Wraithsong (12 page)

50317 Sturbridge Rd.
–Sonia.

Is Anthony really coming
over? It will be the first time I have a boy in my room. Shoot, I
better make my bed! I hurry up and tidy a few things before I
powder my face and apply some lip-gloss. Not too much, though, just
in case we…I stop myself. I shouldn’t get my hopes up, but even
more than that, I shouldn’t even be thinking about him kissing
me.

Fifteen minutes later,
there’s a subtle knock on my window. Opening it as quietly as I
can, I see Anthony standing outside. For a moment, I wonder how he
knows to knock on that window since I’ve never shown him where my
room is.

“
I’ll open the front door
for you,” I whisper. “There’s a screen, so you can’t climb in
through here, but just be quiet, because my mom is sleeping.” He
nods and heads toward the front door. After I let Anthony in
through the front door, we sneak into my room. I close the door,
lock it, and offer him a seat on my deep gray cloth lounge
chair.

“
Sorry about the late night
visit,” he says, looking around. “Nice room.”

“
Thanks, I like to keep
things clean and simple,” I say.

“
Ah, a minimalist,” he
says.

“
Yeah, I guess. Hey, about
the text,” I sit down on my bed, facing him, “my mom’s freaking out
because one of my teachers called her to say that she was worried
about me.”

“
Don’t worry about tomorrow
then. We’ll just go sometime during the summer,” he
says.

“
Well—about that—I’m going
away for the whole summer.”

“
That sounds exciting,
where to?” he asks.

“
Just off the New Hampshire
coast to a small…” I almost say invisible island, but catch myself.
“…island, and to a place called Kensington in
Minnesota.”

He makes a funny face.
“Kensington? Really? What’s there for you in
Kensington?”

“
I don’t know—cows, goats?”
I laugh.

He chuckles. “You know, I
think there’s an old Viking runestone in Kensington and they claim
that the Vikings visited there around year 1100. You should go
check it out.”

I’m surprised that he knows
about Kensington at all, such a small town. “Have you been
there?”

“
My mother’s distant
relatives live there. I’ve never been, but I hear it’s a very
interesting little place.”

“
Okay, I’ll have to visit
it.” I tuck my hair behind my ear, a little more intrigued by the
small town. Then I think of how long I’ll actually be gone this
summer, and how I won’t be able to spend any time with Anthony.
Maybe we should put our newfound relationship on hold like my mom
said. “Hey, I think since I’m going to be out of town all summer,
and things will get kind of busy toward the end of the school year,
maybe we should just…” Really? Am I being this reasonable? Or maybe
I’m just trying to please my mom?

“
Are you trying to get rid
of me?” Anthony’s tone is playful.

“
No, it’s just my mom is
stressing out about us. She’s never let me date anyone, or even
kiss a guy.” I can’t believe that I just admitted that to him. Now
he’ll probably think there’s something wrong with me—well—at least
if he’s not a Huldu.

“
Why not? Is she
overprotective?” Anthony asks, the edges of his lips quirking
upward.

I sigh. “I wish that was
the only reason, but there are other reasons. Maybe I’ll share them
with you some time.” I still want to see if I can get him to
confess that he’s a Huldu. Is there anything else I can say that
might grease his truth revealing wheels? Our eyes connect for a
moment and my stomach flutters.

“
So…you’ve never kissed a
guy?” Anthony says, his eyes smoldering.

My cheeks burn.
“No.”

He smiles. “That’s okay,
you don’t have to be embarrassed about it.”

Too late. I look down at my
hands.

Anthony leans a little
forward in his chair. “I think it’s neat that you’ve never been
kissed.”

“
It doesn’t make me sound
like…an old maid?”

He shakes his head. “I
wouldn’t say that. It does make you sound like a germaphobe,
though.”

I gasp and throw my pillow
at him, and he catches it mid-air. “Watch your mouth, young man, I
know where you live.” I laugh.

“
Just joking, sorry, but
really, I think it’s rather sweet.” His eyes turn serious. “It
actually makes me want to be the first one to kiss you.”

I can’t believe he just
said that, but his words have my stomach churning and my heart
thundering in an instant. Do I take him up on it? “I might like
that,” I say and then I hold my breath.

He jumps onto the bed and
looks me in the eyes for a long while. Locking eyes with him for
this long is too intense, but I absolutely can’t look away. My
chest is pounding and I wonder if he’ll actually kiss me. His gaze
drops to my lips and then he presses his warm mouth lightly to
mine, but before I’m able to fully enjoy the kiss, he goes back and
sits in the chair.

I’m disappointed in the
all-too-fleeting kiss, but I don’t think my body would have been
able to take much more; it’s in shock as it is.

Anthony gets a conspiring
look on his face. “You will go to the ballet with me
tomorrow.”

“
What? I just told you I
can’t,” I object.

His eyes darken, his smile
devious, and he cocks his head to the side. “You will love it; I
guarantee it.”

I huff loudly and bite my
lip. “Please don’t ask this of me—my mom will kill me.”

“
But you have already
proven that you are a rebel by inviting me to kiss you, right? She
can’t possibly get any angrier at you for going to see a harmless
ballet performance?”

“
Yeah, but it’ll just be
another point against me.” I’m in deep now.

He smiles slyly. “Okay, but
then I’ll have to invite the bimbo instead.”

He’s definitely playing me,
but my competitive side gets the best of me. “Fine, I’ll
go.”

“
Excellent!” He smiles a
little too triumphantly. Rising from the chair, he moves toward the
bed and electricity ignites the space between us. He stares at me
like he wants me, like he owns me, and my breathing turns
shallow.

As he sits down onto the
bed, I scoot back; he can’t have me—yet. I slide off the bed,
chuckling nervously, and stand up, our eyes still locked onto each
other. There’s a thrill in the chase; he’s the hunter; I’m the
hunted. Standing up, he moves toward me, and I step back, but
reaching the corner of my room, there’s no escape. He grips my
wrists, pressing them against the wall behind me, his grip, strong,
but far from painful.

Resting his cheek on mine,
he whispers into my ear. “May I kiss you properly,
Sonia?”

“
Yes,” I say, panting,
closing my eyes, and letting my head fall backwards. He kisses my
neck, my jawbone, and my cheek slowly. My moan is more of a breath
than a sound. His mouth is right in front of mine now, so close, I
can almost taste it. His lips brush mine, the touch—a
feather.

“
Sonia?” I hear my mom say
outside my door. I stiffen; Anthony holds his breath. We’ve been
too loud.

“
Are you all right? Is
there someone in there?” she says.

I place my hands on
Anthony’s chest and push him gently away, squeezing past him to the
closed door. “No one’s here, just me. Sorry, I was practicing
my…school presentation for tomorrow.”

My mom wiggles the
doorknob. “Open the door this instant.”

I turn around to look at
Anthony, but he has disappeared. He’s probably hiding in the
bathroom. I unlock the door. “Hi, sorry, did I wake you?” I fake a
yawn.

“
Yes, I was worried about
you. I almost thought I heard a man’s voice.” She also yawns and
tightens the belt around her robe. Her blonde hair looks messy,
like she’s been tossing and turning for hours.

“
Nope, just me.” I smile
and open the door all the way.

“
It’s quite late. I just
wanted to make sure that you’re getting all the sleep you need.
Good night.” She turns around and shuffles down the
hallway.

“
Yeah, good night, Mom.” I
close the door and lock it. “Well that was close,” I whisper,
expecting Anthony to come out from wherever he’s hiding, but he
doesn’t. “Anthony?” I walk into the bathroom, check my closet and
under my bed. He’s gone. Then I hear my phone chime and a text
message pops up.

Sorry, had to go. I’ll
pick you up tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. sharp for the ballet performance.
~A

How did he get out? My
window is still locked. He didn’t slip out my door because I was
standing in it. Maybe he slipped out through the bathroom to the
other bedroom, went through the hallway and snuck out the front
door. I hadn’t even noticed.

I change into my comfy
coral and white polka dot pajama pants and pull on a white tank
top. The surface of my eyes feel like sandpaper, scratching the
backs of my eyelids with every blink and it isn’t long after I pull
my down duvet cover over me that I fall asleep.

Chapter 13

In my dream, I find myself
in a pine tree forest. Lilies of the valley cover the forest floor,
surrounding me where I sleep. Sitting up, I see that I’m wearing a
blue dress that looks like it’s from another century. The holes in
the sleeves and on the skirt give it a distinctly worn appearance
that seems to confirm its age. The forest smells like moss and
sodden leaves and the dense mist that surrounds me clings to my
face like dew.

Suddenly the haze lifts and
an attractive man approaches me. I’m a little afraid of him at
first, feeling uncomfortable being alone with a stranger. He’s
wearing a modern suit as green as the grass below our feet, a white
dress shirt, and a hunter green tie. His slick hair, combed over to
the left, is black as coal, and his skin, a pale gray.

“
Sonia, do you know where
you are?” the man asks.

How does he know my name?
Then I remember that I’m in a dream and the man is just another
version of me, a very odd version of me. “No.”

“
I am not an odd version of
you and you should learn to hide your thoughts better—you never
know who might be listening.”

I’m shocked.

“
Shocked, are you? Good!
Our current location is a Norwegian forest, thousands of years ago,
if that clears your confusion,” he says, his voice formal and his
accent Scandinavian.

“
Okay?” I suppose anything
can happen in my dreams.

“
You believe you are
dreaming, but you are not. You have been granted a vision by the
Almighty Huldra.”

“
Who’s that?” I ask—I’ve
never heard of her.

“
Of
course you have not heard of her. No living mortal has, and so far,
no other Huldra has either. She only reveals herself to
those
she
chooses.”

“
Why is she granting me a
vision?” Will I get to meet her? Crap, I need to hide my thoughts
better so this green guy can’t read them.

The guy with the green suit
looks slightly amused and says, “Shall we give the guy in the green
suit a name?”

I try not to squirm where I
stand because it bothers me to have someone else inside my head.
“Yes, please.”

“
You will get used to me
being in your head. My name is Olaf,” he says.

I want to be honest; it
isn’t worth trying to hide my true thoughts from him. “That’s an…
interesting name.”

“
Yes, I hear that quite
often from post-creation people,” Olaf says.

Post creation? I
think.

“
Post creation is the time
after the creation of Adam and Eve, is that clear enough for you?”
Olaf says, somewhat condescendingly.

“
Yes,” I say. “Were you
born before the creation?”

“
Not exactly. Follow me.”
He swivels around and waits.

Oh, I’m supposed to go with
him.

“
Yes, please come,” Olaf
says.

“
Where are we going?” I
step up next to him.

“
I want to show you some of
your origins,” he says, taking me gently by the arm. We start
gliding a few inches above the forest ground.

Now I don’t feel as
uncomfortable in this strange man’s presence—only curious, well, as
long as he stays out of my head. Where will he take me? We glide on
for a while, passing hills and crevices, trees and a lake, until he
stops me in front of a large valley.

“
I am glad you are not
afraid of me. It is a sign of your courage. I have to admit that I
had my doubts about you, but the Almighty Huldra knew what type of
a Huldra you were.”

“
How can she know that when
I’ve never met her?”

“
No, you haven’t met her,
but she knows of you.”

“
Does this Almighty Huldra
have a name?” I almost laugh at the word ‘almighty,’ thinking it
sounds ridiculous.