Thief Eyes - Janni Lee Simner [36]
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