Chapter 27
I thought that an Epsom salt bath would have helped me relax. But since it’s quiet I keep thinking about my mom and how her life is in the hands of a woman who just a few hours ago killed her own son. Each time I close my eyes, Anthony’s dead body is right there in front of me so I keep them open, even though my eyelids feel heavy. I have to let these images and thoughts go, or I’ll drive myself insane.
After my bath, I put on my pink and white-striped pajama bottoms and a white t-shirt. My worry continues to build when I think about how brutal Maureen’s people are. They would kill us at the blink of an eye with just one order from their leader. My mom must surely be in pain and must fear for her life, and I’m certain she is worried sick about me too. I wish I could communicate with her somehow and tell her that I’m all right. After agonizing for some time, and then beating myself up about it, I go out to sit down next to Anthony. His eyes are still glued to the TV screen.
“Hey, did you notice something strange about the hostess’ aura?” I ask, trying to understand what happened in the Bergdorf Restaurant.
“I noticed that it was darker than normal, but I didn’t think at the time that it was unusual. Darkálfars don’t have auras, so I gave it no second thought,” Anthony says. “I should have, though. It was a stupid mistake on my part.”
“Mani did mention that Darkálfars could make it look like they have auras,” I say.
“Yeah,” Anthony says, clearly not engaging himself in our conversation.
“I’ve been thinking more about this whole gift of mine, and I might as well let Maureen have it. Then she’ll leave us be and she’ll have what she wants, and I get my mom back.”
Anthony’s lips slope downward. “Do you think she’ll stop at your gift? Do you really think she’ll give you your mom back?”
“I—”
His eyes suddenly ignite with anger. “Here’s what she’ll do, Sonia. She’ll kill you, and me, and the other Lightálfars and Huldras, and then she’ll continue her devious appropriations until there’s nothing left to take,” he says bitterly.
Something tells me he’s right. I can’t trust Maureen to do what she says based on my own values or morals, for Maureen has a completely different set of values she lives by. “I just thought that she thinks the way I do, and that she would honor her word, like I would.”
Anthony’s lips narrow and his expression relaxes a little. Placing his hand on my chin, he caresses my lips with his thumb. “That’s why you’re so wonderful. You would do the right thing.”
I kiss his thumb, but he quickly drops his hand. I look at the gold ring on his finger and again notice that the crest looks like a lion holding a Dane ax with goat horns, and around the beast, some type of vine or serpent design. “I meant to ask you before. Where did you get your ring? You always wear it.”
“My father gave it to me before he left.” He twirls it around his ring finger and blinks at a faster rate.
“It’s beautiful,” I say.
“I wish…my father…” Just then, there’s a knock on the door. “I’ll get it,” Anthony says. He gets up, peeks through the security hole in the door and opens it to allow the Lightálfars to enter.
“The doorman said we’d find you guys here,” Skuld says. She’s just as alert as before. I, however, feel like I need to get some rest before I lose my ability to think clearly.
“Any more sign of the Darkálfar?” When Skuld shakes her head, Anthony says, “I’ll get the key to your room and you can get settled in. I think we’ll call it a night because of what happened.”
“I agree,” Skuld says.
“Can you come over at seven o’clock tomorrow morning for breakfast? We can strategize then,” Anthony says. Skuld nods and Anthony fetches the keycard from his wallet and hands it to her.
“Any more adventures since we separated?” Ross asks.
“No—you?” Anthony says.
“Nah, we just went shopping for some candy,” Ross says.
Anthony explains to me that by candy, Ross means ammunition and weapons.
“I don’t think what we brought with us from Arizona is hefty enough, if you know what I mean,” Ross leers.
I laugh nervously, though no one else does. It’s well past midnight, and my body has started shutting down. “Good night,” I say. “And thank you for helping.”
“This war has been going on forever. We want for nothing more than the death of Maureen, the Darkálfars and the rest of her wretched gang,” Ross says.
Skuld clears her throat. “Just one more thing before we leave.”
All eyes focus on her.
“We connected with the other nine Huldras. All of them, except for one, will be here tomorrow.”
There are nine others like me? I can’t wait to meet them.
“Great,” Anthony says. “It could mean the difference between our defeat and our victory.”
“Well, sleep peacefully, we have a lot to do tomorrow,” Mani says, his eyes lingering on me for a moment.
“Good night to you, too,” Anthony says, nearly pushing him out the door.
After they leave, I brush my teeth and hop into bed.
Anthony meanders in to my room, leaning his shoulder against the doorframe. He’s holding a huge book and I’m certain that it’s the same one I saw him holding back at his house in Sarasota. “What do you think you’re doing, Madam?” He’s serious.
“Going to bed,” I say plainly, feeling agitated because I think that my sleep time might be under attack. “I’m exhausted, scared and not in a good mood. This week, I’ve had my mom kidnapped, learned that I know nothing about who I really am, and have seen my friend killed and brought back to life again. I’m tired and I’m going to sleep.”
“No, you’re not. We have lots of work to do and I need to catch you up on everything you’ve missed at the Academy—tonight. You get three hours of sleep, that’s it; the other hours we’ll be studying.” He plops the huge black leather-bound book onto my bed.
“But I’m so tired,” I whine. I don’t think I’ll be able to handle another ounce of anything tonight. “We can get up early tomorrow and then I’ll be in a better mood, I promise.”
Anthony creeps across the bed, his eyes intently connecting with mine and I wonder what he’s doing. He plunges forward and presses his lips to mine before pushing me down to the mattress, lying on top of me. When he kisses me passionately, my pulse suddenly quickens and I forget in an instant that I’m sleepy. I thought I’d be able to resist him now that I appropriated some self-restraint from Karl, but no, not at all. My body responds immediately to his; the excited feeling awakens my senses and my mind. Anthony pulls my shirt up so my abdomen is exposed. He caresses my skin, and I moan and shiver, but not from being cold. My hands slide beneath his shirt and his skin is so smooth and warm against my fingertips. Gasping, I feel heat building in the deepest part of my core and I’m confused because he said he wouldn’t be kissing me anymore. Flipping him over onto his back, sitting on top of him, I say, “I thought you said last time was the final time?”
“Yes, but I can’t have you falling asleep on me when you have so much to learn, now, can I?” Anthony says with a sly smile.
“Wait…what? You did this so I would wake up?”
“Absolutely,” he says, grabbing my hips.
“You’re so…I can’t believe…” I snatch a white down pillow and hit him with all my might.
He flips me over onto my back, his hands around my wrists, pinning me to the mattress. Then he kisses me ever so gently. I love how his lips move across mine, gliding and tickling like a feather, and oh, so tantalizing. He can’t be doing this just because he wants to wake me up, for his kiss is too sincere and too full of desire for that. He continues to kiss me, more passionately now, his tongue exploring my mouth, and I feel my heart rate doubling in an instant.
“Awake yet?” he says, retracting his lips away from mine.
I look at him as
seductively as I can. “Are you going to finish the job you started?” My heart leaps in my chest at how daring I’ve become, but I think he wants me too. For a moment I know we have the same thought. We’re here alone, both wanting each other, both highly awakened to each other.
He grunts and his expression grows troubled. “I can’t, Sonia, no matter how much I want to I—”
“I meant studying,” I say as innocently as I can, knowing full well that I’m playing him. “What did you think I meant?”
“Sure, that’s what you meant,” he says sarcastically.
“It was—was there something else you had in mind?” I say, biting my lower lip.
He laughs, but quickly turns serious. “No really, I can’t. We can’t.”
“What do you mean?” I ask, now curious about what he means.
He sits up. “I don’t want to talk about it. Let’s study.”
“Really, you’re going to pull the I-don’t-want-to-talk-about-it line on me again?” I’m more than upset.
He shakes his head. “I’m not going to go down that path tonight, Sonia. Many other things are at stake.”
I try to understand, but his refusal to talk about it hurts.
“Okay, so here’s the Book of Huldras.” He reads the gold-embossed title from the front cover.
Pushing my desires away, I let the subject go, knowing I can’t win this battle. The book is about six inches thick and the size of Anthony’s laptop. It looks new and the cover is black leather and the interior pages, a rich cream color. “We’re supposed to read through this whole thing?”
“Yes,” he says.
“Tonight?” I hear my whiney, annoying voice, but I can’t help it from coming out that way.
“I’ll condense some of it for you, but the more we get through tonight, the better,” Anthony says.
“I’m not a speed reader. As a matter of fact, I’m the opposite.” I feel completely overwhelmed. The kind of overwhelmed that makes me freeze up so I can’t think or reason or move.
“I’ll help you,” he says. “Listen, it’s not as bad as you think. We’ll just take one page at a time.”
“Okay, but this book must be like four thousand pages long!” I say, exaggerating.
“Actually, it’s six-thousand-two-hundred-forty-four-and-a-half.” Anthony sounds chipper.
“Oh, my bad,” I say and let myself fall into the mountains of white down pillows. The word that comes to mind? Impossible.