Wraithsong (28 page)

“
Answer the stupid
question, woman,” Ross says, pressing the barrel harder against her
head.

“
I—I—can’t think with that
thing pointed to my head.” My mom cowers.

“
Mom, just focus, you can
do this. What was Dad’s favorite song? It was the song you played
at your twentieth wedding anniversary party, remember?” My eyes
focus on her. Surely she can remember?

“
The song was—” my mom
pauses, looking confused. The air in the room feels as thick as
sand, and I think for a moment that it has darkened, but my mom
still doesn’t name the song. Instead, she changes from my mom to
someone else, a being with silver hair, black eyes and rich
chocolate skin. She grabs Ross’s hand, twists it and shoots five
bullets into one of the windows facing Central Park. The window
explodes open, sending gusts of wind through the room. The
Darkálfar kicks Ross hard enough to make him fly across the room
into the stainless steel kitchen. He lands with a crash and then
the Darkálfar grabs me by the hand and tries to pull me with her
out the window.

“
No!” Anthony yells,
clutching my hand and pulling me back—but his grip is weak compared
to the strength of the Darkálfar.

My heart races, and then it feels like it
stops completely when I fly out the window. I’m falling to my
death, clinging onto my enemy for dear life. I see Anthony reaching
for me as I plunge towards the ground, shattered glass falling with
us. Sounds of the city in the distance and people screaming below
us are all that I hear.

“
Sovn,
sovn
,” the Darkálfar says as she moves her
free hand in a circular motion in front of my face. Everything goes
black.

Chapter 30

I wake up abruptly to
someone brushing my nose with something that smells god-awful. I
try to reach for my nose to push the smell away, but my arms are
bound to a flat surface below me. In fact, my whole body is bound.
Shaking my head to try to get away from the stinging odor, I open
my eyes. Bright lights that shine from several angles around me
blind me.

“
Hello Sonia,” a woman says
in a deep, pacifying voice. “Welcome to Wraithsong
Island.”

I don’t recognize the woman
working on me. She’s tall and slender with short red hair, similar
to the hair of a 1920’s flapper, and her eyes are a light green. I
remember what happened before I lost consciousness and I’m
surprised that I’m still alive and feel no pain in my body. Surely,
falling from the hotel window must have caused some
damage?

“
Maureen will be here
shortly. I apologize for the restrictive braces. We’ll be releasing
you momentarily,” the woman says.

“
Where’s my mom?” I
yell.

“
Don’t concern yourself
with that right now.” The woman disappears behind the blaring
lights.

The lights turn off, and I
can barely see anything. When my eyes finally adjust to the dimness
in the room, I see that I’m in a large cave with a built-in
computer system. To the right is some sort of a white shabby-chic
sitting area and a garage-type door is to the left. Footsteps
approach and I know by the heavy perfume that suddenly fills the
air that it’s Maureen.

“
Welcome, Sonia. I
apologize for the bumpy ride you had to go through to get here,”
Maureen says. “How are you feeling, dear?”

I do a double take because
Maureen’s hair isn’t at all the same as it was the first time I met
her at her house. Now it’s blonde and wavy and almost reaches to
her waist, making her look about five years younger.

“
Seriously?” I say. “I
almost get killed, my mom’s life is on the line and I’m imprisoned
by a crazy Huldra. How do you think I feel?” The fear I feel inside
is feeding my rage, but I’m not going to let Maureen know how
afraid and weak I am, so I feign strength.

“
I see that you’re fully
awake. Our intention isn’t to harm you or imprison you, but to
educate you,” Maureen says, her voice as cool and calm as a rainy
winter day in Sarasota.

“
I don’t care what your
intentions are. Why am I strapped to this table?” I flex my muscles
and try to break free, but trying to escape is useless.

“
You’re on the table
because we implanted a tracking device in your body. The device
acts as a type of insurance for you—and for me.” She hovers over me
as if trying to read my mind and my body. Being in her presence
makes my skin crawl. “If you leave the island, the device will let
us know where you are at all times,” she says.

“
How dare you meddle with
my body?” I fume, feeling completely violated.

“
Enough
of the questions—I’m tired of wasting time.” Her lips rise upward
at the edges, but her smile is far from friendly. “Let’s get down
to business. I’m going to give you two choices, Sonia, and I’m
going to make the choice very simple, so even a
new
Huldra can
understand. The first choice is to let us educate you as a Huldra,
teach you the genuine ways of the Ancient Huldra Dynasty and the
way Huldras were
supposed
to be educated. The alternative choice is death
by lethal injection.”

The two choices are
ridiculous and I don’t want to choose either of them. “Why would
you want to educate
me
? I would just use what I’ve learned against you.”

“
I’m a very patient person,
as you will find, Sonia, but even I have my limits so please stop
stalling and just answer the question.” Maureen’s eyes search
mine.

“
I don’t see that there’s
really a choice here,” I say. “So I choose life and to be educated
by you.”

“
What a smart little Huldra
girl you are. I shall send Layla in to release you and take you to
your room. Please refrain from doing anything stupid, or it will be
so much worse for you.” Maureen exits through a copper door beyond
the sitting area.

“
Help!” I yell, even though
I know it’s a complete waste of my energy. If I’m on Wraithsong
Island, inside a cave, who will look for me here? No one except for
Anthony and the Lightálfars, but even Anthony admitted to not
knowing where the island was located. I want to cry, but instead
curse myself for not listening to Anthony and Ross. They knew the
truth and I didn’t listen. I felt so confident that I could tell my
mom apart from a crazy shape-shifting Darkálfar, or whatever that
being was, but apparently I was wrong.

As quietly as a cat, Layla
comes to my bedside. “I’m going to partially paralyze your limbs,”
she says with a smile. “It won’t hurt too much. Just an initial
shock, and then you’ll feel just like your usual self again.
Ready?” She holds up two metal objects that resemble
defibrillators.

“
Don’t you dare!” I say,
but then the shock comes without another warning, a hundred bolts
of lightning radiate through my body at once. I let out a shriek as
my body arches in pain, my muscles involuntarily tensing up and
shaking. Calmness, then numbness overcomes me, and everything feels
pain-free again. Layla unbuckles the white leather straps that
fasten me to the metal tabletop, and though I try to lift my arms,
I can’t move them at all.

“
Up with you,” Layla says,
pulling me to a sitting position. Sitting up, I notice that I feel
extremely congested. “Now don’t fall over.” She stabilizes me for a
moment. “Are you good?” She leaves me for a second to pick
something up off the gray concrete floor.

I don’t respond—I can’t
respond.

Layla edges back to my
side, takes my arm and wraps it around her neck. Then she lifts me
to a standing position and steadies me with her other arm. “Ready
to walk?” She seems so unaffected by my suffering, as if this is
something she does on a daily basis to make the time go
by.

“
I can’t…move…my legs,” I
say with a drugged voice.

“
Come on, put one foot in
front of the other. The numbness will go away in a few minutes.”
Layla kicks my legs forward. “Maybe I overdid it a
little.”

I think I hear her laugh at
me, but I can’t be sure because everything sounds muffled and
distorted. The room spins and I have to close my eyes to keep from
falling over. Finally my eyes start working again and I open
them.

When we arrive at the same
door Maureen just exited, I see that a gargoyle’s face protrudes
from the center of it, and that vine and leaf designs cover the
door’s shiny surface. Then we take a right into a medieval-looking
hallway. Flat, but slightly irregular rocks pave the floor and the
walls, and the rounded ceiling has heavy oak beams below the arches
every ten feet or so. Clear glass cylinder-shaped lamps hang down
from the ceiling. The doors are made of the same copper material
and have the same gargoyle design as the first one.

Some strength creeps back
into my limbs now, but I still need Layla’s support to walk. I
wonder if I have the strength in the arm wrapped around Layla’s
shoulder to put her in a headlock and strangle her. I
don’t.

“
This is your room,” Layla
says. It’s about four times as large as my room at home. A
queen-size bed with green linen sheets and a white and black floral
blanket dress the bed and an ancient-looking desk with a modern
office chair stands at the far end of the room in front of the
barred-in window. On the walls hang paintings of forests and
valleys, which are clearly visible this time of night because of
the four wall lamps that shine brightly, illuminating the otherwise
dark gray room. Layla helps me to get on the bed.

“
Hey, sorry again about the
abrupt fall from the hotel. We just needed to get you here pronto
before those delinquents could do any more damage to your
impressionable mind.”

“
That was you?” I
ask.

“
Yes,” she says.

“
But, you
don’t look like…” Then I remember that Darkálfars can shape-shift.
“Why are you apologizing to me? You’re keeping me here against my
will and are forcing me to give up my—” I think
fifth Huldra gift
, but
don’t say it out loud, figuring I should keep as much information
to myself as possible. I’m thoroughly confused—something I’ve been
a lot lately, I realize.

“
Sonia,
you need to know the truth and the truth is that Anthony is not who
he says he is and neither are Ross or Skuld or Mani.
They
are the Darkálfars
and we are the Lightálfars, and Maureen just wants you to be free,”
she says.

Does she really think I’m
going to believe that load of lies? “You’re lying! Why did you
shape-shift to my mom then and kidnap me?”

“
I thought it was the only
way I could get you to come with me without a fight. I hadn’t
anticipated that you’d actually want to stay with
Anthony.”

I don’t care about her
explanations. “Why do you have my mom imprisoned then? And me?” I
ask.

“
We don’t have your mom;
Anthony has your mom and he’s the one who wants you to believe that
we have your mom. Really, think about it. Do you have any proof
that Anthony is who he says he is? He’s the only one you have had
contact with in the past week and I’m afraid he’s done a great job
brainwashing you.” Layla sits down on the bed next to me. She tucks
her short, red hair behind her ears. “He was supposed to bring you
to us, but instead, he made up his own plans.”

“
Then why
are
you
using a taser on me, and implanting objects into my body?” I
ask.

“
We’re keeping you here for
your own safety, and the tracking device is so that if Anthony or
any of the other Darkálfars get hold of you again, we can find you
more quickly,” Layla says.

“
I don’t need protection
from Anthony because he was helping me find my mom,” I say. “He’s
my…friend.” I’m not going to let her in on the fact that we are
more than just friends.

Layla pauses, studying my
face. “Oh, no, I recognize that look. You have fallen for him,
haven’t you?”

“
He’s my
friend.”

“
You can’t fool me. I’ve
seen it a hundred times. He didn’t seduce you—did he?” She makes a
face like it’s the worst thing that I could have done.

“
What?” I’m
outraged.

“
Let me put it more
bluntly. Did you sleep with Anthony?” Layla asks, her full lips
frowning. Then her lips pinch together and she gets a look in her
face just like my mom does when she’s angry with me.

“
That’s none of your
business,” I say.

“
Listen
up, spring chick. If Anthony didn’t sleep with you, I can guarantee
you that he’s
not
interested in you, so there’s no need to defend
him or stay loyal to him. He has had so many lovers that it’s
ridiculous and if he had any feelings for you at all, he would
definitely have had his way with you already. That’s why I’m
asking,” Layla says.

“
Anthony’s not like that, and besides, how would
you
know anything about
him anyway?” I ask.

“
Because I’ve been working
with him for a long time and I know how he rolls. First, you fall
for his intense blue eyes, then his, ‘I think you are special’
comments. Then he tells you that you are the most beautiful being
he had ever seen, and that he couldn’t imagine ever losing one of
the most beautiful creatures that ever walked the
earth.”