The Ever After

by Amanda Hocking

  “Dagny, what on earth did you tell Ulla?” Elof asked her as he appraised me, all sweaty and out of breath. Then, as he pushed out a stool toward me, he asked me, “Did she threaten you with bodily harm?”

  “No, no.” I waved him off and collapsed back on the stool. “She just said you had something to tell me.”

  “Take a moment to collect yourself and we’ll get to it,” he said, and again looked to Dagny. “Can you get her water?”

  She sighed but did as he asked. Since she was working, she had on her luxe lab coat. It was a kaftan-style coat made of white linen embroidered with a pale gold quatrefoil pattern. A moment later, she returned with a paper cup of ice-cold water from the sink, and when she handed it to me, she said, “Why didn’t you take the elevator?”

  I shrugged and gulped the water down. I’d felt weird taking it without Elof, like I was breaking a rule or something.

  “So,” I said when I’d finally caught my breath. “What do you have to tell me?”

  “I had a few suspicions I wanted to check out before I talked to you about them.” Elof sat next to me at the island, his arms folded on the cold marble. “I don’t want to get your hopes up, so I looked into a few things behind your back.”

  “Behind my back?” I asked nervously.

  “Yes, but it’s not as illicit as it sounds,” he said quickly.

  “Just spit it out, Elof,” Dagny groaned in frustration. “This is torture.”

  My heart pounded so hard, they could probably hear it. “What is going on?”

  “Elof knows who your father is,” Dagny blurted out.

  35

  Revelations

  Elof glared at her from across the island, his nostrils flaring slightly. “That isn’t exactly true.”

  “What is true then?” I asked.

  He took a deep breath and looked at me with soft dark eyes. “When we were summoned to the Omte palace, I took the opportunity to procure a few hairs from Crown Prince Furston Elak.”

  “Why would you do that?” I asked.

  “For comparison familial testing, the way I did with Bekk’s baby and Bryn,” Elof elaborated. “Against the sample I had just taken from you.” He paused. “Ulla, Furston is your half-brother.”

  “What?” I shook my head. “Bodil is my mother?”

  “We considered that possibility,” he replied carefully. “But your sample did have markers that led me to believe one of your parents is álfar. I cannot say for certain that an álfar man did not impregnate Bodil in secret. Her fiancé was gone much of the year before your birth, so she had the opportunity, I presume.

  “But then, that holds even more true for her husband-to-be,” he went on. “Thor went on a mission that brought him to the First City, where the álfar Senka visited Sarina and other Älvolk. And then, Orra Fågel, who had been sent to Áibmoráigi to help Thor, is last seen in Iskyla, leaving behind a newborn baby.

  “Thor was betrothed to Bodil in a marriage arranged by his father,” he explained. “Indu was in a relationship with Senka when she fell pregnant, which is why he believed himself to be your father.”

  Elof paused, giving me a minute to absorb everything he was telling me. “Senka’s relationship involved a controlling zealot, Thor’s marriage was a political alliance, and they’re both in the same obscure location at the same time leading up to your birth.”

  “They had the means and motive to hide their love child,” Dagny said.

  “And with good reason, since Indu killed Orra for taking you,” Elof said.

  “The Omte King is my father?” I asked, my voice hardly even a whisper.

  Dagny nodded. “We think so, yes.”

  “Okay,” I said, and then I ran and threw up in the sink.

  This wasn’t the reaction I expected I’d have when I found out who my father was. But then again, when I’d imagined finding out who my birth parents were, I’d always pictured them telling me themselves. Sometimes I feared the worst, that they gave me up because they hated me. Other times, they’d embrace me with open arms and apologize for all the years we’d lost.

  But to do either of those things, they had to be here, and they had to be alive. Thor had died eight years ago in a stupid bar fight, and according to Indu and Illaria, Senka had died some time ago.

  So my parents weren’t here, and they never would be. They could never tell me why they abandoned me, or if they ever even loved me.

  Had Thor known that I was his daughter, or did he think that I was Indu’s? Did he know that I had been left in Iskyla?

  Was it his idea to abandon me or was it my mother’s? Did he want to see me?

  Had he told Bodil about me?

  Did she know about me?

  “Ulla, are you all right?” Dagny asked, and put her hand on my back. I leaned over the sink, with cold water running from the tap, and I splashed it on my face.

  “Yeah, I’m okay,” I said, even though I wasn’t sure if it was true, and I turned off the faucet.

  “This is why I prefer to do things more slowly,” Elof said, his tone meant to chastise Dagny as she walked with me back to the island. “It gives everyone more time to process info.”

  I sat on the stool and leaned heavily on the island. “I don’t know why I reacted like that.” I exhaled shakily and felt a painful lump growing in my throat. “I’m okay now.”

  But the truth was that I had no idea how I felt. I was strangely separate from my body, like I was hovering above myself, watching all of this happen to someone else. Another girl with blond hair sat across from Elof, listening patiently and nodding along as he explained how to process shocking information.

  Was this shocking, though?

  When I was younger, I used to tell everyone my parents were royalty and star-crossed lovers. As I got older, I made my peace with my adolescent fantasies as just that.

  Except now it turned out it was sort of true.

  I thought back to the huge portrait I’d seen back in the Omte palace. Thor had presumably sat for it, wearing a crooked bronze crown and a warm smile nearly hidden in his bushy beard. In the painting, he’d been larger than life. But he had to have been a big guy in reality, with a thick neck, barrel chest, and broad shoulders.

  I must’ve gotten my super strength from him, I realized.

  How had the powerful king died in a bar fight?

  The bottle had been on display at the Ugly Vulture. It was oversized, made of thick semi-opaque jade glass. The jagged points of broken glass had glistened in the light. That was what had killed Thor, the broken bottle gashing open his throat.

  That was how my father died.

  My stomach rolled at the memory of me staring at the weapon of my father’s murder with only mild curiosity.

  “Dagny, perhaps it’s best if you went home early,” Elof suggested. “Ulla could use some rest, and you could both use some relaxation.”

  “Sure,” Dagny said, and I didn’t bother protesting. I didn’t really want to be alone.

  Once we got back to the apartment, I took a long shower, and I helped Dagny make some quick grilled cheese sandwiches. After we ate, I finally started feeling better, and I was happy to spend the evening sacked out on the couch with Dagny, watching movies on the laptop.

  I thought about calling Pan. I wanted to talk to him, to invite him over and cuddle with him on the couch. I could sink into his arms and pretend that everything was okay.

  But then I’d have to tell him about my father, which meant I’d have to talk about it, and I didn’t want to do that just then. Dagny understood, and she hung out with me all night without saying much.

  I went to bed early, pulling the covers tight around me.

  Sometime later, I woke up to a strange rumble. My phone was dead, so I couldn’t see the time, but it was dark in the apartment without the waning moon filtering through the curtains. I sat up, blinking in the darkness, and I wondered if I’d only dreamt the rumble when it happened again.

  Buh-bum. Loud enoug
h to make the roof shake. A thunderous beat, like a booming, throbbing heart.

  “Dagny?” I called out, but she didn’t answer. “Dagny?”

  I slowly climbed down the ladder, clinging to the rungs when the buh-bum shook the carriage house again. I still hadn’t heard a sound from Dagny’s room, and I worried something was wrong, because nobody could sleep through this.

  I started toward her bedroom door, but then the room began to darken. The moonlight on the floor changed from white to red, and I pulled back the semi-sheer curtain and saw blood streaming down over the window, like a waterfall.

  I screamed and jumped back from it. I shouted Dagny’s name and ran for the front door. The sight of all that blood made me want to throw up or pass out, and I couldn’t do that, so I needed to breathe.

  And to breathe, I needed to be outside.

  I rushed out the front door and leaned forward over the balcony, and I saw my breath fogging up the air. It wasn’t night at all, despite the moonlight I thought I’d seen a few moments before, but rather early dawn, when the sun hadn’t yet begun to rise but the sky was light and pink to the east.

  I straightened up and felt the icy chill biting through the thin shirt and shorts I’d been sleeping in. It was mid-August in Oregon, yet it had to be near freezing out. My breath came out in plumes and my teeth chattered.

  “What the hell is going on?” I whispered into the frosty air.

  A loud bleating came from the bottom of the stairs, and I nearly jumped out of my skin. I looked down to see the albino giant woolly elk standing before me. The massive white antlers stretched out over three meters, and the large cinnamon-red eyes held my gaze.

  “Am I dreaming?” I asked, but I didn’t expect an answer.

  The albino elk chuffed and then slowly turned and walked away. Still shivering, I wrapped my arms around myself as I descended the steps and went after the animal.

  An eerie fog hung over the citadel, but the sky seemed to lighten quickly as I followed the elk through the empty streets. It was completely silent, except for our footsteps crunching on the soft gravel.

  The elk traveled on Wapiti Way until it came to the Forsa River, then followed it out to the arched hole in the wall that allowed the river to meet the ocean. Once the massive beast had gone through the river and ducked low to clear the wall, it was out onto the beach.

  That’s where Hanna and I had found Eliana after she ran away. She’d gotten freaked out during a blood draw, and Sumi had pointed us in her direction.

  As I followed the elk toward the ocean, I was thinking of Eliana and how we’d found her that day, sitting in the sand with her knees hugged to her chest … and then there she was.

  Eliana turned to look at me, her hair a shimmering aquamarine color, blowing in the wind. When she saw me, her eyes lit up, and she smiled.

  “Ulla, you’re finally here!” she shouted, getting to her feet. Then she yelled back over her shoulder, “Ulla’s here!”

  I looked past her, and I saw Jem-Kruk standing with Sumi at the edge of the ocean.

  36

  Enchanted

  Eliana ran at me and threw her arms around me, hugging me tightly. “It’s so good to see you.” She squeezed so hard it hurt, and she smelled overly sweet, like cotton candy.

  “This is a really vivid dream,” I mumbled into her hair, and my arms hung limp at my sides.

  “This isn’t a dream.” She finally released me, and she looked up at me fully with her big eyes. “I’m really here.”

  “No, I’m dreaming. I saw the albino elk and—” I glanced around, but the white beast was nowhere to be seen.

  Jem-Kruk and Sumi came over to us. Jem, tall and lean, his black hair loose and lush, with an easy smile on his handsome face; Sumi, her dark coiled curls braided tight to her scalp on one side only, her expression more baffled than happy. Her hand hovered near the PSG holstered on her hip.

  “How did you know we were here?” Sumi asked, her eyes narrowing.

  “I—I didn’t,” I stuttered. “I don’t. I’m still sleeping.” I gestured to my pajamas.

  Jem tilted his head, his smile turning quizzical. “But you are awake.”

  The air didn’t feel quite so cold anymore, I realized, although there was still a chill to the ocean breeze. I folded my arms across my chest, acutely aware that I wasn’t wearing a bra.

  “What’s going on?” I asked. “What are you doing here?”

  “It’s a long story, but we rescued Eliana and came here to hide from the Älvolk,” Jem said.

  Eliana dashed off, running at a seagull and twirling about. She sang a children’s song I had heard before.

  Sing, sing the heroes

  The worm is full of flowers

  Hush, hush the morning light

  Down falls the darkest night

  And now the end is ours.

  “What’s going on with her?” I asked. “And why do you need to hide from the Älvolk?”

  “She hasn’t been well enough for the journey home, and I’ve begun to fear that she won’t ever be if we don’t get outside help,” Jem said. “And since we don’t trust the Älvolk—”

  “I told you that we shouldn’t,” Sumi interrupted.

  Jem scowled and pushed up the sleeves of his cranberry-colored button-up shirt. A vest hung loose on his wiry frame and beaded leather bracelets adorned his wrists.

  “Does it really matter, Sumi?” he asked wearily. “We’re here now.”

  “Yes, we are, and Eliana’s singing to the damn birds like she’s bappers,” Sumi retorted indignantly.

  “We both made the same promise to Senka that we’d watch over Eliana,” Jem said, growing frustrated. His hands were on his hips as he stared her down. “We’re both doing what we think is best. This isn’t a competition.”

  “Okay, you are here,” I said uncertainly, since I still wasn’t sure if I was awake or not. “And you need help, and I need help. So why don’t we all go into Merellä and figure it out together?”

  “We can’t just walk in,” Sumi said. “The cloaking spell won’t let us pass through without permission.”

  “Okay, then ask the Mimirin for permission. They let you in before,” I said.

  “Sumi thinks it would be better if we moved under the radar,” Jem explained.

  She gave him a harsh look. “Something strange is afoot, and you know that, Jem. The Älvolk have been plotting for decades, but it never felt like this before. They’ve moved way beyond rhetoric and talk.”

  “So what are you doing here then? If you can’t get in and have nowhere to stay?” I asked.

  “I was preparing our own cloaking spell so we could sneak in,” Sumi said. “I think that’s how Eliana was able to get in here on her own before, but I can’t say for sure because she doesn’t remember.”

  “Do you know why she came here at the beginning of the summer?” I asked.

  Sumi shook her head. “We have no idea how or why she ended up here.”

  “But she fondly remembers the time she spent staying with you,” Jem said. “Which is why we’d been hoping that we could stay with you again.”

  “Yeah, of course,” I said, because what else could I say. “Dagny won’t mind. That much. Probably.”

  Thinking of cool, logical Dagny eased the nausea in my stomach. She’d make sense of this and know what to do. And she’d know for sure if I was still dreaming or not.

  “We should go to my apartment, then,” I said.

  “I need to finish my cloaking enchantment,” Sumi said. “It only takes a few more moments.”

  She went over to a small firepit that I hadn’t noticed before, made of stones just beyond the edge of the water. She crouched beside it and pulled a fire-starter out from a small satchel she wore on a belt around her waist. Within seconds, an ivory flame bloomed in the pit.

  From her satchel, she procured a few leaves—small and dark, like dried bay leaves—and a few fuzzy sticks—like tiny cattails. She mumbled an incantation,
then crumbled up the leaves and sticks before sprinkling them into the fire.

  The flame instantly became a luminescent bright silver and grew robust before quickly going out.

  Sumi straightened up and nudged the rocks to the side with her foot, so the lapping waves would soon take away the ash. “We should go now. The cloak won’t last long.”

  “Ellie!” Jem called out, and waved for Eliana to join us.

  She was standing out in the ocean, the cool water splashing up to her knees. She wore a long, slightly oversized maxi dress made of white cotton with pastel flowers, and the long hem was mostly bundled up in her arms in a vain attempt to keep it dry.

  When Jem summoned her, she seemingly forgot that attempt and immediately dropped her dress, soaking the length of it as she sprinted up to the shore.

  “Will Hanna be there?” Eliana asked breathlessly when she reached us.

  “No, she’s not, but there’re ways you can talk to her,” I promised her.

  We went into the citadel the same way I’d followed the albino elk out. We passed through the wall alongside the Forsa River, and Jem, Sumi, and Eliana had no problem with it. Eliana said she felt some tingles, but they didn’t faze her.

  It was very early in the morning, but the vendors were starting to set up the stalls on the main roads, so we took the back roads and alleys to my apartment. I wasn’t sure if I needed to keep Eliana out of sight, but I figured it would be better if we did. Plus, I felt self-conscious walking through Merellä in my pajamas.

  As soon as we got to my place, I woke Dagny up, and she answered her bedroom door looking irritated and tired, but that changed the moment Eliana threw herself at Dagny.

  “I’m back and I missed you,” Eliana squealed.

  Dagny hugged her tentatively and looked over at me. “Ulla, what’s going on here?”

  37

  Fanatical

  Dagny, Jem, Sumi, and I sat around the bistro table, sipping lemon tea. Eliana had gotten bored during the conversation, and she’d gone to take a bubble bath and wash off the seawater.