by Saga Berg
Svala’s friends avoided looking at each other but pursed their lips together in doubt. Svala met the woman’s blue eyes again and forced a smile.
***
Later, when the girls prepared for their big night, Trym took Svala aside to talk.
“Search for Alva. If she’s there, she’ll be able to fill you in. I tried to get a hold of her. I don’t understand why she’s not responding.”
Trym and Alva weren’t supposed to stay in contact during Svala and Viggo’s assignments either, but they had ways of contacting each other if needed. The fact that Alva didn’t respond unsettled her.
“What if she’s not there?”
“Then you observe. Read his face, try to determine if he’s being monitored by anyone, but keep your distance. Don’t let him or anyone catch you. If the Döckálfar is involved, you can’t let them see who you are.”
Svala fastened a pin on her black dress and studied herself in the full-length mirror. Her deep-blue eyes against the auburn colored hair was almost as eye catching as the red dress she’d left at home. She reached for her brown contact lenses.
“If you feel tempted to approach him, think of the consequences.”
Svala blinked three times then studied herself in the mirror and straightened out her dress. Her heart pounded.
“If you are the slightest bit unsure, don’t do anything at all. If you can’t control it, leave.”
Adjusting the pin again she inhaled and closed her eyes. She had to be strong, for everyone.
***
The red carpet outside the movie theatre continued onto the street. Beautiful men and women in designer outfits posed in front of the photographers. A group of security guards stood in front of a golden fence. Behind the fence hundreds of teenage girls crowded together, waiting for a glimpse of their idol.
“I feel like a celebrity.” Sarah beamed when a guard let them inside.
The flashing lights from the cameras subsided while they strolled down the red carpet toward the entrance. Sarah stopped and turned to the photographers with a deliberate pose. She placed her hand steady on her hip, her head held high. The flashes momentarily intensified. For all they knew, she could be the next YouTube phenomena.
Svala took the opportunity to scan the place for Alva. As far as she could tell there was no sign of Liosálfar or Döckálfar presence. The only other immortal she noticed was a vampire. He’d spotted her instantly of course and stared at her from where he stood next to the large movie poster up by the entrance. He puffed on his cigarette and grinned, deliberately exposing his fangs as the smoke seeped out between his lips. Svala reached up to touch her silver pin. Most vampires knew better than to harm them in public.
When the photographers lost interest in Sarah, Megan grabbed Sarah’s arm and pointed at a blonde girl further down the red carpet. A sparkling dress barely covered the girl’s slim body and she stood impressively steady in a pair of black eleven inch heals with red soles. “Isn’t that...?” Megan narrowed her eyes and leaned closer.
“Oh my God, I think it is.” Sarah gasped and tried to see pass the photographers crowding around the woman.
“Seriously.” Jen rolled her eyes, and continued toward the entrance. Her long, high pony tail was neatly placed over her left shoulder, falling down over the front of her olive green dress. “Try to act like you’re not complete idiots.” She reached out for Svala. “Come on, let’s go inside and search for Viggo.”
Jen had just finished her sentence when a white Bentley limousine pulled up outside the theater. All the photographers turned to the car and a sea of flashes lit up the night sky. The limo stood there for a couple of seconds, the flashes subsided, and all the teenage girls waiting outside moved in for a better view.
When the door opened Amanda Jones was the first to get out. The flashes from the cameras increased in intensity. Amanda’s long red dress flooded over her perfect body, her black hair tucked up in an impressive knot on the back of her head. Her lips were painted as red as her dress and her eyes sparkled with excitement. She smiled to the cameras as if she loved the attention.
After Amanda, followed Viggo. He wore a black tailor made tuxedo which made him look several years older than he was. The last time Svala’d seen in him in a tuxedo was at their last wedding. She’d walked towards him, barefoot, wearing a white dress on a beach in Florida. That was over fifteen years ago. The distance between them now was almost the same as then and every part of her urged to be near him.
They were always drawn to each other, but this was different. An uncontrolled need rose inside of her and she didn’t know how to control it. Her stomach turned to knots. She gasped for air and focused hard to control the natural urge to run up to him.
A bright spotlight was aimed at the two movie stars. Viggo squinted and gazed over the crowd, then reached for his co-star. Their hands intertwined and the camera flashes intensified yet again. Svala stared at their hands, a stab to her chest. The need to walk up to him intensified. But he wasn’t supposed to see her, not like this, not now. She gathered all of her self control and stepped back where the shadow from a ticket booth disguised her face.
The girls on the street behind the fence screamed Viggo’s name. Viggo acknowledged their presence for two seconds and the girls screamed straight out like they had gone mad. The short attention increased the volume of their admiration for a long while after and the guards were kept busy preventing some girls from climbing the fence.
Amanda leaned against Viggo’s frame and whispered something into his ear. When their eyes met they smiled, and then both turned back to the cameras. Viggo met the flashes with a weightless gaze, his posture completely relaxed as if he was unaffected by the attention and unaware of Svala’s presence.
Slowly, and as if controlled by someone else, Svala stepped out from the shadow. Viggo abandoned the cameras and his entire presence shifted. His posture perked and he scanned the place with a focused gaze. As the spotlight blinded him he squinted again and when their eyes met, Svala wasn’t sure he had seen her with the light straight in his eyes. But she’d looked into his eyes, and she was no longer sure she could do this.
Chapter 5
A group of security guards cleared the way for Viggo and Amanda when they walked the red carpet. Occasionally, the couple stopped, allowed more pictures to be taken, or for journalists to ask questions. Their hands remained intertwined.
Svala’d eased back into the shadow. Her gaze fixed on their hands and something stabbed her heart. It was too much. She tore her gaze away and searched the crowd for Alva again. She wasn’t there. No one from their world was there. Even the vampire had left.
Viggo abandoned the cameras and the journalists to look around the crowd again. Svala wondered if he’d seen her, or if he at least had sensed her. She felt him so strongly it almost took over everything else, but she was aware of his presence. He might not be aware of her.
“Come on, Svala. Let’s get over to the other side. We’ll see them better from over there.” Jen reached for her. Sarah and Megan were already heading over.
Svala moved further back, glancing over at Viggo and Amanda with the lump still in her stomach. She could couldn’t risk them seeing her.
“Actually, I need to go to the lady’s room.”
Jen frowned. “Are you serious? Now? We might not get another chance to see him up close.”
“I’ll be right back. Go ahead. I’ll look for you.”
With her friends gone, Svala took the time to study Viggo’s face. He scanned the crowd, eyes narrowed, as if worried about something. That didn’t help her much. He would be worried regardless of his reasons for being there.
She longed to go up to him, put her hand on his hip and lean into whisper how much she missed him. She hadn’t been there in their Hollywood Mansion in the end of the day. They never did get married in their last life. Seconds after she turned around in the steamy bathroom the room had flashed like it always did when they st
arted over, and she had ended up somewhere else. She didn’t walk into their bedroom and she didn’t get to feel his breath on her skin again. Instead she ended up in another room, in another house, in Washington D.C. She was fourteen years old and starting all over without him.
Viggo’s hand tightened the grip on Amanda’s and Svala blinked back the tears. Crying in a public place would draw too much attention. She had to control her feelings. She blinked again, excessively this time, but the tears won. Frustrated over her inability to control her emotions, she hurried inside the theatre and continued towards the lady’s room.
Once the door closed behind her, the heartache subsided. She leaned against the door with a deep sigh, then realized she was not alone.
At the end of the long sink a woman applied more lipstick to her already ruby-red lips, another fixed her hair in place with a comb, and a third observed her own cleavage from the side, pushing her breasts together with a firm grip. They all registered Svala’s presence, but then continued with what they had been doing.
Svala kept her head down and walked up to the sink. She dug into her purse for her lip gloss, pretending to have come in to fix her makeup, just like the others. She leaned over the sink, closer to the mirror, and lifted the brush to her lips. The spotlight from the upper edge mirror fell on her face, exposing her perfect fairy skin. She froze with the pink brush inches from her lips and her eyes widened. One contact had disappeared and she stared into one brown and one blue eye.
The woman beside her stopped fixing her hair, and studied her for a good long while. Svala eased back from the mirror, away from the light. She lowered her head, and removed the other contact. Different colored eyes would draw even more attention than her unnatural blue eyes.
The woman faced her, and placed a hand on her skinny hip. She lifted her chin to study Svala closer. “Are you someone’s daughter?” she asked.
Svala knew that by someone she meant someone important, but couldn’t stop herself from the obvious answer. “Well, yes, of course. Aren’t you?”
The woman smirked, but let her gaze linger. Then her smirk grew uncertain, her lips twitched at the corner. Svala’s cocky reply didn’t rule out the possibility she was someone important.
Further down the powder room, the woman with the lipstick leaned back. She glanced over at them with an amused smile. The third woman offered them a quick bored look, like she didn’t care either way.
Svala opened her bag and dropped her lip gloss back inside. The woman still studied her and it made her nervous.
“Look, I’m no one important. I won the ticket.” She tried to keep her voice calm.
The woman stared at Svala. Her lips pressed into a thin line and her eyes narrowed, like she was insulted by Svala’s nonchalance. Then, something changed in her eyes and her gaze shifted from annoyed to intrigued.
“Your eyes...” She leaned closer. “And your skin... You look like...”
Svala lowered her gaze in a beat.
“Are you related to Viggo Storm?”
Svala chortled. “I wish.” She tapped her fingers against her purse. “Or not, you know.” She rolled her eyes and raised her shoulders in feigned insecurity.
When the woman didn’t reply, Svala changed her tactic. “I have to...” She nodded toward the door. “My friends are waiting.”
The women in the bathroom scrutinized her as she scurried out, almost tripping over her own feet. Her heart drummed so hard it resonated in her head. She had to focus on why she was there.
The theatre was crowded. She couldn’t find her friends but spotted Viggo and Amanda by one of the large movie posters, talking to a journalist. On the poster, Viggo held Amanda in his arms to a background of a Venice setting, gazing longingly into her eyes. Rather tacky and predictable, Svala thought, with self-noted jealousy.
Her friends were probably somewhere in the crowd closer to Viggo, which meant she had to stay away from them. She should try to position herself behind him, the best way to avoid being seen. To get there, she would have to go across the room, and pass him. Since Viggo was occupied with the journalist, that shouldn’t be a problem.
If Alva or someone else didn’t show up soon, she didn’t know what she was supposed to do. With all these cameras and journalists around, making contact with Viggo would be too risky. She should stick around and observe until everyone was inside watching the movie, then she could sneak out.
Grabbing her bag with a firm grip, she walked out into the light. She kept her eyes on Viggo, and headed for the back of the room. A row of benches stretched along the wall back there. At the end of the row, the light had gone out, offering the perfect hiding place. She picked up her pace and walked until Viggo was dangerously close. With a turn of his head he would easily spot her. Determined to make it past him, she held her breath and took a long stride toward the benches. That was when she fell.
Somewhere in mid-fall, she realized what was happening. Her foot caught in a soda container carelessly tossed on the floor, and she lost balance. People around her yelped in surprise as they witnessed her fall. The loud murmur in the theater ceased, and garments rustled as everyone who hadn’t seen her at first, turned to watch the scene. When she landed on the ground she dropped her purse and braced herself against the hard floor with both hands.
A man in a tuxedo quickly came to her aid. He knelt down and offered a hand. “Are you okay, Miss?” he asked.
“Thanks. I’m fine.” She reached for her bag while the man still held her arm.
“Are you sure?”
Her eyes flickered over the floor, then stopped when she sensed Viggo watching her. Looking up, she meet his gaze. He stood only a few feet away, staring straight at her. She stopped breathing, and without noticing, her eyes welled up again. The moment felt like minutes but if she had counted the seconds, she would have stopped at three. Three seconds, then Viggo broke eye contact and continued his discussion with the journalist in front of him. Svala stared at him in shock. His gaze had been blank and uninterested, annoyed even. Like she was nothing but another screaming girl, desperate for his attention.
The man kneeling at her side studied her with concern. “Miss, are you sure you’re okay? You look pale.”
“I’m fine,” she managed through a strained breath.
Viggo didn’t turn to look at her again. Instead, he put his arm around Amanda and pulled her closer.
Chapter 6
Svala left the theatre in tears after her embarrassing fall and texted her friends she was feeling sick and had to leave. Back in the hotel room, she sat with Trym on the edge of the bed, her eyes swollen, her gaze distant. “He didn’t recognize me. Why didn’t he recognize me?”
Trym put one arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer. “I don’t know, sweetie.” He kissed her temple. “Maybe he did. Maybe he only pretended not to for the same reason you didn’t approach him.”
“No, he looked straight at me, and he was...” She stared into the distance. “There was nothing there. Nothing.”
Trym hugged her tight. His silence worried her as he usually knew the right thing to say.
“Do you think they got to him? Could they have erased me from his memory?”
Trym stroked her hair. “It’ll do you no good, thinking like that.”
She grew silent. He hadn’t answered her question.
“Was this how it was with the two of you? Did Alrik forget who you were before? Did you ever meet after…”
Their eyes met. Trym offered a meek smile, then continued stroking her hair. “No.” His voice was firm. “That was different.”
She studied him, hoping to understand what went through his mind. Trym was the only one she knew who lost someone he loved to the Döckálfar.
“You would tell me, wouldn’t you? If you knew they could erase his memory, you would say so. Wouldn’t you?” she asked.
“Of course.” He leaned in and kissed her forehead. “Try not to worry. We’ll figure out what�
�s going on. I mean you haven’t done anything you are not supposed to do, right? There is no reason for them to punish you.”
Svala shook her head but avoided the nightstand where she’d placed the box with the amber necklace. “No. Of course not.” She swallowed hard.
“Good. Then you have nothing to worry about.”
Trym rose and walked toward the door. For a second, Svala considered telling him she had gone to see her, but quickly decided against it. He had always been against them seeking her out, and he was obliged to report it to the powers that be if she told him.
“Trym?”
He stopped. “Yes?”
“What do we do now?”
When their eyes met, Svala could have sworn Trym saw right through her. That he knew she’d broken the rules by seeking out the one person they were forbidden to go after without approval from the High Council.
Trym reached up to rub his chin. “There is an autograph signing tomorrow at the mall. I’ll reschedule our flights.”
“What am I going to do there?”
If Viggo didn’t recognize her, or didn’t want to see her, what would it accomplish to seek him out again?
“Try again,” he said. “That is what we do, isn’t it? Try to get close enough to see if there is any change, anything that would indicate he’s shifted sides. If anyone can see it, it’s you.”
***
The line at the shopping mall moved. They passed a beauty store and the scent of perfume intensified. At least it was better than the stench from the food court. Sarah leaned against a sturdy advertisement sign from H&M showing a skinny woman in a red bikini smiling on a beach.
“This is going to take forever,” she sighed.
Svala agreed. They’d waited in line for over one hour, and they had hardly moved. She looked at the table up front. Viggo was bored and impatient. To those who didn’t know him he probably gave a different impression, but she could tell. He didn’t want to be here.
“If we don’t make it, I might have to hurt someone,” Jen muttered.
A group of eleven tween girls ahead of them sulked as they were forced to abandon the line. They walked over to a lady waiting by the Gucci store. One of the girls whined and told the woman she was being ”completely unfair”. The woman glanced at her wrist watch and shook her head, then urged the girls to move along.