Chapter 15
Anthony is still speeding down the road, but I don’t care as much about his reckless driving as I do about my mom.
“Do you know for a fact that Olaf has my mom?”
His lips press together, turning them white.
My phone rings again and I see that it’s Ashley calling. I answer it, but before I manage to say hello, Anthony hits the phone out of my hand so it bounces off the inside of the windshield, slides across the dashboard over to Anthony’s side and falls onto the floor.
All reason tells me that I should be afraid that Anthony will do something harmful to me, but the only thing I feel is anger—that and extreme fear for my mom’s safety.
“Are you crazy? That was Ashley calling me back to let me know how my mom is doing!” I say.
“If you sent Ashley over to your house, trust me, that wasn’t her calling you back.” The light in front of us turns yellow, and then red, but Anthony keeps going.
I’m going to die. “She wasn’t going to go inside the house, just check to see if my mom was home,” I fume sarcastically.
Anthony pauses, his eyes shifting, but he remains silent.
“Why wouldn’t that be her calling me from her phone anyway?”
Anthony takes a sharp right into a small side-road and keeps speeding down the cracked asphalt street. Shabby-looking pine trees and bushes zoom by in a flash. “Because if Olaf’s people managed to get your mother, then they might have captured Ashley, too.”
I wince. “How do you supposedly know about all this? Are you one of his spies? Is that why I dreamt of Olaf the night you visited?” I ask.
He ignores me.
“Anthony, please just answer the question,” I plead.
“My mother and Olaf work together, and…” He stops speaking and he presses his lips together.
“Curse you, Anthony, if you keep any more secrets from me, I swear I’ll never talk to you for as long as I live.”
He slams on the breaks.
I stretch my arms out in front of me to keep from skyrocketing forward. “You’re driving like a maniac!” I reach across Anthony’s lap, grab my phone and jump out of the car as quickly as I can. “I’ll hike home,” I yell, slamming the car door shut.
Anthony comes after me, slamming his car door shut behind him. “Listen to me, Sonia. If you go home, I can guarantee you that you’ll be kidnapped and you’ll never see your mother again.”
“I don’t believe any of your guarantees,” I say, not stopping, but sweeping my hands across my face to catch the tears. “Why do you know about these things Anthony, and why haven’t you told me about them before?” I hate him for it. “I’ll never trust you again.” In all honesty, I think I never will.
“I know you think that now, but please let me explain.”
“As far as I’m concerned, I think you’re a prick and a jerk and a moron and an immoral piece of crap Huldu all rolled into one,” I say. It feels good to get that off my chest.
“I know that’s what you must think of me right now, and I accept that. I should have told you before, but you don’t know how complicated my life is, and how much power my mother has.”
“I don’t care that you have a complicated life. Mine’s worse, way worse, and all I know is that I need to help my mom. She says that her three sisters have gone missing.” I stop and stare at Anthony. “What do you know about that?”
“My mother is the Almighty Huldra and is responsible for their disappearances. She tells Olaf what to do and he does it. I know where he took them and I know what my mother wants to take from you.”
I am taken aback. “Take from me?” I think about my dream where Olaf said that they wanted to educate me, but he hadn’t mentioned that they wanted to take anything from me. I have something they want, but what is it?
“Yes, she sent me to get to know you, but I hadn’t anticipated that I would…actually…” His eyes soften and then blink faster.
“Don’t bother.” I pull off my stiletto heels because they hurt my feet. “Don’t you dare say that you’ve fallen for me, I don’t want to hear it, and I should have known that it was all too good to be true.”
“Sonia…” He touches my hair softly.
“Don’t touch me.” I hit him in the chest as hard as I can and keep walking barefoot on the cracked asphalt road.
He follows me. “I’m really sorry. Honestly. I want to help you. Please let me…?”
“Am I supposed to believe that you’d fight against your own mother?” I hiss.
He nods. “Yes. I know she’s in the wrong, and I don’t want to become like her.”
“Why should I even consider your offer when all you have been to me is a liar and a jerk? You can’t possibly expect me to trust you!” I have stopped again. Should I consider his offer? No. Yes. No.
“Because I know where your mother is, and I know how we can get her and the others back.”
I pause and step onto the grass as the hot asphalt is starting to burn my bare feet.
“Let me take you to my place,” Anthony says.
“Oh, no, do you think I’m that stupid, that I’d willingly enter the lion’s den?” I say. “Your crazy mom is there.”
“She’s not there. She’s on Wraithsong Island and she won’t return until…” Anthony stops talking and looks me in the eyes.
“Until…?”
“Until she either has what she wants from you, or they’re all dead,” he says.
All my strength leaves me. My mom—dead? My dad’s death tore a hole out of my heart, and that hole is still there—raw and bleeding—nearly as empty as it was eighteen months ago. I can’t go through losing another parent; the loss would kill me.
“I know you don’t trust me right now, but I can help you. I want to help you,” Anthony says.
I hunch down, clench my knees in my arms and bury my face in my knees. Is this a nightmare? I hope so, because then I’ll wake up and it will all be over.
“Why does it have to be you?” I lament. “Of all the people who can help me, it has to be the guy who’s lied to me, who just a moment ago was on the enemy side, and who…” I don’t say it out loud, but I think, the first guy I’ve ever fallen for. I clench my teeth. He must never find out. He will never find out.
“Sonia, I know my words probably don’t mean much to you at the moment, but I promise you that I’ll never let you down again.”
“You’re exactly right, but I’m forced to depend on you, aren’t I?” I stand up and head back to his car, crying all the way. Back in the car, I take a deep breath and call Ashley back.
“Hey, what happened?” Ashley says when she answers.
I have to lie. “Sorry, just bad reception.”
“Okay, so your mom’s car is in the driveway, and the lights are on. I don’t see her inside though, but she could be sleeping or watching TV. Have you heard back from her yet?” Ashley says.
“Yes.” I hate lying to my best friend, but I don’t have a choice. “It was nothing really, she had accidentally set off the alarm and forgotten the code.”
“She mentioned Olaf?”
I have to come up with a story—quick. “Yeah, he’s a distant relative that she thought might be coming to visit or something and she hates him.”
“Oh, so everything’s good then?” Ashley sounds half relieved, half annoyed.
I peer over at Anthony, who has just gotten into the car, my eyes seething with fury. “Yeah, and the date was awesome! You’re going to love Anthony once you really get to know him.” I find it hard not to let sarcasm inundate my voice. “The emergency is taken care of, anyway. You know how my mom can be a little melodramatic sometimes.”
“Yeah, that’s true. Okay, well, I guess I’ll see you at school tomorrow then,” Ashley says.
“Yes, have a good night and thanks for checking on my mom.”
“Anytime.” Ashley hangs up the phone.
I drop my hands into my lap and look at them be
cause I don’t want to look Anthony in the eyes. “What am I supposed to do? The prom’s on Friday, Graduation’s on Saturday, my birthday’s on Sunday, and I’m supposed to go to Kensington next week.”
“We just have to wait until we hear from—Maureen,” Anthony says.
“Are you trying to distance yourself from your mom by calling her by her first name and not ‘Mother?’ That’s stupid.”
“You know, you could be a little bit more sensitive to me. This isn’t exactly easy for me either,” he says.
I feel a small tinge of guilt, but not enough to wipe away even a millionth of the pain he has caused me.
“It’s not as though you were exactly honest with me either,” Anthony says. “I could tell that you were trying to use your Huldra vibes on me so that you could control me.”
“They’re called Huldra flairs, Anthony. Didn’t your mother teach you anything? And what I did to you is nothing compared to what you’ve done to me. I was trying to get you to confess so we could be open about it, but you were leading me on and….”
“This isn’t going anywhere.” Anthony’s hand hits his temple. “Do you want to work on this together or not?”
“Yes, but only because I’m forced to,” I sulk.
“Okay, but can we act a little more civilized toward each other, please?” he says softly.
I don’t want to, but I know that we don’t need the distraction of our relationship gone bad while I’m trying to save my mom’s life. “Sure. I’ll try,” I say.
“That was convincing,” he says sarcastically.
“Okay, I’ll do it,” I say stronger. “But don’t expect anything other than civility from me.” And barely even that.
“Deal,” Anthony says.
“No, it’s not a deal. It’s a compromise.” I need to be right.
“Call it what you like, but it’s a deal nonetheless.”
Why does he always have to have the last word?