming from up front, and when Nathan looked down between them he saw that the stealthy cut he had made on her bare leg with his ankle blade was sizzling. Nathan jerked his attention back to the girl’s eyes to find them glaring at himslit. Shewasa dark fae, but the trap hadn’t held her.
“Shit!” Nathan rolled off of the girl as quick as he could, but she was faster. Tina rolled right back on top of him and pressed his hands into the floor, pinning him.
“Thought you could get me with runes, did you? Silly boy.” She lunged down at Nathan, but Jim was there in an instant to pull the girl back. He looked equally shocked when he ripped her off of Nathan to find slit eyes.
“She’s fae!” Nathan managed to call out as Jim held her. “Hold the bitch!”
But as much as Jim seemed to be concentrating on holding control over the girl, she merely writhed in his hold and eventually broke free with a kick at his shins. She sprinted for the other side of the stage.
Nathan jumped to his feet and reached down quickly to pull Jim back up onto his. “I said hold her!” he shouted as they ran to catch up.
“I tried!” Jim shouted back, and then hushed his voice because they could hear that the singing had come to an end for now and this would not be a good time for the cast to come wandering backstage. “It wouldn’t work. She’s not a normal dark fae,Nathan. I can’t sense her. And if I can’t sense her…” He didn’t finish but Nathan understood.
Can’t sense. Can’t control. Can’t banish.
Nathan looked up and whispered as loudly as he thought he could get away with toward the catwalk, “A little help down here!” Tina was almost to the curtain where she could run back around and hide amongst the other students. And Jim and Nathan were too far away to catch her.
Just then a great swoop of dark brown wings came from beyond stage left. Cam landed in front of where Tina intended to go, blocking her. Before she could think to turn around and run the other direction, Sasha landed just behind her.
