Cat opened her mouth to refute the changeling’s claims, but she couldn’t. Not-Mikey’s face shone with triumph.

‘You wait until Granny gets here,’ she said. ‘That’s probably her now warning Mam all about you and telling her what you’ve done to her child.’

‘Ah yes,’ said not-Mikey. ‘About that …’

He inclined his head toward her mam’s bedroom. Cat turned to find her standing in the doorway, staring down at her phone in disbelief.

‘Is everything OK?’ asked Cat, already dreading the answer.

‘That was the hospital,’ said her mam, with a slight wobble in her voice. ‘They called to say Granny’s been admitted. They … they think she had a heart attack.’

Cat felt the ground drop out from under her.

‘No,’ she said, her voice coming out ragged. ‘No, no, no.’

Her mam grabbed her into a tight hug and told her everything would be all right. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted not-Mikey, regarding them both with what Cat believed was amusement.

He knew this would happen, she thought.

Then another thought occurred to her, more distressing than the last. I’m on my own now.

Chapter Seven

The Hospital

The smell hit Cat as soon as she walked through the hospital doors, a stinging antiseptic scent that made her nostrils burn and her stomach twist. She wondered if it always smelled like this – like disinfectant and sickness. She had never been inside a hospital before. She wasn’t allowed to visit Granddad when he was sick because her mam thought it would be too upsetting for her to see him that way, attached to wires and machines. Even when he was back home, back in his own bed among his own things, the hospital smell followed him. It was as though it had seeped into his bones, a reminder that, although he was home, he wasn’t going to get better. Cat wondered if the same thing would happen to Granny when she got out. Would she still smell like lavender and clean sheets, or would she always have a sick-person smell? The thought made her queasy.

Granny was being kept in the Intensive Care Unit. A nurse told them that the doctors were still performing tests and they wouldn’t be allowed in to see her right away. Instead, he directed them to a small, airless waiting room with buzzing fluorescent lights so bright they immediately gave Cat a headache. They settled into uncomfortable plastic-backed chairs and waited for news. Not-Mikey was being particularly contentious, screaming and squirming in her mam’s arms.

‘Oh Mikey,’ Mam said, her voice heavy with exhaustion. ‘Why did you have to pick today of all days to be contrary? I need you to be a good boy.’ Cat knew exactly why he was making a fuss. She only wished she knew how to make him stop.

She wracked her brain trying to remember everything Granny had ever told her about changelings, but she kept coming back to the story of Nancy and that didn’t exactly have a happy ending. She wondered where the real Mikey was and if he was OK. He was still so small … Was he being looked after? Was he scared? Worry settled like a knot in the pit of her stomach. She knew she had to get him back, and soon, but she had no idea where to even start. The little imposter knew it as well. More than once she caught him smirking at her over her mam’s shoulder and had to resist the urge to stick her tongue out at him. Instead, she settled on turning her back and biting her nails, trying her best to ignore him.