“I saw that before,” I whispered, looking up at him. “What happened in the ballroom. Elora painted it. She knew that was going to happen!”
“Shh,” Finn said gently.
I lowered my voice. “But why didn’t she stop it?”
“She didn’t know when it would happen or how,” Finn explained. “She just knew, and the only thing she could do to prevent it was to add more protection. ”
“So then why did you leave?” I asked softly.
“Wendy . . . ” He pushed back stray curls from my face, and his hand lingered on my cheek as he looked down at me. “I never really left. I was just down the hill, and I never stopped tracking you. I knew what was happening as soon as you did, and I raced back here. ”
“Are we gonna be okay?” I asked.
“I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise. ”
I looked up at him, searching his eyes in the dim light, and I wanted nothing more than to stay in his arms forever.
The door creaked open, and Finn tensed instantly. He pushed me back against the wall, wrapping his arms around me to hide me. I held my breath and tried to stop my heart from pounding. We heard nothing for a second, and then the light flicked on.
“Well, well, if the prodigal stork hasn’t returned. ” Jen smirked.
“You won’t get her,” Finn said firmly.
He pulled away from me just enough so he could face Jen. I peered around him, watching Jen walk in a slow semicircle toward us. He walked in an oddly familiar way, like something I had seen on Animal Planet. And then I realized—Jen was stalking his prey.
“Maybe I won’t,” Jen allowed. “But getting you out of my way would probably make it easier, if not for me, then for somebody else. Because we won’t stop coming for her. ”
“And we won’t stop protecting her. ”
“You’re willing to die to protect her?” Jen raised an eyebrow.
“You’re willing to die to get her?” Finn challenged evenly.
In the ballroom, Tove had insisted they had to protect me, and I hadn’t thought he even cared for me all that much. Was it just that I was the Princess? Had Elora endured similar attacks when she first came home?
I clenched the back of Finn’s jacket and watched the two of them stare each other down. I didn’t understand what was so damn important about me that so many Vittra were willing to kill, and, according to Finn, so many Trylle were willing to die.
“Neither one of you has to die,” I said. I tried to slip around Finn’s arm, but he pushed me back. “I’ll go, okay? I don’t want anybody else to get hurt over this. ”
“Why don’t you listen to the girl?” Jen suggested, wagging his eyebrows.
“Not this time. ”
“Suit yourself. ” Jen had apparently tired of talking and dove at Finn.
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Finn was wrenched from my fingertips, and I screamed his name. They both went flying through the glass out onto the balcony, sending shards flying everywhere. I was barefoot, but I ran forward without regard.
Jen managed to land a few good blows, but Finn was much quicker and seemed to be stronger. When Finn hit him, Jen staggered back several feet.
“You’ve been working out. ” Jen wiped fresh blood from his chin.
“You could give up now, and I wouldn’t think any less of you,” Finn said.
“Nice try. ” Jen lunged forward, kicking Finn in the stomach, but Finn held his own.
I grabbed a giant shard of glass from off the balcony and moved around them, trying to find an opening to attack. I managed to slice open a finger, but I barely noticed. Jen knocked Finn to the balcony floor. He pounced on top of him and started hitting him in the face. Using all my might, I stabbed the glass into his back.
“Ow!” Jen shouted, but he sounded more irritated than wounded.
I stood behind him, panting. That was not the reaction I had expected and I didn’t know what to do.
Jen whirled around, smacking me so hard across the face that I went flying to the edge of the balcony. I only had a moment to notice the dizzying drop below as my head hung over the edge, and then I was scrambling to my feet and gripping the railing.
Finn had already regained his feet and knocked Jen back down. Kicking him as hard as he could, Finn growled through gritted teeth, “Don’t. Ever. Touch. Her. Again. ”
When Finn tried to kick him again, Jen grabbed his foot and yanked him back to the floor. I heard the sound of Finn’s head cracking against the heavy concrete of the balcony. He withstood the blow, but it stunned him long enough for Jen to bend over and wrap his hands around Finn’s throat. He lifted Finn off the floor by his neck.
I jumped on Jen’s back, which wasn’t as smart as I’d thought it would be, because Jen had the giant shard of glass sticking out of him. The glass cut through my dress and my side without actually impaling me. It was enough to make me bleed and hurt, but not enough to kill.
“Get off!” Jen growled, then jerked his arm back, elbowing me hard in the stomach and knocking me off him.
I landed on my feet but Jen already had Finn pressed back over the railing. The top half of Finn’s body dangled over the edge, and if Jen let go, Finn would plummet to his death hundreds of feet below.
For a moment I couldn’t breathe or move. All I could see was the painting of me. The broken shards of glass glinting in the moonlight. My beautiful dress, which appeared stark white by the light of the moon, with the slit of blood in the side. The vast darkness that went on beyond the balcony, and the horrified look on my face as I reached for it.
“Stop!” I pleaded, tears streaming down my face. “I’ll go with you! Please! Just let go of him! Please!”
Jen laughed. “I hate to break it to you, Princess, but you’re going with me either way!”
“Not if I can help . . . ” Finn barely managed to speak through Jen’s hand clamped on his throat.
Finn kicked his leg up, planting it squarely between Jen’s legs, and Jen groaned but didn’t loosen his grip on Finn. Keeping his leg there, Finn started tilting backward. Jen realized what he was doing, but Finn had reached forward and grabbed Jen’s jacket.
He had changed the weight ratio, and in a moment that felt oddly slow-motion, Finn went backward over the railing, pulling Jen with him.
“No!” I screamed and lunged toward them. I landed on my belly, sliding across the balcony with my hand outstretched, grabbing at empty air.
TWENTY-THREE
aftermath
As soon as I reached the railing, Finn floated up, coughing hoarsely. I gaped at him, too shocked to believe he was real. He drifted over the top of the railing, then dropped heavily onto the balcony.
Lying on his back, he coughed again, and I rushed to his side, kneeling next to him. I touched his face, checking to make sure he was real, and his skin felt soft and warm under my hands.
“That was quite the gamble,” Tove remarked from behind me, and I turned to look at him.
Tove had lost his blazer, and his white shirt looked slightly burned and bloody. Other than that, he didn’t look that bad as he took a step toward us.
“Nah, you always come through,” Finn said. And I realized that when Finn had gone over the balcony, Tove had used his power to catch him and lift him back up, setting him down safely.
I went back to staring down at Finn, unable to believe that he was alive and here with me again. My hand was on his chest, above his heart, so I could feel it pounding. He placed his hand over mine, holding it gently, but he looked past me at Tove.
“What’s going on in there?” Finn asked Tove and nodded to the house.
“They’re retreating. ” Tove stood over us. “A lot of people were hurt, but Aurora is working on them. My father broke a few ribs, but he’ll live. Unfortunately, that’s more than I can say for some of the Trylle. ”
“Did we lose a lot of people?” Finn asked, his expression grim
.
“I can’t say yet for sure, but we lost a few. ” Tove grimaced. “But we could’ve avoided that completely if the Markis and Marksinna would learn to fight. They leave all of their protection in the hands of the trackers, but if the royalty would just get their hands dirty, they could’ve . . . ” He shook his head. “Nobody needed to die today. ”
Finn pressed his lips together grimly, then looked at me. “What happened? Are you hurt?” His hand went to my side, where I bled all over my dress. I winced under his touch but shook my head.
“It’s nothing. I’m fine. ”
“Have my mother look at it. She’ll patch you both up,” Tove said. When I gave him a confused look, he went on, “Aurora’s a healer. She can touch you and fix you. That’s her ability. ”
“Come on. ” Finn gave me a shaky smile and slowly sat up.
He tried to act like he was perfectly fine, but he had taken quite a beating and there was hesitation in his movements. Tove helped him to his feet, then took my hand and pulled me up.
I wrapped my arm around Finn’s waist, and Finn put his arm around my shoulders, reluctantly putting some of his weight on me. We walked carefully through the broken glass back into the house, and Tove gave more details about the attack.
Other than the trackers who had been guarding, most of the Trylle had played defenseless, myself included. The Vittra might not have as many abilities, but they had mastered physical combat much better than the Trylle.
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Thankfully, a few of the Trylle like Tove and Elora were strong enough and smart enough to fight back. What they lacked in physical prowess, they made up for in overwhelming abilities.
But Tove was quick to point out that if all the Trylle had stood up and used what abilities they had—no matter how weak—or simply fought back with their fists, the Vittra would have hardly stood a chance. We should’ve won this without any deaths and hardly any injuries.
The Trylle royals had grown too complacent, to the point where they believed that defending themselves was beneath them. They’d become too focused on social class to realize that they needed to handle some things themselves, instead of leaving the trackers and mänks to do all the dirty work.
The ballroom looked even worse than it had when we’d left it. Someone had lit lanterns around the edges of the room, so we could at least see better than before.
Willa ran over when she saw me and threw her arms around me. I hugged her back, feeling tremendous relief that she was alive. Despite a few scrapes and bruises, she looked okay.
She then launched into an excited tale about how she had blown a few Vittra out of the ceiling, and I told her I was proud. I wanted to listen to her talk, but the destruction was too overwhelming.
When Elora saw us, she pulled Aurora from where she was helping a bleeding man. I noted with dark satisfaction that the Chancellor had a nasty cut on his forehead, and I hoped that Aurora couldn’t make time to fix him.
Elora didn’t look any worse for wear. If I hadn’t known, I never would’ve thought she’d been here when the fight was going on. Aurora, on the other hand, though she still looked beautiful and regal, did show signs of the battle. Her dress was torn, her hair was a mess, and there was blood all over her hands and arms, though I doubted most of it was hers.
“Princess. ” Elora looked genuinely relieved when she walked over to us, delicately stepping over broken tables and a Vittra corpse. “I’m glad to see you’re all right. I was very worried about you. ”
“Yeah, I’m fine. ”
She reached out and touched my cheek, but there was nothing affectionate about it. It was the way I would touch a strange animal that I’d been assured was safe though I didn’t really believe it.
“I don’t know what I would’ve done if something happened to you. ” She smiled wanly at me, then dropped her hand and looked at Finn. “I’m sure a thank-you is in order for saving my daughter. ”
“No need,” Finn replied rather curtly, and Elora gazed at him intently for a moment, saying something in his mind. Then she turned and walked away, apparently to deal with something far more pressing than her daughter.
Aurora squeezed Tove’s arms and looked at him warmly, making me feel a horrible pang at my own mother’s reaction. Aurora had seemed like an ice Queen too, but she could at least show signs of genuine happiness that her son hadn’t died.
The moment passed quickly, and she moved on to me. She tore the hole in my dress wider so she could put her hand on my wound, and I gritted my teeth at the pain. Finn tightened his arm around my shoulders, a warm tingling sensation passed over my side, and moments later the pain stopped.
“Good as new. ” Aurora smiled tiredly at me.
She seemed to have aged since before she’d touched me, and I wondered how much all that healing took out of her. She started to step away, going back to help other people, and Finn leaned on me, clearly in pain.
“What about Finn?” I asked, and she looked back at me, startled. Apparently I had asked something wrong, and she didn’t know how to react.
“No, no, I’m fine. ” Finn waved her off.
“Nonsense. ” Tove clapped him on the back and nodded at his mother. “Finn saved the day. He deserves a little help. Aurora, wanna take care of him?” She looked uncertainly at her son, then nodded and walked over to Finn.
“Of course,” Aurora said.
She looked him over for wounds, trying to pinpoint what needed fixing. I glanced away from them, and I saw Rhys sitting on the edge of a table. He held a bloody cloth to his forehead and stared down at the floor.
“Rhys!” I shouted, and when he looked up and saw me, he smiled.
“Go see him,” Finn suggested. Aurora poked at something painful in his side and he winced. “She’s taking care of me. ”
“I got him. ” Tove took Finn’s arm, so he would be leaning on Tove instead of me.
I looked back at Finn, but he nodded at me to go, clearly trying not to let on how much pain Aurora was causing him.
I really didn’t want to leave Finn, but I felt like I should at least say hi to somebody who tried to save my life. Especially since Rhys had been the only person all night who had told me I looked beautiful without sounding really creepy about it.
“You’re alive!” Rhys grinned. He tried to stand up, but I gestured for him to sit back down. “I wasn’t sure what happened to you. ” He looked past me at Finn, and his expression faltered. “I didn’t know Finn was back. If I had, I wouldn’t have worried. ”
“I was worried about you. ” I reached out and carefully touched his forehead. “You took quite the punch there. ”
“Yeah, but I couldn’t get one in,” Rhys grumbled, looking down at the floor. “And I couldn’t stop him from taking you. ”
“Yes, you did!” I insisted. “If you hadn’t been there, they would’ve hauled me off before anybody had a chance to do anything about it. You kind of saved the day. ”
“Yeah?” His blue eyes were hopeful when he looked at me.
“Definitely. ” I smiled back at him.
“You know, back in the day, when a guy saved a Princess’s life, she would reward him with a kiss,” Rhys commented.
His smile was light, but his eyes were serious. If Finn hadn’t been standing a few feet behind me, watching, I probably would’ve kissed him. But I didn’t want to do anything to spoil having Finn back, so I just shook my head and smiled.
“Maybe when I slay the dragon. Then I’ll get a kiss?”
“I promise,” I agreed. “Would you settle for a hug?”
“A hug from you is never settling. ”
I leaned over and hugged him tightly. A woman sitting nearby looked aghast at the new Princess openly hugging a mänsklig. Things were really going to have to change when I was Queen.
After Aurora patched up Finn, she suggested we both get some rest. The room was still a disaster, but
Tove insisted that he and his mother were taking care of everything. I wanted to protest and help more, but I was exhausted, so I didn’t put up a fight.
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Using his abilities during the fight had focused Tove. His entire personality shone through, and he took control of the situation with ease. I had a feeling that for the first time I was seeing the real Tove, and not the kid trapped behind the noise of his powers.
In a sense, we worked in opposite ways. I projected intensely, which was why my persuasion was strong, whereas Tove received everything. He could pick up on my emotions and thoughts whether he wanted to or not. But I imagined that he sensed other people too, and his mind had to be a fog of everyone’s emotions.
Finn went with me to my room, just in case it wasn’t completely safe. Before we even reached the stairs, Finn had taken my hand in his. Most of the way I was silent, but when we got close to my door I felt like I had to say something.
“So . . . are you and Tove like pals or something?” I was teasing, but I was curious. I had never really seen them even speak before, but there seemed to be a kind of familiarity between them.
“I’m a tracker,” Finn answered. “I tracked Tove. He’s a good kid. ” He looked over at me, smiling a little. “I told him to keep an eye on you. ”
“If you were so worried about me, why didn’t you stay in the palace?” I asked more sharply than I meant to.
Finn shook his head. “Let’s not talk about that now. ” We had stopped in front of my bedroom door, and there was a playful glimmer in his dark eyes.
“What should we talk about, then?” I looked up at him.
“How beautiful you look in that dress. ” Finn looked me over appreciatively, and he put his hands on my sides.
I laughed, and then he was pushing me against the door. His body was so tight against me I could barely breathe, and his mouth searched for mine. He kissed me in the same frantic way he had before, and I loved it.
I wrapped my arms around him and pushed myself against him eagerly. He reached around me, opening the door, and we tumbled into my room. He caught me before I actually fell, then lifted me easily into his arms and carried me.
Gently, he tossed me onto the bed, and then lowered himself on top of me. His stubble tickled my neck and shoulders as he covered me in kisses.
Sitting back, he peeled off his jacket and hoodie, and I expected him to take off his T-shirt, but he stopped, looking down at me. His black hair was slightly disheveled, but his expression was completely foreign to me. He just stared at me, making my skin redden with shame.
“What?”
“You’re just so perfect,” Finn said, but he sounded distressed about it.
“Oh, I am not. ” I blushed and laughed. “You know I’m not. ”
“You can’t see what I see. ” He leaned over me again, his face right above mine but not kissing me. After a minute’s hesitation, he kissed my forehead and my cheeks, and then, very tenderly, kissed my lips. “I just don’t want to disturb you. ”