Page 105 of Skalterra By Nightmare
“How many did you put back up?” Gams scowled.
“Just a few in Port Fletcherton, but obviously it was enough.” I marched past Gams to snatch the flyer from the counter and crumble it into a ball. “You were right. A couple girls came by yesterday to gawk at Liam, and now his family is going forward with Riley’s memorial when he could still be out there.”
The search for Riley getting cut short was another thing I could take the blame for, as roundabout as it was. The space behind my eyes stung, but I took a steadying breath. I’d killed a rotsbane last night. This was nothing to cry over.
Gams frowned and retreated behind the counter to grab her purse and keys.
“Where are you going?”
“To take down the rest of the flyers. I promised I wouldn’t make you do my dirty work anymore. The store is closed today. Go upstairs. Take a shower. You need a break.”
She came around towards the door, but I stared out the far windows rather than meet her eye. I was messing everything up for everyone. No matter what I did, it was wrong.
“You’re doing amazing, Wren,” Gams insisted. “I’m sorry I put you in this position to begin with. Please be kinder to yourself. This isn’t the end of the world, and even if it was, it’s not your fault.”
She stood on her tiptoes to peck my cheek before bustling out the front door, but I could’ve done without the reminder that the world ending was another thing resting on my shoulders.
25. Recreational Climbing
Mom’s video had over two hundred thousand views by the time I trudged to my room for an early bedtime. Against my better judgement, I continued to read the comments as they rolled in. Many of them remained firmly on Mom’s side, gleaning what they could from her angry rant, but there were still plenty of strangers online who didn’t hold back.
“Trashy writer, trashy woman” was among the kindest of these responses. The rest had me grateful that Gams didn’t know how to look up the video and read the comments for herself.
Rather than wallow in guilt and shame, I crawled into bed while the sun was still setting, eager to fall asleep and wake up in a world where Riley’s memorial, my upcoming Von Leer phone interview, and Linsey Harper didn’t exist, even if it meant facing more rotsbane.
The others waited in a half-circle when I came to in Skalterra. We were back under tree cover, but these trees were unlike any I’d ever seen back home. Massive, grooved trunks reached high into the sky where their shallow canopies spread out like the underside side of mushroom caps so that I felt more like I was in the belly of a grand cathedral rather than another forest. Stars twinkled in the spaces between foliage, and I caught a glimpse of the twin moons.
“What happened?” Galahad was the first to get in my face, and after a full day of reading nasty comments about my mother online, it took me a moment to remember the fight against Titus the night before.
“Oh.” I ran my hand through my blue hair to pull it back into a ponytail. “You mean Tamora’s dog?”
“Tiernan said he’s a lucid Nightmare.” Ferrin frowned. His goggles were in place over his eyes, and he focused on the glowing green knives he was creating in his hands. “Is he the one that ashed you? Is there any chance he followed us?”
“Ashed?” I repeated. “You mean killed?”
“Yes, girl!” Galahad shook me by my shoulders. “I felt you go halfway through the night! Did you or did you not at least manage to keep Titus off our tail?”
I flipped my blue ponytail over my shoulder and smirked.
“Don’t worry. I killed Titus. Or ashed him. Whatever the word is. There’s no way he followed you.”
“Then who killedyou?” Galahad demanded.
“A rotsbane.”
The color drained from Galahad’s face, leaving him pallid in the light of Ferrin’s knife.
“No.” Orla stumbled forward to take my hands in hers, and she searched my face for signs of lingering injury. “But then, you should be dead-dead! If it killed you—”
“It didn’t eat me.” I made a stabbing motion at my stomach. “It was its claws. And for what it’s worth, it died first.”
“Died?” Tiernan’s eyebrows raised in something other than disgust for once.
“Yeah, I killed it.” I took a special delight in their blank stares. They didn’t need to know Ciarán had tipped me off about a rotsbane’s mouth being its weak point.
“You…” Ferrin’s mouth cocked in a disbelieving half-smile. “You killed a rotsbane?”
“That’s why I’m here, isn’t it?” I pointed out. “I’m supposed to be the perfect weapon.”
