Page 157 of Skalterra By Nightmare
For a banker, he had a lot of tattoos. Roses, a wolf, a band of pine trees that circled his forearm just beneath his elbow. The way they sat on his arms felt familiar, and I could’ve sworn I’d seen them before despite having never seen Stanley’s bare arms before today.
The familiar scimitar that ran from his elbow to his wrist was what made it finally click. Ihadseen these tattoos before, and I knew Tamora’s weapon of choice well.
Galahad had told me over and over that Nightmare’s were their idealized version of themselves, but the juxtaposition of the mousey banker in front of me and the broad warrior that Tamora kept as a lapdog didn’t make sense in my head.
“Titus,” I hissed.
Stanley stared at me for a moment with his mouth slightly open and his head cocked. Then his eyes widened, and he took a half-step backward.
He tried to form words, opening and closing his mouth, before giving up and bolting for the door.
36. Principles of Banking
Jonquil yowled when I stepped on her tail in my hurry to chase after Stanley. Liam shouted my name behind me as I tore through the front door, but I ignored him.
Stanley had a good head start, and after running through Skalterra with an Olympian-Class body all month, I didn’t love how stiff and awkward my real legs felt beneath me. However, I wasn’t the only one trapped in their actual form. As strong, fast, and formidable as “Titus” was, Stanley was less of an athlete than even me.
He’d barely made it to the corner of Gams’s building by the time I caught him by the back of his button-up.
I spun him around and slammed him into the side of the shop, barring my arm across his chest. I had at least three inches on him. His hair was thinning and his features weren’t as defined as Titus’s were, but there was a definite resemblance there.
“Wren! What the hell?” Liam stood in the open door of the shop, gawking at us.
“It’s fine!” I pressed harder against Stanley’s chest. “Go watch the register. And if you tell my grandmother, it’ll beyourmissing posters that we put up next.”
I kept my eyes fixed on Stanley’s sweating face and waited until I saw Liam disappear back into the shop after a moment’s hesitation.
“How?” I demanded. Lucid Nightmares were supposed to be rare, but here we were. Two of us living in nearby towns.
“You know I don’t know.” He growled the words, but they weren’t nearly as intimidating as I was sure he would’ve liked.
“Why’d you run?”
“Because you killed me last time I saw you.”
“Right. My bad. I promise to let the rotsbane devour your consciousness next time.” I half-expected Stanley to disappear beneath me. “Where’s Tamora? Did she go back to Vanderfall yet?”
“Why? So you can set your merry band of thieves on us?”
“Tell Tamora to get over it. We only took two bottles!”
“The guard said he saw you with four.”
I rolled my eyes so hard that Stanley almost wiggled free, but I pushed him against the wall again.
“Fine. I don’t care where Tamora is. How quickly can she get to the Bay of Teeth?”
Stanley wrinkled his nose at me.
“She doesn’t care about the Frozen God anymore.”
“How many days? She owns all the railroads, doesn’t she? How many days for her to get to the Frozen God?”
“They’re called steamtrails,” he sniffed.
“They’re railroads and trains, Stanley,” I said through gritted teeth. “And Tamora needs—”
“Tamora needs to be left alone.” Stanley relaxed into the wooden siding of the Gams’s shop. “So tell your pals Ferris and Galavant—”
