“Enough with the painting,” Hanna interjected. “Can we see Eliana’s room now?”
“By all means.” Elof opened the door, and with a showman’s flourish he gestured to the room.
It was a spacious room, only a little bit smaller than our entire apartment, and it appeared as if Marie Antoinette had overseen the decorating. A baroque four-poster bed—replete with sheer curtains tied with ribbons to the ornate posts—sat in the center, buried beneath layers of shimmering rose-gold blankets and overstuffed pillows. The walls were covered in a subtle damask pattern with a pale blue sheen, and there was a nice little sitting area with tufted furniture and gilded end tables.
“Wow!” Hanna gasped as she took it all in. “This room is fit for a princess!”
Eliana hopped up on the bed and promptly sank down in the overflowing bedding. “And I finally have my own bed.”
“Do you all live like this here?” Hanna asked Elof as she ran her fingers over a velvet chair.
Elof chuckled warmly. “No, no. My room is much more . . . practical. This isn’t a residence open to everyone. Even I don’t have a room in this wing.”
“Why not?” Eliana stood up on the bed and leaned on one of the posts. “How come I get to be here, and you don’t?”
“You’re an unusual individual with an unusual circumstance, and so that calls for . . . an unusual living situation,” Elof explained carefully.
“This is a really nice upgrade, Eliana,” Hanna said, as if there were any doubt in our minds. “You should enjoy it while you can. Live it up.”
“I do enjoy living it up,” Eliana said with a laugh—a melodic burst of happiness. With one hand she hung on to the post of the bed, and extended the other out toward Hanna.
Hanna looked back at me, and I shrugged. This was the room they had given Eliana, and I wasn’t going to boss her around in her own space. Hanna took her hand, and Eliana pulled her up on the bed, and the two of them talked and laughed and danced around on the bed.
“I hope you don’t mind if I join in.” A voice from behind me interrupted their infectious joy, and I turned around to see Mästare Amalie standing in the door, her lips pressed into an indulgent smile.
“Mästare, what a pleasant surprise!” Elof exclaimed, and he had the breathless stammer of someone genuinely caught off guard by the presence of a luminary. “We’re always happy to have a visit from you.”
“I had a free hour in my schedule, so I wanted to come say hello to my new neighbor.” Amalie looked to where Eliana stood barefoot on the satin sheets, her cotton-candy-pink hair swinging past her shoulders. “Is this her?”
She bounced off the bed and came over to shake the Mästare’s hand. “Hi, I’m Eliana.”
“I’m Amalie. I’ve been here for a very long time, and if you need help finding your way around, I live right down the hall.”
“Thank you. I do have an unfortunate habit of getting lost, but I promise not to bother you too much.”
“Oh, it’s no bother at all.” Amalie’s assurances came with a warm laugh, like a gentle rebuff from a familiar aunt. “I trust that you’re satisfied with the accommodations here?”
“Are you kidding?” Eliana glanced around the room. “This place is like the Cindy-bell’s palace.”
“Cinderella,” Hanna corrected her softly.
“Right. Cinderella.”
“That’s lovely to hear,” Amalie replied. “Have you had any improvements with your condition?”
“My memories are still foggy,” Eliana admitted, but she tried to adopt a cheery tone when she added, “But we’ve been working on some memory techniques. I’m hopeful that something will come back soon.”
Amalie’s smile deepened. “As am I. The Mimirin is the ideal place for you to get well.”
47
Guardian
We had only been back at the apartment for all of twenty minutes before Hanna started sulking.
She sat on the couch, all splayed out as she stared vacantly up at the ceiling. “It seems so quiet without her.”
I hadn’t really noticed Eliana’s absence yet. Hanna had primarily been sighing and moping, while I straightened up the kitchen and Dagny worked on her laptop, tapping loudly at the keyboard.
“I wouldn’t say quiet, but it is more spacious,” Dagny countered.
She sat on the floor, her back resting against the couch, so she could use the coffee table as a desk. This was the first time she’d had real access to the table since Eliana had moved in. Usually it was half buried underneath clothing, books, and various electronics.
It was definitely still cramped in the tiny apartment, but it was more “overly crowded” and less “aftermath of a tornado,” so that was an improvement.
“Are you sure she’s going to be safe there?” This wasn’t the first time Hanna had asked this—or even the tenth. But she managed to sound utterly forlorn every time she did, so I stopped wiping down the counters and went over to sit on the arm of the couch beside her.
“She’s inside the Mimirin,” I reminded her. “She’ll be safer in there than she is here. Plus, she has the Mästare to watch out for her.”
“Do you think she’ll be happy?” Hanna asked.
“Of course she will.”
Dagny made an irritated clucking sound with her tongue. “You guys are talking about her like she’s a puppy that you had to rehome. She’s a grown-up. I think.” She paused, then shook her head. “Either way, she’s a sentient being with free will. She’ll be as fine as any of the rest of us.”
A loud knock at the front door interrupted Hanna’s sullen reply, and she sat up straighter on the couch, asking hopefully, “Do you think that’s her?”
“No, we just left her,” Dagny reminded her. “It has to be Ulla’s boyfriend.”
“Ugh.” I groaned as I stood up and hoped they didn’t notice the subtle reddening of my cheeks. “Shush. We’re just friends.”
“I think thou doth protest too much,” Dagny teased.
Naturally, when I opened the door to find Pan standing on the landing, Hanna burst out laughing, and my face burned.
“Hi!” I smiled at him, and for some reason followed it up with a flustered, “Hello.” Then I noticed next to him was the sleek dog with dark fur and one ear droopier than the other. “What’s going on?”
“Hey. So, you can say no to this, and it’s gonna sound weird, but I came over to lend you my dog.” Pan gave me a sheepish smile before bending down to scratch the dog between the ears. “He’s technically the property of the Mimirin. Brueger’s a Belgian Malinois, and he’s been trained to herd and watch over the elk. We got to be buddies, and he usually stays with me at my place. He’s a good guard dog, and I know you haven’t exactly felt safe since the break-in. So I thought Brueger might help you out.”
Before I had a chance to respond, Hanna slid past me and crouched down, squealing in delight as she started petting Brueger. “Oh, that’s so cool! He’s so cute! We should totally keep him!”
“Hanna, you’re leaving the day after tomorrow, and he’d only be staying here temporarily,” I reminded her.
“But you’re not going to be here the whole time.” She stared up at me with big brown puppy eyes that had to have made Brueger jealous. “It’d be nice so I don’t have to be alone.”
I sighed in resignation and turned to Pan. “If it’s really not too much trouble.”
“I wouldn’t have offered if it was,” he said with his easy smile.
“What about you?” Hanna looked up at him. “If Brueger’s here guarding us, who will keep you safe?”
“My place is actually very safe. The guy who owns it is an ex–Kanin soldier and super paranoid, and added bars over the windows and the whole nine yards. So, yeah, it’s basically the coolest bachelor pad ever,” he finished with a self-deprecating laugh.
“It’s certainly hard to top our bachelorette digs.” I motioned to the apartment. “Did you wanna come inside and hang out for a bit?”
He shook his head sadly. “I would, but I have to get up super early in the morning to get the elk ready for the parade.”
“There’s an elk parade?” I asked, bemused.
“There’s a parade in the afternoon for Midsommar, and then later on that evening there’s a big party at the Mimirin, and everyone is invited,” he explained. “It sounds kinda weird, but it’s a lot of fun.”
“So you’re working through the festival?” I asked.
“Just in the beginning with the elk. Then I’m free.”
“I’ll see you at the party, then.”
His dark eyes sparkled, and he smiled as he said, “It will definitely be a fun time.”
48
Night Terrors
A low, rumbling snarl broke through my dream. It was already a half-forgotten memory by the time I opened my eyes—a waterfall on a cliffside, with thunder clapping in the distance, a jagged green bolt of lightning—and then I had the strange disorientation of blinking into the darkness, trying to remember where I was.
It was Brueger’s growl that woke me up, and it was his growl now that grounded me back in the quiet little apartment. I sat up in my bed and peered down from the loft. Hanna snored softly from her mass of pillows and blankets she’d buried herself in on the couch, and the door to Dagny’s room was shut.
The only one awake down there was Brueger. He stood in the center of the kitchen, the dark fur on his back raised slightly, and both of his ears stood at attention in high alert. His eyes traveled along the ceiling, following something that I could neither see nor hear.
Moving as quietly as I could—no need to alarm Hanna if I didn’t need to—I climbed down the ladder and grabbed the poker from where it sat next to the wood-burning stove. I followed Brueger, watching his gaze and staying a step behind him as he crossed the room.
Then I saw shadows rippling across the floor. I crouched down, trying to peer out the window and into the moonlight, but whoever—or whatever—it was outside making shadows was moving too fast. The shadows leapt around the room, like invisible acrobats were performing a show on the rooftop across from us.
That was more than enough for Brueger, and he let out a loud, angry bark before diving at the window. Thankfully, the old windowpanes held, so there was only the clatter of his claws against glass as he barked and growled.
Hanna screamed, and Dagny rushed out of her room, but the shadows were gone, and Brueger fell silent.
“What’s going on?” Dagny asked.
I shook my head. “I don’t know.”
Brueger began pacing the room, casting confused looks at the ceiling, before finally giving up. He lay down on the floor in front of Hanna, panting and looking around.
“It was probably a raccoon,” Dagny muttered between yawns. “But it’s good to know the dog kept our trash cans safe.”
“Do you think it was Eliana?” Hanna asked. “Or whoever it was that broke into our apartment?”
“Whatever it was, I think it’s gone now.” I motioned to Brueger, who had finally relaxed, resting his head on his paws and no longer panting or growling. “You should go back to sleep. You don’t want to be tired for the festival tomorrow.”
“Right. Yeah.” Hanna stretched out on the couch, and she let her arm hang over the side so she could absently pet the dog as she fell back to sleep.
Sleep for me wouldn’t come so easy. I carried the poker up to the loft with me, and I lay awake for a long time, straining to hear any little noise and wondering what had woken Brueger in the first place.
49
Celebration
After several hours of tossing and turning (while remaining vigilant for possible intruders, of course) I managed to get a few hours’ sleep before Eliana came over and the combination of hers, Hanna’s, and the dog’s excitement made sleep impossible.
“What are you doing here?” I asked her as I peered over the edge of my loft.
Eliana didn’t pause scratching Brueger to yell up at me, “Because it’s Midsommar! There’s soooo much fun stuff going on in town, and I don’t want to miss a second of it.”
“Since when did you become the expert on Midsommar?” I asked her tiredly.
“I’m not, but everyone around town is very excited about it, and there are a lot of streamers.”
Midsommar wasn’t a holiday we celebrated in the Trylle kingdom. We had adopted Christmas from the humans, since changelings seemed to love it so much, and Yggdrasil Day in the spring, Samhain in the fall, and plenty of days memorializing past monarchs or important battles, and that was plenty.
This was the last day that Eliana and Hanna had to hang out together, and it was a festival I’d never been to before. Because of the Midsommar holiday, nonessential work was closed all over town, and sleeping the day away seemed like squandering a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
I dressed in a hurry—throwing on a pair of overall shorts over a crop top and pulling my hair up into a messy bun—and they were already chomping at the bit.
The decorations around town weren’t quite as exciting as Eliana had made them sound, although streamers were indeed prevalent. Flower garlands and bouquets adorned every lamppost and street corner, as if summer had arrived overnight with a pastel explosion.
Wapiti Way was the center of morning activities, with the usual market stalls pushed aside for carnival games, specialty food stands, and even a few rides. A wooden Ferris wheel was painted bright pink, and a corner vendor was selling floral wreaths. The whole thing felt like one part county fair, one part Renaissance fair, and one part fairy wedding.
Naturally, Eliana and Hanna were over the moon for it all. It wasn’t until late in the afternoon when I managed to convince them to head back to the apartment, so we could take a break before getting ready and heading out to the party.
All of us went to the archery range to watch Dagny compete, and it was actually pretty amazing. I’d never gone to an archery competition before, and Dagny was an impressive shot. For the final feat, small bull’s-eyes were placed on strings and moved from side to side, and even with that, Dagny managed to hit three of them dead center. She walked away with the second-highest prize of the day—a silver arrow mounted on a plaque.
“Congratulations!” I told her afterward, and hugged her.
“Thanks.” She smiled warmly at me, but she started walking on before I had a chance to say anything more. “Come on. There’s not a lot of time.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, and I hurried after with Hanna and Eliana following a few steps behind.
“To get ready for the ball,” Dagny called back over her shoulder.
As soon as we got home, Dagny hung up the plaque on the wall, and then immediately darted into her room to get ready. Nearly an hour later, Dagny came out of her room, and my jaw dropped. She wore her long black hair down for the first time since I’d met her, with flowers and ribbons braided in through her waves of hair. She normally wore very little makeup, but now her makeup was a bold avant-garde look, with smoky shimmery white over her eyes and rose-gold foil adorning her cheeks and eyebrows like sparkling flower petals.
Hanna and Eliana stayed around just long enough to marvel at how stunning Dagny looked before immediately dashing to the bathroom to start working on their own hair and makeup.
“You really do look amazing,” I told Dagny, once the others had left us alone.
“You like the dress?”
“Your dress is great,” I said, and that wasn’t a lie, but I honestly hadn’t noticed when compared to the dramatic beauty of her makeup and hair. Her dress was gauzy and pink, with bell sleeves and a ribbon tying in the corset waist. “It’s simple, but it’s perfect.”
She gave me a relieved smile. “Thanks. I wasn’t sure if it was too much or not enough.”
“So what are you all dolled up for? You got a hot date?” I asked, and I was only half teasing.
“No.” She shook her head. “I’m an ace, so I don’t date. Th
is is for the competition. Whoever is voted the best dressed wins a big cash prize.”
“What’s an ace?”
“I’m asexual,” she replied matter-of-factly as she readjusted the flowers in her hair. “That can mean different things for different individuals, but for me it means that I’ve never been attracted to anyone at all, and I don’t feel the urge to be with anyone romantically.”
“Oh. That’s cool,” I said, and then, because that didn’t feel like enough, I added, “I didn’t know.”
“Why would you?”
“I don’t know.” I squirmed a little. “I just feel like I should say something like how I support your life choices.”
“Your support is appreciated but entirely unnecessary,” she said, and when I started walking away, she quietly added, “Thanks for being understanding, Ulla.”
“Ulla!” Hanna shouted from the bathroom. “Come help us get ready! If we’re going to look as fabulous as Dagny, we’ve gotta get going!”
Eliana and Hanna definitely took Dagny’s look as inspiration, adorning themselves with as many flowers and as much glitter as they could. I, on the other hand, went for a much subtler look, in large part because I hadn’t known that I should pack anything so glamorous.
Instead, I went with a simple white crochet romper, which Eliana, Hanna, and Dagny spiced up by sharing all their ribbons, flowers, and glitter with me. In the end, I wasn’t as over-the-top as them, but I easily fit in with everyone else making their way down to the Mimirin.
“It’s Midsommar, and it’s my last day here, so we have to make tonight count,” Hanna insisted before making the four of us squeeze in for a selfie.
50
Midsommar
Before we left the apartment, Hanna started fidgeting—twisting her rings and tugging at her satin sash—and worried aloud that we’d get lost on the way to the ballroom. Dagny was standing in front of the mirror by the front door, touching up her extensive makeup, and Hanna was growing antsy and anxious.
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