Page 148 of Skalterra By Nightmare
“I thought we were protecting Fana,” I croaked.
“Fana was never in any danger.” Ferrin said it as if that should be consolation for what he was planning. “I needed her here, closer to the Frozen God, but Galahad is so damn stubborn. So we faked Caitria’s death by Grimguard to scare him into letting us move her here.”
“But sheisin danger. From you! And so is Orla. And I helped you bring them here!”
Ferrin sighed and shook his head at his reflection in the floor with his hands on his hips.
“Ah, Wren. I’d hoped if anyone were to understand, it would be you. It’s cruel of you to ask me to wet my hands with more blood than need be.”
“The rotsbane, then,” Caitria said. “It’s probably still in the area. If we move quickly—”
“We don’t need a rotsbane.” Green firelight sparked in Ferrin’s hand, reflecting off the black obsidian floor. “Galahad cursed her, and she’s on her last life.”
“How about that?” Caitria grinned. “The old miser was good for something after all.”
Ferrin took a careful step towards me, and I took another back.
“It’s alright.” Ferrin’s frowned in concern, and I hated how sincere the expression looked. “You’ll be okay, Wren.”
“No.” I shook my head as Ferrin pulled his goggles into place.
“It’ll be just like all the other times. The only difference is that you won’t wake up. Don’t worry. I’ll make sure you don’t feel a thing.”
“I thought you were my friend.” I hated the crack in my voice. I hated that the look on his face made me feel like I was somehow the one in the wrong.
“Don’t do this,” he murmured. “Please. I’m prepared to sacrifice my own niece. Do you think killing you will be even a fraction as hard as that?”
“You’re supposed to be good. Youweregood!”
“There is nothing more good than what I’m trying to do!” He retreated to the open wall that looked out over the silver-dipped clouds and tried to beckon me to his side. When I remained where I stood, he sighed and rolled his neck. “That out there is the Frozen God’s domain. There’s a lagoon full of icebergs and glaciers. They call it the Bay of Teeth because of the way the ice cuts the sky. That’s where Saergrim is frozen in the space that divides our worlds. That’s where we will free him from his glacier and cross over into Keldori.”
“How is that good?” I hissed.
“You have seen Skalterra, Wren. You’ve seen our monsters, rotsbane and human alike. Don’t let our shiny magick romance you. You know your world is more comfortable. You know Keldori is the kinder reality.”
“We have monsters too.”
“And they will bow to my Skalmagick,” Ferrin growled. “Because unlike Skalterra, Keldori is more than monsters and magick. You have electricity and cars and airplanes and infrastructure and medicine that Skalterra could never dream of! I’ve spent nearly every day of my miserable life in this mountain, keeping guard, making sure the Frozen God doesn’t move from where he’s spent the last four centuries in the Bay of Teeth, and quite frankly, Wren Warrender, if a better existence than this one is feasible, then why not make that existence mine?”
Iseult’s story about Galahad and his brother echoed at the back of my head, along with her warnings to not talk about my home in too much detail. I’d never mentioned half the things Ferrin was talking about, and a cold truth settled in my stomach.
“I’m not the first lucid Nightmare you’ve met.”
Ferrin’s lips curled.
“No, Wren. I’m afraid not.”
An arm reached around my chest from behind, and dark curls pressed against my cheeks as Caitria held me in a headlock.
“It should be you, Ferrin,” she said. “Kill her and get it over with.”
Ferrin’s eyebrows lifted above his goggles when I couldn’t help the smile that slid across my face.
“Get off her!” Ferrin barked, but spikes of sharp, saber-like bone were already bursting from my arms to pierce Caitria’s legs.
She howled in pain and let go, but I swung both my arms upwards to rip through as much flesh as I could.
“What you’ve heard about Keldori doesn’t matter!” I lunged at Ferrin, but a shield of green Skal erupted between us. “You can’t free the Frozen God, because you can’t kill Orla and Fana!”
