Page 136 of Skalterra By Nightmare
Tiernan’s cry cut through the wind, and I dropped Galahad to spin and face Ciarán as he bore down on us. Behind him, Tiernan charged to our aid through snow flurries while Orla fought the woman Grimguard on collapsing, cracking ice.
I pulled a silver flail from the air and ran to meet Ciarán. He blocked my flail with an orange staff, but Tiernan attacked him from behind, forcing him to procure a second weapon to block Tiernan’s golden sword.
“Help Iseult get Galahad out of here!” I formed a second flail in my left hand. Ciarán’s Skal spread into a shield, but the force of my attack knocked him backwards towards Tiernan.
“I will not leave the Sovereign!” Tiernan protested. Ciarán blocked his next attack with ease, still holding me at bay with his shield.
“Great, because she left you! Ferrin escaped with her already. Take Galahad. I’ll keep the Grimguards busy.” Serrated bones pushed their way through muscle, skin, and leather to erupt from my forearms. Tiernan kicked Ciarán back my way, and Ciarán lifted his shield to ward off the spikes I brought swinging down.
Skal sizzled, and the smell of burning bone stung my sinuses, but my strength swelled as I pulled more magick from Galahad. His injured state made it too easy to control the tide of Skal between us, and I let the magick swell and roll through me. I pressed harder into the shield, forcing Ciarán onto one knee.
“I’ve got this!” I shouted at Tiernan. “Go!”
He hesitated, but a blast of green and orange from Orla’s fight with the woman spurred him towards Iseult and Galahad.
“Running won’t save the old man,” Ciarán growled at me through his shield. “You’re only delaying the inevitable!”
“The inevitable being you?” I turned my foot into steel and brought it smashing down into the ice. The ground cracked beneath us, forcing Ciarán to scramble away.
His shield evaporated with his broken focus, and I swung my fist into his jaw. He staggered back and pulled his cowl down from his face.
“Yes!” He spit blood into the snow. “Me!”
His orange eyes focused on the receding shapes of Iseult and Tiernan with Galahad between them. He lunged, taking off across the ice in a sprint, but I was faster.
I tackled him around his middle, and we collapsed against the frozen lake in a tangle of cloaks, limbs, and blue hair.
I wouldn’t hesitate this time. He had to die. He would kill me. He would kill my friends.
“I’m sorry,” I said, and leveled my bone spike with Ciarán’s pale neck.
“You aren’t going to kill me, Blue.”
I shook my head at him.
“Just because you’ve been in my head the last two weeks doesn’t mean you know me.”
“Then why aren’t I dead yet?” His chapped lips pulled into an arrogant smile.
I withdrew my bone spike and forced Skal into my hand to form a lethal claw.
“Careful, Nightmare,” Galahad’s growl in the back of my head caught me off guard, and I faltered before I could bring my talons swinging down. “Don’t take too much Skal too fast.”
He pulled back on the magick I’d siphoned away from him, and my strength evaporated.
Ciarán sensed my moment of weakness and swept his leg up and into my torso.
I slammed into the snow, and Ciarán rolled on top of me, pinning my hands above my head.
“Having problems with your handler?” he goaded.
“Screw you.” I struggled under his weight and tried to draw on the magick tether between me and Galahad, but Galahad pushed back.
Ciarán froze on top of me, staring at my hands where he had them pinned.
“Your hand.” Ciarán’s orange eyes widened as he took in the scars on my palm. “Blue, you let the old man curse you?”
“Get off me!”
