“Matt?” I said, afraid he would hang up if I didn’t say something soon.
“Wendy?” Matt instantly woke up, panic thick in his voice. “Where are you? What’s going on? Are you alright?”
“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 was safe.”
“What do you mean you’re leaving?” Matt was up moving around. I could hear him open his door, and then the bang as he threw open my bedroom door. “Where are you, Wendy? You need to come home right now!”
“I can’t, Matt!” I rubbed my forehead and let out shaky breath.
“Why? Does somebody have you? Did Finn take you?” Matt demanded. In the background, I could hear Maggie asking questions. He’d woken her up with his commotion of looking for me. “I’ll fucking 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 started sliding down my face, and I tried swallow down 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?” Matt growled.
“I’ll call the police! We’ll come get you!”
“No, he’s not forcing me!” I sighed and wondered if this phone call had been a bad idea. Maybe I’m just making 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 was safe and that I love you and you never did anything wrong.
Okay? I just want you to be happy.”
“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 your never coming back.” He swallowed hard. “You can’t leave forever. There’s no reason to. 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!”
“Goodbye, 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 is 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 had absolutely killed to say goodbye to him like that. Hearing his pain and frustration so evidently 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 I was doing everything I could to keep from sobbing or throwing up. I had just promised Matt that I would never do anything like this again. I wiped at my tears, but I couldn’t seem to stop crying. Finn let go of my hand so he could flip back the armrest, getting it out of the way.
“Come here,” Finn 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. Eventually, I stopped crying, but I don’t know when that it was because it wasn’t until after I had fallen asleep.
We arrived at Elora’s manor in the early afternoon, and the bright sunlight gleamed off it, making it look even more majestic and imposing than it had before. Finn didn’t knock on the door this time. He just punched the key code in the alarm and let me in. I had woken up about a minute before we pulled up to the house, so my eyes were puffy from sleep and crying. He had still had his arm around me and I was nestled in close to him. When he saw that I was awake, he had taken his arm back, and I felt a familiar disappointment. When we walked into the house, he made a point of not touching me, once again reminding me that anything I thought happened between us was just my imagination.
As we made our way down the long hall towards the drawing room, I passed a mirror and stopped to investigate. I had left the house wearing light green pajama pants and a green top, and they were both stained with dirt and grass stains from falling from the tree and getting slapped around by that guy.
My face was red and swollen where I had been slapped, and my temple was turning purplish. My hair was a total and complete disaster. Twigs and grass were stuck in it. Red rimmed and bleary, my eyes looked like I had spent the night on a heavy bender, and honestly, I felt like I had. I was sore all over.
Finn had stopped to wait for me, and he prompted me when I had spent too long hating my reflection. He knocked on the heavy wooden door to the drawing room. I didn’t hear anything, but a moment later, he opened the door, as if she had summoned us in.
“Elora,” Finn stepped into the room and gave a small bow.
Elora was sitting in the corner of the room on a stool. A large canvas was set on the easel before her. It 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.
“I see you decided to grace us with your presence.” Elora still had her back to us, but I assumed she was talking to me. Her long hair fell down her back, shimmering when she leaned forward to paint.
“I didn’t have a choice,” I replied.
“You always have a choice.” Elora sounded irritated, then she finally turned back to look at me. Her eyes widened with surprise, but her expression lacked anything resembling concern. “What happened?”
“Vittra,” Finn answered with the same contempt he had before.
“Oh?” Elora raised an eyebrow. “Which ones?”
“Jen and Kyra,” Finn said.
“I see.” Elora stared off for a minute, then started setting aside her paint supplies carefully. She got off the stool and turned to face us, smoothing out the non-existent wrinkles in her dress. Sighing tiredly, she sat on one of the sofas in the room and gestured to the one across from her. I took a seat, but Finn remained standing. Placing her delicate fingers on her chin, she looked over at Finn. “You’re sure it was just Jen and Kyra?”
“I believe so,” Finn said, thinking hard. “I didn’t see any signs of others, and they would’ve called for back up, had there been any to call. They were quite insistent on taking Wendy. Jen got violent with her.”
“I can see that,” Elora nodded at my face. “They know who she is, then?”
“They called me by my full name,” I interjected helpfully, but Elora had turned her attention back to Finn. She stared at him for a minute, and he nodded.
“Hmm.” Elora settled back on the sofa. “I suppose that this will be a lesson to you. Running away in the middle of the night like that.” Her eyes were heavy with disdain. “You must have better sense than that. If you truly wanted to leave, all you had to do was ask. That was childish and irresponsible.”
“I’m sorry,” I mumbled. “I just missed my family.”
“They are not your family!” She rolled her eyes and waved the idea away. “No matter. You won’t be able to see them anymore. With the Vittra after you, this is the only place you’ll be safe.”
“What are the Vittra? I don’t understand who they are or what they wanted with me.” I glanced over at Finn, but he just kept staring at Elora.
“Förening is populated with Trylle.” Elora gestured widely around, referencing the whole town. “The term Trylle is a distinction similar to a tribe.
We are trolls, and over the years the troll population has been dwindling. Our numbers used to be great, but there are less than a million of us in the entire planet.
“We are one of the largest tribes left, but we are not the only one,” Elora continued. “The Vittra are a warring faction, and they have been going down even faster. They are forever looking to pick off some of us. Either by turning them to their side, or simply by getting rid of them.”
“So the Vittra want me to live with them?” I wrinkled my nose. “Why?
What I do for them?”