Thief Eyes - Janni Lee Simner [76]
I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. Either you loved someone or you didn’t. Was it ever that simple?
Dad shoved his hands into his pockets. “Can you ever forgive me?”
My throat hurt, but I forced myself to speak. “I’m working on it,” I said, and meant it.
We walked back down the path in silence, to the Hotel Valholl, where we were meeting Ari and Katrin for dinner. Ari and I had slept most of yesterday away. We’d seen each other only briefly, when Dad and Katrin brought us to the police station to file a report. Apparently the police had thought it might have been Dad and Katrin’s fault we’d disappeared, that maybe they’d abducted us or something, and Mom before us, too. They seemed to believe Ari’s and my story that we’d run away, though, right down to our claiming that Ari had dyed his hair and I’d cut mine to make us harder to recognize.
Ari looked up from the newspaper he was reading as we entered the room. His leather jacket was replaced by fleece-lined black nylon, along with a bleached wool cap almost as pale as his hair. “Hey,” he said in English. “It says here they found a staff carved with magical runes in the Westfjords. Very mysterious, no sign of the owner. The people at the Sorcery Museum are looking into it.”
“There’s a sorcery museum?” I said, also in English, as I slid into my seat.
“Yeah. In Holmavik. Too bad we forgot to visit. Of course, we were a bit busy.”
“Just a bit.” I turned to the menu, which was written in both English and Icelandic. I read the English, then ordered in Icelandic, which seemed to startle the waiter. Even if I spoke the language, a million other small things gave me away as the foreigner I was.
“It’s going to take a while to get used to that,” Dad said. “I bet you could place out of your language requirement when we get home, though.”
I switched to English automatically. “Yeah, because that would make it all totally worth it, right?” I managed a laugh.
Katrin glanced at Ari’s white hair. “We all have things to get used to.” She spoke English, too. She sipped her coffee and looked at Dad and me over the rim of her cup. “You’ve decided to go back, then?”
Ari looked down, suddenly very interested in his napkin. I nodded slowly. “There still might be time to catch up at school. Keep me from losing the year.” Give Dad and me a chance to learn how to live alone with each other.
“I wish you would stay,” Katrin said. “Not all the stories about Hallgerd and Thorgerd are written down. I’d tell you the rest of what was passed on to me.”
“Nah, Jared would be disappointed if she didn’t come home,” Ari said.
I looked sharply over at him. Ari met my gaze. “Hey, two days ago we were not sure we would make it back at all. It is good that you can go home.”
I kept looking at him. “Want to go for a walk?” I said.
“It is freezing out there. Why would anyone—I am being stupid again. Yes, I would love to go for a walk.”
I glanced at Dad, and he nodded. Ari followed me out.
As we headed across the parking lot and onto the path, something icy blew into our faces. I held out my hand, and a cold flake landed there. Snow.
Back home, they were still having hundred-degree days. Even without magic, I’d be warm soon enough. The thought wasn’t as comforting as it should have been. I missed the desert, but I was going to miss Iceland, too. Would it always be like this, wishing for whichever place I couldn’t be? “Dad says maybe we can come back for Christmas,” I told Ari in Icelandic.
“The weather’s worse at Christmas,” Ari said, also in Icelandic. “More snow, and it’s dark all the time. Of course you don’t want to stay.”
I stopped and stared at a cluster of bright red flowers. Didn’t they know that it was way too cold to bloom? “I talked to Jared.”
Ari didn’t look at me. “I’m sure he’s glad you’re okay.”
“Of course he’s glad. Jared’s my best friend. He’s been worried sick these past months. He wants to know what it’s like to be a bear, too, by the way. I think he’s a little jealous of you.”
Ari gave a wry laugh.