Page 14 of Skalterra By Nightmare
I blanched.
It’s not real.
“What does that mean?”
“If you die five times in Skalterra as a Nightmare, then Wren Warrender dies in her sleep in Keldori. Five lives are plenty to last you until the Second Sentinel, but if at any point you try to save yourself over Fana, I will end you myself then and there.”
“But that’s stupid! I thought you needed me. How am I supposed to protect anyone if I’m dead?”
“You’re useless if you keep killing yourself to escape. Consider it motivation. And best to keep this our secret. The others are soft, and I don’t need them putting themselves in danger if they think your life might be on the line.”
“You’d really kill me?”
“To save both our worlds? In a heartbeat, Wren Warrender. I’ll see you tonight. I release you from service. For now.”
The forest and Galahad dissolved, and I woke up face-down on my floor. My hand that still reached for my discarded phone smarted, but when I pushed myself up out of a puddle of my own drool, it wasn’t the email that had my attention, but the puckered silver skin on my left palm in the shape of a “T”.
4. Psychology 101
It was a trick. It had to be. I must have hurt my hand on something in my hurry to escape the shop, and then subconsciously incorporated the injury into my dream.
Yes. That was it. That made sense.
Except the scarring on the skin looked years old, despite the fresh sting the faint lines carried with them, and I knew they hadn’t been there before I’d last passed out.
Skalterra couldn’t be real, as real as the memory of it felt in my head. It was a dream. A very vivid dream brought on by stress. But the scars on my hand made my heart beat faster and harder in my chest, and I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the “T” they formed on my palm.
“Wren?” Gams knocked on my door, and I jumped, curling my hand into a fist. “What’s wrong? Liam said you weren’t feeling well. Was it the bagel? I can yell at Teddy if you like.”
“No!” I said a tad too aggressively. My head spun with the speed at which I stood to open the door. “I mean, no. The bagel was fine. I just—”
Gams stood in the hall with her fist raised to knock again.
“What? What is it?” Gams’s eyebrows shot up at the look on my face. I pointed at my phone on the floor behind me. Usually, the nerves that accompanied such an email from Von Leer would be unwelcome, but now they served an important distraction.
“Von Leer?” Gams asked in a hushed tone. I nodded, and she cranked her volume up several decibels to demand, “Well? What’d they say? Are you in?”
“I don’t know! I haven’t checked!”
She hurried into the room and snatched my phone up to check for herself. The more she tapped the screen, the more her face screwed up in frustration.
“These damn things don’t make any sense. Open it!” She pressed the phone back into my hands, and I hoped she didn’t notice my shaking fingers.
“‘Hello, Ms. Warrender’,” I read aloud. “‘We received your letter of continued interest as well as your finalized GPA and would like to schedule a phone interview to discuss possible fall admission to Von—!”
That was as far as I could read before Gams tackled me from the side.
“Another Von Leer Viking in the family!” she squealed. “I knew the chickens would bring good luck! I knew you’d get in!”
“They didn’t say I’m accepted.” I extracted my arms from her embrace to read the rest of the email. A half-hour ago, I might’ve been excited about this email, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of dread that had followed me back from Skalterra. “It says ‘possible’ admission.”
“It’s a phone interview. You know how to talk on the phone. Mention your mother. She’s an alumnus. And she’s well-known!”
“Oh, yes. My mother the smut author. They’ll take me for sure.”
“I heard yelling.” Liam appeared in the doorway, out of breath and red in the face. “Is everything okay?”
Jonquil wove between his ankles, glaring at me. Her pale eyes reminded me of Galahad’s, and I suppressed a shudder. It wasn’t as if Galahad wasreal, even if the scar on my hand suggested otherwise.
