Hidden Heart (3 page)

              “Nothing.”

              “Nothing?”

              “
We
are going to do nothing. My life—the life I dreamed of with you—is over now, Ryann. I am leader of Altum. It is my destiny, my responsibility. My feelings for you…” He faltered, closing his eyes and breathing in and out slowly before continuing, “My feelings no longer matter. My people need me. And though they don’t realize it, your people also need me to be there, doing my duty. These are dangerous, dark times for us all.”

              I shivered with a chill in the warm summer air. “Dangerous. Who’s in danger? You?”

              “Perhaps. The humans are, certainly. And you. If you don’t stay away from me—you are endangered most of all. You must never try to see me or speak to me again. You must forget about me, Ryann.”

The breath left my lungs suddenly as if I’d been punched in the gut. “What? No. No, I can’t do that. Why are you doing this?”

He shook his head sadly. “I wish you were susceptible to my glamour— then I could
force
you to forget you ever met me. The way it should have been from the beginning.”

              Pain radiated from my center out through my entire body.
How can he say that?
He didn’t truly wish he’d never met me. He didn’t really want me to forget about him, about us. Did he?

              “Lad—this is a terrible, terrible time. But it’s going to pass. You’ll find out who killed your father. Justice will be done. Your mom will start to get better gradually—I’ve seen my mom overcome heartbreak—it’s not easy, but your mother can do it, too. I know you need time to deal with everything that’s happened. When things calm down, I’ll still be here. I wish you’d let me be there for you, help you right now. But if not, I understand. It’s okay. I’m not going anywhere. I love you—I’ll wait for you as long as it takes.”

              Finally, some emotion warmed the frosty green eyes, some clue he cared one way or another about what I was saying. I saw a spark of hope and maybe… longing? But he refused to give anything away with his words. 

              “Don’t wait, Ryann. There is no point in it. Live your life and be happy. That is my wish for you—though I cannot be a part of it.” He gave me a sad smile, and in it I saw a shadow of the weariness and strain he must have been feeling nonstop for the past two weeks.

              My heart ached for him. He was overwhelmed. He couldn’t see past his current terrible circumstances, but he would in time. I was sure of it.

“Things worked out before—they will again, Lad. You’ll see.” I had to believe that.

              He stood looking at me a moment longer, his eyes deep green and filled with finality. Then he kissed me on the forehead, turned, and descended the front steps, walking into the woods without another word.              

I needed to talk to Emmy. Mom had already left for work at the funeral home, and Grandma Neena was at her art class. If I didn’t talk to someone soon, my brain was going to burst. And if anyone could give me advice or at least commiserate over a broken heart, it was Emmy. I knew she wouldn’t be at work today—she wasn’t on the schedule because she was leaving for L.A. in a couple of days. So I called her.

No answer. Probably running around making last minute preparations for her trip—a trip straight to a Hell disguised as fangirl heaven. I still hadn’t come up with a way to keep her from going, and I was getting desperate. She was my best friend, and she was about to ruin her life. Elven rules or not, I might have to tell her the truth about the fan pods and the Dark Elves. 

If
that
didn’t stop her, I guessed I’d have to risk juvy and slash her parents’ car tires to keep her from getting to the airport in Memphis. I didn’t know how else to accomplish it at this point.

              When my next attempt went right to Emmy’s voicemail, I called in sick to work, telling Dory my stomach was queasy—which was absolutely true. I was starting to get a very bad feeling about all this. 

              As soon as Grandma pulled into the long gravel drive, I was out the door. I met the car as it rolled to a stop under the carport.

              “Hi. Can I borrow your keys to go into town?” My question was breathless.

              Her brow furrowed as she studied me. “Well, sure. Everything okay?”

              “No. Not really. I don’t know,” I reached for the set of keys she offered. “That’s what I need to find out. Lad broke up with me.”

              “Oh honey—I’m sorry.”

              “And I… I can’t even think about it right now because Emmy’s not answering her phone or my texts, and she’s supposed to leave in two days. I’m afraid something’s wrong.”

              “Oh dear. Well, tell me as soon as you find out what’s happening. And we’ll talk about Lad later.” She gave me a look of complete understanding and watched as I climbed behind the wheel and backed out of the carport.

Emmy’s mom came to the door when I knocked. She was all smiles. “Hey there, Ryann. What brings you by today?”

              “Well, you know, I want to make sure I see Emmy before she leaves, and she’s not answering her phone. She’s not sick, is she?” I hoped my voice didn’t sound too hopeful. A nice case of flu would give me more time to come up with something.

              “Oh no, honey. Emmy left for California this morning. The car came to get her and take her to the airport real early. She’s probably in L.A. by now.”

              Something deep in my chest slammed like a heavy wooden door, and a hollowness filled my belly. Somehow I had known it. “But… her flight’s not till the day after tomorrow.”

              “Well, that’s what we all thought, too, but that handsome young driver said, nope, today was the big day. Thank goodness Emmy was already packed.” She laughed. “That girl’s been packed for weeks—”

              “How could everyone have gotten the date wrong?” I interrupted. “She didn’t even say goodbye. And she’s not answering her phone.”

              “Oh—she left her phone here. It was ringing earlier, but I don’t really know how to answer those smart phone things. The young man said she’d be getting a brand new iPhone when she got there, anyway.”

              This was all too weird. Something was very wrong with the situation and with Emmy’s mom, too. I’d never seen her act this spacey.

              “So, someone came unexpectedly to pick Emmy up two days early and made her leave her phone at home?”

              Mrs. Rooney laughed. “You should have seen her. She was so excited. I’d been kinda worried the past few months over the whole thing—California’s so far away—but now I know she’ll be fine. The man said there was nothing to worry about. Did I tell you how handsome he was? And so charming…” Her words drifted as her expression took on a dreamy glaze.

Dang it
. She was glamoured. I’d never seen it up close and personal before. Not pretty.

              “Mrs. Rooney, do you have Emmy’s address in L.A.? Her new phone number?”

              She looked at me, chin cocked to one side. I could almost see the question mark form in the air over her head.

              “N-no. I guess I don’t, but it will be fine because—”

              “Yeah. I know. Because the handsome man said so. Okay, thanks Mrs. Rooney.”

I trudged back to my car, my heart sinking. So that’s how they did it, how they managed to “disappear” hundreds of young fans, inserting them into the fan pods of Dark Elven actors, musicians, politicians, and athletes without any sort of public outcry from worried family members. I guess if they saw them on Facebook smiling and posing at exciting Hollywood parties and premieres, Mom and Dad figured all was well. And of course they’d been assured everything would be “fine.”

Emmy had explained the fan pod system to me in her car at the Sonic a few weeks ago when she’d first told me she’d applied for one. She’d mentioned an article in
People
magazine about some super-agent in Los Angeles who’d created the whole concept. I couldn’t remember his name, but you’d better believe I broke a couple of rural speed limits to get back home to my laptop and look him up.

First I did a search on Vallon Foster and found his agent’s name. Alfred Frey—that was it. There he was on Wikipedia.

Frey first became a fixture on the Hollywood scene in the early 90’s and quickly rose to legendary status as the representative of an uncanny number of top movie and television stars as well as popular musical artists, professional athletes. Frey has even handled media relations for some of the country’s top political figures and financial powerbrokers.

The entry went on to list the names of some celebrities Frey represented. I couldn’t help but be impressed. The Dark Elves had been busy claiming the most prominent spots on the music charts, prime time television, the box office, and state and national political offices.

And the humans had no idea. They were hiding from us in plain sight. But why? What was their purpose in forming the fan pods and recruiting people like Emmy for them?

That’s what Lad’s father and the Light Elven High Council had wanted to find out during the Assemblage. I wondered if they’d gotten very far with the inquiry before Ivar was murdered. It had probably stopped immediately after his death. Was that
why
he was murdered?

Well, whatever they were up to, I knew what I had to do—find Emmy. And there was only one way to do it. I had to go to Los Angeles.

I was one of only a few, maybe even the
only
human who knew the truth about the fan pods. Without me, Emmy could end up like Allison Douglas, the girl from Deep River who’d gone out to L.A. to join a fan pod and come home in a casket.

I didn’t know exactly how I’d go about finding her. Take one of those Hollywood tours of the stars’ homes and jump out when we got to Vallon Foster’s house? I wasn’t sure. But it seemed talking to Grandma Neena was a good first step

*     *     *

“Well, you can’t go alone, that’s for certain,” she said when I told her about my intentions. “You need help.”

She gave me a hand rake, and I squatted down beside her among the baby summer squash in the garden to help remove the weeds. The scents of freshly turned earth and sun-warmed leaves settled my nerves but made me feel homesick, though I hadn’t even left yet.

“There’s no one to help me. Unless you want to come.”

She sighed. “I’d love to, but it’s been so long since I’ve been in touch with the Elven world, I’d most likely be useless to you. And someone has to stay here and get your tea company up and running on time. Someone who’s able to communicate with the Elves and take delivery of the saol water to produce the tea. What about your friend Nox?”

The tines of my tool stabbed into the soft earth. “He’s
not
my friend.”

Shaking her head at my stubbornness, Grandma matched it with her own obstinate expression. “Well, I don’t see what other choice you have. I won’t allow you to go out there alone. Nox is sworn to protect you—”

I stood and brushed the dirt from my knees. “He’s a Dark Elf. He was raised with Lad’s family from the age of twelve, but he still might be on the Dark Elves’ side. Besides, how much can his promises really mean? I don’t trust him.”

“Ryann.” Standing to join me, Grandma shook her head sadly. “When did you become so suspicious of everything and everyone in the world?”

“I’m not suspicious of everyone. I trust you, and Mom, and Emmy, and Shalena.”

“So, it’s just the males of the species then?”

“Well, can you blame me? Daddy cheated on Mom and ran off and left us for almost a year. And Nox lied to me about who he was, and Lad—he’s the worst of all—he told me he loved me and wanted to be with me forever, and then he ended it without a look back over his shoulder. So why exactly would I trust men?”

“Hello Maria,” Grandma said loudly, no doubt a signal to me that any conversation about Elves should cease immediately. I hadn’t heard Mom’s approach.

I turned around to see an expression of deep concern on her face, the lines between her drawn eyebrows forming a small eleven. “Ryann… honey, I’m sorry for eavesdropping, but I overheard the last thing you said. We need to talk, sweetheart.”

Great.
The you-can-have-a-man-in-your-life-but-only-as-icing-on-the-cake-speech. She was preaching to the choir on that one now. “No we don’t, Mom. You don’t have to tell me anymore—you were right. You should never love someone more than he loves you, and you should never need anyone. It only leads to misery.”

Her face fell into a sketch of sorrow and regret. She ran her hand through my hair, extracting part of a fuzzy squash leaf. “No, honey. That’s not what I was going to say.” She swallowed. “In fact, I was going to say the opposite. Poor kid—I’ve messed you up good, haven’t I?”

I shrugged away from her touch, irritated. “I’m not messed up.”              

“I think I’ll go see how the watermelons are coming along.” Grandma turned to head for the far side of the garden.

Mom continued, a sympathetic softness in her voice. “Well, I’ve confused you, at least on the subject of love, right when you’re at the stage of life when you should be opening your heart to it.”

I shook my head in protest, but she continued. “I was wrong, Ryann. I was hurting, and at the time it seemed like good advice. But the truth is, I was miserable—filled with bitterness and distrust. I don’t want that for you.”

“Oh—and
now
you trust Daddy?” My tone was all sour sarcasm. In spite of the fact my father had returned and begged my forgiveness, begged Mom to take him back, they were not a couple again. While he was away, she’d started dating a man she’d met through mutual friends—a powerful Georgia senator, in fact. They were still seeing each other on a regular basis.

Her eyes grew even sadder. “Sweetie, there are so many things you don’t know, and you
shouldn’t
have to worry about all these adult problems. But I will tell you this—Daddy and I didn’t break up over his infidelity.”

I blinked, confused. A horsefly landed on my arm, and I brushed him away before he could sting me. “But you said…”

“I know. He did have a brief affair—but he did it to punish me, to make a point. I hurt him first, so I’m as much to blame for our problems as he is.”

My head felt like a pinwheel spinning in a hurricane. I’d never heard this part of the story before. Why hadn’t Dad said anything to defend himself? And what defense could there possibly
be
? “Mom—what did
you
do?”

Her gaze fell to the ground. She glanced over the rows of squash and peppers and tomatoes then back to me.

“We had a fight over the IRS thing. I was very angry, and I… said something I never should have said. Anyway…” She swished her hands in front of her chest like she could wipe away the unpleasantness of the past. “That’s all behind us now.”

Her expression and tone brightened. “And it
is
possible to find love again. Look at me and Davis. I’ve never felt this way about anyone—he’s just—he’s amazing, and I’m so happy. I know you’re hurting right now, but you can believe me because I’ve
been
there. Your heart will heal, and you will find someone else to love—someone you’ll love even more than Lad.”

I stayed stock still, my gaze following a ladybug up a trellis where winding green bean vines intermingled and overlapped so thickly they’d never be pulled apart. She was wrong—I’d never love anyone more than I loved Lad. It was impossible. 

And
she
was unbelievable. I wanted to run past the garden fence into the woods, screaming. After all of her preaching this past year about never needing a man, Mom was now telling me to trust in love.