Page 42 of Skalterra By Nightmare
“Fine. She thinks I can’t makegoodfriends. Is she paying you extra to be nice?”
“Is that an option? I should ask her about that in the morning.”
His smile was playful, but his eyes sad. He pulled another glass down to fill for himself. He treated the apartment with more familiarity than I felt with it, even after two weeks. Jonquil waltzed from my room to twist around Liam’s ankles.
The pang of jealousy came back, accompanied with a new feeling—bitter resentment, not towards Liam, but towards Mom. I could’ve grown up here too, if not for her book career.
The thought wasn’t fair, and I shook it away.
“You said you couldn’t sleep,” I said, trying to turn the conversation away from myself. “Is it because of Riley?”
The last remnants of Liam’s brave attempt at smiling slipped away, and he sighed.
“I hate being home without him, not knowing where he is. I thought I might sleep better here. It works for you, anyways.” The smile returned.
I gave a half-hearted shrug as I finished my water.
“I sleep hard, but not well.”
“What’s that mean?”
“Nightmares.” I smirked at my own double meaning.
“Is that why you’re out here at one in the morning?”
I crossed to the living room window so he couldn’t read my face. Sure, he was annoying, but he was proving better than Jonquil at calming my nerves after another misadventure in Skalterra.
“Yeah.”
“Do you want to talk about it?” He followed me to the window, staring out at the single moon with me.
“There’s nothing to talk about. It’s not real.” I felt bad about the words as soon as they left my mouth. Even though my nightmarehadbeen all too real, Liam didn’t know that. He’d probably give anything to have his biggest worries be not real too. He’d love it if Riley’s disappearance was just a bad dream. “It was a monster.”
“Spooky.” He leaned his head against the window to look sideways at me.
“You laugh, but it was.”
“I’m not laughing.”
I studied him an extra moment, waiting for his mirth to give itself away. When he stayed deadly serious, I continued.
“It felt real. I thought I was dying.”
“I’m sorry.” He frowned, then gave a tentative smile. “Let’s blame Sabrina. She chose dinner last night. Maybe it was those burgers that gave you nightmares.”
I tried to smile at the joke, but was stuck staring out at the moon. Its reflection in the harbor made me think of Skalterra’s night sky.
I hoped the rotsbane had left after Galahad had released me for the night. If Skal weapons really were useless against it, my friends were defenseless.
Friends.
That wasn’t quite the word I meant, but I didn’t know how else to describe Orla, Ferrin, and Fana. Galahad and Tiernan I could do without, but I didn’t want any of them to be devoured by the rotsbane.
“You should go back to bed.” Liam sighed. “Jonquil and I will keep watch and make sure the monsters stay away. Won’t we, Jonky?”
He bent down to scoop the cat into his arms. Persians don’t smile, but I could’ve sworn I saw her flat cheeks inch upwards.
“Thanks.” Hopefully, Galahad would leave me alone. Hopefully, I could enjoy the dark void of unconsciousness without being dragged into another fight. I tip-toed to the hall and looked back at Liam where he still stood at the window, cradling Jonquil.
