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She smiled widely, all those lips, all those mouths peeling back to beam a multitude of teeth at me. It was a dizzying effect, looking at one body, one entity, and seeing so many faces merging together... but beneath all those faces, there was one.

One face. A true face.

The huldra’s face.

I saw her. I saw her for what she was.

A hag.

Paper-thin skin the color of ash. Sparse, stringy hair that sprouted randomly from her scalp, leaving bald patches everywhere else. A black hole for a mouth, full of rotting, nubby teeth. Eyes milky orbs that moved about almost unseeingly... except they landed on me with unerring clarity.

“Ah, hello, my love,” she greeted in a voice so beautiful it hurt.There was nothing about the harmonious sound that hinted at the hag underneath the veil of faces. Her words were youthful and melodic. Captivating. Entrancing. I felt their pull, but I gave myself a hard shake, somehow resisting.

She approached me, Fell and his warriors following close, trailing her as though they were small children, desperate for their mother’s attention. Clearly they had fallen under her power. Although the attention they wanted from her was definitely not of the maternal variety. Their hands groped her wherever they could reach.

As she neared, I could again see that one of those false faces blurring in and out belonged to me.Mine.

It was an eerie thing to see yourself but not yourself reflected back at you. I was certain I had never looked like this... like a wide-eyed wanton, eager for sex. It was disconcerting to see all four of them fondling a body that mimicked mine. Mari and Magnus cupped and plucked at my (not my) nipples. Vidar’s giant hand circled my (not my) backside. And Fell. His hand slid down between the gauzy material of the huldra’s gown, disappearing between my (not my) legs.

Not me. Not. Me. Not my body.

How dare she steal my likeness?Rage stirred in my chest, steam filling my nose. He did not belong to her. I wanted to grab Fell, wrench him away from the creature, and let her feel the sting of my wrath.

The force of my reaction jarred me. I never lashed out. Never retaliated. Well. Never before.

The image of Arkin as I had last seen him filled my mind. A burning reminder, literally, that I was not what I once had been. Now I felt things. Now I fought.

This creature had stolen my face and was using it to manipulate and captivate Fell. Not so with his warriors, though. The faces of the other women must be people Mari, Magnus, and Vidar wanted... loved.

But my face was for Fell. I didn’t know whether to be flattered oroffended. Right now I simply knew I had to save him. I had to saveallof them from this fiend.

As she stopped before me, I pasted a smile upon my face and struggled not to reveal what I knew of her. That Iknewher. The real her. That I could see her in all her grotesque glory...

“My lovely.” She reached an inviting hand toward me, and I did my best not to shudder as she stroked my arm—did my best not to reveal that I could see its skeletal shape, the gray skin like wrinkled parchment, the yellowed and cracked fingernails thick and hard as walnut shells.

She continued to speak a litany of endearments, of praise, of words that attempted to wear down my resistance.

Then, unbelievably, remarkably, her face rippled and flickered and changed anew. Over her grotesque features a new face dropped into place... a new veil, different from the others. A beloved face. A face I had thought to never see again. A face I had not realized I missed so much.

My heart lurched, and I choked back a sob. Treacherous emotion welled up in me at the sight of my friend: Stig, the echo of him, a fine, translucent film stretched over the huldra’s ancient skin and milky eyes, pushing all the other faces aside as he smiled at me.

Stig, only not Stig.

In the huldra, he was somehow amplified. Brighter, shinier... those warm brown eyes of his a deeper shade. More black. Glossy like a well-polished stone.

“My sweet girl. My heart. My pet. How I have been waiting for you, longing for you, needing you... and I know you’ve needed me, too.”

The huldra was a master at this, at saying the right words in that delicious voice. An expert at her craft of deceit, and I knew I must tread carefully. Give nothing away. Pretend I was as the others, captivated and enchanted by her machinations.

“Stig,” I breathed, in what sounded like a properly mesmerized voice.

The sound of my voice did something, however. Fell flinched.Blinked. Scowled. Cocked his head to one side and narrowed his gaze at me, seeing me, then seeing the huldra. He was coming out of it. Returning to himself. Viewing me clearly for the first time since I had entered his orbit.

I needed to act fast. Fortunately, the huldra’s gaze was still on me. She did not notice him slipping away, like water through a sieve, escaping her.

Before he could speak or do anything to call the creature’s attention to the fact that he was breaking free from her, I seized her hand.

“Yes,” I breathed, still feigning rapture, drawing her closer, into me like air into my lungs. Into me and away from them. Away from Fell.