Thief Eyes

Chapter 8

A woman stood before me, gray eyes smoldering, blond hair swirling like flame around her, so long it pooled at her feet. Her red cloak was bright against the gray sky. She reached for me, but I drew away.

“I waited for you. For days I returned to the cave. When I could no longer return I searched from my home, whenever I could escape the eyes of my family. I sought you on my wedding day, and past it as well, until Thorvald was gone and my anger was quenched. All that time you hid from my spell. Why do you wake it now, after all these years?”

The coin burned against my hand. The air held the stench of sulfur. It hasn’t been years, I thought. The woman shimmered, as if with heat. For an instant the air seemed to blur, and I knelt—not in a cave this time but on a yellow autumn hillside, beside a wooden house with a grass-thatched roof. I wrenched my focus back to the woman and the beach. My eyes hurt, the way they do when you try to make a fuzzy picture clear, but I didn’t let the picture go. I stared at Hallgerd—at Svan’s kinswoman, who had killed her three husbands, and who Katrin thought had also killed my mom—yet no one knew, because Mom had never been found.

Hallgerd reached toward my singed hair. I felt a hot shudder as her fingers passed right through me. “You are either very brave or very foolish to gift so much of yourself to the realm of fire. I gave them but a few dozen strands when I cast my spell.”

The ground still shook, but that seemed a small thing. I’d come here for answers. I looked right into Hallgerd’s gray eyes. “What did you do to Mom?” Nothing mattered more than the answer to that question.

The earth went still. Hallgerd frowned. “She accepted my gift. But then she ran, and the spell consumed her. I did nothing. She did everything.”

“You killed her.” I waited for Hallgerd to deny it.

“Indeed.” Hallgerd met my gaze without shame. “What compensation will you seek for this, Haley?”

“Compensation?” How did Hallgerd imagine there could be compensation for such a thing? “You can leave me the hell alone, is what you can do!”

Hallgerd laughed. “You price your mother’s life far too low. Thorvald has been dead many years, and my second husband as well. I desire escape no longer. I’m content to live and die by Gunnar’s side. Gladly I’ll leave you alone. I release my claim on the coin—and on the spell. Do with them as you will. Farewell, Haley.”

Hallgerd faded away. I dropped the coin, scrambled to my feet, and lunged at her. “Get back here!” My hands grabbed someone’s shoulders. I began shaking them, shaking hard, and only when I shoved the person to the sand did I realize it wasn’t Hallgerd.

Ari looked up. His lips were blue now, and his teeth had begun to chatter, but an ironic grin crossed his face. “It’d be easier—if you could remember—who I am.”

Not funny. I scrambled away from him. My mother was gone, and he was making a joke—a stupid joke. I began coughing, dry empty heaves. Gone. I’d come to Iceland to find my mother, but there was nothing left to find. Tears ran down my face, hot as the fire that had burned my hair away.

It was Mom who’d always talked me out of cutting my hair. Mom who’d held me after nightmares, who’d kept my life from falling apart a million different ways. Nothing had been as hard as the year she’d been gone. I coughed harder. My chest ached. Nothing could make this right. Never, ever, ever.

I felt Ari’s hand on my shoulder, and I jerked away. “You knew!” I screamed. He’d known she was gone for a whole year, while I waited and hoped and fought off nightmares, telling myself that the worst possible thing couldn’t be the true thing.

“I thought my mom was crazy.” Ari shivered harder. I heard him, didn’t hear. “I wanted her to be crazy, about this at least.”

My nails dug for my palms, but it wasn’t enough. I rolled up my jacket and dug my nails into my arm. Still not enough—I couldn’t seem to break skin. I dug harder, waiting for the pain of hot flowing blood.

“Haley!” Ari grabbed my wrists. I fought him, and as I did a hot sulfurous smell filled the air. The coals in me flared hot, heat roaring through me as I struggled. The fire roared outward, toward the one who held me. The ground shook.

“Bloody hell!” Ari dropped his grip. I fell backward onto the sand. A few raindrops landed on my face, but they didn’t feel cold. My clothes were still steaming. I saw red welts on Ari’s palms as he staggered back.

You will take our fire into your blood. Sweat trickled down my neck as I remembered the words. You will take our fire into your world.

“What have I done?” I whispered. I thought of the heat in Hallgerd’s coin, but the fire inside me had nothing to do with her spell. It came from my own bargain with the fire creatures. Once before, we accepted such golden locks as a gift.

I thought of the winter storms back home, how they doused the desert’s summer heat and turned dry washes to cold flowing rivers. I thought of cold rainwater rushing over my bare feet. The fire—and the anger—inside of me subsided down to banked coals.

Ari shoved his hands into his pockets, green eyes wary. “You okay?” he asked, shivering still.

No, I’m not. Okay was part of some other world, the world I’d lived in before my mother went to Iceland, before I’d known there was any such thing as magic.

Ari’s skin was icy pale. How could he be so cold? I barely remembered what cold felt like. “Your arm,” he said.

My arm stung, but when I looked down, I saw only the fading imprints of my fingernails—no broken skin, no blood. I pulled my sleeve down to cover it. My palms had bled, just a little, but the wounds were already clotted over. Had I really seen smoke there? What did it mean to take fire into your blood? “I’m fine,” I said.

Ari drew his hand from his pocket and reached for mine. His palm was still red. I’d burned him without half trying—that’s what taking fire into your blood meant. I didn’t take his hand.

Soft waves lapped at the shore. Ari stared at me, teeth chattering, body trembling. Whatever he was looking for—reassurance?—I couldn’t give it to him. I couldn’t even promise I wouldn’t burn him again. I still felt warm coals somewhere deep inside me.

At last Ari pointed into the distance. “I think maybe—the sorcerer—has started—a fire.” I followed his gaze. A faint orange glow shone against the gray hills.

Like I needed a fire. I had all the fire I needed within me. Would that fire consume me as it had consumed Mom? Would that be such a bad thing? my treacherous thoughts asked me.

Hell yes. If the fire destroyed me, there’d be no one left to make Hallgerd pay. Somehow she had to pay for this.

Wind picked up, cutting right through my jacket. I barely noticed, but Ari shuddered. “Please, Haley. It’s cold—out here. Let’s go—to—the fire.” He started toward it, and I followed. Where were we, anyway? Not Thingvellir, though the gray hills and black sand did look volcanic. Back in Iceland, at least?

The sand gave way to the dirt-and-gravel road, which was slick with water. The rain fell harder. The wind grew stronger. We bent our heads into it. Water streamed from Ari’s white hair and black leather jacket.

The wind began to moan. The fire turned to a faint orange smudge through the blowing water. Ari stumbled and fell.

I helped him up. “I’m all right,” he said, but his breath came out in gasps. I felt a ripple of fear. He’ll be fine. I just need to get him to the fire. He leaned on my shoulders as he staggered on.

The road gave way to sucking mud. We climbed a short slope, ducked beneath a craggy overhang, and then we were beside the fire. Svan was sitting there, staring into the flames—ordinary flames that couldn’t speak. “Took 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—”

“What?”

Ari scowled and threw another rock out into the rain. “See? I never know when to shut up. I thought you knew.”

“No.” Mom and Dad fought, sure, I knew that—but they weren’t getting-a-divorce fights. They’d never talked about getting a divorce.

How could I not have realized, anyway? “I am so stupid.”

Ari’s mouth pulled into a rueful smile. “So you see, we have something in common.”

It doesn’t matter, I told myself again. All that mattered was that Mom was gone. That was Dad’s fault, and Katrin’s, but most of all it was Hallgerd’s.

I looked at Svan. “Do you have any spells to bring back the dead?”

Svan opened his eyes, and I knew he’d heard our every word. “You need a body to bring back the dead.”

Hallgerd hadn’t even left me that much. I glared down at the coin I held. The fire in me rose toward it. Funny how I could feel so much heat, when every time I thought about Mom, everything in me felt like cold ashes.

The ground trembled a little, as if in response to the fire—my fire or the coin’s fire, I couldn’t tell.

Svan raised an eyebrow. “So you see, Hallgerd’s spell remains active.”

Ari scowled. I ignored him and shoved the coin toward Svan. “Hell yes, I want to destroy it.”

Svan nodded. “As soon as the storm ends, I’ll gather the necessary supplies. We shouldn’t waste any time. There’s no knowing what my niece’s magic will do.”

What about my magic? I kept the thought to myself. “The sooner the better,” I told Svan. I’d cast any spell, if there was a chance that Hallgerd might feel it. If there was some chance I could hurt her as much as she’d hurt me.

Nothing matters as much as that, I told myself. Nothing.