“What hurts?” Loki asked.
“She can barely breathe, let alone talk!” Matt yelled. “She needs immediate medical attention!” Loki held up his hand to silence him, and Matt sighed heavily.
“Can you talk?” Loki kept staring at me.
When I opened my mouth, instead of speaking, an excruciating cough rose up in me. Closing my eyes, I tried to fight it. I coughed so hard, tears streamed down my cheeks, but I felt something wet. I opened my eyes to see bright red splattered all over my legs and Loki’s feet. I was coughing up blood, and I couldn’t stop.
“Ludlow!” Loki shouted at the hobgoblin. “Get Sara! Now!”
4. Vitriol
Loki stayed crouched in front of me, keeping Matt back. Matt’s inclination would be to hold me, and Loki didn’t want me moved, afraid that it might rupture something. Matt shouted frantically, and Loki kept insisting that everything would be alright.
Within moments, a woman appeared in the room. Her long dark hair was pulled up in a ponytail, and she knelt down in front of me, pushing Loki to the side. Her eyes were almost as dark as Finn’s, and I found something comforting in that.
“My name is Sara, and I’m going to help you.” She pressed her hand hard against my abdomen, and I winced.
It hurt so bad, I wanted to scream, but then the pain began to fade. A weird numbing tingle ran through me. It took me a second to figure out where I had felt that sensation before.
“You’re a healer,” I mumbled, slightly dismayed that she was helping me. The pain in my chest and stomach had disappeared, and she put her hand on my face, fixing my black eye.
“Does it hurt anywhere else?” Sara asked, ignoring my statement. She looked worn out, a temporary side effect from healing, but otherwise, she was incredibly beautiful.
“I don’t think so.” I felt sore all over, but that was still lessening.
“Kyra went way overboard,” Sara said, more to herself than me. “Are you okay now?”
“Yeah,” I nodded.
“Excellent.” Sara stood up and turned to Loki. “You need to control your trackers better.”
“They’re not mine.” Loki crossed his arms over his chest. “If you have a problem with how they do their job, take it up with your husband.”
“I’m certain my husband wouldn’t like how this situation was handled.” Sara looked at him severely, but he didn’t back down.
“I was doing you a favor,” Loki replied evenly. “If I hadn’t been there, it would’ve been worse.”
“I’m not having this discussion now.” She glanced in my direction, then walked out of the room.
“Is that everything, then?” Loki asked us once she’d gone.
“Not even close.” Matt had been sitting next to me but he got to his feet. “What do you want with us? You can’t just keep us here!”
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Loki smiled emptily at me and turned to leave the room.
Matt tried to rush him, but Loki was already out the door before he got to him. He slammed the door and Matt flew into it. There was a loud clicking as bolts locked, and Matt slacked against the door.
“What is going on here?” Matt shouted and turned to look at me. “How come you’re not dying anymore?”
“Would you rather I be dying?” I pulled the sleeve of my sweater down and wiped the blood away from my face. “I could get Kyra in here to finish the job.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Matt rubbed his forehead. “I want to know what’s happening. I feel like I’m in a bad dream.”
“It gets easier,” I said and turned to Rhys. “What the hell was that hobgoblin thing that came in? Was that an actual troll?”
“I don’t know.” Rhys shook his head, looking just as bewildered as I felt. “I’ve never seen one before, but everyone goes out of their way to make sure mänks don’t know anything.”
“I didn’t think there were real trolls.” I furrowed my brow, trying to remember what Finn had told me about trolls before. “I thought they were just myths.”
“Really?” Matt asked. “After everything that’s happened? So you pick and choose what mythology you believe in?”
“I’m not picking and choosing anything.” I got to my feet. I still felt sore all over, but it was light years better than I’d felt when I woke up. “I believe what I can see. I hadn’t seen this before. That’s all.”
“Are you okay?” Matt watched me as I hobbled around the room. “Maybe you should take it easy.”
“No, I’m fine.” I brushed him off. I wanted to get my bearings in the space, maybe see if there was a way that we could get out. “How did we get here anyway?”
“They broke into the house and attacked us.” Matt gestured to the door, referring to Loki and the Vittra. “That guy knocked us out somehow, and we woke up here. We hadn’t been awake very long before you woke up.”
“Lovely.” I touched the door, pushing on it as if I thought it would open. It didn’t, but I had to try.
“Hey, where’s Finn?” Rhys asked, echoing thoughts I was starting to have. “Why didn’t he stop this?”
“What does Finn have to do with this?” Matt asked with an edge to his voice.
“Nothing. He used to be my tracker. It’s sorta like a bodyguard.” I took a step back, staring at the door and willing it to open. “He tried to protect me from all of this.”
“That’s why you ran away with him?” Matt asked. “He was protecting you?”
“Something like that,” I sighed.
“Where is he?” Rhys repeated. “I thought he was with you when the Vittra came.”
Matt started yelling about Finn being in my room, but I ignored him. I didn’t have the energy to fight with Matt about propriety or his feelings for Finn.
“Finn left before they broke in,” I said, once Matt had finished his tirade. “I don’t know where he’s at.”
I don’t know what had happened that kept Finn from protecting me. Maybe he had really left. I had thought that had all been a bluff, but I don’t know why he wouldn’t have been there.
Unless something bad happened to him. The Vittra could have gotten to him before they came after me. He cared too much for duty, even if he didn’t care enough for me. The only way he wouldn’t keep me safe is if he couldn’t.
“Wendy?” Rhys asked.
I think he’d been talking before that, but I hadn’t heard anything he’d said. I’d been too busy thinking of Finn and staring at the door.
“We have to get out of here,” I said and turned to Rhys and Matt.
“Obviously,” Matt sighed.
“I have an idea.” I bit my lip. “But it’s not a great one. When they come back, I can use my persuasion. I can convince them to let us go.”
“Do you really think that’s strong enough?” Rhys voiced the concern I’d had myself.
So far, I’d only used persuasion on unsuspecting humans, like Matt and Rhys, and Finn had told me without training, my abilities weren’t as strong as they could be. I hadn’t begun my training yet in Förening, so I had no clue how powerful or weak I might be.