Аманда Хокинг - Switched

“Hmm.” I twirled a hair on my finger and thought over what he was saying. “Do you know everything about Trylle society? I mean, you certainly seem to. When you were talking with Garrett and Elora, it was like there was nothing you didn’t know.”

When the Strom’s had been over, Finn had obviously charmed them.

I’m sure he would’ve easily won the Kroner’s over if he had tried. He had assumed it was his role to hide in the background with them, so he’d kept his mouth shut. But everything about him was more refined than me. Cool, collected, intelligent, charming, and handsome, he looked much more like a leader than I did.

“A foolish man thinks he knows everything. A wise man knows he doesn’t,” Finn replied absently, still looking down at the book.

“That’s such a fortune cookie answer!” I laughed, and even he smirked at me. “But seriously, Finn. This doesn’t make any sense. You should be the Prince, not me. I don’t know anything, but you’re all set to go.”

“I’m not a Prince,” Finn shook his head. “And you are right for the job. You just haven’t had the training that I’ve had. You’re new to all of this.”

‘That’s stupid,” I grumbled. “It should be based on your abilities, not lineage.”

“It is based on abilities,” Finn insisted. “They just happen to come with lineage.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked, and he shut the book on his lap.

“Your persuasion? That comes from your mother,” Finn elaborated.

“The reason the Markis and Marksinna are what they are is because of the abilities they have, and they are passed down through their children. Regular Trylle have some abilities, but they’ve faded with time. To be honest, so have everyone’s. Your mother is one of the most powerful queens we’ve had in a very long time, and the hope is that you will help restore some of that power.”

“But I can barely do anything!” I complained, sitting up. “I have mild persuasion, and you said it wouldn’t even work on you!”

“Not yet, no, but it will,” Finn corrected me. “I’m sure you’ll have much more than that, as well. Once you start your training, it will make more sense to you.”

“Training? What training?” I wrinkled my nose.

“After the ball this weekend. Then you will begin working on your abilities. Most Trylle come here with even less than you have now, but with proper tutelage, they can harness them,” Finn said. “Right now, your only priority is preparing for the ball. So…” He flipped open the book again, but I wasn’t ready to go back to studying.

“But you have abilities,” I countered. “And Elora prefers you to me. I’m sure she’d like it better if you were Prince.” I realized sadly that that was true, and I laid back down on the couch, finding I felt better when staring at the mural of the sky.

“I’m sure that isn’t true.”

“It is too,” I grumbled. “What is the deal with you and Elora? She definitely likes you better than me, and she seems to confide in you. And from the way that Aurora regarded you, I’m assuming that isn’t the usual way of things.”

“Elora doesn’t really confide in anyone.” Finn fell silent for a moment, and then exhaled. “If I explain this to you, do you promise to get back to studying?”

“Yes!” I answered immediately and looked over at him.

“What I say to you cannot leave this room. Do you understand?” Finn asked gravely, and I nodded, gulping painfully.

I had been growing more and more preoccupied with Finn and Elora’s relationship. She was an attractive older woman, and he was definitely a foxy guy, and I could see her digging cougar claws into him. That was what I was afraid of, anyway. Then it would make whatever feelings I had for Finn seem even more disturbing.

“About ten or fifteen years ago, after your father was gone, my father came under the employ of your mother. He had retired from tracking, and Elora didn’t like living alone, so she hired him to guard her and the estate,” Finn explained. His eyes darkened and his lips tightened, and my heart raced.

“Elora was in love with my father. They had to keep things quiet, because it would be quite the scandal if anyone found out. No one knew, except for my mother, who to this day still is married to my father. Eventually, my mother convinced my father to leave. However, Elora remained quite fond of him, and in turn, rather fond of me. She has personally requested my services over the years, and because she pays well, I have accepted. Since I am so good at my job, nobody has ever thought anything of it. Until you, of course.”

I stared at him, feeling nauseous and nervous. Since his father became involved with my mother after I was born, I could safely assume that we weren’t siblings, so at least that was something. Everything else made it feel rather disturbing, and I wondered if Finn secretly hated me. He had to secretly hate Elora, and he was only here because of how much she paid him. Maybe he was some kind of glorified gigolo, and I had fight to keep from vomiting.

“I am not sleeping with her, and she has never made any advances of the sort,” Finn clarified, looking at me evenly. “She is fond of me because of her feelings for my father. I don’t blame her for what happened between them.

It was a long time ago, and my father was the one that had a family to think of, not her.”

“Huh.” I looked up at the ceiling because it was easier than looking at him.

“I have distressed you. I’m sorry,” Finn apologized sincerely. “This is why I was hesitant to say anything to you.”

“No, no, I’m fine. Let’s just go on,” I insisted unconvincingly. “I have a lot to go over and all that.”

Finn remained silent for a minute, letting me absorb what he had just told me, but I tried to push it from my mind as quickly as possible. Thinking about it made me feel dirty, and I still had too much on my mind as it was.

Eventually, Finn continued on with the texts, and I tried harder to pay attention. If I was thinking about what exactly a Queen’s job entailed, I wasn’t thinking about my mother bumping uglies with his father.

Frederique Von Ellsin, the dress designer, came over a few hours later.

He was excitedly flamboyant, and I couldn’t tell for sure whether or not he was Trylle. Finn sat in the corner, off-handedly flipping through a book while Frederique made all kinds of notes. I wore only a slip as he took my measurements and sketched something on a notepad. Finally, he declared that he had the perfect gown in mind, and he dashed out of my room to get working on it.

All day long, there was an irritating succession of people. They were all staff of some kind, like caterers and party planners, so at least I didn’t have spend an hour getting ready to impress them. In fact, most of them ignored me.

They just trailed after Elora as she listed an inconceivable amount of information about what she expected them to do, and they all scurried to write it down or punch it in their Blackberries, or maybe just contemplated suicide. I know I wpild.

Meanwhile, I had the pleasure of camping out in my sweats all day again. Whenever Elora saw me, she glared at my apparel intensely, but she was always too busying prattling on demands to somebody else to complain about me. Everything that I managed to overhear only made my coming-out festivities sound even more terrifying. The most horrific thing I heard as she zipped by:

“We’ll need seating for at least 500.” Five hundred people were going to be at a party where I would be the center of attention? Splendid.

The only upshot of the day was that I got to spend the entire thing with Finn. That became less enjoyable by the minute as Finn refused to talk about anything that wasn’t related to my performance at the party. We spent two hours going over the names and pictures of the more prominent guests that would be attending. Two whole hours spent pouring over a yearbook-type thing trying to memorize the faces, names, and notable facts about like a hundred people. At least we learned something with that. An eidetic memory was not one of my abilities.