Thief Eyes - Janni Lee Simner [53]
A burning arrow flew through the air. I knew when that arrow landed, it would burn the world—No! I reached up and caught the arrow in my hand. It burned, but I wasn’t afraid of pain.
For a heartbeat, two heartbeats, everything was okay. Then a spark caught, somewhere inside me, a spark of fire that rose to meet the fire I held. Fire roared through my blood and burst through my skin. Cracks opened beneath my feet as I screamed. The fissures stretched on and on, toward the edge of the sea.
“Free,” a rough voice whispered, and the words burned, too. “We will be free!”
I woke with a start, still screaming, drenched in sweat. The mist felt stiflingly hot. I leaped to my feet and backed away, knowing that even awake, I couldn’t escape my dreams. I heard a snuffling sound behind me, and I whirled around.
A huge white bear stared at me, bright in the moonlit fog, shaking as hard as I was. I looked at him. He looked back through bright green eyes.
“Ari?” My throat hurt from screaming.
The bear bowed his head. He lumbered toward me, then stopped, uncertain. I reached out and touched his wet nose, even as I thought about how stupid it was to just walk up and touch a bear—to touch any wild animal.
But Ari still wasn’t acting like a wild animal, and all my classes and internships and Web surfing had never covered bears who were also boys, anyway. How could they leave out a thing like that? I gave a strained laugh. It turned into a sob, and once I started sobbing I couldn’t stop.
Ari nudged my chest with his muzzle. I threw my arms around his thick neck, still sobbing. His fur was cold and damp. I clung to it, feeling the burning memory of my dream subside. “How the hell did either of us get into this mess?” I demanded. Ari had no answer to that. “I was afraid you wouldn’t come back,” I said, and cried until I couldn’t cry anymore.
I curled up on the ground then, and Ari stretched out beside me, watching me still. The fog was clearing at last, and up above the moon shone so brightly it hurt my eyes. I closed them and buried my face in Ari’s cool white fur, which felt coarse and soft and slippery all at once. I started drifting off, too tired to stop myself, even though maybe Svan’s spell to turn Ari human would have worked now.
“You’re not Mortimer,” I whispered to Ari, “but you’ll do.”
I slept once more, and for the first time since having arrived in Iceland—the first time since my mother had disappeared—I had no dreams.
Chapter 13
I woke to a cold blue sky. An arm was draped over me, not a bear’s arm—a boy’s. Ari lay on his side, propped up on one elbow and staring at me through his human eyes as though he feared I’d disappear if he moved.
“You came back,” I said.
“Once I was sure I wouldn’t hurt you.” Wind tugged at his white hair. “Once I knew it was me in control, and not the bear.”
My throat still hurt, but I felt like I’d slept—really slept—for the first time in ages. “Thank you,” I whispered.
Ari’s mouth quirked into a smile. “So I managed to do something right, then?”
I made a strangled sound, half a laugh and half a sob. I put my hands slowly to his face and pressed my lips to his. Heat rose in me. I didn’t know if it came from my magic or not. Ari’s lips were so soft. I reached for his hair, remembering that it was soft, too, as soft and coarse as his polar bear fur.
Ari drew away with a gasp and sat up. His own hands shook as he looked at me. “No,” he said, but he sounded uncertain.
What did he mean, no? I sat up, too. I remembered falling asleep, buried in his fur. He hadn’t minded then. “You didn’t mind in Muninn’s mountain.”
Ari looked right at me. “I didn’t know you had a boyfriend then.”
He was right, I knew he was right—I didn’t want him to be right. What was wrong with me? Was I no better than Dad? “You chased the nightmares away.” I looked down, realizing how stupid that sounded.
Ari shut his eyes, as if my words had hurt him. “I won’t be the reason you break up with him.”
“I wouldn’t—”
“And if you don’t break up with Jared, I won