"You little bitch."

"You said that." I stepped around him, my mother still watching me, and went over to Mr. Neil.

"Excuse me," I said, standing between Mr. Neil and Tyler's father. They stopped talking and looked at me. "This wasn't any of my business until I heard you mention the Bergans," I said, flattening a hand on my chest, "but I've talked to Tyler and now I feel like I should speak up."

"What is it, Jenna?" Mr. Neil asked. Tyler's father was breathing heavily, his nostrils flaring.

"Well, I'm sorry to hear what happened to Tyler this morning. I don't know anyone here who would do something like that. But it definitely wasn't Bren, or any of the Bergans," I said. Tyler remained silent behind me as his father rolled one hand for me to continue. "I know first tracks are for the season pass holders and employees," I continued, "but I figured since my mother manages the hotel it would be okay for me to use the hour too." I looked at Mr. Neil, hoping to get him on board early.

"That's fine, Jenna, you're welcome to the same privileges as the employees," he said.

"Can we continue please?" Tyler's father said.

"Thanks." I said, smiling at Mr. Neil. Then I glanced at Tyler's father. "Sorry. I just want to make sure I don't leave anything out. So I ran into the Bergans as soon as I hit the lift. I was with them in the terrain park all morning. I just told Tyler, and he agreed that it had to be someone else. It's not really Tyler's fault, though. It was cold and everyone wears something on their facesain the mornings especially. It makes everyone look alike."

Mr. Neil, Tyler's father, and my mother searched for objections in each other's faces. When my mother didn't see any, she scanned my expression, and found one. She knew I was lying. Thankfully, the other two were clueless.

Tyler's father closed his eyes, inhaled and gritted his teeth. "Tyler," he said, "did you allow me to come down here screaming for the heads of four innocent people, without being absolutely certain who it was on that run this morning?"

"I really thought it was them," Tyler's voice was small behind me. Relief turned my bones to paste. "Until I talked to Jenna, I was sure."

"Well," his father said, exhaling, "a pretty girl will do that to you." His expression remained grave, but he winked at me. I tried to smile, wanting only for them to leave.

"Let's find out who was on that slope this morning," he said to Mr. Neil. "I'm not going to be satisfied without a pink slip, or a law suit. We can't have this kind of thing here."

"We certainly cannot," Mr. Neil said. "We'll look into it first thing."

"Good, then."

The men shook hands. Then Tyler's father nodded to us and walked out through the front lobby, Tyler hobbling behind him.

My mother stared at me.

"Well," Mr. Neil said. "That was fun."

My mother shook her head and crossed one leg over the other as she leaned against the desk, her pointy heel digging into the carpet. "That poor kid," she said.

Mr. Neil laughed, glanced behind him and turned back to her. "That poor kid is going to have a statue of himself toppled by an angry mob one day."

"That bad, huh?"

"Put it this way. When Richard came in here yelling that my employees had tried to kill his son, I had to think back to be sure I hadn't hired anyone to do it."

My mother tried not to laugh for a minute, then gave in.

Once Mr. Neil left, the reception room fell silent and my mother leveled her gaze at me.

"I don't know what worries me more," she said. "That you lied, or that you lied for him."

"You don't even know him," I said softly.

"You're right," she nodded. "But you knew I was concerned about your spending time with him, and yet you didn't tell me you'd be with him this morning."

"No," I said. "But I honestly didn't know I was going to run into them."

"Alright then. But you also stood here and told those men that you were with the Bergans during first tracks. But I know you weren't. You were in the ski shop buying your equipment." And the guilt of taking her gift and using it to spend the morning with Bren without telling her washed over me again.

"Mom," I said, looking squarely at her. "What Mr. Neil said about Tylerait's true. Whatever happened to him out there today, I'm sure it was provoked. I didn't want Bren or any of them to get blamed forawhatever it was that Tyler did."

She nodded, but she didn't ask me if Bren had done it. She stared at me for a long time, looking at me and through me, her face unreadable. Then she said: "Was Tyler at that bonfire last night?"

I nodded.

Another long pause. Then: "Was Bren there?"

I shook my head.

The seconds stretched.

Finally, she said. "Okay, Jenna. But we're going to talk more about this later. About a lot of things." She pushed herself off the counter, walked over to me and reached out to smooth my hair. Then she kissed the top of my head and stood back, waiting for me to go.

"Are you mad at me?" I asked, swallowing the lump in my throat.

"No," she said. She gave me a warm smile.

I nodded, grasped her arm briefly as I passed her, and stepped back out into the cold afternoon.

Chapter 12.

Still in my new boarding boots, I trudged past the lodge and towards the employee dorms, slowing over the bridge as I tried to sort my thoughts. Bren had spent all morning with me -- they all had -- after what they had done to Tyler, and none of them had mentioned a thing about it. Bren had probably laced his fingers through mine with the same hand he had used to hit Tyler. I felt sick and betrayed. But more disturbing to me was my quickening heartbeat as I neared the apartment building, the anticipation of seeing him offering to dissolve my fury. I shook it off and crossed the bridge.

Their slider was open and I heard strains of harsh, raised voices from inside the apartment, but I didn't slow to listen. Maybe Bren's uncle had found out what had happened, but I had as much right to yell at Bren as he did. I yanked open the heavy door, pivoted to the right, and pounded. The arguing inside the apartment halted and after a moment, Bren answered, his expression solemn.

I took a deep, steadying breath.

I stared at Bren, then glanced into the living room, where Frieda and Dag sat on the couch facing the TV. Frey reclined on the other, Skye perched next to him. A tiny icicle stabbed at my chest at the sight of her here and I turned to the kitchen, where Bren's uncle stood over the table, working on the edge of Bren's board with a big, metal file. He was the only one not watching me.

Bren moved aside. I took a few steps into the apartment and he closed the door behind me.

"Jenna," he said, "This is my uncle Val." He glanced back at Val. "This is Jenna."

Val's ice blue gaze rose to meet mine. His face was grave, but his eyes changed enough to convey warmth. "Hi Jenna," he said.

"Hi." I didn't seem able look away until he did. Once again, he focused on the edge of the board. I turned back to Bren.

"So," I said. "I went into the lobby just now to talk to my mother, and guess who was there?" I didn't bother to fight the sarcasm in my voice.

"Who." His tone was flat.

"Tyler." I cut in. "And his father. Tyler looked really messed up. His face was bruised and his knee was sprained. And his father was yelling on and on to Mr. Neil and my mother about how some snowboarders attacked Tyler on the raceway this morning. Isn't that horrible?"

"Horrible." Bren said. "Why don't we go talk about this in my room?" He reached for my arm and I pulled away.

"No." I said. "Why would we do that?" I wondered if he planned to charm me out of my anger. "This involves all of you, doesn't it?"

I glanced around the room, letting my eyes stop on each one of them. None of them made eye contact now except Frieda, whose green eyes glistened when she finally looked away.

"What are you, the Norwegian mafia?"

A smirk broke on Frey's face as he stared at the floor.

"I told you I didn't want you to do anything," I said to Bren. It occurred to me then that he would have had to tell them all what Tyler had done. Then I remembered that Skye had known, too. I felt like I was standing there in transparent clothes.

"Which one of you told everybody?" I asked, glaring from Bren to Skye. I studied their expressions a" hers stoic, his anxious a" and took a guess.

"You?" I said to Bren. "So basically you completely invaded my privacy, and then you went behind my back and did exactly what I asked you not to do. What you agreed not to do."

"I didn't exactly agreea" he started, holding up a hand.

"Don't give me that. I asked you to leave it alone. And then you were with me all morning long," I glanced briefly around the room again before turning back to him, "and you just acted like nothing happened. As if you didn't just attack somebody like a pack of freaking wolves."

"Jenna." Bren said.

"No."

"In all fairness," Frey said, looking up at me, "the guy's a dick. He deserved it."

"Not helping," Bren said, his eyes closed.

"That's not the point," I said to Frey, stepping around Bren. "It's not about Tyler. You don't understand."

Frey leaned forward, clasping his hands between his knees. "I do," he said. "You feel invaded. You feel like you had your choices taken away." He said this softly, his sandy, seascape eyes moving over mine. "So you can sympathize with the next girl who takes a walk with Tyler."

The anger ran out of me like cold bathwater. Staring into his eyes, seeing only compassion, seeing only right, I felt lost to my own sense of things. I saw Frieda watching me in my peripheral vision, saw her shaking her head back and forth, her lips parted. I couldn't look at her. The fact that she had known was a soft, tender bruise inside my chest.

"Jenna," Bren said again. I shifted my gaze to his. "I should've told you this morning. I justa" he let his arms fall to his sides, shook his head. "I didn't know how to tell you. After what you'd gone through last nightaI didn't want you to have to think about it anymore. I was trying to protect you."

His words rose against me like a dark wave in a recurring nightmare. I felt the familiar saline prick behind my eyes, but this time bitterness corked the tears. I let my focus blur and everything went numb. Here is where I was safe, floating, detached.

"You know what?" I said, backing toward the door now, my hand searching for the knob behind me, "my father cheated on my mother for three years before she found out. And when she asked him how he could have lived in the house with us all that time, could have slept in their bed, could have eaten dinner with us every night, all without telling her a thing, do you know what he said?"

Bren's expression was tight as he waited.

"'I was trying to protect you.'" I pulled the door open, heard Bren call my name, and slammed it behind me.

I regretted saying it all out loud as soon as I hit the cold air. I had been walking a precarious line, trying to fit in with them, and now they knew I was broken and crazy. The fear of losing Bren for good was seeping back into my thoughts now, but I was too angry to figure out how to forgive him.

I stopped after a few paces and let my head fall back. The day had grown dark. The sky was a roiling sea, the snow drifting down toward my face like volcanic ash.

"I can't let her go like this." I heard Bren say from the other side of the screen. Why was their door always open? I didn't want him to come after me now.

"It's for the best." Val's voice, quiet and rough.

"It's not the best for me."

"For all of us," Val said. "We agreed not to get involved with them." Them? "Well we haven't all stuck to that plan have we?" Bren said.

"You and Frey have had your share of women," Val said, and I winced, tried to squeeze the image from my mind. "But this is not the same and you know it."

"What about the woman in Colorado?" Bren asked.

"That was for a short time. I left my wife behind for gods' sake." Val was just short of yelling now.

"You did that long before we left Asgard," Bren shot back.

"You're misdirecting your anger. I understand your feelings for Jenna, but you were all incredibly careless today, both on the raceway and in the park. We are lucky that she didn't notice how the world yields to your play."

I didn't understand his words at first, and then my breath caught. I thought about the things I had seen at the terrain park that morning. The rise and fall of the hills, the bending of the trees, the ground stretching like taffy.

"Skye could have made her forget," Dag said.

This, too, was a mystery to me. What, was Skye their henchman? When I thought of what she had done to Tyler, I could almost believe it. A bump on the head like that could have given anyone amnesia.

There was a moment of quiet. Then Bren said: "I'm going to find her."

"If you stalk her now, she'll feel pressured." Frey's voice, but closer to the door. "Just give her some space. She cares about you. It'll all be well."

Their speech sounded different to me now, more formal, with a touch of an accent that I hadn't heard before.

"Yes," Frieda said. "And besides, I don't know if it's such a good idea for her to be close to us now. The earthquakesa"

"It could be nothing," Dag said, "We're near a fault line, aren't we?"

"We are, but they've gotten closer and more frequent," Frey said. "I think we should speak with Sif. Just to be safe."

I remembered how Bren had asked Frieda about the earthquakes on the news. Why were they worried about earthquakes? Were they some secret society of seismologists? Is that what the rings with the cracks were about? And who was Sif, besides another person with a crazy name?

"We'll speak with Sif," Bren said. "But now I need to find Jenna."

"She's here."

I stiffened. It was the first time Skye had spoken.