Page 97 of Skalterra By Nightmare
Ciarán stayed quiet in my head, but I knew he was there, watching. I kept my eyes on the ground, afraid he might be able to track us better if I gave him a glimpse of the stars.
“How much farther?” Fana asked after what felt like hours of fighting our way through stalks.
Tiernan slowed to a stop, took a few heavy breaths through his mouth, and uncorked a bottle of Skal. He swirled the liquid inside, and then sipped at it in silence.
“Tiernan?” Fana asked. “Are you okay?”
“Watch out, Blue.” Ciarán’s voice seeped back into my head.
“Watch out?” I repeated. Fana gave me a questioning look, but Tiernan pulled her attention back.
“We should be far enough away now,” Tiernan murmured. “Stay out of the way, Fana.”
Gold light erupted in Tiernan’s hands, and red burns split the stalks around him in a glowing arc.
“Ferrin said no Skal—” I started, but then Tiernan turned and launched at me with his glowing sword raised.
Instinct brought a silver flail to my hand, and I swung it to wrap the chain around Tiernan’s blade and force it to the side.
“Nice block,” Ciarán chuckled.
“What are you doing?” I hissed at Tiernan.
“I’m lightening our load!” He kicked me in the stomach, but when I stumbled backwards, my lead brought Fana after me. Tiernan lurched, knocked off balance by the tug on his own tether.
“Stop it!” Fana cried, putting her hands between Tiernan and me. “Ferrin said—”
“Ferrin got Caitria killed” Snot oozed down Tiernan’s face, and he tried to wipe it away with his leather bracer. It smeared across his face instead, and the golden light of his blade highlighted red-rimmed eyes. “And if this Nightmare hadn’t been souselessthat night, maybe we could’ve saved her.”
He swung the blade down, and I rolled on top of Fana, turning the leather of my armor to kevlar and thickening the skin of my back into heavy scales that Tiernan couldn’t cut through.
The blunt force of the strike knocked the air from my lungs, and I spun away from Fana, arcing my flail with the movement. Tiernan leaped out of its reach, and Fana cried out as his lead pulled her after him.
“You’re hurting her!” I yelled.
Stalks of tall grass slapped across my face as I lunged at Tiernan, pushing him into the dirt. He bucked beneath me and rolled us so he came out on top. Clouds of glowing spores silhouetted his dark twists of hair against the starry sky.
“Galahad thinks I need your help, but I don’t.” He pressed his hand against my throat. Fana clawed at his arm.
“If you yield to me, Blue, I can get you out of there,” Ciarán purred in my head. “Just say the word, and you’re mine.”
“Go to hell,” I choked out at both Tiernan and Ciarán.
“Tiernan, please,” Fana begged. “Get off her! She didn’t do anything!”
Tiernan pressed harder against my trachea. Galahad had given me permission to use his magick tonight. Did that count if it was against Tiernan?
“My sister is dead because of her.” Tears that had nothing to do with allergies streamed down Tiernan’s face, and I went limp under him.
“Sister?” I gasped beneath his chokehold.
“If Orla hadn’t stopped to help you the night the Grimguards attacked Cape Fireld, she would’ve gotten downstairs earlier. We would’ve caught up with Ferrin and Caitria, and Caitria—”
I was so stupid. Orla and Ferrin had explained that Riftkeeping ran in families. If Caitria and Tiernan both worked for Fana’s family, then of course they were related.
Ciarán laughed darkly in my head, and the Skal in my blood boiled at the sound.
“She was my only family.” Tiernan’s fingers tightened. “You’ll get us all killed in the end.”
