“Just a moment.” Hæra drove a little way over the grass before putting on the brakes. Then she pointed at a small mound in the grass. “See that?”

Madeleine, still catching her breath, squinted at the mound. There didn’t seem to be anything special about it. “What is it?”

“Some say a trow lives there.”

Madeleine vaguely remembered that word from researching the island before the school trip. “Trow…that’s some kind of little monster, right?”

Hæra frowned. “The word ‘monster’ isn’t called for, is it?”

She seemed genuinely offended. Madeleine could think of nothing to say other than, “Oh. Sorry.”

“Many legends surround trows. They’re quite mysterious. Do you believe in mysterious things?”

Madeleine immediately thought of the mysteries of the rosary: the birth of Jesus, his resurrection, and so on. It wasn’t what Hæra meant, but it was still about believing in what you didn’t understand. When you got down to it, was a mythical creature all that different from…

What was she thinking? Was an imaginary trow the same thing as the life of Christ? Madeleine touched the crucifix on her breast, another kind of apology. “I do. Mysteries are part of my faith.”

“Your faith?” Hæra turned off the motor. In the absence of its rumble, the wind whispered through the grass and seabirds cried in the distance. “Let’s talk about that.”

She leaned forward eagerly, closer into Madeleine’s space. Now it was easier to see the color of her eyes. In the morning light, there was no trace of the yellow tint Madeleine had seen the night before. Today, Hæra’s eyes were a bright amber with gold flecks near the pupils. And they were no less intense than they’d ever been.

“Talk about my faith?” Madeleine croaked, heart racing in a way that had nothing to do with Hæra’s awful driving.

“Yes. I’ve read your Bible, and I have a lot of questions. Since you’re a…well, you used to be a nun, I thought you could answer them.” Interest lit Hæra’s eyes. “That’s what you believe in, isn’t it?”

Would every conversation with this woman end in Madeleine’s head spinning like a top? “Yes, of course, although it’s much more complicated⁠—”

“Excellent!” Hæra slapped her thighs with her palms. They looked like firm, strong thighs. “Let’s start with Genesis.”

“Most things do,” Madeleine said weakly.

“How was there light on the first day of creation, but God made the sun and stars later? And why are there two different passages of him creating animals? And if the first man and woman were the only people on Earth, then how did their children have children of their own? Did they only mate with each other?” Hæra quirked up an eyebrow. “That leads to weak offspring, you know.”