Page 140 of Skalterra By Nightmare
Just Skal.
“Wren Warrender, yield!”
“You just want to use me!”
“So? Is that worth turning into a rotsbane over?”
“Yes!”
He clawed his way up my arms to wrap himself around me. He held me in one piece, pressed into me with his cheek against mine.
“You are not a killer.” His breath was warm in my ear. “You are not a monster, and I will not let the real monsters turn you into one.”
“Ciarán,” I gasped. Hot tears streamed down my cheeks. “Ciarán, help me.”
“Yield.”
“I—”
I didn’t want to yield. I wanted Skal. I wanted to devour every last drop, and rip apart anything and anyone that stood in my way. I wanted to burn all of Skalterra and Keldori to the ground in search of it. I wanted—
“Wren. Please.” The voice in my ear was Ciarán’s, but the voice in my head was someone else’s. The sound of Liam begging pulled me back to my senses just long enough for me to gasp out two syllables.
“I yield.”
The words were barely audible, but Ciarán’s arms tightened around me as my stomach flipped. Every bit of magick that threatened to tear me apart fled down the channel that opened between us. My body snapped back into place, and my legs gave out.
He lowered me to the snow. The chill of the ice bit against the exposed skin of my feet, arms, and face. Shivers that had nothing to do with the cold wracked my body.
“You tricked me,” I choked. He’d imitated Liam in my head to snap me out of my hunger, but I hated the thought of Liam’s voice in Ciarán’s throat.
“I saved you.” The orange in Ciarán’s eyes shined brighter than before, and sparks blew off his back in the wind. His hand buzzed with electricity where it cupped my cheek. He was teeming with the Skal he’d stolen from me.
The Skal I’d given him.
And now I was at his mercy with no magick left.
“You saved yourself,” I whispered.
“Don’t touch her!” Orla's shriek echoed over the ice. “Wren, watch out!”
She hurled a javelin of emerald green towards Ciarán, and he fell away from me to avoid getting caught in its trajectory.
“I told you to run!” I shouted at Orla as she sprinted towards me. It wasn’t safe here, especially now that I belonged to the Grimguards. She needed to get to the others. She needed to get away fromme.“Orla,go!”
But she continued her charge, sliding to a stop in front of me with her arms outstretched. The hiss of Skal zipping through the air was cut by a soft thunk, and I stared in horror at the luminescent arrow that protruded from her back.
“Orla—” She fell to her knees. I scrambled through the snow to catch her. “Orla!”
The arrow in her chest dissipated, and blood dripped from the gaping wound it left behind, staining the snow. She gasped for air through shuddering, gulping breaths, and I rallied the last dregs of strength I had left to hold her up.
“What’ve you done?” I cried.
“You only have one life left,” she mumbled. “She was going to take it.”
The woman Grimguard was already nocking another arrow, and I tried to pull Orla to her feet.
“We can’t stay here!”
