Stolen away by Alyxandra Harvey

Author:Alyxandra Harvey
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780802723901
Publisher: Bloomsbury New York
Published: 2012-02-15T07:28:23.086000+00:00

Chapter 9

Eloise

I landed on our couch.

My mother was just coming out of the kitchen when she saw me fall out of nowhere, followed by a boy dressed like King Arthur. She made a sound like “yaaargl!” and then threw her cup right into the air. She didn’t even blink when hot tea rained over her. Elvis yowled and tore off.

I struggled to sit up, trapped by yards of petticoats. Lucas groaned as he tried to free his knee, which was jammed under an end table. Mom just stood there, lips trembling. I launched myself at her, and she came to her senses just in time to catch me. We staggered clumsily, but she didn’t let go. “I’m murdering that rat bastard Strahan and you’re grounded forever.” She pulled away, surveying me closely. “Did he hurt you?” She looked into my eyes like a doctor, ran her hands over my shoulders and down my arms. “Oh, look at your wrists. I will kill him.”

Lucas took a step back. Mom could be scary at the best of times with her tattoos and tight jeans, but she was really, really scary when she was angry.

“It’s nothing. Antonia came and sent us home somehow.” I hugged her again. “Where is she?”

Mom frowned, wiping tea off her face. “I don’t know. I still can’t reach her. I was just about to call one of her weird friends. They always know more than they should.”

“You mean, she’s not here?” I spun around to Lucas, agitated as a wet cat. “She’s not here!”

He tugged his coat back into place. “Strahan has her.”

Mom paled. “What do you mean, Strahan has her?” She sank weakly into a chair. “This is not good.”

“So she’s stuck there?” I asked Lucas. “We have to get her back.”

Mom gave me the evil eye before she went to put the kettle on. I knew she was making rose hip tea. Crises of any kind were tamed with rose hip tea. “You aren’t going anywhere, young lady.”

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t think you can really effectively ground a girl who was just chained to a wall.”

The kettle nearly toppled out of her hand. “What?”

Oops. Probably shouldn’t have mentioned that. Parents had such a habit of overreacting. Lucas was poking around the apartment, looking at our books and art and family photos.

“You are so like her,” he whispered, staring at Mom. “Like the queen. I never even knew she had a twin,” he added. “Until recently.”

“She made a bargain, a long time ago, so no one would know and use me in her place. And when Eloise was born, she set a glamour on her so she would be invisible to the Fae. But glamours only last so long before the magic runs out.”

“And it started to fade just this past week,” I said softly, remembering what Strahan had said. “And I started remembering things.”

“Yes,” Lucas agreed. “We looked for ages before I saw you eating ice cream. We’ve been searching for you since we unexpectedly caught scent of your bloodline.

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