Page 120 of Skalterra By Nightmare
“Except that I can. I’m the stronger nocturmancer, and while it was tricky getting you to yield to me, there’s no way I’ll let you go now that I have you here, even if the old man tries to pull you back.”
“I have a job back at home,” I said. “If I don’t wake up, there are people who will worry. They’ll—”
My stomach dropped in painful realization, and I looked to the horizon glowing in the distance, trying to gauge how long I had until morning. How long I had until my phone rang with a Von Leer admissions officer waiting on the other end.
“Your friends in Keldori won’t let any harm come to you.” He moved away from the doorway to crouch in the middle of the room. “Your body is safe.”
“I don’t give a crap about my body! It’s my interview I’m worried about!”
Ciarán smiled as he piled dry twigs on the stone floor.
“An interview?” He snapped his fingers over the twigs, and a flame flickered to life.
“Someone asks me questions, I answer them, and they decide if they let me into their stupid school or not. And if I miss it, they definitely won’t let me in.”
“I know what an interview is.” He pulled a metal container from a nearby pack and nestled it into his fire.
“Then why are you laughing at me?” I yanked on the bonds again. They stung against the skin of my wrists and were frustratingly sturdy.
Ciarán ignored me, pouring water from a skein into his metal cup and then adding chunks of something from inside his pack.
“You’re making soup?” I seethed.
“I’m hungry.”
“You don’t need me!” The bonds burned against my wrists, but I strained against them anyway. “Let me go back to Keldori, at least! I’ll be out of your way!”
“And tomorrow night?” Ciarán stirred his soup lazily. “Galahad will call you back, and you’ll be in my way again. I saw how you cut down my Nightmares. You aren’t the same useless girl I killed in the woods outside Cape Fireld anymore, and I can’t summon a horde of warriors every night to steal you away from Galahad.”
“Then call me first.” The idea was repulsive, but not nearly as repulsive as the thought of missing my phone call. Ciarán frowned at his soup. “Unless you can’t.”
His continued silence was confirmation enough, and I forced a laugh just to get under his skin.
“And you sayyou’rethe stronger nocturmancer?” I jeered. “You can only steal me away when I’m already in Skalterra and if I yield to you, otherwise you would’ve called me sooner.”
Metal grated against stone as Ciarán used a stick to push his soup out of the fire.
“I don’t know why I can’t reach you from across the Rift and Galahad can. I’ve tried nearly every night.” His admission threw me off guard. He had no good reason to tell me the limits of his skills. “So now that I have you, you’ll have to stay here. Otherwise, you’ll continue to get in my way. They’ll be easy enough to track now that I’ve caught up. They escaped on the river that flows down the mountain. It shouldn’t be too hard to follow them.”
“How long do I have to stay here?”
“Long enough to miss your interview.”
“How long?”
His eyes flitted up from his cooling soup to meet my gaze.
“As long as my powers allow, Blue. So, like I said, get comfortable.”
My insides chilled at the thought of being leashed in this run-down house for nights on end. My shoulders were already going numb from the angle my arms were tied at.
“You’re going to leave me here?”
“I’ll send you enough Skal down our bond to keep you alive, but yes. Until I have the Divine Sovereign, that spot on the floor is your new home.”
“I saved your life, and Galahad will kill me.” As I said it, my Von Leer interview still felt like the more pressing issue, but the Galahad thing at least offered something else to worry about. “You said it yourself. If he realizes I gave my name to you—”
“He doesn’t know you’re here.” Ciarán closed his eyes as he sipped his soup. “With so many Nightmares to cater to tonight, he has no way to know I’ve stolen you from his ranks. He’ll assume you fell in battle.”
