Thief Eyes

you long enough,” he said, not looking up.

Ari made a rude gesture as he sank down beside the fire. His shudders turned violent as his rain-soaked jeans began to sizzle and dry. With shaking hands he unzipped his jacket and pulled it off, moving closer to the flames to let them dry his wet skin and clothes.

I shrugged off my sodden backpack, pulled off my jacket—the hood had burned away along with my hair—and drew Ari close, rubbing my hands along his bare arms to warm them. Svan winked, as if my not wanting to see Ari die of hypothermia meant I was ready to jump into bed with Ari. Which of course I wasn’t, because I was dating Jared—I pushed that thought aside. One thing at a time. I hadn’t gotten us out of the fire realm only to have Ari freeze to death in this one.

“You’re warm, Haley.” Ari moved closer to me, even as he kicked off his muddy shoes, pulled off his socks, and set them by the fire to dry. “How can you be so warm?” His shivering subsided. “Some rescuer I am, yeah?”

“Couldn’t have made it without you, Luke.”

Ari laughed at that. Beyond the overhang, I heard a clattering sound. Hail, pounding the gravel and mud. Wherever we were, we weren’t leaving anytime soon.

Even if we were back in Iceland, where would I go, anyway? Back to Dad? What happened to Mom—it was Dad’s fault, too. I shivered, not because of the cold. Ari’s arms tightened around me.

Svan chuckled. “I’m sure your father will find a good match for you when you’re ready for a real man. Until then, there’s no harm in playing.”

I nearly told the sorcerer what he could do with himself, but it wasn’t like I wanted to go back into that storm.

Svan handed us a couple of strips of dried meat from his bag. I bit fiercely into mine. It tasted like old cardboard—rubbery old cardboard—but I kept chewing. So did Ari. Had he had anything to eat in Muninn’s cave?

“I don’t suppose you brought any drink?” Svan asked as he finished a strip of meat of his own.

Like I wanted him drunk. A gust blew beneath the overhang. The fire flickered, but Svan made a quick hand gesture over the flames, and they steadied and burned on. I felt some spark deep within me yearn toward those flames.

Svan looked sharply up. Did he feel the spark as well? He reached toward my singed hair. I jerked away. No way was I letting him touch me. Ari stiffened beside me.

“A bit close,” Svan said. “You should have walked faster. The realm must have begun to change to fire as you jumped.”

No begun about it, but I didn’t tell Svan that. I still didn’t trust him.

He fed a piece of damp driftwood to the fire. It hissed, but then the wood caught. Flames leaped toward the stone above us. “Do you still have Hallgerd’s coin?”

I’d dropped it—but I drew away from Ari and reached into my pocket. The coin was there, warm against my fingers. Would I ever be free of it? No matter what I did—dropped it, threw it away—the thing always found me, just as it must have found Mom.

The coin—Hallgerd’s spell—had killed Mom. I clenched my hand around the silver.

“We must destroy it,” Svan said. “Only by destroying the coin can the fires Hallgerd called on be contained.”

Muninn had thought it best to hide Hallgerd’s coin away in his cave, because destroying it might only make things worse. Katrin thought we needed to bring the coin to Hallgerd’s home and return it, but I didn’t exactly trust her anymore, either.

And I didn’t want to give anything back to Hallgerd. “Will it hurt her much, if we destroy the coin?” Hallgerd said she’d released her claim on it—maybe that didn’t make any difference. She was still the one who’d cast the spell.

Svan wouldn’t meet my eyes. “What matter that, if it keep Hallgerd’s fire from burning the world?”

You don’t understand. “Will it hurt her a lot?” Because right now, I’m more than okay with that.

“It might,” Svan admitted, his gaze on the fire.

“Good,” I said.

Ari and Svan both looked at me. “Truly, you are Hallgerd’s kin,” Svan said.

Ari scowled, showing what he thought of that. He didn’t understand, either. A stray raindrop landed in his hair. “If destroying the coin will hurt Hallgerd, what will it do to Haley?”

Svan loosened his cloak. “Hallgerd altered my teachings in ways I did not anticipate. She always thought she understood more than she did. I cannot say for certain what will happen. Destroying the coin could destroy all those bound to it.”

“It doesn’t matter.” I’d risk myself a hundred times if only I could make Hallgerd suffer.

“The hell it doesn’t.” Ari pressed his lips into an angry line. Outside, the wind began to blow the rain sideways.

Svan raised his voice to be heard over it. “I believe Haley makes this choice willingly.”

“No,” Ari said. “Don’t, Haley.”

Easy for him to say. “Your mother’s still alive.”

Ari flinched, then looked right at me, his green eyes sharp.

Ari and his mom were Hallgerd’s kin, too. Why should my mom be dead, while his mom was just fine? Especially since Katrin was the one who had—what? Slept with Dad? Only messed around a little? I didn’t want to know. It was easier when I didn’t remember.

How could Dad have even thought of cheating on Mom? What sort of jerk was he? I thought of how lost he’d looked when he came home last summer. Funny how you left out the part about how it was your fault, Dad.

“We’ll take what precautions we can,” Svan said, “but given the liberties Hallgerd took with her spell, I can make no promises.”

Ari drew his jacket back on, staring at me all the while. “If you need someone to blame, Haley, blame me and be done with it.”

“You didn’t—”

Ari picked up a gray rock and turned it in his hands. Outside, the wind and rain continued. “I came home early, okay? From my summer job. I opened the door, and there they were together. It’s not like Mom hasn’t had other boyfriends, but none of them were married. The worst part was how Gabe and Mom kept saying it was none of my business. The hell it wasn’t. I was so angry.” Ari drew a breath. “One day I’ll learn to keep my big mouth shut.”

“So you walked in on them.” I quickly pushed the images that brought up out of my mind. “That doesn’t make it your fault.”

Ari flung the rock out into the storm. “Who do you think told your mother? Do you think my mom and your dad just walked up to her and confessed?” Sparks flew up from the fire. Svan shut his eyes, but his shoulders remained stiff, watchful. “I thought Amanda had a right to know,” Ari said, quieter now. “I am such an idiot.”

“She did have a right to know.” My voice was low, too, almost too low to hear over the wind.

Ari shook his head. “You don’t understand. She got so angry. She just couldn’t stop yelling, while your dad —”

“Got really quiet.” My throat felt suddenly tight. “I know.”

“Who could blame your mom for running?” Ari said.

I can. Smoke stung my eyes. Because she ran from me, too.

“Your dad thought she just needed time to think, only she never came back. And then my mom, she started looking at the earthquake patterns—there was a decent-sized quake, you know, the day Amanda disappeared—then went down by the waterfall, found a place where some footsteps ended—and began going on and on about Hallgerd and sorcery. I thought it was just another excuse. Mom had all sorts of excuses, like when she told me your parents were thinking about getting divorced, anyway—”