Page 414

Chapter 23

Rossa tossed and turned all night, debating what to do about the white bear. A day earlier, she'd been certain she should kill him, but now she wasn't sure. He'd pulled her out of that trap, lit a fire, buried a deer, bowed, given her a priceless gift, and maybe even laughed…in every respect, more like a man than a bear.

None of the villagers had seen him – they spoke only of brown bears, maybe as big as a man, and not a white one who stood head and shoulders above any man she'd ever met. Certainly not one who hunted deer.

No one from the village had mysteriously gone missing, either, or in such a way that the bear might be blamed.

That didn't mean anything, though. He might have only recently arrived in the area, so that he hadn't had the time to pose a danger to the village.

For a bear who could master fire was very dangerous indeed…

Which was why, as the first streaks of dawn lightened the sky, she stood at the mouth of the cave she'd woken up in yesterday. Inside, the bear was snoring beside a campfire that had burned down to glowing coals.

If he was a danger to her mother's people, she should slaughter him and be done with it. Yet even now she hesitated.

Was he a man or a beast?

She sent a whisper of magic through him, searching for the answer. He was a magical beast, with the heart and soul of the man he'd once been before someone had cast a spell on him. The magic was not his own, for if it were, it would course through his blood as it did hers, yet it was still a part of him, bonded to his bones, somehow. It was no mere enchantment or glamour, to be dispelled with a wave of her hand. No, to remove this spell might kill him.

While she'd been lost in thought, the snoring had stopped. The bear was awake.

Yet he did not move to attack her, and she did him the same courtesy.

"Did you want to be turned into a bear?" she said.

The bear sat up, then shook his head.

"Do you wish you were a man again?" she persisted.

The bear cocked his head to the side, thoughtful. As if he didn't have a ready answer to give her without words.

"Do you know if there is a way to break the curse? Did the witch tell you how you might become a man again?"

Another shake of his head.

Perhaps it was not possible. But animal transformations were usually curses, punishments for offending a witch in some way. It was dangerous to cast a curse that could not be broken. Usually the caster had to pay a high price, in her own blood, for her negligence. So either the witch had been playing a dangerous game…or the spell upon the bear was a blessing, not a curse, even if he had not asked for it.

"Did this…did this happen to you because someone was trying to help you?" Rossa asked.

His eyes regarded her, filled with yearning. Yearning for the words a bear could not say.

"Do you know the witch who did this to you?"

He shook his head.

Wonderful. So some witch had likely cast a spell on him as he slept. She was lucky he hadn't attacked her for waking him.

Rossa perched on a rock just inside the cave. "So now you're stuck as a bear, with no way of going back to the way you were."

He inclined his head.

She kept her eyes firmly fixed on his as she drawled, "Well, that's quite the problem, Snow. But I have a bigger one. Because I need to know if you're a danger to the people who live around here. My mother's people, in the village, and the monastery, and the castle. Are you going to hurt them, Snow?" With deliberate care, she conjured a fireball in her hand. The sort that gave off smoke and heat and definitely did damage when she threw it at someone. "Are you my enemy, Snow?"

His gaze never left hers as he shook his head slowly.

"Good." She turned the fireball into a ball of pure magic, then threw it at him.

When the ball hit his chest, it exploded into a shower of sparkles. He blinked, then raised those eye ridges that definitely supported his invisible eyebrows.