“But we don’t have time, Loki!” I took a deep breath. “I’m not saying that I’ll give myself to Oren as a peace offering, but I have to talk to him at least. I have to do something to postpone the war a little longer. We need more time to get an army ready. And he’s out there killing our people now.”
“So you want me to take you to the Vittra palace so you can have a little meeting with the King?” Loki asked. “While you’re in there, I’ll wait outside, and after the meeting is done, you’ll come out, and we’ll drive back here? Is that the plan?”
“Not exactly, but sorta,” I said.
“Wendy!” Loki sounded exasperated. “Why would he let you go? He is doing all of this for you. Once he has you there in the palace, why would he ever let you leave?”
“He can’t stop me, for one thing,” I said. “I can defend myself against him and the hobgoblins and anything else he might have. I can’t fight an entire war on my own and defend every person in the entire kingdom all at once. But if I’m alone, I can take care of myself.”
“Even if that’s true, it’s still too great a risk,” Loki said. “If you try to leave, he could kill you. Not just hold you hostage. Not just threaten you. Actually murder you. He would rather do that than see you return here.”
“No, not yet.” I shook my head. “Someday, yes, that’s true. But he wants me to be Queen. That’s why he agreed to the truce. He wanted to ensure that I would be the Trylle Queen.”
“He wants both kingdoms,” he said quietly. “You’re going to give him what he wants?”
“Yes.” I nodded. “I will agree to rule alongside him over both the Trylle and the Vittra if he stops the bloodshed until I am crowned Queen.”
“He won’t rule ‘beside’ you. He’ll take it from you.”
“I know, but I would never let him rule anyway,” I said. “I don’t plan to follow through with it.”
Loki whistled and shook his head. “If you went back on your deal, he would destroy everything—and I do mean everything—that you have ever cared about.”
“I won’t go back on it,” I said. “It will never get to that point. I’m only buying us time to build up the army, and then we’ll attack the Vittra, take them down, and I will kill Oren.”
“You’ll kill him?” He raised an eyebrow. “Do you even know how to kill him?”
“No. Not yet,” I admitted. “That’s why I haven’t killed him. But I will.”
“I don’t even know if he can be killed,” Loki said.
“Everyone can be killed.”
“Many, many people have tried,” he said. “And they’ve all failed.”
“Yes, but none of those people have his blood pumping through their veins,” I said. “I think I’m the only one strong enough to do it.”
Loki studied me a moment before asking, “What if you can’t? What if you do all this, and you can’t find a way to stop him?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I will have to find a way. He’s going to keep coming until he has me. I would gladly hand myself over to him if I thought that would be enough, but I’m not sure that it is anymore.”
Loki stared down at the floor, his golden eyes wide as he thought it through. I didn’t know what he was thinking, but he didn’t look happy.
“So, will you take me?” I asked.
He licked his lips and let out a deep breath. “You don’t know what you’re asking.”
“I know perfectly well what—”
Loki cut me off, sounding exasperated. “No, Wendy, you don’t. You have no idea what it’s really like to live in Ondarike, under the rule of a truly merciless King. You don’t understand what he’s capable of. He—”
He stopped abruptly and stepped closer to me, his expression solemn and his eyes dark.
“Oren killed my father when I was a child. He hung him from the ceiling by his ankles and slit his neck, letting him bleed out like a pig.” Loki’s eyes never wavered from mine as he spoke. “And it takes much longer than one would think. Or maybe it just seemed that way to me, since I was only nine, and Oren made me watch. He told me that’s what happens to people who betray him.”
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, unable to think of anything else to say.
“I’m not telling you this so you’ll feel sorry for me,” he said. “I want you to know what you’re up against. This man has no soul.”
“I know he’s a monster.” I lowered my gaze, trying to break the intensity of the moment. “Why did you stay in Ondarike after the King did that?”
“I was a child, for one thing. I had nowhere else to go.”
“What about when you weren’t a child?” I lifted my head cautiously, all too aware of how close Loki was to me. “Why did you wait so long to leave?”
“I stayed for Sara,” Loki said simply. “She’s been like a sister to me, and she’s the only family I have. The King was as cruel to her as he was to me, if not worse, and I didn’t want her to go through that alone.”
“But now you don’t care if she does?” I asked.
“No, I still care. But I can’t do anything to protect her anymore. I was trapped in a dungeon, unable to help her in any way.”
“So that’s why you left?”
“No.” He smiled as he stared down into my eyes. “I left for you.” I didn’t know what to say to that, but he spoke before I could anyway. “And you’re asking me to go back.”
“No.” I shook my head. “I won’t force you to go back if you don’t want to. I’ll find someone else to take me there.”
“Who?” Loki asked. “Who else would possibly take you?”
“I don’t know.” I floundered fora minute. “I’ll find the way on my own.”
Tove and a few trackers probably knew how to get to the Vittra palace, but they didn’t know the intricacies of it like Loki did. But if I had to, I could take a map from the War Room.
“You can’t go by yourself,” he said.
“I am sorry the King hurt you, I truly am. I know what a terrible man he is, but you telling me how horrible he is only emphasizes why I need to go. I have to stop him from doing to my people what he’s done to his own. I have to go.”
I turned to reach for the door handle, but Loki stopped me before I could. He grabbed my wrist and stood right in front of me.
“Loki.” I sighed and looked up at him. “Let go of me.”
“No, Wendy, I won’t let you do this,” Loki said.
“You can’t stop me.”
“I’m much stronger than you.”
I tried to shove him out of my way, but it was like pushing on concrete. He pressed me back against his bedroom wall and put an arm on either side of me. His body didn’t touch me, but it was so close I couldn’t move away.
“You may be physically stronger than me, but I can have you on the floor writhing in pain in minutes. I don’t want to hurt you, but I will if I have to.”
“You don’t have to,” Loki said emphatically. “You don’t have to do this.”
“Yes, I do. I will do whatever it takes to save lives,” I said. “If you can’t, that’s fine. But get out of my way.”
He bit his lip and shook his head, but he didn’t move away from me.
“It’s the middle of the night, and you want to run away with me,” Loki said. “What will you tell your husband?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?” Loki raised an eyebrow. “The Princess goes missing without a word? It would be total pandemonium.”
“I’ll have Duncan tell them in the morning where I’ve gone,” I said. “That’ll buy us a few hours to get there before somebody comes after us.”
“If the King doesn’t let you leave, he’ll kill the rescue party that they send,” Loki pointed out. “That would be Finn, Tove, Duncan, maybe even Willa. You’re willing to risk them on this?”
“This might be my only chance to save them,” I said thickly.
“I can’t talk you out of this?” he whispered, his eyes sear
ching mine.
“No.”
He swallowed and brushed back a hair from my forehead. His hand lingered on my face, and I let it. His eyes were strangely sad, and I wanted to ask him why, but I didn’t dare speak.
“I want you to remember this,” he said, his voice low and husky.
“What?” I asked.
“You want me to kiss you.”
“I don’t,” I lied.
“You do. And I want you to remember that.”
“Why?”
“Because.” Without further explanation, he turned away from me. “If you want to do this, hurry and put some clothes on. You don’t want to see the King in your pajamas.”
TWELVE
rendezvous
Loki liked alternative country, and the satellite radio in the Cadillac had been playing Neil Young, Ryan Adams, the Raconteurs, and Bob Dylan since we left Förening. He sang along with it sometimes, in an off-key way that was strangely endearing.
It was still dark out, and snow was falling around us, but Loki didn’t seem to mind. The car slid in a few places, but he always corrected it. I’d put my makeup on in the car, and he’d managed to keep it steady enough so I didn’t poke myself in the eye with liner.
Loki had teased me about the makeup and my choice of clothing. It was a long, dark violet gown, covered in lace and diamonds, with a black velvet cloak over it. I’d chosen it because I knew reverence would go a long way with Oren.
After they’d kidnapped me, Sara wouldn’t let me see him without wearing a gown. Respect was important to him, and making sure I looked nice when I saw him would show him that I respected him.
I’d actually been lucky that I’d been able to find something this nice to wear. Most of my clothes had been moved from my old room into the Queen’s chambers that I shared with Tove, but some had been left behind. I’d gone to my old room to get dressed because I didn’t want to see Tove and tell him what I was doing.
After I had changed, I went to Duncan’s room. He’d freaked out when I told him what my plans were, and I knew he’d run to tell Tove as soon as I’d gone, if he didn’t before I left. I’d used persuasion to get him to hold off as long as possible, which I estimated to be until roughly eight A.M. Maybe longer if my persuasion lasted.
Since I was the Princess, I had access to everything. I’d gone to the garage and taken the keys to a black Cadillac. We’d left Förening without anybody else seeing us, except for the guard at the gates. I used persuasion on him to keep him from alerting anyone, and we were on the road.
“You can sleep,” Loki said as I stared out the window at the snowflakes landing against the glass. “I will get us there.”
“I know, but I’m fine.” Even though I hadn’t really slept last night, I wasn’t tired. My nerves had me on edge.
“We can always turn back,” he reminded me, not for the first time.
“I know.”
“I thought I would offer,” he said, sounding disappointed. He sat in silence for a minute before singing along to the radio.
“Your father was Trylle, wasn’t he?” I asked, cutting off his singing.
“My father was born in Förening,” Loki answered carefully. “But he was more closely related to a snake than Trylle or Vittra.”
“You’re being metaphorical, right?” I asked. “Your father wasn’t literally a reptile?”
“No.” Loki laughed a little. “He wasn’t an actual snake.”
“How did he end up with the Vittra?” I asked. “Did he leave for your mom?”
“No.” He shook his head. “He was the Chancellor in Förening, and he met your father when Oren came around courting your grandparents for Elora’s hand in marriage.”
“I didn’t realize your father was a high-ranking official,” I said.
“That he was.” Loki nodded. “In arranging the marriage, my father had to work with Oren a lot, and Oren’s lust for power appealed to him. Evil attracts evil, apparently.”
“So he left to join the Vittra?” I asked.
“Not exactly,” he said. “The plan at the time was to unite the kingdoms. Oren would rule both of them, once your mother was Queen. This was before she’d even come back to Förening, when she was still living with her host family, but they had already begun working on the deal. As Chancellor, my father was sent to the Vittra kingdom as the Trylle ambassador. That’s how he met my mother.”
“I thought you said he didn’t leave for her,” I said.
“He didn’t. She was a means to an end. He married her so he’d have a reason to leave, not the other way around,” Loki said.
“So he didn’t love her?” I asked.
“No, he couldn’t stand her. Though she was beautiful.” He paused, thinking of her. “But I don’t think he even cared. She was a powerful Marksinna. My father wanted power, and she had it.
“For a time, he was both the Trylle Chancellor and a Vittra Prince,” he went on. “I’m not technically a Prince, and neither was he, but since we have the title as the highest-ranking Markis, they refer to us that way.”
“Your father committed treason against the Trylle, didn’t he?” I asked tentatively, remembering how he’d told me that Oren had executed his father.
“Do you know?” Loki glanced over at me. “Did they tell you what my father did?”
“Elora said that your father told Oren where my grandmother and she were hiding,” I said. “Because of that, Oren found them and killed my grandmother.”
“He did,” Loki said. “He did more than that, actually. He tried to tell Oren where you were, but you were too well hidden, so my father was never able to find out.
“But because of his efforts, he became Oren’s right-hand man,” Loki continued with a bitter smile. “He got everything he ever wanted, and you’d think that would make him happy, but no.”
“What happened?” I asked.
“When I was nine, Oren married Sara, and my father was furious,” Loki said. “There was a chance they might produce a healthy child, and my father didn’t want that. Without a child, I was the only viable heir to the throne.”
“But Sara can’t have kids?” I questioned.
“We didn’t know that at the time,” Loki explained. “She has some Trylle blood in her, two generations back, and that’s how she has the ability to heal. But the Vittra blood must have thinned out the Trylle in her too much, because she’s been unable to have kids.”
“But when she married Oren, your dad thought they might have a child?” I asked.
“Right.” He nodded. “My father wanted nothing more than for me to be King. It didn’t matter that I had no urge to be King, or that Oren might live forever and I would never be King anyway.”
“Why did he want you to be King so badly?” I asked.
“He wanted power, more power,” Loki said. “He thought if I became King, we could rule the world or something. He never got specific about his plans, but he just wanted more.”
“So what happened?” I asked. “I heard he tried to defect back to Förening.”
“Yes, that was after everything went to hell,” Loki said. “My father came up with some plan to kill Sara. I don’t know exactly what it was, but I think he meant to poison her. My mother found out about it, and she . . .” He stopped and shook his head.
“My mother was kind,” Loki went on. “I’d been betrothed to Sara, so she’d become like a member of our family. My mother invited her for supper regularly and treated her as a daughter. Even after Sara married Oren, my mother remained close to her.”
“And your father was going to kill her?” I asked.
“Yes, but my mother wouldn’t let him.” He chewed the inside of his cheek and stared straight ahead at the snow coming down. “So he killed her.”
“What?” I asked, thinking I’d misunderstood. “Sara’s alive.”
“No, my father killed my mother,” Loki said flatly. “He hit her in the head with a metal vase, over and over. I was hiding in the clo
set, and I saw the whole thing.”
“Oh, my god,” I gasped. “I’m so sorry.”
“The King found out, and he didn’t care that my father had murdered someone,” he said. “But then I told the King why my father killed her, about his plan to assassinate Sara.
“My father tried to make it back to the Trylle,” Loki continued. “He offered Elora trade secrets, anything she’d want to know. I’ve been told that she accepted, but he never made it there. Oren found him and executed him.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, unsure of what else to say.
“I’m not,” Loki said. “But I am lucky that the King didn’t kill me too. Sara took pity on me, and I moved into the palace with them.”
“The King and Queen raised you,” I said, realizing more what Loki had meant about Sara being his only family.
He nodded. “They did. Sara more so. The King’s never been that fond of me, although I don’t think he’s ever been that fond of anyone.”
Silence settled over us, and Loki seemed morose. Bringing up the death of his mother would have that effect.
What had happened to him was horrible, not that I’d had a great childhood myself. I thought back to when he’d arrived in Förening, and I’d put my hand on the scar on his chest. I’d felt like he was a kindred spirit, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized how alike we really were.
We both had a parental figure who hated us, and we were left orphaned at a young age. His father wanted him to be King, even though Loki didn’t want it, and my mother wanted me to be Queen, even though I didn’t want it. And we both shared a mixed bloodline of Trylle and Vittra.
“Why aren’t you like me?” I asked when I thought of it.
“Pardon?”
“Why aren’t you as powerful as me?” I asked. “We’re both Trylle and Vittra.”
“Well, for one thing, you’re the product of the most powerful Trylle and the most powerful Vittra,” Loki said. “I’m the product of a very powerful Vittra and a fairly weak Trylle. My father was a low-ranking Markis. He had hardly anything. I did get his ability to render people unconscious, though, but mine is much stronger than his ever was.”
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