In the Shadows (11 page)

              “First you lied to me about where you were, which is never okay. Especially with all the reports of missing people on the news. I would think you’d know better. If I wasn’t so relieved that you are safe—” Mom just shakes her head, at a loss of words. “I just don’t understand what’s going on with you lately. You’ve been so—so just not like
you
and I’m so worried, Mia. I’m really, really worried. Are you in some sort of trouble?”

              I shake my head silently not making eye contact for fear that I’d start to cry and tell her everything. But I know I can’t do that. She can never know about the Light Elves.

              “Is it drugs?”

              My mouth gapes. How could she even think that? Doesn’t she know me at all?

              “Kate, don’t jump to conclusions. I’m sure there is a perfectly good explanation for Mia’s behavior.” Paul returns and places his hand on my mother's shoulder.

              “What explanation could she possibly have?” She sighs in frustration. “I don’t know what’s going on with you lately. First skipping class, then getting fired from work. You’re never where you are supposed to be. You’re lying to me. I don’t know what else to think Mia.”

              “Look, I’m sorry. I know I’ve been acting weird the past couple of months. I don’t have an explanation I can give you but I swear, I am not having sex with my boyfriend and I’m not on drugs.”

              “Can you explain why you haven’t sent in any college applications? I found the stack in your room. It’s April, Mia! Why didn’t you finish them?”

              My Mom sounds like she is on the verge of tears and it tears me up to know that I’m causing her such pain. I wish I could tell her everything. I wish I could make her feel better. I wish I was a better daughter.

I meant to turn in my applications. I really had every intention of going to college next year. Then everything happened and well, college seemed to lose its priority. But I can’t really explain this to my mom. She’d never believe I just suddenly had a change of heart and I certainly can’t tell her the real reason why I can’t even imagine going away to college right now. Besides, why was she snooping around my room anyway? Was she expecting to find drugs?

              “Why were you snooping around my room?” I shot back because as guilty as I feel for stressing her out, I’m actually really offended that she would do something like that.

              “I wasn’t snooping around. I was trying to find that book you told me to read. I just happened to stumble across the entire stack of applications in the process but that’s beside the point. The point is it's APRIL. You should’ve had these applications turned in by January at the latest!”

              “What if I decided I don’t want to go to college?”

              The shock on her face would’ve been comical if she wasn’t so angry.

              “What do you mean you don’t want to go to college?”

              “I mean, I was thinking about taking a year off. Maybe spend a year abroad traveling,”  I lie.

My mom’s an artist, so I knew I could appeal to her nature by wanting to travel and explore places like Paris and Rome.

              She seems to be waging some internal battle in her mind before she finally speaks, “I understand how that might be appealing to you, but you NEED to finish and turn in these applications as soon as possible.”

              “Okay, Mom.”

              “I’m serious, Mia. This is a big deal. I don’t think you understand just how serious it is.”

              “Okay. Whatever. I know. It’s my future.” I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes at her overreaction. Postponing college for a year was hardly the end of the world. Losing a war with the Dark Elves on the other hand...

              “No. It’s not just ‘okay, whatever’. You need to finish your applications and stop sneaking around. I can’t tolerate you lying to me Mia. I know that you are almost 18 but as long as you are living here, I expect you to respect me enough to tell me the truth,” she tells me sternly, before adding with a sigh, “I’m afraid I’m going to have to take away your car too.”

              I know she has no idea how unimportant that is to me since I have no real need for a vehicle anyway. If I need to be somewhere, I’m only a thought away. But in order to keep up pretenses, I try to appear devastated. I mean, it does suck because this means I’ll have to rely on her for rides to and from school since I seriously doubt she’ll allow Jacoby to be my chauffer

              “For how long?”

              “Indefinitely.”

              “Fine.”

              “I don’t want to do this. But I don’t know how else to get through to you.”

              If balancing life between Álfheimr and Manhattan was a class, I’d be failing miserably.

Chapter Thirteen

             
I
t’s day one of no car on top of being grounded—officially the longest my mom has ever stuck to any sort of punishment. She’s normally such a push-over, but I guess lying about my whereabouts is probably a lot more serious than anything I’ve ever done before. Today marks the first day since my freshman year that my
mommy
will have to drop me off at school--so embarrassing.

              I’m not even sure how or when I’ll be able to transport to Álfheimr. Mom watched me like a hawk all day Sunday and I’ll be too nervous to transport during the school day for fear that one of my teachers will report my absence and I’ll get in even more trouble. I’m not really sure what else she could possibly do to me, but honestly, I don’t want to stress her out any more than she already is. I think she’s just as shocked as I am that she had to ground me in the first place.

              At least I finished the rest of those college applications. I missed the deadline for a few of them but I plan on leaving out that little detail when I show Mom the signed and sealed envelopes ready to mail out this morning.

              I find her in the kitchen drinking coffee and reading the paper.

              “Hey Mom, I finished these,” I tell her as I hold up the stacks of envelopes. “I’m getting ready to take them out to the mailbox. Do you have anything that needs to go out?”

              “No, not this morning.”

              “Okay. I’ll just take them out and then I’m ready for you to take me to school.”

              She takes a long, slow sip of her coffee and when she sets it back down she smiles at me.               “Thank you, honey. I’m really proud of you for finishing those applications. I know how overwhelming it all is but trust me, you won’t regret going to college.”

              Just because I filled them out doesn’t mean I’ve changed my mind. With everything else going on, I just think it would be better for me to put it off a year until everything is over.

              But I have zero intention of telling her that. When I come back inside, she is setting her coffee down.

              “Are you ready?” she asks.

              “Yeah.”

              The short ride to school feels much longer than usual. I gaze out the window at the fields of wildflowers just starting to bloom and try not to focus on how embarrassing this whole thing is. I’m practically an adult and yet my mother is driving me to school. It’s so not cool.

              “Thanks, Mom,” I tell her grudgingly as she drops me off in front of the school.

              “Don’t forget that I need you to watch Maddie for me this evening,” she reminds me.

              “What else would I be doing?” The sarcasm in my voice isn’t lost on her.

              “Mia,” she scolds. “Do you think I’m happy that I had to ground my nearly 18-year-old daughter? Because I’m not, not at all, but you have to understand how scared I was. It’s my job to keep you safe. You have no idea how terrifying it was not knowing where you were.” Her voice breaks and I’m afraid she’s going to cry again.

              “Sorry, I know. It just sucks. But you’re right. I sorta deserve it. See you later, Mom.”

              “I love you, Mia. I’ll pick you up after school.”

              “Love you too.”

              Grey and Adele are sitting on one of the benches in the front of the entrance waiting for me so I guess it was Jacoby’s turn to babysit me at my house this morning. I wave good-bye to my mom and head towards them.

              They both wear the same distinct expression of someone reluctantly delivering bad news. It makes me increasingly nervous the closer I get.

              “What’s going on?” I ask once I’m close enough to whisper. They could’ve heard me whisper from my car with their super-elfish hearing but since I wanted to be able to hear their response, I waited.

              “Did you watch the news this morning?” Grey asks.

              “No, mom didn’t have it turned on for once. Why?” He and Adele exchange a look which prompts me to ask, “What’s going on?”

              “There’s been another missing person reported.”

              “Another one? This can’t be a coincidence—.”

              “I suspect as much,” Grey answers.

              “We can’t really know for sure. There’s no evidence to support that theory,” Adele points out.

              “There’s no evidence to say that it’s not them either,” Grey counters.

              “Is it another student?” I ask, fearing that it’s another classmate whose face I’ll never see again in the hallway.

              “No,” Grey answers slowly, as though preparing me for the worst.

              “It was Dave, Mia.”

              “No,” I gasp. He might not have been my favorite person, but I’ve been working for him for almost two years now.  I may not have always liked him very much, but I didn't want anything bad to happen to him.

              The first warning bell rings and Adele has to guide me to my locker because I’m still in shock.

I take my usual seat in the front of my class and wait impatiently for Jacoby to appear. I’m surprised he isn’t here yet. 

              All morning the subject of the missing locals is a hot topic. Even the teachers can’t hide their own anxiety. There are lots of whispers and even some tears amongst those who knew someone who had vanished without a trace. It makes me uneasy because I think I know what’s going on and I can’t tell anyone. Even if I could, it’s not like what I would be telling them would offer any comfort. I look for Jacoby all morning, but he doesn’t show up until lunch.

              “Where’ve you been?”

              His smile wanes when he hears the stress in my voice.

              “I had some things to take care of. Why what happened?”

              “You could’ve at least told me. I’ve been looking for you all morning.”

              “Sorry, Lark. If I told you what I was doing you would’ve just insisted on coming with me and I couldn’t risk that.”

              “What were you doing?”

              He looks around and then reverts to talking to me inside my head so nobody can overhear us.

              “I was doing a little investigating in the Underworld.”

              “What!?” I exclaim out loud causing people to stop and stare at us.

              Jacoby shakes his head before pulling me by the hand out the door and toward the parking lot.               Everybody’s leaving for lunch so the parking lot is swarming with students. We walk hastily to the tree line with no regard for discretion. If anybody notices us, they’d probably just assume we were sneaking out here to make out.

              As soon as we are hidden from view, we transport to one of the gardens of Álfheimr. The yellow roses are vibrant under the sun and their sweet smell overwhelms my senses.

              “You didn’t go back there! Why would you do that?”

              “I had to. People are disappearing and I needed to know if they were responsible,” he explains.

              “What did you think was going to happen? Did you think that you'd just walk up to the castle and request an audience with Dugan and you guys would have a little chat over tea and scones ” I scoff. I can’t believe how daft he can be sometimes. “You know how dangerous that place is for you! Why would you even risk it?”

              “Don’t worry, I’m not that stupid. I didn’t venture anywhere close to Dugan’s castle. I transported to the other side of the Olfossά river, in the Móh'rhím territory.”

              “Móh'rhím?” I ask. That’s the second time I’ve heard that word.

              “Yeah. You know, the Shadow Elves.”             

              I eye him warily. “What the heck are Shadow Elves?”

              He cocks an eyebrow and says, “You didn’t think that the world of mythological creatures was limited to the Light and Dark did you? There has to be something in between.”

              “Nobody has ever mentioned anything about Shadow Elves.”

              “That’s because hardly anyone has ever seen one. They tend to, you know, mind their own business. They rarely get involved with anything that doesn’t directly involve them, they prefer just to observe, well, from the shadows.

              “And they live in the Underworld?”

              “Yeah, they were the only inhabitants of the Underworld before Dugan went dark and Sól banished him and the Dökkálfar there.”

              “Okaaay, so Shadow Elves. Right. Um, so what were you doing there?”

              “I needed to know if the Dark Elves are responsible for the missing people.”

              “How would they know?”

              “They know everything,” he states, like that should be obvious.

              “What did they say?”

              “I couldn’t find them.”

              “Seriously?”

              He nods before saying to himself, “If I just would’ve had more time.”

              “Had more time?”

              “Yeah, I guess you can’t transport directly to their castle. It’s hidden so that the Dark Elves can’t invade and take over the rest of their territory. I’m not sure how to even find it but I know it’s on the other side of the mountains to the east of Dugan’s castle.”