Chapter 38
After I peel myself out of the sausage dress, I meander back to my room. I watch the clock obsessively, waiting for the noises in all the rooms to die down, telling me that everyone has gone to bed. Finally, around ten past eleven, all lights are out, and the silence of the night falls over the castle.
I step out into the dark hallway and take a right. I haven't been in that direction since I came here and was dragged to my room by Layla. Please, God, help me find my mom. I try to open every door, but they are all locked and the end of the hallway is a dead-end. Feeling a bit discouraged, I decide to try a different part of the castle and head to the second floor again. I should really try the third floor, I think on my way up the stairs. It is the only floor I am forbidden to enter, and there is probably a good reason why.
A large vestibule with vaulted cathedral ceilings opens up as I reach the third floor. My heart beats because the flights of stairs were arduous to climb, and because I know I shouldn't be here. Orange couches are pushed against the walls on the right and left and stand between double French doors. Three fluted marble pillars stand on either side. I walk across the Persian carpet to the end of the room where a gigantic painting of a Viking ship hangs. The frame of the painting is made of gold. I reach to trace my fingers across the ridged oil painting, but instead, and to my astonishment, my fingers go beyond the canvas and paint and into an unknown territory. I gasp and withdraw my hand. "A portal," I whisper. I touch it again and notice that as my hand reaches beyond the painting, where my hand meets the image, blue sparks surround my hand. Huh, I think. Hence the name Blufire. It's not painful, but it definitely tingles.
Then behind me, I hear a low growl. It sounds like Anthony's beast growl and I swivel around. "What are you doing here?" I am excited that he is here, but puzzled, because we had an agreement that I would come to him if I found my mom. Maybe something went wrong on his end and he needed to contact me.
The beast continues growling, and charges toward me. Snarling, he licks his fangs, and pounces on top of me. His claws dig into my flesh, and pierce my skin.
"Anthony, stop! You're hurting me!" I yell.
But the beast doesn't stop. He bites hold of my clothes and drags me across the room and down the stairs. I get the sense that I have done something very wrong and shouldn't be here.
"Anthony, let me go, you're hurting me!" I cry again. Blood oozes from my arms now where his claws have pierced my flesh. In a millisecond, I quickly realize that this beast can't possibly be Anthony. He wouldn't hurt me. "Who are you?"
The beast growls and shakes me violently. I try to minimize the shaking by grabbing onto the beast's mane, but it doesn't help, and probably only provokes the beast further.
I am terrified. With one move, this beast could kill me, and from the looks of it, that's what it is planning on doing. Down on the ground floor again, the beast flings me across the foyer so I slam into the front door, shattering the glass on impact. The creature growls again so loudly that I have to cover my ears. My body aches and the adrenaline rages through every inch of my being. Slinking toward me again, the beast stops a few feet away. It paces the floor back and forth a few dozen times and then as quickly as it appeared, disappears up the stairwell.
My first instinct is to cry, but I mustn't. I must remain strong. I need to go see Anthony and tell him about this—now. I stumble out to the stable and saddle up the horse I rode earlier. Then I grab a smelly old wool blanket from one of the stalls, and race to the beach. It will be many hours before Anthony arrives, but I dare not wait in my room, afraid the beast will return to kill me. I tie the horse to one of the nearby trees and curl up into a ball on the sand. It takes me a while before I am able to calm myself from what just happened. Eventually I fall asleep under the star speckled sky with tears streaming down my cheeks, the fear of dying being so real that I feel dead already.
* * *
"Sonia, wake up." I hear Anthony's voice in the back of my dream. I wake and sit up immediately, eager to share the news of my frightening night. It is still murky outside, but from the deep pinkish hue in the sky, dawn seems to be right around the corner. I am sore all over, and as I move, the stabbing pain from where the beast's claws dug into my skin engulfs me. Rushing toward Anthony, I knock him over. We both fall into the sea with a splash and I laugh hysterically for a moment, but it is only to cover up my pain and hysteria. I become vulnerable around him and can't hold back my tears. Crying and laughing at the same time, I stagger to my feet; the salt water stings my bleeding flesh.
"What's wrong? What happened to you? You're bleeding!" Anthony exclaims, examining my wounds.
I sob uncontrollably. "There was...another beast...like you in the castle. I thought it was you, but it wasn't. It dragged...me down the stairs and...well, first I saw the portal that looks like a mural...and then..." I can't even think straight, the fear has come rushing back now, filling my body with panic.
"Whoa, calm down, you're safe now. Just breathe," he coaches me as he draws me near, careful to avoid my injuries. "Slowly, now tell me everything that happened."
I tell him what happened and then sigh at length, feeling much better now that I have shared it with him.
"Maureen," he says, his eyes hateful. "I'm going to kill her!"
"Wait, Maureen is the beast?" That thought had never occurred to me. Now I see what Layla was trying to do when I first mentioned the beast. She was trying to protect Maureen, because Maureen transforms into the same beast as Anthony, and Layla knows about it. I wonder if Layla knows that Anthony is also one of the beasts. Probably not.
"Most likely. Although she's a Huldra, she has killed so many Darkálfars and appropriated their character traits that she must have gained the ability to shape-shift along the way."
"But she's on the Darkálfars' side, why would she kill them?"
"She's only on their side when it suits her," Anthony says.
"Oh," I say. Maureen's words come back to me; life is unjust—only the fittest survive. "Do you know about Layla?" I say.
"Who?"
"Layla says she's Maureen's ex-husband's daughter."
"Never heard of her," Anthony says, shaking his head.
It has probably never occurred to him that he might have a sister, and I don't think I should bring it up right now. I study my wounds. They are deep. "Maureen knows now, Anthony—she knows that I know about you and that you're the beast, and...and that you've been on the island to visit me. I said your name when she was hurting me." I wish I hadn't.
"You can't stay here another minute. You need to come with me. Let's get you back onto the mainland and then..." He pulls me gently with him, but I resist.
I release his hand. "What about my mom? I can't leave her—I won't."
"If you go back there, Maureen will imprison you," Anthony says.
"No, she won't. If that was her intent, she would have done that last night."
"She could have..."
Out from the bushes Maureen, Layla and seven other Darkálfars emerge. The Darkálfars' skin is as black as coal, but their hair is scintillating silver.
"Thank you for leading us here, Sonia. Seize them!" Maureen commands.
The Darkálfars storm toward us at once, grabbing our arms and aiming their machine guns at our backs. My arms hurt; they're squeezing my wounds, but I clench my mouth shut. I will not let out a cry.
Does Maureen not remember that Anthony will turn into a giant beast once his feet hit the shore? I am not about to remind her. Layla is the one who has her machine gun pointed into Anthony's back. Maybe I still have time to try and convince Layla that she is fighting on the wrong side.
"Layla, Maureen isn't who you think she is! She's trying to steal my gift and...Anthony is your brother!" It's a desperate attempt, but it is one.
Layla's eyes remain as cold as steel. "Nice try, Sonia. Even I wouldn't fall for a stupid lie like that."
"Why else would she be imprisoning Anthony and me? We're no threat to her. We're just trying to get my mom back. Why else do you think Maureen is so interested in having me here on the island, and why I am not allowed to leave?" Before I am able to tell Maureen that Olaf tried to steal my fifth Huldra gift, I feel a hard knock on the back of my head and blackness steals my consciousness away.