Wraithsong (16 page)

“
You left this here the
other day.” Anthony lifts up the scroll as he sits down in the same
seat he sat in the other day.

“
Well, I don’t want it
anymore.” I look at him. “When did you realize I was a Huldra?
Wait, did you come to my school knowing that you were looking for
me?” I sit down.

“
One question at a time,
please,” he says. “I didn’t know that you went to Sarasota High
School, no.”

“
So was it all just a
coincidence that you found me? It doesn’t seem like your way of
doing things…Maureen wouldn’t have left finding me to chance,” I
say.

“
She never brought it up to
me until…” Anthony stops speaking and then his face goes blank. He
looks at me for a moment, before his eyes trail off into the
distance.

Did she use him? No, it
wouldn’t make sense. He knew he was supposed to spy on me and bring
me to his house, so surely he knew. He was part of Maureen’s plan.
“When did you know she was after me?” My voice is
unyielding.

Anthony looks upset. “Let’s
get some rest. I think we’ll both need it tonight.” He stands
up.

“
I need an answer to my
question.” I rise to my feet—determined.

“
I—”

“
Are you telling me you’re
stupid and didn’t know that Maureen has been using you for a long
time?”

His eyes flash and he
storms out of the rotunda, slamming his fist into the doorframe as
he exits.

“
What should we do about
school?” I yell after him.

He turns around. “Go and
act as if everything is normal until we hear from Maureen and what
she wants me to do with you.”

His words frighten me and I
gasp a little. Is he going to do what she says? Is he lying to me
and going to bring me to Maureen?

Anthony says, “I won’t
actually torture you, if that’s what you’re freaking out
about.”

His words, though meant to
calm me, do nothing of the sort. “Won’t Olaf come after
me?”

“
No, he’ll be leaving for
Wraithsong Island shortly, too, if he hasn’t already, but there may
still be someone else guarding your house, so we can’t go there
right now.”

There’s probably more to
the story than he’s telling me, but I’m so tired and overwhelmed, I
let it go. I feel safe enough.

“
Listen, I know this is all
overwhelming, but I’ll make things right,” he says.

“
Will you?”

His eyes darken. “I
will.”

I can tell he’s at least
trying to make the best of our bleak situation, and I want to
believe him, but it’s far too frightening. “I’m not going to
pretend everything’s all right when it isn’t.”

“
Well, your mother’s life
is at stake so I’m sure you can manage,” he says distantly and
walks off.

I’d have to say I agree
with him since I don’t have any other choice.

* * *

I wake up to Anthony
shaking me.

“
Wake up!” he says. “Sonia,
wake up!”

I open my eyes and see that
the night is still dark.

“
Are you all right?” He’s
holding my arms tightly.

I look around, trying to
make sense of my surroundings and then remember where I am and why
I’m here. Anthony let me sleep in his bed while he took the
couch.

“
Did you have a nightmare?”
He turns on the lamp on the nightstand.

The brutal images of my
dream pour into my mind again. “Yes.” I shudder at the
images.

“
Everything will be fine.
We’ll be fine,” he says.

I start to cry. “I dreamt
that Olaf was torturing my mom, and that—he said he’d only stop if
I turn myself in.” Olaf had been kicking my mom as she lay curled
up in the corner of a cell. After that he had broken her arm with
his bare hands.

Anthony reaches to stroke
my hair, but his touch isn’t welcome and I pull away.

“
It was just a
nightmare.”

“
No, it was real!” I
yell.

Compassion shines from his
eyes. Even in the dim light, they are an intense blue. “You don’t
know that,” he says gently.

I bury my face in my hands
and sob. I’m exhausted and exposed and have never felt so unsure
about my life. I need comfort, I need support and the only person
here is Anthony—the last person I want comfort from.

“
Hey, let me fix you a cup
of hot chocolate,” he says, standing up.

I lift my head up. “No,
please don’t leave.” I’m scared, and it’s better to have Anthony
here than no one. I grab his forearm and immediately the
electricity between us is back. It feels like my body yearns for
him to be close, to touch, to feel, to hold, to kiss…I withdraw my
hand and look at it. Is that my Huldra instinct? It must be because
it’s the only thing that makes sense. I’m still furious at Anthony
and want nothing more than to never see him again, but that’s my
mind speaking. If I listened to my body, I want to…never mind what
it wants. I’m not going to listen to its desires. Not after what
Anthony put me through and not after what I saw what they are doing
to my mom. I hate Anthony.

He reaches for my cheek and
I slowly pull back. Our eyes lock and it is as if nothing can break
his enchantment. He leans forward and kisses me gently on the
forehead. I want to despise his touch, but I don’t.

“
I’m going to sleep now.”
His jaw tenses, and his eyes burn with determination. “Good
night.”

I won’t admit it, even to
myself, but I want him now more than I’ve ever wanted him. I hate
my Huldra side for that. I pull the fluffy duvet over my body and
make myself go back to sleep.

Chapter 17

Waking up the next morning,
I remember the nightmare about my mom and have to force myself from
breaking down again. I recall what Anthony said last night about it
not being real. Though I don’t trust him, given his proven track
record of lying, I hope he’s right.

I scoot myself to the side
of the bed and stretch both arms up and yawn. Rising, I locate the
attached bathroom, splash some water on my face and pat it dry with
a fluffy white towel. I barely recognize the reflection in the
mirror. My eyes are still swollen from crying myself to sleep last
night and I look frightened, my expression void of happiness. I
loathe how weak I feel and force any thoughts of despair away,
knowing that if I linger on all that is wrong, I’ll collapse. I
pull my hair up into a ponytail and glare at myself in the mirror a
minute longer, trying to convince myself that I am
strong.

Anthony greets me with a
smile when I enter the kitchen. “I thought you might need an extra
healthy breakfast this morning.” He scoops an omelet out of an iron
frying pan and onto a plate, which he then sets down on the kitchen
table. He seems too happy for everything that’s going
on.

I scowl at him, trying to
give him an evil look as I sit down. “Why are you so happy this
morning? It seems like you don’t even care that my mom’s life is in
danger.”

“
I do, but I choose to stay
positive even though the situation is horrible,” Anthony
says.

“
Well, tone it down, will
you?”

He looks at my clothes for
a second and says, “I’m going to the mall to pick up some clothes
for you because, obviously, you can’t wear that.”

“
I can just go home and get
my own clothes,” I say.

His words overpower mine.
“No, you can’t. We already had that discussion,
remember?”

I roll my eyes. “So now you
think you’re the boss of me?”

“
No, but I’d prefer it if
Maureen didn’t get her hands on you,” he says. “So far she doesn’t
know that I’ve betrayed her, so you are safe with me. Give it a few
more days and we can return. For now, just eat and try to relax.”
He exits the kitchen.

I’m determined to not let
his kindness toward me weaken my guard because I still consider him
my enemy. Sitting at the table, I play with my food because I’m not
hungry. How can I be hungry when I don’t know if I’m ever going to
see my mom again? Everything seems so meaningless without her.
After forcing myself to eat three bites, I head back
upstairs.

Anthony has already made
the bed and sits on the sectional, pulling his beige loafers on.
“There’s something I need to tell you concerning the plans I made
with Maureen before she left,” he says.

“
What? No more surprises,
please. I can’t handle any more stress right now.” I sit down on
the opposite side of the sectional, just far enough away that I
won’t be tempted to reach out and touch him, or him, me.

“
I need you to not freak
out on me, okay?” He inches a little closer to me.

I inch farther away and I
think I see him rolling his eyes, but I don’t care.

“
Don’t freak out when I
tell you this.”

Now I’m worried what he’ll
say, but I focus on breathing slower; it helps to calm me. “I’ll be
fine now, go ahead.”

“
The plan was for me to
take you to the ballet, so Olaf could kidnap your
mother.”

My heart starts racing
again and I clench my lips together so I won’t say something that
will reveal how disturbed I am, which could easily in his mind be
misconstrued as
freaking
out
.

“
I was supposed to bring
you—now don’t overreact—here, and keep you here until I heard back
from Maureen. So far, we’ve followed her plan,” he says.

So Anthony was supposed to
kidnap me? Keep breathing, I remind myself, but my chest tightens
more by the second and it’s like I can’t get enough
oxygen.

“
The reason I’m telling you
this, is that Maureen might call me today with further
instructions. She might not, but I just want to make sure you’re
prepared when she does, and when she does, I want you to be part of
the phone call—listening,” Anthony says.

“
Can I say something now?”
I say, still working extremely hard to keep myself from losing
it.

“
Not yet, there’s more.” He
pauses as if to formulate the sentences in his head.

I bite my lip and
swallow.

“
What she might be telling
me when she calls is what I’m supposed to do…to you, which of
course, I won’t be doing, but I’ll have to agree over the phone so
I don’t set off any red flags. Do you understand?”

“
Yes.” I can’t believe I’m
actually just sitting here, quietly listening to this.

“
What she’ll be telling me
to do to you will probably shock you.” He inches closer to me, and
I can smell his cologne now. I wish I didn’t like it.

“
What kind of things are we
talking about?” I ask.

“
Mostly torture—” Anthony
says, looking down at the floor as if ashamed.

“
Do you normally—torture
people?” The hair on my back stands up.

“
No, I never have. That’s
always been Olaf’s job, but he recently taught me his torture
methods. When I saw how devious Maureen’s plan is, I wanted no part
of it, especially since it involves destroying our own kind.” His
eyebrows crease.

Just as he’s about to say
something else, I jump to my feet no longer able to contain myself.
“This is the worst experience in my life! I can’t believe I have to
go through this, and be stuck here with you! My mom is missing and
is probably being tortured at this very moment, and…”

“
You promised you wouldn’t
freak out on me.” Anthony looks baffled.

“
That was
before you started talking about
torture
!” I need a quick escape, so
I run to the bathroom and lock myself in to get some distance from
Anthony. One time I fell off the monkey bars at school while trying
to perform a trick. I had all the wind knocked out of me after
having fallen a few feet, landing on my back. That’s exactly how I
feel now—breathless, panicking as life’s being extracted out of
me.

Anthony gently knocks on
the door. “Sonia, come on, please don’t do this. To make this work,
I need your full cooperation. Please try and keep your emotions out
of this.”

How can he remain so
reasonable? Because he isn’t as emotionally invested, of course. I
pause as it suddenly occurs to me that maybe he actually is just as
emotionally invested as I am. It couldn’t have been that easy to
realize that his mom is trying to kill his own kind and it
definitely couldn’t have been easy to go against all that he was
taught growing up. Clearly, I’m not being as considerate as he is,
but it’s just so hard to trust him. For all I know, this could be
another part of his ploy. I try and think of other ways I can save
my mom. I can’t contact the police because what would they say if I
told them that my mom is being held captive on an invisible island?
If I involve Ashley—no—I don’t want to involve Ashley and endanger
her life, too.

“
I’ll go pick up some
clothes for you now,” he says through the door. “I should be back
in a few hours.”