“I need to call Matt and let him know that I’m okay,” I said. Finn held the passenger door open while I got inside. As soon as he got in the driver’s seat, I turned to him. “Well? Can I call him?”
“You really want to?” Finn asked as he started the car.
“Yes, of course I do! Why is that so surprising?”
Finn threw the car in gear and sped off down the road. The whole town was still asleep, except for us and the neighbors we’d awoken. He glanced over at me, debating. Finally, he dug in his pocket and pulled out his cell phone.
“Thank you. ” I smiled gratefully at him.
When I started dialing the phone, my hands shook, and I felt sick. This was going to be the hardest conversation of my life. I held the phone to my ear, listening to it ring, and I tried to slow my breathing.
“Hello?” Matt answered the phone groggily. He clearly hadn’t woken up yet, so he must not know I was gone. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. “Hello? Who’s there?”
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “Matt?”
“Wendy?” Matt instantly sounded alert, panic in his voice. “Where are you? What’s going on? Are you all right?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. ” My cheek still hurt, but I was fine. Even if I wasn’t, I couldn’t tell him that. “Um, I’m calling because . . . I’m leaving, and I wanted you to know that I’m safe. ”
“What do you mean, you’re leaving?” Matt asked. I could hear him open his door, and then the bang of my bedroom door being thrown open. “Where are you, Wendy? You need to come home right now!”
“I can’t, Matt. ” I rubbed my forehead and let out a shaky breath.
“Why? Does somebody have you? Did Finn take you?” Matt demanded. In the background, I could hear Maggie asking questions. He must have woken her up with all the commotion. “I’ll kill that little bastard if he lays one hand on you. ”
“Yeah, I’m with Finn, but it’s not like you think,” I said thickly. “I wish I could explain everything to you, but I can’t. He’s taking care of me, though. He’s making sure I’m safe. ”
“Safe from what?” Matt snapped. “I take care of you! Why are you doing this?” He took a deep breath and tried to calm down. “If we’re doing something wrong, we can change it, Wendy. You just need to come home, right now. ” His voice was cracking, and it broke my heart. “Please, Wendy. ”
“You’re not doing anything wrong. ” Silent tears slid down my face, and I tried to swallow the lump in my throat. “You didn’t do anything. This isn’t about you or Maggie, honest. I love you guys, and I would take you with me if I could. But I can’t. ”
“Why do you keep saying ‘can’t’? Is he forcing you? Tell me where you are so I can call the police. ”
“He’s not forcing me, Matt. ” I sighed and wondered if this phone call had been a bad idea. Maybe I just made it worse for him. “Please don’t try and find me. You won’t be able to, and I don’t want you to. I just wanted you to know that I’m safe and that I love you and you never did anything wrong. Okay? I just want you to be happy. ”
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“Wendy, why are you talking like that?” Matt sounded more afraid than I had ever heard him before, and I couldn’t be certain, but I think he’d started to cry. “You sound like you’re never coming back. You can’t leave forever. You . . . Whatever is going on, I can take care of it. I’ll do whatever I have to do. Just come back, Wendy. ”
“I’m so sorry, Matt, but I can’t. ” I wiped at my eyes and shook my head. “I’ll call you again if I can. But if you don’t hear from me, don’t worry. I’m okay. ”
“Wendy! Stop talking like that!” Matt shouted. “You need to come back here! Wendy!”
“Good-bye, Matt. ” I hung up to the sound of him yelling my name.
I took a deep breath and reminded myself that this was the only thing I could do. It was the only way that I could keep them safe, and it was the safest thing for me, which was exactly what Matt would want.
If he knew what was going on, he would agree with this completely. It didn’t change the fact that it was absolute torture to say good-bye to him like that. Hearing his pain and frustration so evident over the phone . . .
“Hey, Wendy. You did the right thing,” Finn assured me, but I just sniffled.
He reached over and took my hand, squeezing it lightly. Ordinarily I would’ve been delighted by that, but right now it took everything I had to keep from sobbing or throwing up. I wiped at my tears, but I couldn’t seem to stop crying.
Finn pulled over to the side of the road. “Come here,” he said gently. He put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer to him. I rested my head against his shoulder, and he held me tightly to him.
SEVEN
förening
Taking a deep breath, I finally managed to stop crying. Even though Finn no longer had his arm around me, we still sat so close we were practically touching. When I looked at him, he seemed to become aware of this and moved his arm farther away.
“What’s going on?” I asked. “Who were those people? Why did we have to run away?”
Finn looked at me for a moment, then pulled back on the road and took a breath. “That is a very long answer, one that is best explained by your mother. ”
“My mother?” I didn’t understand what more Kim would know about this, then I realized he meant my real mother. “We’re going to see her? Where is she? Where are we going?”
“Förening,” Finn explained. “It’s where I live—where you’ll live. ” He gave a small smile, meant to ease my concerns, and it did, a little. “Unfortunately, it’s about a seven-hour drive. ”
“Where is it?”
“It’s in Minnesota, along the Mississippi River in a very secluded area,” Finn said.
“So what is this Förening place we’re going to?” I asked, watching him.
“It’s a town, sort of,” Finn said. “They consider it to be more of a compound, but in the way the Kennedys have a compound. It’s just a glorified gated community, really. ”
“So do people live there too? Humans, I mean. ” I was already wondering if I could bring Matt along with me.
“Not in the sense you’re talking about. ” He hesitated before he continued, and glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. “It’s entirely Trylle, trackers, and mänsklig. There are about five thousand who live there in total, and we have gas stations, a small grocery store, and a school. It’s just a very small, quiet community. ”
“Holy hell. ” My eyes widened. “You mean there’s just a whole town of . . . trolls? In Minnesota? And nobody ever noticed?”
“We live very quietly,” Finn reiterated. “And there are ways to make people not notice. ”
“You sound like you’re in the Mafia,” I commented, and Finn smiled crookedly. “Do you guys make people sleep with the fishes or something?”
“Persuasion is a very powerful ability,” he said, and his smile disappeared.
“So you have persuasion?” I asked carefully. Something seemed to upset him, and as I expected, he shook his head. “Why not?”
“I’m a tracker. Our abilities are different. ” He glanced over at me, and, sensing that I would just ask more questions, he went on. “They’re more suited for tracking, obviously. Persuasion isn’t particularly useful in that arena. ”
“What is useful?” I pressed, and he sighed wearily.
“It’s hard to explain. They’re not even real abilities in the sense of the word. ” His jaw ticked, and he shifted in his seat. “It’s more instinct and intuition. Like the way a bloodhound follows a scent, except it’s not actually something I can smell. It’s just something I know. ” He looked over to see if I was getting it, but I just stared at him blankly.
“For example, when you went to visit that woman the other night”—that woman being someone who I had thought was my mother my entire life—“I knew you were far away, an
d I knew something was distressing you. ”
“You can tell when I’m upset? Even when you’re not around me?” I asked.
Finn nodded. “As long as I’m tracking you, yes. ”
“I thought you said you weren’t psychic,” I muttered. “Being able to know my feelings sounds awfully psychic to me. ”
“No, I said I couldn’t read minds, and I can’t. ” Then, with an exasperated sigh, he added, “I never have any idea what you’re thinking.
“I can’t even tell everything you’re feeling,” he went on. “Just distress and fear. I need to be alert to situations when you’re in danger so I can help you. My job is to keep you safe and bring you home. ”
“How do you know how to track people like me? Before you find us, I mean. ”
“Your mother has things from when you were a baby. A lock of hair usually,” Finn elaborated. “I get a vibe from that, and the parents usually have a general idea where you are. Once I’m around you, I start to get a real scent of you, and that’s it. ”
An odd warmth filled my chest. My mother had things from me. Kim had never treasured anything about me, but someone out there had. She had taken a lock of hair when I was born and kept it safe all these years.
“Is that why you stared at me all the time? Because you were feeling this . . . this vibe?” I thought of the way his eyes were always on me, and the way I could never make sense of his expression.
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“Yes. ” There was something about his answer—he wasn’t lying exactly, but he was holding something back. I thought about pressing him further but there were so many other things I wanted to know.
“So . . . how often do you do this?”
“You are my eleventh. ” He looked at me to gauge my response, so I kept my face as expressionless as possible.
I was a little surprised by his answer. It seemed like an incredibly time-consuming process, for one thing. And he seemed fairly young to have done it eleven times. Plus, it was unnerving to think there were that many changelings out there.
“How long have you been doing this?”
“Since I was fifteen,” Finn answered.
“Fifteen? No way. ” I shook my head. “So you’re trying to tell me that at fifteen years old, your parents sent you out into the world to track and find kids? And these kids, they trusted you and believed you?”
“I’m very good at what I do,” Finn replied matter-of-factly.
“Still. That just seems . . . unreal. ” I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. “Did they all come back with you?”
“Yes, of course,” he said simply.
“Do they always? With all the trackers, I mean?”
“No, they don’t. They usually do, but not always. ”
“But they always do with you?” I persisted.
“Yes. ” Finn looked over at me again. “Why do you find it so hard to believe?”
“I find this all hard to believe. ” I tried to pinpoint what was bothering me. “Wait. You were fifteen? That means that you were never . . . you weren’t a changeling. So not all Trylle begin life as changelings? How does this work?”
“Trackers are never changelings. ” He rubbed the back of his neck and pursed his lips. “I think it’s best if your mother explains the changelings to you. ”
“How come trackers aren’t ever changelings?” I questioned.
“We need to spend our lives being trained to be a tracker,” Finn said. “And our youth is an asset. It’s much easier to get close to a teenager when you are a teenager than it is when you’re forty. ”
“A big part of what you do is building trust. ” I eyed him with renewed suspicion.
“Yes, it is,” Finn admitted.
“So at the dance, when you were being a total dick to me. That was you building trust?”
For a split second he looked pained, then his normal emotionless expression returned. “No. That was me putting a distance between us. I shouldn’t have asked you to dance. I was trying to correct the error. I needed you to trust me, but anything more would be misleading. ”
Everything that had transpired between us had just been because he was trying to get me to the compound. He had been keeping me safe, getting me to like him, and when he noticed my crush developing, he had tried to put me in my place. It stung painfully, so I just swallowed hard and stared out the window.
“I’m sorry if I’ve hurt you,” Finn said quietly.
“Don’t worry about it,” I replied icily. “You were just doing your job. ”
“I know that you’re being facetious, but I was. ” He paused. “I still am. ”
“Well, you’re very good at it. ” I crossed my arms and continued to stare out the window.
I didn’t feel much like talking anymore. There were still a million questions I had about everything, but I’d rather wait and talk to somebody else, anybody else. I thought I would be too anxious and excited to sleep, but after about an hour into the drive, I started nodding off. I fought to stay awake until I realized the ride would go quicker if I just slept.
When I opened my eyes, the sun was shining brightly above us. I had curled up on the seat with my knees pressed against my chest, so my whole body felt sore and achy. I looked around, then I sat up and stretched, trying to work the kinks out of my neck.
“I thought you were going to sleep the whole ride,” Finn said.
“How far away are we?” I yawned and slouched low in the seat, resting my knees against the dashboard.
“Not far. ”
The scenery had started giving way to tall tree-lined bluffs. The car rolled up and down through the hills and valleys, and it really was stunningly beautiful. Eventually Finn slowed and we turned, driving to the top of a bluff. Soon the road curved down again, winding among the trees. Through them I could see the Mississippi River cutting through the bluffs.
A large metal gate blocked our path, but when we reached it, a guard nodded at Finn and waved us on. Once we were through, I saw beautiful houses dotting the bluffs.
They were all heavily obscured by trees, which gave me an odd sensation that there were more homes than I could actually see. But every one of them appeared luxurious and perfectly positioned to make the best of the view.
We pulled up in front of an opulent mansion perched precariously on the edge of a bluff. It was pure white, with long vines growing up over it beautifully. The back, which faced the river, was made entirely of windows, but it seemed to be held up by weak supports. While stunningly gorgeous, the house looked as if it could fall off the edge at any moment.
“What’s this?” I took a break from gaping at the house to look back at Finn.
He smiled in the way that sent shivers through me. “This is it. Welcome home, Wendy. ”
I had come from money, but it had never been anything like this. This was aristocratic. Finn walked me to the house, and I couldn’t believe that I’d truly come from this. I had never felt so small or ordinary in my entire life.
With a house like this, I had expected a butler to answer the door. Instead, it was just a kid. He looked about my age, with sandy hair cascading across his forehead. He was very attractive, but that made sense, because I couldn’t believe that anything ugly ever came from a house like this. It was too perfect.
He seemed confused and surprised at first, but when he saw Finn, an understanding came to him and he smiled broadly.
“Oh, my God. You must be Wendy. ” He opened the massive front door so we could come in.
Finn let me go in first, which made me nervous, and I felt embarrassed with the way this kid smiled at me, especially considering my pajamas and bruised cheek. He was dressed like any other normal kid I had gone to school with, at least in the private schools, and I found that weird. As if it would be more natural for him to run around in a tuxedo first thing in the morning.
“Um, yeah,” I mumbled awkwardly.
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“Oh, sorry, I’m Rhys. ” He touched his chest, gesturing to himself, and turned back to Finn. “We weren’t expecting you this soon. ”
“Things happen,” Finn explained noncommittally.
“I’d really love to stay and talk, but I just came home for lunch, and I’m already running late on getting back to school. ” Rhys glanced around and looked at us apologetically. “Elora is down in the drawing room. You can get yourself there, right?”
Finn nodded. “I can. ”
“All right. Sorry to rush out like this. ” Rhys smiled sheepishly and picked up the messenger bag lying by the front door. “It was really nice meeting you, Wendy. I’m sure I’ll be seeing a lot more of you. ”
Once he hurried out the door, I took a moment to take in my surroundings. The floors were marble, and a giant crystal chandelier hung above us. From where I stood, I could see the breathtaking view through the windowed back wall of the house. It was floor-to-ceiling glass, and all I could see were the tops of trees and the river plummeting below us. It was enough to give me vertigo, and I was on the other side of the house.
“Come on. ” Finn walked ahead of me, turning down a decadently furnished hall, and I scampered after him.
“Who was that?” I whispered, as if the walls could hear me. They were lined with pictures, a few of which I recognized as being painted by master painters.
“Rhys. ”
“Yeah, I know, but . . . is he my brother?” I asked.
“No,” Finn replied. I waited for more, but apparently that was all he would say on the subjet.
Abruptly he turned and entered a room. It was the corner of the house, so two of the walls were entirely glass. One interior wall had a fireplace, and hanging above it was the portrait of an attractive older gentleman. Books lined the other interior wall. Elegant antique furniture filled the room, and a velvet chaise lounge sat poised in front of the fireplace.
A woman sat on a stool in the corner, her back to us. Her dress was dark and flowing, just like the hair that hung down her back. A large canvas was set on the easel before her. The painting was only partially finished, but it appeared to be some kind of fire, with dark smoke filtering over broken chandeliers.
She continued painting for several minutes while we stood there. I glanced over at Finn, but he just shook his head, trying to quiet me before I voiced a complaint. His hands were clasped behind his back, and he stood rigidly straight, reminding me of a soldier.
“Elora?” Finn said cautiously, and I got the sense that she intimidated him. This was as unnerving as it was surprising. He didn’t seem like he could be intimidated by anyone.
When she turned to look at us, I forgot to breathe. She was much older than I had expected, in her fifties probably, but there was something stunningly elegant and beautiful about her, particularly her large dark eyes. In her youth she had probably been unbearably attractive. As it was, I could hardly believe that she was real.
“Finn!” Her voice was angelic and clear, and her surprise was endearing. With a graceful move, she swiftly stood up, and Finn did a small bow to her. It confused me, but I clumsily tried to copy it, and this caused her to laugh. She looked at Finn, but gestured to me. “This is her?”