“I can’t stay here anymore,” I said, practically shouting.

Lemak looked at me, and from his mouth, I heard Tove’s voice: “We’re getting you out of there now.”

Wind rushed through the room and the walls began to shake. The papers on the desk burst into flames, and I screamed.

“Ulla, I need you to open your eyes,” Sunniva said, and her voice shook the entire room.

48

Annul

My hair was still wet from the ice bath, but I changed out of my clothes as soon as I got back to the hotel. Jem and Sumi were already there, him sitting in the rocking chair in the corner, Sumi pacing in front of the lacy curtains, but we were waiting for Finn. I wanted to talk this all over with him almost more than anybody.

He’d know what to do.

At least, that’s what I kept telling myself.

He arrived a moment later, pounding on the hotel room door, and when Sumi answered it, he rushed in and over to me.

“Are you all right? You sounded so panicked on the phone.” Finn sat down on the bed beside me, and his dark eyes were frantic with worry.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Then I shook my head and corrected myself. “Mostly fine. Pretty much.”

“You sure?” He put the back of his hand against my forehead, checking my temperature, and he frowned. “You’re still very warm.”

I leaned away from him and his overbearing parental mode. “It takes time to cool down completely, but I’m getting there.”

He let his hand fall. “What did you remember?”

“I know what the Älvolk are doing and what they want,” I said. “They’re making some kind of mystical blood pudding with rare, disturbing ingredients.”

I’d written them down in a notebook, and I held it out to him, but Sumi snatched it before anybody else had a chance to, and she quickly read through it.

“They think if they consume it, they’ll be able to cross the bridge and enter Alfheim,” I explained.

“Why’d you write this on here?” Sumi tapped the bottom of the page where I’d jotted down Frey’s father has closed the bridge for the ekkálfar, and to cross it is to undo his words, and his word is bond.

“That was the last thing I remember translating,” I said.

“Oh, sweet sister Hel,” she said under her breath. “They mean to cross the bridge and enter Alfheim. They want to undo the word of Frey’s father, annulling the enchantment that kept the entrance to Alfheim closed. But if they do what Frey said was impossible by crossing it, then the bridge would be open to everyone.” She looked to Jem with wide eyes. “On both sides.”

Jem cursed and rubbed his chin. “They’re not prepared here. They’ll be slaughtered.”