Wraithsong (39 page)

“
Stand back, or I’ll
shoot!” Layla’s steel gaze has been replaced with
uncertainty.

Anthony looks at Layla’s
hand. “What’s that on your finger?”

“
What?” Layla says,
glancing fleetingly at her ring before looking back at
Anthony.

“
Where did you get your
ring?” Anthony asks.

“
That’s none of your
concern,” Layla sneers. “Don’t try to distract me—it won’t work.
Step away!”

“
I have an exact match, and
I got it from my father before he left—” Anthony holds up his
finger to show her his ring.

Layla’s eyes widen and she
gasps, but though she’s still pointing her gun at Anthony, now her
aim is wavering.

“
Kill Anthony, Layla! Kill
Hedda!” Maureen darts into the foyer, holding her hand over her
forehead, bleeding heavily from the wound my mom gave her. Two
Darkálfars are right behind her, carrying machine guns. Layla steps
back, refocuses the gun at Anthony, but doesn’t shoot.

“
Shoot them!” Maureen
yells, but when Layla doesn’t shoot, Maureen reaches for Layla’s
gun. Layla wrestles to get it back, and while they are fighting for
the weapon, two shots go off.

“
No!” Anthony yells, but he
isn’t hit and neither is my mom.

Instead, the bullets tear
through my skin, piercing my chest.

Chapter 42

The gunshot wounds in my
chest shriek with pain. I fall to the floor—as if in slow
motion—with a thud, and though Anthony lunges toward me, trying to
break my fall, he doesn’t reach me in time.

“
Sonia!” My mom runs to my
side, her face bent in agonizing expressions.

Just then, Olaf enters the
foyer. “Kill them all!” He’s holding a machine gun in each arm and
fires them into the ceiling, some of the bullets hitting the
chandelier above my head and making the gigantic lamp
jingle.

“
Now the gift of Cherubo
dies with Sonia!” Maureen yells.

“
Cherubo?” My mom’s face,
already gray, goes white.

Again, I wonder what the
gift of Cherubo is, but the pain in my chest overwhelms me so that
I have a difficult time thinking of anything else.

Then, unexpected to all,
the front doors swing open and Skuld, Mani and Ross enter, and
behind them there are nine Huldras. They look like a professional
female SWAT team with their assault weapons aimed and ready to fire
at anyone who dares move. Their faces are painted with black and
red rune symbols and they’re all wearing green camouflage attire,
except for Skuld who’s in white and Ross and Mani who are in
black.

Skuld, Ross and Mani
immediately go after Maureen and Olaf, who are firing aggressively
at the newcomers. I think the Huldras and Lightálfars might be
wearing bulletproof vests underneath their clothes, because none of
them fall to the floor when they’re hit.

The room has been
transformed to a whirlwind of splintering wood, smoke and
screaming, harsh voices. I see heavy objects go flying through the
air—the baby grand piano, vases, tables, and chairs. The
Lightálfars are using their anti-gravity powers. I see beasts from
the corner of my eye, ones I’ve never seen before. They resemble
werewolves and chimeras with lion heads and snake-tails. The
Darkálfars are shape-shifting.

This isn’t exactly how I
envisioned I’d die—lying down while everyone is fighting around me.
I look into Anthony’s eyes, but all I can feel is a burning,
throbbing pain in my chest and I capture from the expressions in
Anthony’s face that he fears for my life. The room sounds like a
full battlefront now with shots going off, fights in full force,
and the sound of glass breaking, but I only see Anthony and I
believe he only sees me.

“
Anthony! Don’t let me
die!” I realize I’ll never get to be with Anthony, never get to see
where our relationship might lead, and I’ll leave my mom all alone.
Now she’ll have no one, and my Huldra gift? I’ll never receive
that; it will be lost to the world.

Anthony caresses my face.
“Don’t leave me, Sonia, please don’t leave me.” I see a desperate
man in front of me, one who cares for me and will do anything in
his power not to lose me. “You can have my life, Sonia,” Anthony
says. “I’ll give you my life so you can live.”

“
No,” I say softly, my
breath staggering. “That would be worse than me dying.” I cough, my
chest burning with each jolt. My face twists because of the intense
pain and though I try to resist my body from convulsing, there’s
nothing I can do to control it. “Anthony, Mom—” Tears fill my eyes;
fear floods my heart.

“
I wanted to tell you—”
Anthony says.

“
What?” I say. “What?
Anthony—?” I cough something up—blood. Death is but an exhale away
from where I am.

“
I loved you—from the
moment I met you,” he says.

“
No,” I cough. “Don’t say
it.” Dying will only be so much worse.

“
Sonia, Sonia, don’t you
die on me, don’t you do this to me!” My mom’s hands fumble across
my body. I hear the same panicking tone in my mom’s voice as when
my dad died that horrible day on the highway when we had all been
there. It’s like reliving my worst nightmare, but this time, I’m
the one to die. I’m the victim. I’ll be the one my mom mourns for
years to come.

“
Can someone turn back
time? Turn back the time, Skuld! Before she dies!” Anthony rises to
his feet and clutches Skuld’s white collar. Her gun drops to the
floor as he shakes her roughly.

Skuld cradles Anthony’s
face between her hands and looks compassionately into his eyes. He
calms down when she nods. “Let’s do it now, before any more time
passes.”

Suddenly a flash of light
blinds me and we’re back to the quiet before the Huldras and the
Lightálfars entered. I’m alive and well and when I check my chest,
there’s no blood or wound at all. Anthony is holding his ring up to
show Layla and in an instant I remember what happened and what
comes next so I need to act quickly before I get shot. The others
certainly remember what happened too—even Maureen, Layla and
Olaf.

“
Shoot!” Maureen yells.
When Layla doesn’t shoot, Maureen grabs the gun from Layla, but
this time Layla punches Maureen in the face before she’s able to
fire. The gun tumbles to the floor, several feet away. A Darkálfar
picks it up and aims it toward us and we lift our hands up in
surrender.

Just then Olaf enters the
foyer. “Here we are again. What great fun to be able to kill Sonia
twice! Thank you for the gift, Skuld! Now, like I said before, kill
them all!” His machine guns shoot at random into the ceiling and
chandelier and a slew of Darkálfars stream into the foyer, coming
from behind him. It looks like they had a better chance to plan the
second time.

Anthony pulls me to him and
we hunch to the floor. He envelops my body in his, protecting me
from the rain of bullets.

“
Cease fire!” Maureen yells
standing up. “Don’t kill Sonia! She has the gift of Cherubo, and we
must take it from her before she dies.”

“
I’ll never give you my
gift!” I spew.

“
You don’t have to give it
to me anymore. I’ve found a way to extract it,” Maureen
says.

I look at Anthony and then
my mom to see their reaction, but they look just as surprised as I
am. Could it be true that she can extract my gift?

Just then the doors to the
foyer fling open and the Huldras and Lightálfars storm in, just
like they did before. The Darkálfars immediately open fire at the
newcomers, but, again, none of them fall to the floor when they’re
hit.

Maureen grabs my hair,
pulling me with her. “Olaf, give me a gun and follow me. You, too,
Lars and Morten.” Olaf throws Maureen a gun and she catches it and
points it to the back of my skull. Aiming their weapons toward the
Huldras, my mom, Layla and Anthony, Olaf and the two Darkálfars
come after Maureen, preventing anyone from following. While Maureen
drags me up the stairs, I try to look for Anthony through all the
smoke and flying debris, but I don’t see him anywhere. Maureen
forces me up all the way to the third floor. Even up here, I hear
shots going off and large objects being flung across the room,
landing with a crash.

Maureen opens a French
door situated to the left, pulling me with her. The room is large
and square with three floral couches placed in the shape of
a
U
around an
almond-colored ottoman. The large fireplace is made of limestone
and has twin dragonheads facing inward, and there are also a few
tables and chairs placed throughout the room. The ceiling moldings
look like vine and serpents intertwined, and the closed hunter
green curtains keep the sunlight out.

Once inside with the
Darkálfars, Olaf bars the door shut with a steel beam. Maureen
flings me down to the marble floor, opens a copper chest, and lifts
out a crystal vial containing clear liquid. Olaf points his machine
guns at me, smiling triumphantly, as if he’s already won the
battle.

“
Bring her here,” Maureen
demands.

The two Darkálfars each
grab one of my arms and pull me to my feet. My arms burn where my
wounds are and I grimace in pain.

“
The elixir of death,”
Maureen says. “Once you drink this, you’ll die, and as you die,
you’ll go through a phase where you’re nothing but a human again,
susceptible to all manner of appropriations.” She smiles
maliciously.

“
Before Olaf died, he tried
to steal my gift,” I blurt out, hoping I can start an argument
between them.

Olaf squeezes his lips
together and looks at me, his eyeballs oozing hatred. If Maureen
weren’t here, I’d be worrying about him killing me right at this
moment.

But Maureen doesn’t even
bat an eyelash. “I’m not so gullible to believe such nonsense.
You’ll never understand the loyalty that exists between us, for
you’ve never experienced it. Olaf will be loyal to the end, and
I’ll reward him handsomely.”

Olaf nods to Maureen as if
he agrees with her statement.

“
The gift isn’t rightfully
yours,” I say. “It’s my gift.”

“
I never received my fifth
Huldra gift, and the gift of Cherubo was supposed to come to me,
not you!”

“
You
are
evil, and you were after my gift the whole time.”

“
No! You
are after
my
gift! That’s the truth!” Maureen yells.

Suddenly, I hear a loud
banging noise coming from the door, and then there is a series of
gunshots. “Sonia, we’re coming for you!” Anthony shouts.

“
Anthony!” I yell, looking
in the direction of the exit.

Maureen walks over to me
and squeezes my cheeks together so my lips part, trying to force
the elixir down my throat. Before she does, I pull my head back and
bash it against hers, right on her head wound from where my mom
bashed her with the vase. Maureen screams in agony and drops the
crystal vial so it shatters into hundreds of pieces on the marble
floor. Red smoke rises from the fluid and smells like a mixture of
smoke and blood.

“
I can just end the poor
Huldra’s life, if it pleases you,” Olaf says, eyeing
Maureen.

“
You should know better
than to bring up such a foolish suggestion,” Maureen replies, blood
streaming down her face. Olaf hands her a napkin and she presses it
against her wound.

“
Anthony will come for me,”
I say.

“
This door here and these
walls here,” Maureen points to them without taking her eyes off me,
“are bullet-proof, hurricane-safe, and are reinforced with elven
steel, the strongest steel in all the nine realms. Your chances of
escaping are zero, so you might as well accept that you’ll die
today. The less you resist, the less painful it will be for you.
Lay her on the couch,” she instructs the Darkálfars. They throw me
onto one of the couches and I scream as they pin me down, feeling
my wounds reopen and blood running down my arms.

“
Anthony will find a way,”
I say, but inwardly I panic, thinking he won’t get to me soon
enough.

Maureen approaches me again
with a new vial in hand and pops off the crystal lid. “I had plenty
of these made, just in case I needed to do this again. Initially, I
didn’t want to kill you, Sonia, because you could be such a great
asset to me, but when I saw how ignorant and stubborn you were, I
realized you could never become one of us. It’s probably for the
better that you die, so you don’t need to live out your life
without a Huldra gift of your own. I know how painful it can be,
and to live without your father, and soon, without your mother,
that would just be torture, wouldn’t it?”

She presses the vial up
against my lips, and just as she’s about to tip it up to empty the
elixir into my mouth, I hear a loud crash by one of the windows.
Though I try to look, I can’t see who has entered because they’re
still holding me down.

“
Get him!” Maureen yells to
Olaf. The distraction gives me just enough of a leeway to kick one
of the Darkálfars in the chest and onto the floor. I grab the vial
from Maureen with my one free hand and throw the elixir into the
other Darkálfar’s face, some of it splashing into his mouth. He
screams, grabbing his eyes and lips as if the liquid is burning
them, and he tumbles to the floor, transforming into a cloud of
black smoke. When I see Anthony, relief washes over me. Anthony
shoots Olaf in the leg and I sit up, grab around the back of
Maureen’s head and slam her head into my knee, causing her to fall
to the floor unconscious.