Home > The Ever After (The Omte Origins # 3)(2)

The Ever After (The Omte Origins # 3)(2)
Author: Amanda Hocking

I turned around to see Finn Holmes standing there, and I was so relieved I burst into tears. I ran over to him and threw my arms around his neck, and he hugged me back.

“You’re home now, Ulla,” he reassured me in his warm, rumbling voice.

“What are you doing here?” I asked when I finally released him, and I wiped at my eyes with the long sleeves of my sweatshirt.

His eyebrows pinched together, and his eyes filled with concerned confusion. “You asked me to pick you up here. We spoke on the phone a few days ago.”

“What?” I shook my head in dismay.

“We were negotiating your release for weeks.” Finn put his hands on my shoulders, warm and comforting, and he bent slightly so he could look me in the eye. “You were held hostage by the Älvolk.”

Fresh tears sprang into my eyes. “I don’t—”

—an image flashed in my mind: Noomi glaring down at me, and a tall man looming behind her.

A painful bolt of lightning shot through my brain, and the image dissolved to Eliana. She wore a long white dress and stood in front of a raging waterfall—

“I don’t remember,” I stammered. “It’s only bits and pieces. I don’t know where I’ve been for the past month.”

“Okay, it’s okay.” Finn put his arm around me. “We’ll figure this out together. The important thing is that you’re home now.”

The baggage carousel let out an angry alarm announcing the incoming luggage, and I nearly jumped out of my skin. A moment later, my battered old duffel bag tumbled out on the conveyor belt, and I ran to grab it, as if someone else would run and snatch it before I had the chance.

Even though I really wanted to open my bag and dig through it right then and there, to see what of my possessions I still had, it didn’t seem like a good idea around so many humans.

I didn’t even really feel comfortable being around them at all, so I grabbed my bag and followed Finn out to his car without really saying much. I sat stoically in the passenger side of the Jeep until we were out of the airport completely, and on an open stretch of highway.

“What about my friends?” I asked finally. “Were they released too?”

“It’s my understanding that Dagny Kasten, Elof Dómari, and Panuk Soriano were released back to the Mimirin at the same time you were released back to Förening,” Finn said.

I let out a sigh of relief and rested my head back against the seat rest. “How come I’m here and not in Merellä?”

“It was a condition of your release,” he explained. “You were not to return to the Mimirin.”

I looked sharply at him. “What? Why not?” I suddenly flashed on Noomi, glowering at me, and Indu, his weathered face and unrelenting smirk. “Who made the demands?”

“Wendy did most of the negotiating,” he said, referring to the Trylle Queen and his friend. “Along with the head of the Mimirin, the Korva, Ragnall Jerrick.”

I’d met with Ragnall once, shortly before we’d left for Sweden. I had wanted to go to find Eliana and my father, but the Mimirin officials had gotten excited about the potential. I had formed relationships with Eliana, Jem-Kruk, and my father, Indu Mattison, who all had ties to the First City and the Älvolk that resided within. Because of this, Mästare Amalie had appointed us ambassadors to visit the First City and find out all that we could about the secretive kingdom.

Not that I had any place to complain. If Ragnall and Amalie hadn’t taken an interest in our trip, we never would’ve been able to go. The Mimirin funded the entire trip, with Amalie calling it an expedition for our heritage.

“But who did they negotiate with?” I pressed.

Finn had one hand on the steering wheel, and he kept his eyes on the road as he spoke. “I know they were in contact with Patrik Boden. He’s the one in direct contact with the Älvolk leaders.”

Patrik was the Markis Ansvarig in Isarna, the troll island where we’d been staying while we looked for Áibmoráigi, the First City. We’d only been there a few days when—

—the memories cut to black. I remembered being at the Isarna city hall, admiring their collection of artifacts, and Patrik had been explaining things. But then it was like the world stopped mid-sentence. It was all black, and my head throbbed painfully when I tried to remember more.

“Who were the Älvolk leaders?” I asked Finn, and rubbed my temple in a vain attempt to relieve my growing headache. “Was it Indu? Indu Mattison?”

I could see his face—weathered olive skin, black hair going silver at the temples, dark eyes scrutinizing me, and his constant smirk. And then it was gone.

I could hardly remember the face of my father.

“I don’t know,” Finn said.

“What about Noomi Indudottir?” I closed my eyes, trying to remember the other name. There had been someone else, another girl with jet-black hair and paint across her eyes. “Tuva? Did you hear anything about Noomi or Tuva?”

He shook his head. “I don’t think I heard their names.”

“How did you know the Älvolk had me? Like, how did anybody find out we were in trouble?”

“The docent with you, Professor Elof Dómari, set up a dead man’s switch,” Finn explained. “He’d instructed Patrik to contact the Mimirin if they didn’t hear from you within seventy-two hours. When that time passed, Patrik contacted Ragnall, and then Ragnall called Wendy. They began the negotiations, and Wendy let me know what was going on.”

“So the negotiations lasted nearly a month?” I asked.

“It is my understanding that the Älvolk were difficult to reach and changed their demands several times, and that really prolonged the process,” Finn said. “But we wanted you home as soon as possible.”

“I know,” I said. “I’m just … missing a whole month of my life.”

“What’s the last thing you remember?” Finn asked carefully.

A series of hazy images ran through my mind—the city hall in Isarna with a jeweled fox skeleton on display, kissing Pan in the hotel room, and Noomi watching me as an all-girls’ choir sang a haunting hymn in a language I didn’t completely understand.

“The last thing I remember clearly is arriving in Isarna.” I shook my head. “Then it’s all a blur.”

“When we get back to Förening, I’ll get in touch with the healers I know,” Finn said, keeping his voice hard, to hide the worry underneath. “I already let them know that you might need them today. I wasn’t sure what condition you’d be in. There might be a way that they could bring your memories back.”

I unbuckled my seat belt so I could reach into the back seat and open my bag. It was too big to haul into the front, not without impacting Finn’s ability to drive, so I started rummaging through it.

“Ulla, you can’t hang over the seat like that,” he told me firmly. “It’s not safe.”

So naturally, I clambered back, practically falling on my head and kicking the ceiling before I managed to safely right myself.

“That’s not what I meant,” he muttered, then louder, “Put your seat belt on.”

I did, then immediately returned to my search of the bag. It was mostly full of my dirty clothes, and they were actually mine, unlike the ill-fitting outfit I’d woken up in on the plane. Why had I been in that when I had plenty of my own stuff?

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