Page 147 of Skalterra By Nightmare
“I’m the one who should be sorry. You’re both too young for this line of work.”
“There’s something else.” I cleared my throat and pushed away. Ferrin’s brow furrowed deeper at the look on my face. “I- I think—”
I cut off, not sure if there was a tactful way to tell Ferrin about his sister’s secret, illicit relationship with the man they’d sworn an oath to protect.
“Out with it, Just-Wren.” Ferrin laughed, but the sound was shaky and nervous. “What is it?”
“Orla’s Skalmagick changed color,” I said. “Right after she took the arrow, she made an explosion. Her fire was green at first, but then—”
I gulped as the color drained from Ferrin’s face, and his jaw went slack.
“Don’t say it,” he breathed. “Wren Warrender, don’t you dare say it.”
“Her magick was purple. Like Oren’s.”
Ferrin closed his mouth, and his throat bobbed as he swallowed hard. His gaze hardened, and while I’d expected some degree of shock, the cold anger that slipped over his face made me take a step back.
A heavy slam echoed through the room, and I spun around to see a woman standing at the wooden doors she’d just closed. Something about her dark hair, her heart-shaped face, and her warrior-style skirts seemed familiar.
I’d seen her before, I was sure of it. But where?
“Ferrin,” she said, and the mental image of a woman dead at the feet of a Grimguard clicked in my head. “If your niece is a Quill, we’ll have to kill her too.”
I reeled backwards at the woman’s words, backpedaling straight into Ferrin. He put his hands on my shoulders, and I looked up at him as he heaved a heavy, resolved sigh.
“So we will, Caitria. So we will.”
34. Advanced Combat Strategy
Ferrin’s fingers dug into my shoulders, and I froze, watching the woman at the doors. She leaned against the heavy wood and shook dark curls away from her face. Her resemblance to her brother, with the same haughty chin and identical gold and amber eyes, was unmistakable.
“You can’t kill Orla.” The words felt ridiculous as I said them. Of course they weren’t going to kill Orla. This couldn’t be real, not if Caitria, who I’d seen dead on the floor, was standing in front of me now.
Caitria’s lips twisted, and her eyes narrowed.
“You weren’t kidding about the blue hair, Ferrin.” She smirked. “But what do we do? We can’t kill her. Galahad will bring her back.”
“Can I trust you, Wren?” Ferrin’s voice was soft in my ear, but his fingernails bit at the skin of my shoulders. Every instinct screamed for me to run, but I was rooted to the spot, choking on a half-formed response.
“One of the sentries reported a rotsbane roaming around the base of the Third Sentinel.” Caitria lilted forward, and her dual-slitted skirt billowed with every stride. Her head fell to the side as she surveyed me with cold interest. “I suppose we could feed her to it, but that’s half a day’s journey away.”
I shivered in Ferrin’s grip as he reached around me to grab my left hand. His fingers forced mine to unfurl, and his thumb stroked the scars Galahad’s curse had left on my palm.
“You wouldn’t tell Galahad, would you, little Nightmare?” he whispered, his cheek lightly pressed against mine as he studied my hand.
I did not want to be fed to a rotsbane. I wanted even less to live if it meant Orla would die.
“Wouldn’t tell Galahadwhat?” I jerked my hand from his and staggered away. I tried to keep both Ferrin and Caitria in my field of vision. Their reflections in the polished, stone floor swam as my head spun. “Wouldn’t tell him that you’ve been lying this whole time? That you’re going to kill Orla?”
“And Fana,” Caitria said blithely. Ferrin shot her a look, but she shrugged. “What? We’re about to feed her to a rotsbane. It doesn’t matter if she knows we’re releasing Saergrim.”
“The Frozen God?” I looked between the two Riftkeepers, still expecting Ferrin to bust up laughing and tell me it was all a joke.
A terrible, dark joke.
Ferrin’s glower, however, remained in place, and my stomach dropped further. I shook my head.
“Fana and Orla should be honored to be so instrumental in ushering in the next great age of Magicians,” Ferrin said.
