Аманда Хокинг - Torn

“I am glad you’re home,” Matt softened.

He let his guard down for a second, revealing how terrible this had all been for him. I knew I could never disappear like that again. I went over and hugged him tightly.

After saying goodnight, Matt left me alone in my room, and I crawled into the familiar comfort of my twin bed. I had been sleeping in a giant king-size bed in Förening, but somehow, my narrow bed felt so much better. I snuggled deeper in the covers, relieved to be somewhere that felt sane again.

I’d always had an inkling that I didn’t fit in with my family, despite Matt’s devotion to me. My mother had nearly killed me when I was six years old, claiming that I was a monster and not her daughter.

Turns out, she was right.

A month ago, I found out I was a changeling - you know, a child that is exchanged in secret for another child? Specifically, I was switched at birth with Rhys Dahl. It turns out that I’m a Trylle. Trylle are basically glamorous grifters with mild superpowers. Technically, I’m a troll, but not in the creepy little green monster sort of way. I’m of a normal height and fairly attractive. In Trylle culture, the use of changelings is a practice that dates back centuries. The custom’s intention is to make sure the Trylle offspring had the best childhoods possible.

I’m supposed to be a Princess in Förening - the compound in Minnesota where the Trylle live. My birth mother is Elora, the Trylle Queen. After spending a few weeks in Förening, I decided to head home. I had a falling out with Elora, who had forbidden me from seeing the guy I love, Finn Holmes, simply because he’s not royalty. I escaped and took Rhys with me. In Förening, Rhys had been about the only one to show me genuine kindness, and I felt he deserved some of that in return. I brought him here to meet Matt, since he is really Rhys’s brother, not mine.

Of course, I couldn’t tell Matt all of that. He’d think I was completely insane.

Growing drowsy, I thought again how good it felt to be home.

It only took ten minutes for Rhys to shatter that comfort for me, however, when he crept into my room. I was almost asleep, but the sound of my door opening made me alert. Matt had gone downstairs, presumably to make the phone calls I suggested, and if he knew Rhys was in here, he’d kill us both.

“Wendy? Are you asleep?” Rhys whispered, sitting gingerly the edge of my bed.

“Yes,” I muttered.

“Sorry. I can’t sleep,” Rhys said. “How can you sleep?”

“It’s not that exciting for me. I lived here before, remember?”

“Yeah but…” He trailed off, probably because he had no argument for that.

Suddenly, he tensed and sucked in his breath. “Did you hear that?”

“You talking? Yes, but I’ve been trying not-” Before I could finish my sentence, I heard it too. A rustling sound outside my bedroom window.

Considering I had just had a horrible run-in with some very bad trolls known as Vittra, I was concerned. I rolled over, hoping to be able to see anything, but the curtains were drawn, blocking my view.

The rustling turned into actual banging, and I sat up, my heart pounding. Rhys shot a nervous glance at me. We heard the window slide open, and the curtains billowed out from the wind.

He stepped into my room with one graceful move, as if entering through bedroom windows was nothing out of the ordinary.

His black hair was slicked back, but he had stubble growing along his jaw, making him look even sexier. His eyes were so dark they were nearly black, and he cast one discerning glare at Rhys before settling them on me, making my heart forget to beat entirely.

Finn Holmes had snuck into my room.

H still managed to stun me the same way he always did. I was so happy to see him that I almost forget how angry I was with him.

The last time I had seen Finn, he was slinking out of my bedroom in Förening, per his deal with my mother. Elora told him that he could spend one more night with me before leaving. Forever.

We had only kissed, but Finn had failed to let me in on Elora’s plan. He didn’t even bother to say goodbye. He didn’t fight it or try to get me to run away with him.

He just crept out of my room, leaving Elora to explain to me exactly what had happened.

“What are you doing here?” Rhys asked, and Finn pulled his eyes off me to glare at Rhys.

“I came to collect the Princess, of course.” Finn struggled to keep his expressions and his voice emotionless, but irritation saturated his words.

“Well, yeah, but… I thought Elora reassigned you.” Rhys was thrown by Finn’s anger, and he fumbled for a minute. “I mean… that’s what people were saying around Förening, that you weren’t allowed around Wendy anymore.”

Finn tensed noticeably at Rhys’s words, his jaw flexing, and Rhys looked down at the floor.

“I’m not,” Finn admitted once he had calmed down enough to speak. “I was preparing to leave when I heard that you two had vanished in the middle of the night. Elora was deciding who would be best suited to track Wendy, but I thought it would be in her best interest if I went after her, what with the Vittra stalking her.”

Rhys opened his mouth to protest but Finn stopped him.

“We all know you did a wonderful job of protecting her at the ball,” Finn said. “If I hadn’t shown up, you might’ve protected her right into getting murdered.”

“I know the Vittra are a threat!” Rhys shot back, sounding perplexed.

Hearing his confusion, I got up off the bed, moving to intercede. Rhys agreed with Finn about the Vittra, which is why he couldn’t figure out why exactly he’d let me talk him into coming here.

The truth was, Rhys didn’t agree to come here. He wanted to meet Matt, but he was adamant about my safety and had flat out refused to let me leave the security of the compound.

Unfortunately for Rhys, I had persuasion. When I looked at people and thought about what I wanted them to do, they would do it, whether they really wanted to or not.

That’s how I convinced Rhys to take me with him when we ran away, and I needed to say something before Rhys caught on to what I’d done.

“The Vittra lost a lot of trackers in that fight,” I interjected. “They’re not eager to repeat it any time soon. Besides that, I’m sure they’re sick of trying to get me.”

“That’s highly unlikely.” Finn narrowed his eyes, studying Rhys’s bewilderment, and then he looked darkly at me. He’d figured out how I had convinced Rhys to leave. “Wendy, do you care nothing for your own safety?”

“I probably care more than you do.” I crossed my arms firmly over my chest.

“You were leaving to go onto another job. If I had waited one more day to leave, you wouldn’t have known I was gone.”

“Is this about getting my attention?” Finn snapped. His eyes burned, and I had never seen his anger directed at me this way before. “I don’t know how many times I have to explain this to you! You are a Princess! I mean nothing! You need to forget about me!”

“What’s going on?” That was Matt, shouting from the stairs.

He’d heard us arguing. If he came up here and caught Finn in my room that would be very, very bad.

“I’ll go… create a diversion.” Rhys glanced at me to make sure that was okay, and I nodded. He darted out the door, saying things to Matt about how awesome the house was, and their voices faded as they went downstairs.

I tucked my curls behind my ears and refused to look at Finn. It was hard to believe that the last time I had been with him, he had been kissing me so passionately, I could barely breathe. I remembered the way his scruff scraped against my cheeks and the way his lips pressed against mine.