Switched (20 page)

“Yeah, she did. She’s been very helpful,” I smiled.

“Good. I’m glad to hear it.” Garrett looked relieved at that, and I wondered what he’d been expecting me to say. “I know at times she can be a little-” He wagged his head, searching for the right word. “-
Willa
at times, but she means well.”

“I can tell,” I nodded. My first impression had been that she was just a spoiled rich kid, and while that still seemed true, I felt like she had more underneath that, a sincere kindness.

“She’s rude to Finn, but that’s not personal.” He cleared his throat and shifted in his chair. “Well, actually it
is
personal. He was a tracker, and a good one, so he kept her in line. Willa
hates
that. She resents him for it, but she respects him too.”

“Finn seems like he can handle her.” I wanted to defend Finn, but based on his interactions with her, she didn’t really seem to bother him. In fact, in a weird way, I think Finn liked her too.

“That he can,” he nodded. “I’ve been working on her to lighten up on the mänks. Rhiannon in particular. But it’s a work in progress.”

“Why is she so hard on her?” I hadn’t seen Willa talk to Rhiannon much, but what little she did had been filled with jabs and snide remarks, even worse than Aurora’s.

“Rhiannon got to live with me nineteen years before Willa did,” Garrett explained. “Willa’s always been secretly afraid that I preferred Rhiannon over her, but the fact is, while I love Rhiannon, I only have one daughter.”

I had never thought about him loving Rhiannon, or anyone loving the mänsklig left behind. I looked in the direction of the War Room, as if I could see Elora through the wall. I couldn’t imagine her loving anyone.

But the only babies in Trylle society were mänsklig, and at some point, paternal instincts had to take over. Certainly not with everyone, but with some, like Garrett, they had to feel as if the child they raised was their own.

“Do you think Elora loves Rhys?” I asked.

“I think Elora is an incredibly hard woman to get close to,” Garrett allowed carefully, then he smiled at me. “I know she loves you, though.”

“Yeah, I can tell,” I said dryly, unwilling to even think about what he said, let alone believe it. I’d been burned enough by crazy moms already.

“She speaks very fondly of you. When you’re not around, of course,” he gave a small chuckle. Something about the way he said that, I felt a sense of intimacy in it.

I had a flash of an image. Elora sitting at her vanity, wearing a robe, and putting on jewelry. Garrett was behind her, still lying in her bed with the sheets covering him. She made some offhand comment about me being prettier than she expected, and before he could agree, she told him he needed to hurry and get dressed.

I shook my head, clearing it of the thought.

“Are you dating Elora?” I asked directly, even though I already knew the answer.

“I definitely wouldn’t call it dating,” he scoffed and took a long drink. “Let me put it this way: I’m about as close to her as anyone can get. Well, at least anyone can get
now.
”

“Now?” I furrowed my brow. “What do you mean by that?”

“Elora wasn’t always the cool, collected Queen you know and fear.” When he talked, his words came out bitterly, and I wondered how long he’d been seeing her. Had it been while she was married to my father? Or when she was in love with Finn’s father?

“What made her change?” I asked.

“The same thing that makes everyone change: experience.” He turned his glass in his hands, admiring what little liquor he had left.

“What happened to my father?’

“You’re really digging deep, aren’t you?” Garrett cocked an eye at me. “I do not have enough alcohol for this conversation.” He knocked back the rest of it one swallow.

“Why? What happened?” I pressed, leaning forward in my chair.

“It was a very long time ago.” He took a deep breath, still looking down. “And Elora was devastated.”

“She really loved him then?” I still found it weird to believe that she’d loved anyone. She didn’t seem capable of any emotion deeper than anger.

“I honestly don’t know. I didn’t know her that well back then.” Garrett abruptly got up from his chair and walked over to the bar. “My wife was still alive, and we only had a casual acquaintance with the Queen.” He poured himself another drink, keeping his back to me. “If you want to know more about all of this, you’ll have to talk to Elora.”

“She won’t tell me anything.” I sighed and leaned back in the chair.

“Some things are better forgotten,” Garrett mused. He took a long drink, still keeping his back to me, and I realized belatedly I’d upset him.

“Sorry.” I stood up. I didn’t know how to correct the situation, so I thought leaving might be the best way to fix it.

“No need to be sorry,” he shook his head.

“I should get back, anyway.” I edged back towards the door. “Finn is probably looking for me by now.”

“Probably,” Garrett nodded. I’d made it almost out the door when he stopped me. “Princess?” He turned his head to the side, so shadows darkened his profile. “Elora’s hard on you because she’s afraid to care about you. But she’ll fight to the death for you.”

“Thanks,” I mumbled. 

The light in the hallway felt too bright after the dimness of the den. I didn’t know what I’d said that had upset Garrett so much. Maybe bringing up memories of his dead wife. Or maybe reminding him that while Elora couldn’t openly care for him now, she had once, with another man.

I shook my head, clearing it of the confused way Garrett had made me feel. I’m not sure if I could trust the things he said about Elora. I didn’t think he was a liar, but he’d wanted to make me feel better. Convincing me that I had a mother that actually loved me probably would help, but I had long since stopped holding out for that dream.

I found Finn in the front hall, directing several of Elora’s aides with the planning for the ball. He had his back to me, so he didn’t notice me right away. I stood for a moment, just watching him direct and take control. He knew exactly what do with everything, and I couldn’t help but admire him for it.

“Princess.” Finn caught sight of me when he glanced over his shoulder, and he turned fully to me, smiling at me. An aide asked him something, and he gestured vaguely to the dining hall before walking over to me. “How did this morning go?”

“It could’ve been worse,” I shrugged.

“That doesn’t sound promising,” he raised an eyebrow. “But I suppose you’ve earned a bit of a reprieve.”

“A reprieve?” It was my turn to look skeptical.

“Yeah, I thought we’d do something fun for awhile,” Finn smiled.

“Fun?” I remembered yesterday, and his attempts at trying to convincing me his mind-numbing training had been fun. “Do you mean fun fun? Or do you mean looking at pictures for two hours fun? Or Using a Fork 101 fun?”

“Something that at least resembles actual fun,” Finn answered. “Come on.”

17. Jealousy

As Finn led me down a hall to the South wing of the house, I realized that I’d never seen any of this before. When Garrett had teased Elora about this being a palace, he wasn’t kidding. There were so many places I had yet to see. It was astounding.

Finn gestured to a few rooms, pointing out the library, meeting halls where they conducted business, the opulent dining hall where we would hold the dinner on Saturday, and then finally, the ball room.

Pushing open the doors, which seemed to be two stories high, Finn led me into the grandest room I had ever seen. Massive and exquisite, the ceiling seemed to stretch on forever, thanks in part to the fact it was entirely skylight. Gold beams ran across it, holding up glittering diamond chandeliers. The floors were marble, the walls were off-white with gold detailing, and it looked every bit like the ballroom for Disney fairytales.

The decorators had started bringing things in, and stacked chairs and tables leaned up against one of the walls. Table cloths, candlesticks, and all sorts of decorations were piled around them. The only other thing in the room was a white grand piano sitting in the opposite corner. Otherwise, the room was empty, except for Finn and me.

I hated how taken I was with the splendor. I hated it even more that the room was so magnificent, and I looked like I did. My hair was in a messy bun, and my skirt looked too plain. Finn wasn’t exactly dressed to the nines either, but his standard buttoned shirt and dark washed jeans looked much more fitting.

“So what’s the fun part?” I asked, and my voice echoed off the walls.

“Dancing,” Finn’s lip twitched with a smile, and I groaned. “I’ve danced with you before, and I know that it needs some improvement.”

“The slow circles don’t cut it?” I grimaced.

“Unfortunately, no. A proper waltz should be enough, though. If you can master that, you’ll be set for the ball on Saturday,” Finn said.

“Oh no.” My stomach dropped as I just realized something. “I’m going to have to dance with these people, aren’t I? Like strangers and old men and weird handsy boys?” Finn laughed at that, but I wanted to curl up in a ball and die.

“I could lie to you, but to be honest, those are probably the only people that will ask you to dance,” Finn admitted with a wry smirk.

“You are enjoying this more than I’ve ever seen you enjoy anything!” I said, and that only deepened his smile. “Well, I’m glad you find this funny. Me being felt up by complete strangers and tripping all over them. What a great time.”

“It won’t be so bad.” He motioned for me to come over. “Come on. If you learn the basic steps, at least you won’t be tripping over them.”

I sighed loudly and walked over to him. Most of my trepidation about dancing with strangers melted away the instant Finn took my hand in his. It suddenly occurred to me that before I had to dance with them, I got to dance with
him
.

After a few directions from him and a rough start by me, we were dancing. His arm was around me, strong and reassuring. He instructed me to keep my eyes locked on his so I wouldn’t get in the habit of watching my feet while I danced, but I wouldn’t have looked anywhere else anyway. His dark eyes always mesmerized me.

We were supposed to keep a certain distance between our bodies, but I found it impossible. His body nearly pressed against mine, and I was certain we weren’t going as fast as we should, but I didn’t care. I was back in that moment with him, that wonderful one that seemed too impossibly perfect to be real.

“Right, okay.” Finn suddenly stopped and took a step away from me. Disappointed, I let my hands fall to the side. “You’ve got that down pretty well, but there’s going to be music. So you should see how you do with that.”

“Okay?” I said unsurely.

“Why don’t I play the piano, and you count out the steps yourself?” Finn had already started backing away to the piano, and I wondered what I had done wrong that made him stop so suddenly. “That might be a better way for you to learn.”

“Um, okay,” I shrugged uncertainly. “I thought I was doing fine before.”

“We weren’t going fast enough. The music will help you keep time,” Finn said.

I frowned at him, wishing he would just come back and dance with me. Before he had told me I was a terrible dance partner, and maybe that was the problem.

 He sat down at the piano and started playing a beautiful, elaborate waltz. Of course, he could. He could do anything. I just stood there, staring at him, until he directed me to start dancing.

I whirled around on the dance floor, but it definitely wasn’t as fun as it had been with him. In fact, it wasn’t really that fun at all. It might have been if I weren’t trying to figure out what I did wrong that always made Finn back away from me.

It was hard to concentrate on that, though, when Finn kept barking out corrections at me. Funny, he hadn’t noticed any when we had been dancing together.

“Nope, that’s it,” I panted after what felt like an eternity.

My feet and legs were getting sore, and a sheen of sweat covered my body. I had had my fill of dancing for the day, and I sat down heavily on the floor, then leaned back, sprawling out on the cool marble.

“Wendy, it hasn’t even been that long,” Finn insisted.

“Don’t care. I’m out!” I breathed deeply and wiped the sweat from forehead.

“Haven’t you ever worked at anything?” Finn complained. He got up from the piano bench and walked over to me, so he could lecture me up close. “This is important.”

“I’m aware. You tell me every second of every day,” I grumbled.

“I do not.” Finn crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at me.

“This is the hardest I’ve ever worked at anything,” I said, staring back up at him. “Everything else I’ve quit before this, or I never even tried. So don’t tell me I’m not putting effort into this.”

“You’ve never tried harder than this? On anything?” Finn asked incredulously, and I shook my head. “That brother you had never made you do anything?”

“Not really,” I admitted thoughtfully. “He made me go to school I guess. But that’s about it.” Matt and Maggie encouraged me to do many things, but there was very little they actually made me do.

“They spoiled you more than I thought.” Finn looked surprised at that.

“They didn’t spoil me,” I sighed, then quickly amended, “They didn’t spoil me rotten. Not the way Willa was spoiled, and I’m sure a lot of the other changelings were. They just wanted me to be happy.”

“Happiness is something you work for,” Finn pointed out.

“Oh, stop with that fortune cookie crap,” I scoffed. “We worked for it just like anybody else. They were just really careful with me, probably because my mom tried to kill me. It set them up to treat me more gently than they would’ve otherwise.”

“How did your mother try to kill you?” Finn asked, startling me. I hadn’t told him much about it, but he very rarely wanted to talk about my past.

“It was my birthday, and I was being my usual bratty self. I was angry because she’d gotten me a chocolate cake, and I hated it,” I said. “We were in the kitchen, and she snapped. She started chasing after me with this giant knife. She called me a monster, and then she tried to stab me but she just managed to cut my stomach pretty badly. Then my brother Matt rushed in and tackled her, saving my life.”