I should have walked away.

Isolde squeezed my hand and gave me a look. Are you okay?

I stared forward, crossing my arms. I didn’t want to know what she was thinking at the moment.

Redbrook produced a tiny iron bracelet stamped with charms, meant to go on a baby’s wrist to protect them from the thieving hands of a faerie. A powder to mix with water to determine whether a child had been swapped with a changeling. And worst of all...

“Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you my totally unique Changeling Exchange Tonic!” This exclamation was accompanied by a swish of cloak and the brandishing of a green bottle appearing seemingly out of thin air. As he held it over his head, a hush fell over the crowd. “This, I am certain, is unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. For those parents already afflicted with a changeling—” my insides boiled “—your solution is here! Just a small sip of this tonic, every day, will restore your human child to you.”

“What’s in it?”

I looked around with everyone else for the source of the shout before realizing it was me.

“Uhh—what was that, miss?”

Was I stepping forward? Apparently, because people were whispering and clearing a path for me. “I asked what was in it,” I said, looking up at the man and, for the first time, hoping the light would catch on my faerie eyes.

“Well, miss, obviously, I have to keep my formulas a secret—”

“Is it safe?”

The man’s face turned red, then white. “It’s perfectly safe for a changeling,” he said cautiously.

“Why don’t you try a sip, then?” What was I saying? What was I doing? It was so unlike me, and yet more like me than ever.

He pressed his lips together, whether to keep from saying something careless or in subconscious fear of the tonic he was selling, I wasn’t sure.

“It’s poison, isn’t it?” I said. “Changelings are children, in case you weren’t aware. We—”

Everyone had known my secret for almost four years now, and I’d seen the results. My father was barely keeping his pottery shop open, and Mami hadn’t delivered anyone’s baby in months. They were starving us out, eliminating the unlucky family foolish enough to love a changeling child with slow, quiet persistence. I started again.

“We didn’t ask to be this way.”

I almost tripped, and only then did I realize I was shaking. I didn’t know if I was scared or angry. Both?

Isolde was still standing where I had been, as shocked as everyone else at my sudden outburst. I was standing just in front of the platform, squaring off with the salesman with my fists clenched. My hands stung, like their restlessness had found its way to my skin.

“You’re selling people poison and calling it hope!” I shouted. My voice carried farther than I had known it could. “Don’t you know that’s wrong?”

Redbrook was too surprised to answer. His mouth opened and closed as I turned to address his audience.