Switched (26 page)

“So that’s why they don’t want me with the mänsklig? Cause its like incest?” I wrinkled my nose at the thought.

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“No. He’s not your brother,” Finn emphasized. “Trylle and mänsklig have absolutely no relation. The problem is that they’re human.”

“Are we like… physically incompatible?” I asked careful y.

“No. In fact, many Trylle have left the compound to live with humans, for various reasons, and have normal offspring,” Finn answered. “That’s part of the reason our populations are going down.”

“What happens to Rhys now that I’m back?” I questioned.

“Nothing. He’ll live here for as long as he wants. Leave if he decides to.

Whatever he chooses,” Finn shrugged. “Mänsklig aren’t treated badly here.

They aren’t exactly raised as their children, but they are given everything to keep them happy and content. They have an education at our schools. They even have a small trust set up for them. When they are eighteen, they are free to do as they please.”

“But they’re not equals,” I realized. Elora tended to talk down to everyone, but she was worse with Rhys and Rhiannon. I couldn’t imagine that Willa was much nicer either.

“This is a monarchy. There are no equals.” For an instant, Finn looked almost sad, then he walked over and sat on the bed next to me. “That’s part of what Elora is angry with me for not explaining sooner. There is a distinct hierarchy in how we live.

“In the Trylle community, there are classes. There is royalty, of which you are on the top,” Finn gestured to me. “After Elora, of course. Below that there are the Markis and Marksinna, but they can become Kings and Queens through marriage. Then there is your average Trylle, the common folk if you will. Below that, there are trackers. And at the very bottom, there is mänsklig.”

“What? Why are trackers so low?” I asked incredulously.

“We are Trylle, but we only track. My parents were trackers, and their parents before them, and so on,” Finn explained. “We have no changeling population. Ever. That means that we have no income. We bring nothing into the community. We provide a service for other Trylle, and in return, we are provided a home and food.”

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“You’re like an indentured servant?” I gasped.

“Not exactly,” Finn tried to smile, but it looked forced. “Until we retire from tracking, we don’t need to do anything else. Many trackers, such as myself, will work as a guard for some of the families in town. You’ll also notice that all of the service jobs, like the nannies, the teachers, the chefs, the maids, they are almost entirely retired trackers themselves, and they make an hourly wage.

Some are also mänsklig, but they stick around less and less.”

“That’s why you always bow to Elora,” I mused thoughtfully.

“She is the Queen, Wendy. Everyone bows to her,” Finn corrected me.

“Except for you and Rhys, but you’re both rather impossible.” I smirked at that. “You’re actually very fortunate. Elora may seem cold and aloof, but she is a very powerful woman.
You
will be a very powerful woman. You will be given every opportunity the world has to offer you. I know you can’t see it now, but you will have a very charmed life.”

“You’re right. I cannot see it,” I admitted. “It probably didn’t help that I just got in trouble this morning, and I don’t feel very powerful.” Finn’s lip had a trace of a smile, and I turned to him. “I didn’t do anything with Rhys. You know that, right? Nothing happened.”

Finn stared thoughtfully at the ground. I studied him, trying to catch a glimpse of something, but his face was a mask. Eventually, he nodded. “Yes. I know that.”

“You didn’t this morning, though, did you?” I asked pointedly.

This time, Finn chose not answer. He stood up and said it was getting late and he needed to shower. He gathered his clothes and went into the bathroom. I thought this might be a good time to explore his room, but I suddenly felt very tired. I had been woken up early and had little sleep, and this morning had been draining. Lying back down, I rolled over and curled up in his blankets. They were soft and smelled just like him, and I easily fell asleep.

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17

I would’ve thought I’d been living here long to have seen all the rooms in the house, but I was wrong. There was a whole wing that I had seen nothing of, and Finn still refused to show it to me. When I woke up, Finn directed me to sitting room on the second floor, down the hall from my room. The ceilings were still vaulted and had some kind of mural painted on them, but the furniture looked more like normal people furniture. Finn explained that this had once been Rhys’s playroom, but when he’d outgrown it, they had tried to turn into it an appropriate sitting room for him. Apparently, he rarely used it.

Lying on my back on the couch, I stared up at the ceiling. Finn sat on an overstuffed chair across from me with a book splayed open on his lap. There were stack of texts on the floor next to him, and he was trying to give me a crash course on Trylle history. Unfortunately, despite the fact that we were some type of mythical creatures, Trylle history wasn’t anymore exciting than human history had been.

“What are the roles of the Markis and Marksinna?” Finn quizzed me.

“I don’t know. Nothing,” I replied glibly.

“Wendy, you need to learn this,” Finn sighed. “There will be conversations this weekend, and you need to appear knowledgeable. You can’t just sit back without saying anything anymore.”

“I’m a Princess. I should be able to do whatever I want,” I grumbled.

My legs were hanging over the arm of the couch, and I swung my feet back in forth.

“What are the roles of the Markis and Marksinna?” Finn repeated.

“In other provinces, where the King and Queen don’t live, the Markis and Marksinna are the leaders. They’re like governors or something,” I shrugged. “In times when the King or Queen can’t fulfill their job duties, for whatever reason, a Markis can step up and take their place. In places like 191

Förening, they’re mostly just a way of saying that they’re better than everyone else, but they don’t really have any power.”

“That is true, but you can’t say that last part,” Finn said, then flipped a page in the book. “What is the role of the Chancellor?”

“The Chancellor is an elected official, much like the prime minister in England,” I answered tiredly. “The monarchy has the final word and weald the most power, but the Chancellor serves as their advisors and helps give the Trylle a voice in the way the government is run.” I turned my head and looked over at him. “But I don’t get it. We live in America, and this isn’t a separate country. Don’t we have to follow their laws?”

“Theoretically yes, and for the most part, Trylle laws coincide with American laws, except that we have more of them,” Finn explained. “However, we live in separate pockets unto ourselves. Using our resources – namely cash and persuasion – we can get government officials to look the other way, and we conduct our business in private. If we were to do something drastic, like blow up something, they would be forced to interfere, but we don’t do things like that.”

“Hmm.” I twirled a hair on my finger and thought over what he was saying. “Do you know everything about Trylle society? I mean, you certainly seem to. When you were talking with Garrett and Elora, it was like there was nothing you didn’t know.”

When the Strom’s had been over, Finn had obviously charmed them.

I’m sure he would’ve easily won the Kroner’s over if he had tried. He had assumed it was his role to hide in the background with them, so he’d kept his mouth shut. But everything about him was more refined than me. Cool, collected, intelligent, charming, and handsome, he looked much more like a leader than I did.

“A foolish man thinks he knows everything. A wise man knows he doesn’t,” Finn replied absently, still looking down at the book.

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“That’s such a fortune cookie answer!” I laughed, and even he smirked at me. “But seriously, Finn. This doesn’t make any sense. You should be the Prince, not me. I don’t know anything, but you’re all set to go.”

“I’m not a Prince,” Finn shook his head. “And you are right for the job. You just haven’t had the training that I’ve had. You’re new to all of this.”

‘That’s stupid,” I grumbled. “It should be based on your abilities, not lineage.”

“It

is
based on abilities,” Finn insisted. “They just happen to come with lineage.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked, and he shut the book on his lap.

“Your persuasion? That comes from your mother,” Finn elaborated.

“The reason the Markis and Marksinna are what they are is because of the abilities they have, and they are passed down through their children. Regular Trylle have some abilities, but they’ve faded with time. To be honest, so have everyone’s. Your mother is one of the most powerful queens we’ve had in a very long time, and the hope is that you will help restore some of that power.”

“But I can barely do anything!” I complained, sitting up. “I have mild persuasion, and you said it wouldn’t even work on you!”

“Not yet, no, but it will,” Finn corrected me. “I’m sure you’ll have much more than that, as well. Once you start your training, it will make more sense to you.”

“Training? What training?” I wrinkled my nose.

“After the ball this weekend. Then you will begin working on your abilities. Most Trylle come here with even less than you have now, but with proper tutelage, they can harness them,” Finn said. “Right now, your only priority is preparing for the ball. So…” He flipped open the book again, but I wasn’t ready to go back to studying.

“But

you
have abilities,” I countered. “And Elora prefers you to me. I’m sure she’d like it better if you were Prince.” I realized sadly that that was true, and I laid back down on the couch, finding I felt better when staring at the mural of the sky.

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“I’m sure that isn’t true.”

“It is too,” I grumbled. “What is the deal with you and Elora? She definitely likes you better than me, and she seems to confide in you. And from the way that Aurora regarded you, I’m assuming that isn’t the usual way of things.”

“Elora doesn’t really confide in anyone.” Finn fell silent for a moment, and then exhaled. “If I explain this to you, do you promise to get back to studying?”

“Yes!” I answered immediately and looked over at him.

“What I say to you cannot leave this room. Do you understand?” Finn asked gravely, and I nodded, gulping painfully.

I had been growing more and more preoccupied with Finn and Elora’s relationship. She was an attractive older woman, and he was definitely a foxy guy, and I could see her digging cougar claws into him. That was what I was afraid of, anyway. Then it would make whatever feelings I had for Finn seem even more disturbing.

“About ten or fifteen years ago, after your father was gone,
my
father came under the employ of your mother. He had retired from tracking, and Elora didn’t like living alone, so she hired him to guard her and the estate,”

Finn explained. His eyes darkened and his lips tightened, and my heart raced.

“Elora was in love with my father. They had to keep things quiet, because it would be quite the scandal if anyone found out. No one knew, except for my mother, who to this day still is married to my father. Eventually, my mother convinced my father to leave. However, Elora remained quite fond of him, and in turn, rather fond of me. She has personally requested my services over the years, and because she pays well, I have accepted. Since I am so good at my job, nobody has ever thought anything of it. Until you, of course.”

I stared at him, feeling nauseous and nervous. Since his father became involved with my mother after I was born, I could safely assume that we weren’t siblings, so at least that was something. Everything else made it feel rather disturbing, and I wondered if Finn secretly hated me. He had to secretly 194

hate Elora, and he was only here because of how much she paid him. Maybe he was some kind of glorified gigolo, and I had fight to keep from vomiting.

“I am not sleeping with her, and she has never made any advances of the sort,” Finn clarified, looking at me evenly. “She is fond of me because of her feelings for my father. I don’t blame her for what happened between them.

It was a long time ago, and my father was the one that had a family to think of, not her.”

“Huh.” I looked up at the ceiling because it was easier than looking at him.

“I have distressed you. I’m sorry,” Finn apologized sincerely. “This is why I was hesitant to say anything to you.”

“No, no, I’m fine. Let’s just go on,” I insisted unconvincingly. “I have a lot to go over and all that.”

Finn remained silent for a minute, letting me absorb what he had just told me, but I tried to push it from my mind as quickly as possible. Thinking about it made me feel dirty, and I still had too much on my mind as it was.

Eventually, Finn continued on with the texts, and I tried harder to pay attention. If I was thinking about what exactly a Queen’s job entailed, I wasn’t thinking about my mother bumping uglies with his father.

Frederique Von Ellsin, the dress designer, came over a few hours later.

He was excitedly flamboyant, and I couldn’t tell for sure whether or not he was Trylle. Finn sat in the corner, off-handedly flipping through a book while Frederique made all kinds of notes. I wore only a slip as he took my measurements and sketched something on a notepad. Finally, he declared that he had the perfect gown in mind, and he dashed out of my room to get working on it.

All day long, there was an irritating succession of people. They were all staff of some kind, like caterers and party planners, so at least I didn’t have spend an hour getting ready to impress them. In fact, most of them ignored me.

They just trailed after Elora as she listed an inconceivable amount of information about what she expected them to do, and they all scurried to write 195

it down or punch it in their Blackberries, or maybe just contemplated suicide. I know I wpild.

Meanwhile, I had the pleasure of camping out in my sweats all day again. Whenever Elora saw me, she glared at my apparel intensely, but she was always too busying prattling on demands to somebody else to complain about me. Everything that I managed to overhear only made my coming-out festivities sound even more terrifying. The most horrific thing I heard as she zipped by: