mythean arcana 06 - master of fate Read Online Free PDF

still, part of him itched to touch her. She was more beautiful than ever, her short frame even curvier than it had been. He stifled a shudder and couldn’t decide if it was anticipatory or despairing.
    “I can’t drive my own?” Her golden gaze met his and he forced himself not to look away.
    “Better no’, if you have no’ driven anything before.”
    “I really think I can do it.” She looked so excited, and he so dreaded having to touch her, that he caved. She was immortal, after all. She’d be okay.
    “Fine.” He showed her the controls, carefully avoiding touching her hands as she reached out to test them. “Think you got it?”
    “Yeah.”
    He strode to the shelves on the other side of the barn and pulled down a fluffy contraption the size of a bed pillow. When he returned to the snowmobile, he strapped it to the front of the seat.
    “For Mouse,” he said, pointing to the hole in the plush, egg-shaped harness. He’d always liked her familiar.
    “What? I’m supposed to put her in there?”
    Mouse poked it with a paw.
    “Aye. It’s cold on the glacier and this thing goes fast. She’ll ride along in there.”
    Mouse looked up at him with big yellow eyes, then jumped up on the snowmobile and wiggled her way into the egg. She turned and sat up straight so that her face peered out the hole in the front. He clipped the harness on the outside of the egg so it tightened a bit on her.
    “Should be good now,” he said.
    “Holy shit.” Aurora looked at him with appraising eyes. “That thing is cool. Do you just have it lying around for familiars who need to ride on your machines?”
    He swallowed and looked away, pushing down the sad memories. “I built it for my dog.”
    “Where is he?”
    “Dead.” He began fiddling with the controls on his own machine. He missed Joe, who’d passed a couple of years ago. He’d found the little mutt behind a trash bin in Reykjavik and brought him back here. Joe had been a good dog for fourteen years—the first companion he’d had in three hundred, ever since his life had gone to shit and he’d left the university. 
    “Ready?” he asked Aurora, ignoring the sympathy in her eyes.
    “Yes.”
    Thankfully she didn’t say anything more about Joe. He felt her eyes on him as he drove her machine out of the barn. She said she could drive it, and she’d always been damned capable, but he didn’t yet trust her ability to reverse or navigate in small spaces like the barn. 
    He parked the snowmobile a dozen feet in front of the gate, then swung off and returned to the barn for his. He heard Aurora climbing on, but didn’t turn around to watch her swing her leg over the hulking metal machine. He grabbed two helmets off the shelf and climbed atop his vehicle, then directed it outside. 
    Aurora and Mouse sat watching him, two sets of golden eyes bright in the dark. He tossed the helmet to her and she snagged it out of the air.
    He looked away before she could put it on. Just the sight of her was stirring up feelings he’d thought long dead. Between the beastly snowmobile vibrating beneath him and the sight of her, he was a fucking disaster.
    “Start it up,” he said. “But easy on the throttle.”
    Aurora’s engine roared to life and the snowmobile shot forward. She shrieked, her laughter echoing through the snowy night.
    Something in his chest tightened. He ignored it and squeezed the throttle. It took only seconds to catch up to her. She was stopping and starting, clearly getting a feel for it.
    “I’ve got it!” she yelled. “Let’s go.”
    “Head away from the moon. When you see the glow on the horizon, go that way. I’ll follow you.” All the better to keep an eye on her.
    They set off toward the soulceress city that sat roughly west of his home. As they rode, swirls of color wavered in the sky—green, blue, yellow. The Aurora Borealis was out in full, painting the night in brilliant shades.
    He kept his gaze trained on her. Occasionally she would