Wraithsong (34 page)

“
No. Last night I quit
exploring after my incident with the—beast. I didn’t want to meet
him again.” I punch him softly on the shoulder, and then stroke it
instead. “Before I ran into the beast, Olaf broke into my room in
the middle of the night.” Shivers go through my body as I remember
Olaf’s disturbing eyes on me.

“
I wonder why Maureen put
up with Olaf. He has always been a backstabber,” Anthony
says.

“
You know, they all said
some pretty bad stuff about you.” I trace the inside of his arm
with my fingertips. “Even Maureen.” I don’t want to hurt him, but I
feel he deserves to know the truth.

“
Did you believe them?”
Anthony sounds calm, but I detect something that almost sounds like
insecurity in his voice.

For a moment he looks much
younger than he is, and completely vulnerable. I think of Anthony
and all he must have endured as a child to be raised by Maureen.
She probably used him to promote and execute her devious plans. I
see him as a little boy in my mind’s eye, searching for love from
his mother, but never finding it. He must have loved her, must have
searched for love there, but instead of the love of a mother, he
found a person who only wanted to use him. He was only of value as
long as he served Maureen’s purposes.

“
I thought about some of
their claims, because they seemed credible. But in the end—no—I
didn’t believe them.”

“
Good, because they were
lies to try and drive a wedge between us and to break up the Huldra
Dynasty.” He leans down and presses his salty lips against mine. I
run my fingers through his wet hair, tugging at it
gently.

I know in my heart that
he’s speaking the truth. I wrap my arms around his bare waist, and
something occurs to me. He’s completely naked. I pull away, feeling
slightly awkward, yet slightly thrilled. “So—where are your
clothes?” I try not to blush.

The corner of Anthony’s
lips twitches and for a moment he appears self-conscious.
“Well—it’s not exactly easy to carry around clothing when I turn
into a beast.”

“
I can understand that,” I
say.

“
When I figured out that
I’d be completely—in the nude after I changed back from my demon
self, I threw a few bags of clothes onto shore and into the bushes
back there.” He points. “Do you mind?”

“
Sure, I’ll go get it.” I
turn to face the shore, but Wraithsong Island has disappeared and
only miles and miles of ocean remain. I look back at
Anthony.

“
The instant you step off
the island, it becomes invisible. We can only see it and locate it
from underneath the ocean’s surface. If you get my shorts first, I
can show you.”

“
Okay.”

“
Just walk straight forward
and you will see the island once your feet touch the
land.”

I follow his instructions
and then, suddenly out of nowhere, I see the island in front of me.
I gasp a little and then continue to search the bushes for
Anthony’s bag. Once I find it, I toss it to him and turn away to
give him privacy.

“
Can I show you the island
beneath the surface?” he asks.

I turn around and wade
back into the water all the way back to him. When he takes my hand
and pulls me with him, I resist. “I—I’m not used to swimming
under
water.”

He smiles. “You’re in for a
surprise then. Remember when I went through the Book of Huldras and
mentioned environmental adaptation?”

I nod faintly. “Are you
sure I won’t drown?”

“
Absolutely. Unless you’re
not a Huldra, that is—”

“
Very funny,” I splash
water on him.

Anthony shields himself by
lifting his hands in front of his face. “When you submerge under
water, hold your breath, and your body will do the rest,
okay?”

I grab his arm. “Wait, I’m
scared. What if it doesn’t work?”

“
Well, we’ll be submerged
under water right here until you feel comfortable. You can always
just stand up.”

“
Will it hurt?” I
ask.

“
I’m not going to lie. The
first time you breathe under water it hurts. You’ll need to hold
your breath until your lungs start burning, and then your air
passages will open. That will be painful, and you’ll feel like your
skin is being ripped apart, but only for a moment.”

I wince. “Okay, I’m just
going to do it.” The less I think about it, the easier it will be.
I inhale and submerge my whole body into the water and when I open
my eyes, I see Anthony’s smiling face right in front of
me.

My lungs start burning
after a little while, and I want to inhale, but I resist because
I’m determined to make this happen on the first try. My lungs burn
more and I exhale. Then my lungs burn even more, and just when I
think I won’t be able to hold my breath for a second longer, it
feels like my skin rips apart on my back. The pain is unbelievable,
and I scream under the water. I want to look back to see if there
is blood seeping out of my skin, but find strength in Anthony’s
gaze. Finally, the release comes with cool water being sucked up
underneath my skin, and I take my very first breath under water
with my newborn air passages.

Anthony swims around me,
moving effortlessly as if he has done this his entire life. He
kisses my lips and hugs me close. His eyes look fluorescent blue in
the water and his skin is smooth beneath my fingertips.

I find myself moving deeper
and deeper beneath the waves with Anthony, down to the bottom of
the ocean floor. Fish, eel, jellyfish, shrimp and even a whale swim
below the surface. There are red, gray and blue corals on the ocean
floor and the sunbeams sparkle through the waves overhead, creating
a light spectacle on the sandy bottom.

Anthony takes my hand and
we swim away from Wraithsong Island. I swim much faster than I
thought I could; it’s as if the resistance of the water is no
longer a hindrance. When we gain some distance he turns us around
and points.

I see the bottom of
Wraithsong Island. The island’s base floats under the water,
hovering above the ocean floor, and now I understand. We can see
the island clearly from the bottom, and that’s how he had found
me.

Anthony pulls me up to the
surface, and I start breathing through my mouth.

“
Look over there,” he says,
still pointing. Wraithsong Island is invisible on the
surface.

He kisses me again, pulling
me beneath the soft swaying waves. We swim back to the shore hand
in hand. Along the way I marvel at how much life there is beneath
the ocean. The surface of the water seems so quiet—so dead—but
beneath it is a whole other world, secretly resting, quietly
hiding.

When we finally arrive back
at the island, we walk toward it hand in hand.

Chapter 36

After Anthony is fully
dressed, we sit on the shore with our feet still in the ocean so he
won’t morph back into the beast. It’s so beautiful out here, as if
we have entered another world.

I lean my head onto his
shoulder. “I have a question.” I hope it’s not
inappropriate.

“
Yes?”

“
Why does Maureen keep
changing her hair style and color?”

Anthony thinks for a
moment. “It’s nothing other than a twisted form of self-expressions
that she considers a symbol of power.”

“
Power?” I ask.

“
A
primitive creed states that owning hair from another's head gives
one power over that individual. Maureen took it a step further and
killed every person she appropriated virtues from, thinking that by
wearing their hair she’d have their powers.”

I squirm. “That’s…messed
up.”

Anthony stares into the
distance and his countenance darkens. “I see it as a sign of her
weakness and her inner instability. Her beauty is only
skin-deep—only superficial and ever-changing. She can love no one
because she’s always hunting for the next being she can manipulate
and use for her purposes.”

I get the feeling he’s
talking about his own relationship with her. He has never felt
loved by his mom, never felt unconditional love at all. Even his
dad was evil, and though he left Anthony, Anthony still yearns
after some form of affection. He must be a very strong soul to have
turned away from his parents’ ways and choose to do what is right.
I kiss him on the cheek.

“
What was that for?” he
asks.

“
Because you’re
amazing.”

“
You still believe that,
even after you know who I am?”

“
I know that.” I take a
deep breath and lean my head on his shoulder again and we sit in
silence for some time. “I overheard Maureen and Olaf talking about
my fifth Huldra gift.”

“
And?”

“
She called it the gift of
Cherubo. Do you know what that means?”

“
No,” Anthony
says.

“
She made it sound like it
was something special.”

“
Then it probably
is.”

“
So what do we do
now?”

“
If you decide to stay
here, you need to try to create allies, and of course look for your
mother at night,” Anthony says.

Allies. I hadn’t thought
about that, but it could come in handy down the road. “I need to
stay. I’m convinced my mom’s somewhere inside the castle and I want
to keep looking for her.” I think about his suggestion to create
allies some more and then say, “I think I’ll try to make a friend
out of Layla.”

He takes my hand and kisses
it.

“
How will I get the message
to you if I find my mom?” I say.

“
I’ll come back and wait
for you right here every night. If you don’t come, I’ll know that
you haven’t found your mother,” he says.

There needs to be an easier
solution to our communication. “Can’t you just give me a cell phone
or something?”

“
I’m afraid Maureen’s radar
is linked to the advanced computer system at the castle and will
pick up on our signals. When I was roaming around the island, I saw
several towers. That’s how she knew I started working against her,
remember? She intercepted our calls.”

That reminds me of my
tracking device. “Maureen told me she implanted a tracking device
into my body, but I don’t know where.”

“
Oh.” Anthony sounds like
he thinks it’s a very bad thing. “It would have been inserted
through your nose. She does that to most of her
prisoners.”

I cringe. “No wonder I
haven’t been able to find an incision.” Now that I think about it,
I have felt rather congested since I got here, but I just assumed
it was my body reacting to a change in the environment.

“
She probably headed here
the second you crossed into the water. We need to make a plan
before she comes.”

I don’t want our time to be
over so soon. I instinctively intertwine my arm with
his.

“
Once you’ve located your
mother, meet me at the shore at sunset,” Anthony says.

“
No good. Maureen has me
studying until late at night and there’s no way she’ll let me out
of it.”

Anthony thinks for a
second. “How about…at midnight?”

“
Or we could do sunrise,
since Maureen doesn’t have me starting classes until nine o’clock
in the morning. That way, if I find my mom during the night, I can
notify you,” I say.

“
Good thinking.”

I smile. It isn’t the best
plan, but at least it is a plan for now. “What’s the strategy after
that?”

“
We move in with all the
Huldras and Lightálfars and attack,” Anthony says.

“
Good. Do any of the other
Huldras…morph into monsters?” I ask.

“
I hope not because when
turning into the beast, I can’t use weapons,” Anthony
says.

I gaze out onto the open
sea. The azure sky is spotted with hundreds of fluffy clouds. “So
how many Huldras showed up?”

“
All nine.” Anthony looks
pleased, his eyes beaming. “The last one arrived just before I came
today, and Ross is training them this very second. Let me tell you,
these Huldras can handle their weapons! Most of them look like kids
in a candy shop when they see the guns we have.”

I laugh. “So thirteen
Huldras, three Lightálfars and a mulatto against—?” I
say.

“
Ha, ha, is the mulatto
you, then?” Anthony says.

I grin and a chuckle
escapes my lips. “I guess we both fit under that category—mixed
breeds.”

Anthony is silent for a
while. “We don’t know how many beings Maureen has, but there’s at
least one less since this morning,” he says, referring to
Olaf.

I still feel a pang of
guilt when I think about Olaf’s death. Anthony killed someone, and
even though Olaf was a cruel Huldu, he shouldn’t have lost his
life. What will I say to Layla and Maureen? I’ll just have to tell
them the truth. At least Layla knows about the beast, since I told
her about it last night. I wonder if she knows that the beast is
Anthony and that’s the reason she said I shouldn’t mention it to
Maureen.