and filled with horror.
Before I could say anything, he dissolved, just dissolved into nothing.
“No!” I wailed, waving my hands around in the spot where he had been.
“I thought that might happen,” Eve said, shaking her head. “Not good.”
“Not good? Not good? What happened? Where’s Ulfur? Why did he say what he did?” I asked, panicking. “Why did he go away?”
“His soul is held by the Ilargi,” Eve answered, her thin face pinched. She glanced at her friend. “I’m sorry; I had hoped that you would have a little time with your spirit before he was summoned from you, but the Ilargi must have been waiting.”
“But . . . but . . . I don’t understand!” I felt like pulling my hair out, near tears at the thought of being so close to rescuing Ulfur.
“Let us discuss the issue in the car,” Kristoff said, glancing over my shoulder. “The sound of the raising has caused some interest in the village.”
I turned to see a line of people streaming toward us. We didn’t hesitate in packing up our things and returning up the rocky path to where we’d left the car. I crawled into the back next to Kristoff, miserable and sick at heart at the thought of Ulfur suffering any more.
“You’re going to have to get the soul away from the Ilargi if you want your friend to be free,” Siobhan said a short while later, when we were heading back to Reykjavik. “I’m really sorry, Pia. As I told you, normally liches are bound to the person who raises them, unless, as in this case, their soul is held by someone else. I really thought the Ilargi wouldn’t even know that we raised Ulfur, but evidently he’s keeping a close watch on the souls in his possession.”
Kristoff’s hand was warm on mine, providing me comfort just through the touch of his fingers as they stroked the back of my hand . Do not distress yourself, Beloved. You knew we would have to do something about the Ilargi in order to free him.
Yes, but I thought that he’d get to be with us while we did it. Poor Ulfur. He looked so horrified, so appalled. And it’s all my fault.
Unless you have taken to sucking souls on the side, it is not your fault.
Do you ever sometimes think that life is using you like a toilet? I asked miserably, listening with only half an ear as Siobhan and Eve alternated apologizing.
Not frequently, no.
Lucky you. Honest to God, Kristoff! Like we don’t have enough to do trying to find Alec, now I have to take a soul from an evil soul-sucking reaper? How on earth am I supposed to do that? I almost wailed into his head.
You will do it just as you do everything else-one step at a time, he answered with infuriating calmness.
By the time Siobhan and Eve dropped us off at the hotel, I was panicking a bit less, and starting to sort through the advice they offered.
“The best I can do is give you this phone number,” Eve said as we parted ways in the hotel lobby. She pressed a small piece of paper into my hands. “I wish I’d thought to ask the Ilargi his name, but all transactions are done through the Akashic League. They send me out a list of people I’m to raise, and any pertinent details. They’re very big on confidentiality. The only reason I got the phone number for the Ilargi is because there was some confusion about the location of your friend. If it helps, it’s a U.S. number.”
“Thank you both for all the help,” I said, narrowing my eyes at the phone number. “Good luck with your thesis.”
They both waved as I headed for the bar. “I need a drink before I call this ass-hat and ream him a new one for doing what he’s done to poor Ulfur and all the others.”
Kristoff grabbed my arm, stopping me. “You need rest. You’re exhausted.”
“Drink first, then reaming, then bed.” I eyed him for a second, aware of the growing hunger within him. “Or rather, drink, then feed you, followed by reamage of the Ilargi, and after that, bed, so I can molest you as you’ve never been molested before.”
“You need rest above all else. I can feel how tired you are-”
“There you are! We’ve been waiting for you forever! Where have you been?” Magda bustled out of the bar as I tried to peel Kristoff’s fingers off my arm. “Hello again, Kristoff. So, what’s been happening? Did you find Ulfur? Did you find Kristjana? Where’s your boy puppy? Oh! We saw your brother at the airport in Rome, Kristoff, but we gave him the slip, didn’t we, honey? Honey? Where’d Ray go now?”
Magda turned around in a full circle before spotting her boyfriend over at the reception desk, where he was unpacking several cartons of film and placing them into his camera bag.
“I’m so glad to see you,” I told Magda, giving her a little hug. “Good job on ditching Andreas. And yes to both questions, although the bit involving Ulfur is kind of long and . . . well . . .”
A lump suddenly clogged my throat as tears threatened to form at the thought of having failed Ulfur.
“I’m sorry,” I apologized, making an effort to get a grip on myself. “I don’t normally cry.”
She eyed me with a critical eyebrow raised. “You look like hell, Pia. I mean that in the nicest way, of course, but you really do look like you’ve been put through the wringer. Maybe you need a little break.”
“That’s exactly what she’s going to get,” Kristoff said, wrapping his arm around me and pulling me to the elevator.
“Oh? Oh!” Magda grinned. “Gotcha. I’ll see you tomorrow, then?”
“You’ll see us tonight if you come with us,” Kristoff said just before the elevator door closed. “Blue Lagoon. We leave in half an hour.”
CHAPTER 11
I waited only until I’d changed into dry shoes before dialing the phone number Eve had given me.
Kristoff was on his cell phone to one of his cohorts, who evidently didn’t believe him guilty of the crimes so wrongly tossed at his feet, giving a concise rundown of the events of the last few days.
I tapped my fingers in irritation on the table upon which the phone rested, mentally going over the things I wanted to say to the bastard who had ripped Ulfur’s soul from him, but a click and the slightly mechanical note to the voice that spoke in my ear heralded voice mail rather than a live person. I listened with growing disbelief until the recording ended, then slowly hung up the phone.
Kristoff broke off in the middle of telling his friend about how we’d been charged with finding Alec, covering the lower half of the cell phone to ask, “What is it?”
“That phone number. It belongs to Alec.”
He frowned. “Are you sure?”
I nodded, waving at the phone. “The voice mail is his. His voice and everything. Kristoff, what the hell is going on? Alec isn’t the Ilargi. Is he?”
I slid down the wall into the chair that stood next to the phone table, my mind whirling with disbelief.
Kristoff said nothing to me, switched to Italian, and continued speaking to his buddy. By the time he was finished and had come to squat at my feet, his hands on my knees, I was a mess.
Why do you cry?
Because nothing makes sense. Because I was so deceived by Alec. Because nothing is what it seems. You’re not the horrible, evil monster I thought you were, and Alec isn’t the nice, loving man he appeared. Ulfur wasn’t happy we raised him as a lich-he was horrified. Honestly, Boo, at this point, I’m going to expect that Magda turns out to be the new Zenith, and Ray is her hired assassin!
Kristoff smiled into my head as he gently pulled me from the chair and into his arms, cradling me against his chest as I sniffled my tears of self-pity. “I do not believe your friends are anything but what they appear.”
“Yeah, but you don’t know, do you? Look at Alec, Kristoff! Even you were fooled! If he can be your friend for so many centuries, if I can sense nothing bad about him to the point where I slept with him-kind of-and if your whole entire Moravian group didn’t know he was an Ilargi on the side, then how on earth are we expected to know anything about anyone?” I wailed.
