The next morning, sitting at a table in The Seven Sisters main room, Yanna had the plate of fresh brownies in front of her, along with a large glass of milk and a mug of coffee. She was dipping the brownie in the mug and glass for alternating bites and she gave me a wide grin as I came in.

  “I'm so glad you're here," Yanna said through a mouthful of brownie. "I might need you to save me from myself. Ava likes to pretend brownies aren’t for breakfast but I have to say there’s something special about starting your day with a plate of chocolate.” She pushed a plate across the table at me and pointed to the full coffee carafe next to her. I could hear everybody else in the kitchen clanking dishes and talking softly. Margie had left my house before I was out of the shower so I'd been able to relax on my own for half an hour before heading to the coffee shop. Cassie had posted to the shop's website that we were going to opening late due to an emergency staff in-service so I knew the parking lot would be fairly empty and I wouldn't need to rush.

  “And you married her?” I asked, feigning shock. “Do you really think you need that kind of negativity in your life? That’s just crazy.” I poured a cup of coffee and swiped a brownie from the pile in front of her.

  “It doesn’t help that she doesn’t know how to bake in small batches,” Yanna replied. “She’s been baking for the coffee shop for so long she’d forgotten how to make a small batch of anything. Usually she just brings stuff home from work, but she was in a mood last night, so here we are, all the brownies in the world.”

  “I"m with you. This is definitely the best start to a day I've had for awhile. Hey, not to be judgey, but I thought you weren’t supposed to drink coffee when you’re pregnant?” I asked.

  “This is really mostly coffee-flavored milk. After nights like last night, I figure half a mug won’t hurt either of us. If this baby has half of Ava’s energy, she’s already going to be a handful. What’s a little caffeine between friends?” She smiled widely and I laughed with her. “The doctor said a little coffee won’t hurt, as long as it’s not every day. About once a week I have a night when she decides my bladder or kidney is a squeeze toy, and if I want to go to work in the morning I have to do something to switch my brain from pause to forward. Coffee is really my only vice.”

  “Why didn’t you guys find out the gender, if you don’t mind me asking?”

  “We want to be surprised,” she said, rubbing her belly. “When my brother had his first kid, everybody had an opinion for names and clothes and all that crap. I decided that, for at least the first baby, I want gender-neutral stuff so we can use it if we ever decide to have more kids. Besides, I really hate pink, so getting baby stuff in other colors is the only way to go.”

  “Makes sense,” I said, starting on my second brownie. "I'm glad you're here." The doors to the kitchen swung open and everybody came trooping out carrying more coffee and food, including bacon, which made my morning that much brighter.

  "Breakfast first," Mac said, setting down a plate of eggs and another of toast, then grabbing a brownie, "then we talk serious stuff." No one even tried to argue with her, too busy loading plates with food. By the time we were all finished shoving food into our faces, I was ready to talk.

  "Before Margie tells you about what happened last night," I said, pouring myself one more cup of coffee with cream and sugar, "I think I need to tell you all some things." I'd been thinking about things when I had a moment to myself and I realized that these women were the closest thing to a family that I'd had in a long time. What surprised me the most was how safe I felt with all of them, separately and together. They had chosen to take me in and they had let me do what I needed to do to get to this point without questioning my intentions. They had let me be a silent part of their friend group and their coven and had never pushed me for more. They had included me and I had done nothing to deserve their trust. With my revelation at therapy and the new information Margie had discovered, I either needed to tell them everything or leave completely. I wasn't treating them fairly and they had proven that they deserved better from me.

  So I talked.

  For the better part of forty-five minutes, I told them everything. Mac and Cassie sat with their arms around each other, Ava and Yanna held hands, and Margie, Evangeline, and Genna leaned on the table, taking everything in. I told them, briefly, my history with Mac and Cassie, explained that I had lied to them about who I was and then immediately went into why I had lied. They listened as I told them about being imprisoned, and everything that had happened since, glossing over the things they already knew, but adding more details when needed. I watched their faces change from shock to rage to concern and finally to sorrow. They didn't seem to be angry with me, but I could feel the tension growing in the room. Then I told them about how my body had been changing, which had started the night Kitten's owner had been removed from my house, as well as what my therapist had told me about being Fae. As soon as I said the word 'changeling,' Mac and Cassie's jaws fell open.

  "That explains why your eyes always reflected the light weird in pictures," Cassie said after a moment. "It wasn't red eye, it was more like an animal. I always thought it was strange, but never weird enough to ask." She held up her phone and snapped a picture of me, then turned her screen to show us. Sure enough, my eyes seemed to glow, not only their normal blue, but also orange.

  "Your night vision has always been spectacular," Mac nodded.

  "There's one person we could call who would have some answers," Genna said slowly. I looked at her and my heart sank. She was right. There was one person we could call who would be able to explain this to us.

  "I'm not going to talk to her," I said firmly. Cassie put an arm around my shoulders and squeezed.

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  "We won't even mention you're here," Mac promised, dialing her phone and putting it on speaker.

  "Mac, I'm so glad you called!" my mother exclaimed when she answered her phone. Her voice hit me like punch to the diaphragm and I doubled over, wrapping my arms under my legs.

  "Hey, Lilith," Mac said gently, "how are you?"

  "Oh, you know," she laughed a little sadly. "Have you heard from Althea? Is she ok?"

  "She's doing great," Mac said, her voice full of sadness, "but she's having some issues and needs me to ask you a couple of questions."

  "Why won't she call me herself?" my mother asked, all joy having drained out of her voice.

  "She doesn't feel safe," Mac said simply, "but hopefully these answers will help her find her way back to us." She stroked my hair once for comfort.

  "Is she taking her meds?" my mother asked.

  "We've been over this," Mac said, a little irritation ringing through her words. "She doesn't need any medication. Theodosia lied about that. Althea is just as sane as she ever was. But if you want to help her, I'm going to need to know how you kept both girls." There was a pause in which I heard my mother draw in a sharp breath.

  "What do you mean?" she asked cautiously.

  "I mean usually when the Fae change out your child for one of their own, you don't end up with two babies." Her own voice had hardened a little bit with that statement.

  "Oh, so she found out?" my mother's voice was very small.

  "How long did you think it would take her to notice she's not human?" Mac asked with heat in her voice.

  "I knew it would happen eventually," she replied, "I was just kind of hoping I'd be dead and wouldn't have to deal with it." Mac's bark of laughter echoed around the room, one sharp crack of sound so full of scorn and disbelief it made my ears ring.

  "I'm going to pretend that wasn't your exit strategy," she said contemptuously. We heard her deep sigh through the phone.

  "It's not that I didn't want to tell her," she said contritely, "I just don't really know what to say. I was only eighteen when I had Dos. She was only three weeks old when they were switched."

  "How did you know it wasn't your baby?" Mac asked after making the briefest eye contact with her wife.

  "It was her smell," my mother said, her voice drifting into the past. "Underneath the smell of baby, she smelled like summer grass and the afternoon sun shining through the leaves of an ancient maple tree and rich black soil. I didn't really understand the change, but I knew she wasn't mine. Dos was only three weeks old. I hadn't even really taken her outside yet, only to the doctor for a checkup. I don't know. It was a lot of tiny details that just didn't add up.

  "When she stopped acting like the baby I knew, I did a little research. At first I thought it was all in my head, that I had the post partum depression, which I did, but it was also more than that. It wasn't that I didn't love her or feel connected to her the way I did with my own baby, it was more that she just didn't feel right. She didn't fit exactly as she should and it didn't make sense. I felt crazy and I knew no one would believe me so I just took care of her and loved her like my own while mourning the loss of my own baby.

  "It wasn't until I was reading her a fairytale three nights later that it became clear. The story I was reading had a changeling in it and that was enough to make me wonder. The next morning I went to the University library and started doing research. After a couple of hours, I knew what I was going to have to do.

  "They only way to summon the mother of the changeling was to hurt the baby. Her mother would hear her cries from miles away and come to save her. But I knew I didn't want to give this baby over to the mother who had abandoned her, so I made a plan. I heated the andiron in the fireplace and touched just the tip to Althea's side. I still hear her scream in my nightmares. I have never heard anything as loud or as piercing since then. By the time I treated her wound, there was a knock at my door.

  "I'd put salt across the threshold and all around the house so the Fae couldn't enter, but that didn't stop her from pounding my door so hard to flew open. She screamed at me to give her her child back. I showed her Althea, who I was still calling Theodosia at that point, proved that she was safe, and then told her I wanted my daughter back. She agreed because she had to. Once a changeling has been identified, the fairy is honor-bound to return it upon request. I watched her rummage around in her cloak and she produced my child from a very large pocket. I set Althea down in the car seat next to the fireplace and walked back to my front door. As soon as she placed Dos back in my arms, I knew she was mine.

  "The fairy, who was a very large faun-like creature with ram's horns, told me to return her child. I told her in no uncertain terms that I was going to keep both girls. Any mother who is willing put her child in possible danger, especially one that little, she didn't deserve to be a mother. She screamed and pounded on the barrier put up by the salt, but she couldn't get in. I closed the door in her face."

  "Did she ever come back?" Mac asked.

  "Oh yes, of course," my mother said. "Do you remember Auntie Beverly?"

  "That's Althea's mother?" Mac asked, disbelief and shock making her almost shout.

  "No, of course not," my mother said dismissively. Mac tilted her head, waiting in the beat before my mother continued. "That's her bioilogical auntie, though. Her mother was actually killed in a battle a few months after the whole changeling issue. We'd become quite close, once she calmed down and was ready to listen to reason."

  "What?" Mac asked for all of us. I'd forgotten that my mother told stories like a drunken sailor. She knew all of the different pieces, but rarely managed to get everything out in an order that made sense to the humans around her. It was both irritating and endearing, and in that moment, my heart began to break with missing her.

  "Sylphi, her mother, was in, well, not a war precisely, but it was definitely some kind of conflict with some saytr clan. Anyway, she'd stolen Theodosia because she knew she would grow up to be very powerful, while her own child, my sweet Althea, would probably always just have normal faun powers. In exchange for letting me keep both children, I gave her as many spells as she could store to use in her battle. That way both babies would be safe and Sylphi could go out and win her fight. Sadly, it wasn't enough and she was killed. Her sister, who I called Beverly but was really named Berrybeau, liked to come and visit occasionally to check up on both children. She's the one who placed the shifting block on Althea so she'd never know she wasn't human. As with most Fae, though, she stopped coming by after a few years. They lose track of time, you know. Well, and time moves differently for Fae, so she might not even realize it's been nearly 50 years since her last visit. Regardless, it's been a long time. As long as she's alive and healthy, though, Althea should remain in human form." I locked eyes with Mac and Cassie, shifting my gaze to meet everyone else's eyes. I'd already shown them how my feet were changing into hooves, so this didn't bode well for the aunt I barely remembered.

  "Lilith, I might have to call you back. That's a lot to process and I know I'm going to have more questions, but my brain is a little melty from all of that. Is it ok if I give you call back later?"

  "She's started shifting, hasn't she?" my mother asked, her voice a little flat.

  "I've really got to go," Mac said. "Love you." She hung up before my mother could say anything else. We all sat quietly for a few minutes, processing the information that had just landed on us like a bomb in a minefield.

  "OK," I said after a little while, "well, I guess we'd better open for the day." The others looked at me like I was crazy, but we all stood up, except Yanna, and started collecting dirty plates and getting the store ready to open.