Torn Read online

  “You are a small, insignificant creature,” Elora said, staring down at him. “I can and will destroy you the moment I see fit.”

  “I know,” Loki nodded.

  Her dark eyes were locked on his, and she stared at him for some time before I realized she was doing something to him. Saying something or controlling him somehow. He wasn’t writhing in pain, but his grin had fallen away.

  With a heavy sigh, she looked away from him and motioned to the guards.

  “Take him away,” Elora said.

  Two of the larger guards came up behind Loki and grabbed him by his arms, pulling him to his feet. Loki was out of it after whatever Elora had done to him, and he wouldn’t stand.

  “Where are they taking him?” I asked Elora as the guards gragged him away. Loki’s head lulled back and forth, but he was still awake and alive.

  “It’s none of your concern where they take him or what happens to him,” Elora hissed at me.

  She cast a glance around the room, and the other guards dispersed to do their job. Duncan lingered around, waiting for me, and Tove stood a few feet back. Tove would never be intimidated by my mother, and I appreciated that about him.

  “Someday, I will be Queen, and I should know what is done with prisoners,” I said, reaching for the sanest argument I had. She looked away from me and didn’t say anything for a moment. “Elora. Where did they take him?”

  “Servant’s quarters, for now,” Elora told me.

  She glanced over at Tove, and I had a feeling if he wasn’t here, this whole conversation would go much differently. Tove’s mother Aurora wanted to overthrow my mother, and Elora didn’t want Tove or Aurora to see any sign of weakness or unrest.

  “Why? Won’t he just leave?” I asked.

  “No, he can’t. I saw to it that if he tries to leave, he’ll collapse in agony,” Elora said. “We need to build a proper prison, but the Chancellor always vetoes it. So I’m left holding them myself.” She sighed and rubbed her temple again. “We’ll have a meeting to see what should be done with him.”

  “What will be done with him?” I asked.

  “You will attend the meeting to see what being a Queen entails, but you will not speak up in his defense.” Her eyes met mine, hard and glowing, and in my mind, she said, You cannot defend him. It will be an act of treason, and your minor defense of him now could get you exiled if Tove reports this to his mother.

  She appeared even wearier than she had before. Her skin was normally porcelain smooth, but a few wrinkles had sprouted up around her eyes. She held one hand to her stomach for a moment, as if to catch her breath.

  “I need to lie down,” Elora said, and she held out her arm. “Duncan, please escort me to my chambers.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty.” Duncan hurried over to help her, but as he dashed past me, he shot me an apologetic smile.

  I just shook my head. I don’t know what else he could’ve done. The Vittra had tried to kill me, Finn, Tove, my brother, pretty much every person I cared about, and Loki was one of them. I shouldn’t be defending him at all, but I didn’t think anything he’d done justified torture.

  When Elora left, I took a deep breath and shook my head. I knew I’d gotten myself even deeper onto her shitlist, and that couldn’t be good for anything.

  “That was good,” Tove said, and I’d almost forgotten he was there. I turned to see him grinning at me with an odd look of pride.

  “What are you talking about?” I asked. “I made everything worse. Elora’s mad at me, so she’ll take it out on Loki. And I don’t even know why I care if she does. He’s here to kidnap or kill me or something horrible, and I futilely tried to rescue him.”

  “No, that went really bad,” Tove agreed. “But I was talking about the door and the chandelier.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “When Elora was tormenting him, you made the door slam and the chandelier shake.” Tove gestured to both of them as if that would mean something to me.

  “That was the wind or something.”

  “No, you did that,” Tove assured me. “It was involuntary, but you did it. And that’s progress.”

  “So any time I want to shut a door, I just have to get Elora to torture somebody,” I said. “Sounds easy enough.”

  “Knowing your mother, it would be easy,” he grinned.

  We went back to train more, but I was distracted and didn’t make anything move for the remainder of the day. After Tove had gone, I headed up to my room. I thought I’d check on Matt first, since the alarm going off had to freak him out, and Rhys was at school. I knocked on Matt’s door, and when he didn’t answer, I ventured inside, but he wasn’t there.

  With the Vittra breaking in, I felt a little freaked about not knowing where Matt was. Before I decided on an all-out search of the premises, I went to my room to grab a sweater, and I found a note from Matt pinned to the door.

  Gone over to Willa’s for lunch. Be back later. – Matt

  Great. I ripped the note down and went into my room. I could really use some time to talk to him, since everything felt like absolute chaos. But he’s hanging out with Willa, which I didn’t even understand. I can’t imagine what the two of them would be doing spending all that time together. They should be hating each other.

  I flopped on my bed and fell asleep pretty quickly. I didn’t think I’d been that tired, but I guess my abilities took a lot out of me.

  14. Stockholm Syndrome

  I’d gotten used to the defense meetings after the big Vittra break-in during my christening ceremony.

  We met in the War Room in the South Wing. The walls were plastered with maps. Red and green patches speckled all of them, revealing other tribes of trolls.

  A huge mahogany table sat at one end, with a drawing board behind it. Elora and Aurora, Tove’s mother, stood behind it. For some reason, they always led the defense meetings together. Aurora didn’t trust Elora to run the kingdom, but I don’t know how Elora tolerated Aurora taking any amount of control.

  Chairs littered the rest of the room, most of them mismatched because they’d been pulled from other rooms to fill the space. Our mothers commanded the meetings, so Tove and I were always the first people in attendance. It worked to our advantage, and we hid in the back.

  The usual twenty or so attendees were here: Garrett Strom, Willa’s father and my mother’s possible boyfriend; the Chancellor, a pasty, overweight man who stared at me in a way that made my skin crawl; Noah Kroner, Tove’s ever silent father; and a few other Markis, Marksinna, and trackers.

  But the room started filling up more than normal. People I’d never seen before filtered into the room, including a lot more trackers. None of the trackers took a seat, because that would be impolite with limited seating. Duncan stood behind me, despite the fact that I told him to sit down three times.

  Willa burst in a few minutes before the meeting was set to start, and she pushed her way through the crowded room. Her bracelets jangled as she stepped over a tracker, and she smiled brightly at me before flopping into the chair next to mine.

  “Sorry, I’m late.” Willa readjusted her skirt, pulling it down so it hit her knees. She brushed her hair from her eyes and smiled at us. “Did I miss anything?”

  “Nothing’s happened yet,” I said.

  “There are a lot of people here, aren’t there?” Willa glanced around the room. Her father looked at us, and she waved at him.

  “Sure are,” I agreed.

  The chair directly in front of me was empty, so Tove slid it back and forth with his abilities.

  Crowds tended to overwhelm him. It was too much noise inside his head. When he drained his abilities by moving objects, it weakened his capacity to hear things, and it silenced the static.

  “Is it really a big deal then?” Willa asked me and lowered her voice. “I heard you knew the Vittra that they caught.”

  “I don’t know him.” I shifted in the chair. “I saw him when I was with the Vittra. It’s not a big deal.”
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  “Did you subdue him?” Willa asked, looking up at Duncan.

  She was asking him directly, and not asking me if my tracker had done something. She was treating people with basic human dignity, and it freaked me out.

  “Not exactly.” Duncan puffed up with pride, but he remembered I’d defended Loki. His expression shifted to shame, and he lowered his eyes. “I saw him knock another guard out, and I called for backup. That was all.”

  “How come he didn’t knock you out?” I asked.

  I hadn’t had a chance to talk to Duncan much since yesterday. I’d been wondering how they’d been able to capture Loki when he could render them unconscious with a single look.

  “He didn’t think he had to.” Duncan looked proud again, and I let him. “My appearance deceived him, and the other guards tackled him.”

  “What was he doing when you found him?” Willa asked.

  “I couldn’t tell exactly.” Duncan shook his head. “I think he was peeking through a window.”

  “Like a peeping Tom?” I raised my eyebrow.

  “He was probably trying to get a look at Wendy,” Tove said offhandedly, and the chair in front me slid so far back, it almost hit my shins. “Sorry.”

  “Careful,” I said, pulling my legs up to be safe.

  I wrapped my arms around my knees, and Elora glared at me. I didn’t move, and I heard Elora’s voice in my head, That is not how a Princess sits. I was wearing pants, so I decided to ignore her, and I looked over at Tove.

  “Why do you think he was looking in at me?” I asked.

  “He wants you,” Tove said simply.

  “You are the Princess,” Willa pointed out, as if I’d forgotten. “On the subject of which, do you want to have a girls’ night tonight?”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “I feel like I haven’t seen you much lately, and I thought it’d be fun if we did our nails and watched movies,” Willa said. “You’ve been under so much stress lately, you need to kick back.”

  “It would help your training if you shut off your mind sometimes,” Tove said.

  “That sounds really great, Willa, but I was thinking of seeing if Matt wanted to do something,” I said. “This all has to be so confusing for him, and I haven’t been able to spend much time with him.”

  “Oh, Matt’s busy.” Willa readjusted the clasp on her bracelet. “He’s doing something with Rhys tonight. Some brother bonding thing, I guess.”

  I watched Tove move the chair back and forth, and I tried not to feel anything about what Willa said. Matt and Rhys needed to spend time together, and I had been busy a lot. It was good for them. It was good for me.

  Somebody sat down in the chair in front of me, and Tove let out a dramatic sigh. Elora glared at him, but his own mother didn’t. That had never made sense to me, either.

  Aurora was always looking down on Elora and me, but Tove acted out way more than I did. Tove did whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. I at least tried to have some decorum.

  “It is really packed,” Willa said again as Trylle filed in.

  It was down to standing room only, so even some of the Markises and Marksinnas didn’t get chairs. It’d never been like this before. Elora cleared her throat, preparing to start the meeting, when two more trackers snuck into the room.

  I could barely see them as they came in, but I recognized them instantly. Finn and his father Thomas had come to the meeting, and they stood at the edge of the room. Finn crossed his arms over his chest, and Thomas leaned on a bookcase behind him.

  “Good. They’re calling out the big guns,” Tove whispered.

  “What?” I pulled my gaze away from Finn.

  “Finn and Thomas.” Tove nodded at them. “They’re the best. No offense, Duncan.”

  “None taken,” Duncan said, and I think he meant it.

  “We need to get this meeting under way,” Elora said loudly to be heard over the mutterings of everyone.

  It took a minute, but they fell silent. Elora eyed up the room, and she purposely kept her eyes off Thomas, the same way Finn kept his eyes off me.

  “Thank you,” Aurora said with a saccharine smile and stepped closer to my mother.

  “As you all know, we’ve had an intruder in the palace,” Elora said calmly. “Thanks to our alarm system and the quick thinking of our trackers, he was caught before he could do any damage.”

  “Is it true that it’s the Markis Staad?” Marksinna Laurent asked. She was a nervous Trylle that once made a comment about how she loved that I let my hair go, and she’d never be brave enough to do that.

  “Yes, it does appear to be the Markis Staad,” Elora said.

  “Markis?” I whispered. Willa gave me a questioning look, and I shook my head.

  Loki Staad was a Markis? I’d assumed that Loki was a tracker, like Duncan and Finn. The Markis and Marksinna were the royals of the community, and they were protected. Or at the very least, they didn’t do their own dirty work. Willa was a Marksinna, and she was one of the more level-headed, unspoiled ones I’d met.

  “What does he want?” somebody else asked.

  “It doesn’t matter what he wants!” The Chancellor got up, his face drenched with sweat from the exertion of standing. “We need to send the Vittra a message! We will not be bullied! We must execute him!”

  “You can’t kill him!” I shouted, and Elora shot me a look that made my ears ring. Everyone in the room turned to look at me, including Finn, and my own conviction even surprised me. “It’s not humane.”

  “We’re not barbarians.” The Chancellor dabbed at his brow and gave me a condescending smile. “We’ll make his death as painless and benevolent as possible.”

  “The Markis didn’t do anything.” I stood up, unwilling to sit and let them propose murder. “You can’t kill someone without just cause.”

  “Princess, it’s for your own protection,” the Chancellor said, sounding baffled by my response. “He’s repeatedly tried to kidnap and harm you. That’s a crime against our people. Execution is the only cause of action that makes sense.”

  “It’s not the only cause,” Elora said carefully. “But it is something we will consider.”

  “You cannot seriously consider this,” I said “I’m the one he kidnapped, and I’m saying he doesn’t deserve that.”

  “Your concerns will be taken under advisement, Princess,” Aurora said, that same too-sweet smile plastered on her face.

  The crowd erupted with quiet murmurs. I’m sure I heard the word “treason,” but I couldn’t tell from where. Someone a row in front of me muttered something about Stockholm Syndrome, followed by a chuckle.

  “Hey, she’s the Princess,” Willa snapped at them. “Show a little respect.”

  “We can barter with them,” Finn said, raising his voice to be heard over the rumblings.

  “Pardon?” Aurora raised an eyebrow, and Elora all but rolled her eyes at him.

  “We have the Markis Staad,” Finn went on. “He’s the highest royal in the Vittra after the King. If we kill him, we have nothing. They’ll come after the Princess with even more fervor because we took out their only hope of an heir.”

  “You’re proposing that we work with the Vittra?” Elora asked.

  “We don’t negotiate with terrorists!” a Markis shouted, and Elora held up her hand to silence him.

  “We haven’t been negotiating, and look at where it’s gotten us,” Finn said and gestured towards the ballroom. “The Vittra have broken into the palace twice in the last month. We lost more Trylle in that last battle than we have in almost twenty years.”

  I sat down again, watching Finn argue his point. He had a way of commanding the room, even if he wouldn’t look at me. Moreover, he was right.

  “This is the biggest bargaining chip we’ve ever had,” Finn said. “We can use Markis Staad to get them to back off. They don’t want to lose him.”

  “He’s not the biggest bargaining chip,” Marksinna Laurent interrupted. “The Pri
ncess is.” Everyone’s eyes turned towards me. “The Vittra have never come after us this bad before. All they want is the Princess, and in a way, they have a right to her. If we give the Vittra what they want, they’ll leave us alone.”

  “We’re not giving them the Princess.” Garrett Strom stood up and held his hands out. “She is our Princess. Not only is she the most powerful heir we’ve ever had, but she’s one of us. We won’t give the Vittra one of our own people.”

  “But this is all about her!” Marksinna Laurent got up, her voice getting shriller. “This is all happening because of the bad treaty the Queen made twenty years ago, and we’re all paying the price!”

  “Do you remember what it was like twenty years ago?” Garrett asked. “If she hadn’t made that treaty, the Vittra would’ve slaughtered us.”

  “Enough!” Elora shouted, and her voice echoed through my head, through all our heads. “I called this meeting so we could discuss the options together, but if you are not capable of a proper discourse, then I will end it. I do not need your permission to conduct my business. I am your Queen, and my decisions are final.”

  For the first time ever, I understood why Elora could be so hard. The people in this room were openly discussing sacrificing her only child, and thought nothing of it.

  “For now, I will keep the Markis Staad at the palace until I decide what to do with him,” Elora said. “If I decide to execute him or barter with him, it will be my decision, and I will let you know.” She smoothed out non-existent creases in her skirt. “That is all.”

  “We need to reinstate Finn,” Tove said before the crowd had a chance to disperse.

  “What?” I whispered. “No, Tove, I don’t think-”

  “All trackers need to be on hand right now.” Tove ignored me. “All the storks in the field should be called back to roost. Both Finn and Thomas need to be at the palace. I can stay here and help, but I don’t think that’s enough.”

  “Tove can stay at the palace,” Aurora offered up too quickly. “If that would help.”

  “We have additional trackers on staff,” Elora told him, but I saw her looking at Thomas from the corner of her eye. “A new alarm system is in place, and the Princess is never left unguarded.”