Аманда Хокинг - Switched

After her small tirade, she abruptly stopped. We immediately went to the sitting parlor, where Garrett and Willa were waiting for us, but the entire atmosphere had changed to one of a more relaxed tone. Finn even loosened his tie. Elora lounged on the chair next to Garrett, and he seemed to captivate a disproportionate amount of her attention.

A whole other side of Finn emerged. He sat next to me, his leg crossed over his knee, making charming small talk with them. He was still gracious and respectful and not all that talkative, but he always seemed to add something the conversation. I bit my tongue, afraid to say the wrong thing, but Garrett and Willa were definitely entertained by him, and even Elora looked pleased.

Garrett and Elora talked some kind of politics, which I didn’t really follow, and Finn added things when appropriate. Willa looked completely bored by the conversation, and I just concentrated on not saying anything else stupid.

Elora apparently had to appoint a new Chancellor in six months, but I didn’t even know what that was, and I thought asking would only make me look foolish.

As the night progressed, Elora had to excuse herself because of a migraine. Garrett and Finn offered their condolences and help, but neither of them seemed that surprised or concerned by this occurrence. They continued on with that whole Chancellor business again, and Willa couldn’t take it anymore. She said she needed fresh air and invited me to join her.

Down at the far end of the hall, there was a small alcove of a room with nearly invisible glass doors. It led out to a lovely balcony that ran from one corner of the house to the other. The balcony was lined with a thick black railing that went up to my chest. Willa went over to the corner farthest away from everyone and leaned on it.

From out here, the view was even more intimidating. The balcony was literally hanging over a hundred foot drop. Below us, there was nothing but the tree tops of maples, oaks, and evergreens. Farther down, I could see the tops of houses, and way down at the bottom of the bluff, the turbulent river pumped past us. A breeze blew over us, sending a cold chill down my bare arms, and Willa sighed.

“Oh knock it off!” Willa grumbled, and at first, I thought she was talking to me. She was more scantily clad than I was, and I didn’t understand how she wouldn’t be cold. She lifted her hand, waving her fingers lightly in the air, and almost instantly, her hair that had been blown back in the breeze settled on her shoulders. The wind had died away.

“Did you do that?” I asked, trying not to sound as awed as I felt.

“Yeah. That’s the only thing I can do. Lame, isn’t it?” Willa complained and wrinkled her nose.

“No, actually, I think it’s pretty cool,” I admitted. She controlled the wind! Wind was an unstoppable force, and she just wiggled her fingers, and it stopped. I thought it was magic.

“I kept hoping I’d get a real ability someday, but my mother only had command over the clouds, so at least I did better than that,” Willa shrugged.

“You’ll see when your abilities start coming in. Everybody hopes for telekinesis or at least some persuasion, but most of us are stuck with basic use of the elements, if we’re lucky. The abilities aren’t what they used to be, I guess.”

“Before you came here, did you know you were something?” I asked, looking back over my shoulder at her. She had her back on the railing, and she leaned back over it, letting her hair hang down towards the ground.

“Oh, yeah. I always knew I was better than everyone else.” Her eyes fluttered close and she wagged her fingers again, stirring up a light breeze to flow through her hair. “What about you?”

“Um… kind of.” Different, yes. Better, not at all.

“You’re younger than most of us are, though,” Willa commented.

“You’re still in school, aren’t you?”

“I was.” Nobody had made any mention of school since I got here, and I had no idea what their intentions were for the remainder of my education.

“School sucks anyway.” Willa stood up straight and looked at me solemnly. “So why did they get you early, anyway? Is it because of the Vittra?”

“What do you mean?” I asked nervously.

“I’ve just heard stories that the Vittra have been prowling around lately, trying to catch Trylle changelings,” Willa said casually. “I figured you’d be a top priority cause you’re a Princess, and that’s kind of a big deal here.” She looked thoughtfully at her bare toes and mused, “I wonder if I’d be top priority. My dad’s not a King or anything like that, but we are kind of royalty. What’s lower than a Queen? Is that a Duchess or something?”

“I don’t know,” I shrugged. I knew nothing of monarchy and titles, which was ironic considering that I was now integral to a monarchy.

“Yeah, I think I’m like that.” Willa narrowed her eyes in concentration.

“My official title is Marksinna. We’re not the only ones, though. There’s maybe six or seven other families in Förening alone with the same title. The Kroners were next in line for the crown if you didn’t come back. They’re real powerful, and that Tove is a real catch.” While he was attractive, nothing had really impressed me about Tove other than his telekinesis, but I wouldn’t refer to him as a catch. Still, it felt weird knowing that they were for my spot, and we had just eaten dinner with them. “I don’t have to worry that much about it, though.” Willa yawned loudly. “Sorry. Boredom makes me sleepy. Maybe we should go inside.”

It was getting cold, so I was ready to head in. Willa lay on the couch as soon as we went back in and all but fell asleep, so Garrett excused himself shortly after. He went to say goodbye to Elora, and then helped Willa out to the car. Finn offered to be of assistance, but Garrett refused. The butler had gone about cleaning everything else up, so Finn suggested that we head up to our respective rooms. The night had been surprisingly tiring, so I was eager to comply.

“What’s going on?” I asked after the Strom’s left. It was the first chance all evening I’d really been able to talk to him. “What is this ball or party or whatever that’s happening on Saturday?”

“It’s something like a debutante ball, except that boys go through it too,” Finn explained as we climbed the stairs.

Dully, I remembered how grand I had felt coming down the stairs a few hours earlier. For the first time, I had felt almost like a Princess, and now I felt like a child playing dress up. Aurora had seen through my fancy trappings (which she didn’t even find that fancy) and realized that I wasn’t special myself.

“I don’t even know what a debutante ball is,” I sighed. I knew nothing of high society.

“It’s a coming out party, your presentation to the world,” Finn elaborated. “Changelings aren’t raised here. The community doesn’t know them. So when they come back, they are given a small amount of time to acclimate, and then they are introduced. Every changeling has one, but most are very small. Since you are the Princess, you will be having a very large one. There will be guests from all over the Trylle community. It is quite an ordeal.”

“I am not ready for that at all,” I groaned.

“You will be,” Finn assured me.

We walked in silence the rest of the way to my bedroom as I fretted and worried about this upcoming party. It hadn’t been that long ago that I had gone to my very first dance, and now I was expected to be the center of a formal ball. There was no way that I could pull that off. Tonight had only been a semi-formal dinner, and I hadn’t performed well at that.

“I trust you’ll sleep well this evening,” Finn said when I started to open the bedroom door.