Forty Days: Neima's Ark, Book One by Stephanie Parent Read Free Book Online

thumping with shock and embarrassment.
    “ You don’t think of me that way?”
His voice twists with bitterness and, I think, astonishment. “You
know we are to be married, right? You know no one else will have
you, and soon you’ll have to get over this childish stubbornness
and give me what I want.”
    I can’t think, can’t believe this is
truly happening as I hear his plodding footsteps move closer,
closer, and when I whirl around to face him he’s right before me. I
take one step away from him, two, three, and my shoulder blades
slam into the thick trunk of the tree at my back. Kenaan’s dark
eyes pierce into me, something predatory there, more animal than
human, and my heart beats faster, the frantic flutter of a bird’s
wings. I’ve never seen him like this before: lips parted, teeth
bared, as though he’s about to bite down. Where is the boy I’ve
known all my life? The boy who helps Shai with her food at dinner,
who picks his little sister up and twirls her around? The boy who
flirts innocently with Derya at the river, and does every task his
mother asks of him without complaint?
    He’s angry with Noah, not
with me, I chant to myself. He’s angry with Noah, not with
me . But I’m the one before him now, and
it’s my body he grasps with both hands, making his way roughly over
my shift, squeezing my breasts so hard they throb and then moving
lower to my waist, and lower still, pinching the fabric of my skirt
with both hands and lifting…
    My own hands are on his arms, pushing,
pushing but his grip is too strong and my heartbeat is booming, not
a songbird’s wings but a hawk’s, an eagle’s, and as his hand
clutches the bare flesh of my thigh I kick my leg out, hard, in the
direction of the bird trap.
    There’s the snap of twigs again, the
bird rushing upward in a flash of brown and yellow, and Kenaan is
turning toward the broken trap, swearing, and I run.
    He’s not coming after me, but I can’t
stop. My hawk-wing heartbeat pushes my legs forward; the foolish
tears pooling in my eyes turn my surroundings into a blur of green
and brown. So I don’t see him till I’ve nearly collided with
him:
    Jorin. He reaches one hand out to
steady me, and I force myself to hold still.
    “ Neima, are you all
right?” I still can’t see clearly, and I’m not sure if his voice is
concerned or only confused. “Where’s Kenaan? I saw you two, but I
wasn’t sure—”
    He saw ? He saw what was just happening,
and he did nothing to stop it?
    I push his arm away and tear past him,
and though he calls after me once, twice, he doesn’t
follow.

    ***

    Though I’m exhausted when I make it
back to the village, I pause only to drink some water before I grab
my cart for another trek to the ark. Getting straight to work seems
like the best way to avoid questions and conversation, and it will
provide an excuse for my sweaty, disheveled appearance. But more
than that, I’m afraid of where my mind might go if I stop moving
for even an instant.
    I try to focus on the familiar ache of
my blistered hands, my sore legs and shoulders, but a question
keeps rising to the surface: Who can I tell?
    Not Mother—she’d probably be thrilled
at Kenaan’s apparent interest in me, at the chance to force our
engagement.
    Not Father—it’s improper to speak of
such things to a man, and even if it wasn’t, I can’t imagine
looking Father in the eye and telling him what Kenaan tried to
do.
    Not Arisi—between Noah’s demands and
the baby, she has enough to deal with, and I wouldn’t want to worry
her.
    Derya? Perhaps, but I haven’t seen
much of her the last few days. And she likes Kenaan so much… Should
I warn her? Would he do the same to her, or is it only that he
believes he and I will be married, so he has some right
to—
    No. I have to put it out of my mind,
or I might go a bit mad myself.
    I make two trips to the ark and back
again, three, four, until the sun hangs low in the sky, bleeding
streaks of orange and