Page 187 of Skalterra By Nightmare
Heat singed the skin of my neck, and I let out an involuntary whimper. Gams’s eyes softened behind her glasses.
“I’ll kill her,” Ferrin said. “You know I will.”
“You need her,” Gams asserted. “How else do you intend on controlling me if you break me free? If my granddaughter dies, do you really think you won’t incur the Frozen God’s immediate wrath? I’ve killed so many monsters, but it’s weak men like you who always fall the easiest.”
Ferrin breathed hot air against my neck and pointed his blade of emerald at the ice wall.
“Start with my niece, Caitria!” he bellowed. “I don’t want her seeing what comes next.”
“No!” I broke free of Ferrin’s hold and collapsed against the ice. Orla cried out as Caitria undid her gag so Gams could better hear Orla beg for mercy.
But it wasn’t Gams that Orla begged.
“Uncle!” she shrieked. “Please!”
Ferrin remained stony with his eyes on my grandmother.
“I’ll kill her and the Fireld girl if that’s what it takes to open the Rift. Or you can spare innocent blood and dismantle your prison from the inside yourself.”
“You don’t know what you’re doing,” Gams hissed.
“Oh, but I do, and I’m willing to kill my own blood for it, so don’t lecture me about weak men.”
Caitria grabbed Orla by her hair.
“Don’t do this,” Orla cried. “Uncle—”
“Is this a bet you’re willing to make?” Gams said coolly. “That those are the only two Divine Sovereigns? Four hundred years, that’s a lot of opportunity for secret children.”
“I’m willing to try,” Ferrin growled.
“Really?” Gams gave him a look of disdain. “Your own niece? You’d kill her knowing there’s a chance it wouldn’t work?”
Caitria looked at Ferrin, waiting for his signal to run Orla through with her knife. Tears streaked Orla’s face, and her shoulders heaved with rapid breaths, and her muted words came through the ice.
“Don’t look, Fana,” she sobbed. “It’ll be okay. Alright? Just don’t look. I’ll be waiting for you. You’ll be okay.”
Fana screamed through her gag, and I dared take my eyes off them long enough to look at Ferrin. He stared back at his niece, cold resolution etched into his face.
“If there are more, I will find them,” he whispered. “Every last Sovereign. And I already promised to kill Orla first.”
“Wren, thank you for trying.” Orla’s wide eyes found mine through the ice, and I pressed against the barrier, trying to reach her. “Your real face is so beautiful. I don’t know why you changed it for your Nightmare.”
She closed her eyes and braced for Caitria’s killing strike.
“No!” I hit at the Rift, and the skin of my knuckles split, streaking the frost with flecks of blood. I looked to Gams for help, but she shook her head at me. “Gams! Please!”
“I tried, Wren. It’ll be okay.”
“No,nothingwill be okay!”
“Caitria—” Ferrin’s green sword flashed as he raised it.
I’d watched Galahad and Liam die in front of me. My entire world had stripped away over the course of the last twelve hours. Everything I’d ever known was a lie, and I’d lost all sense of reality.
I would not lose Orla too.
“I saidNO!” I screamed, and every bit of Skalmagick I’d been holding back since destroying Ferrin in the woods exploded outwards.
