Page 175 of Skalterra By Nightmare
My breath caught, and my palms turned sweaty even as all the heat seemed to seep out of the office, leaving me frozen in place. For all the hours I’d spent going over practice questions with Liam, nothing in either of the two worlds could have prepared me for this.
My admissions officer, the only man standing between me and admittance to my dream school, was Ferrin Quillguard.
41. Transformative Properties of Matter
Orla and Fana were dead.
They had to be if Ferrin was here.
My legs shook, but I braced for an attack. Running was still an option, but I wasn’t sure what good that would do if Ferrin had already broken through the Rift. I didn’t have my Nightmare powers here, but that didn’t mean I was going to let him take me down without a fight.
“Please, take a seat.” He gestured at the chair across from his, but I stayed standing.
“You.”
He looked up at me in surprise, his eyebrows disappearing into shadows beneath his coiffed hair.
“Yes, sorry again. You were supposed to meet with my colleague today, but she called out sick. Please.” He pointed at the chair again.
He didn’t recognize me. I hadn’t thought my Nightmare form looked much different than my actual self, but maybe the blue hair had been pulling more attention from my face than I’d realized.
“You’re an admissions officer.” I thought he’d wanted the unlimited power allowed by our vast stores of Skal and all the creature comforts our advanced technology allowed, not a nine-to-five. It didn’t make sense.
Who went through all that trouble, killing their own family and betraying everyone who had ever trusted them, just to live out their dreams in an office job?
I was missing a piece of the puzzle, but I wasn’t sure what I was looking for.
“I am indeed an admissions officer.” The chuckle in his voice set my teeth on edge. “There’s no need to be nervous. I promise, if you’ve made it this far in the admissions process, there’s a good chance this day ends well for you.”
He leaned back in his desk chair and winked.
“Don’t do that,” I whispered. “Don’t wink at me.”
His smile faltered, and he cleared his throat.
“Right. On to the interview then. Did you bring a copy of your transcripts?”
“You’ve been here a while.” I looked around his office. It was lived in. The knick-knacks on the shelves had a light layer of dust. There was a pin-adorned map of the coast on his wall next to the door.
“At Von Leer?” he clarified. “A few years, yes. But this is your interview, not mine.”
I’d been wearing a Von Leer hoodie the night Orla and I had saved Ciarán in Vanderfall. When Ferrin had seen me, he’d been taken aback by it. I thought it was because he’d never seen a hoodie before. Now I wasn’t so sure.
“A few years,” I repeated.
He’d still been trapped in Skalterra just a week ago.
“It’s a good school. Good place to work. Ah! There’s your transcripts. The email just came through.” He leaned in towards his computer screen, clicking and scrolling. “Again, I know we’re a bit disorganized today. Sorry about that, Miss—”
He froze with his mouth slightly agape, and his eyes widened ever so slightly before he raised them to me. His look of shock slowly melted into one of cruel delight, and every instinct screamed at me to run.
“Miss Wren Warrender.” He finished with a smile.
“Did you kill them?” I choked.
“You don’t look like how I imagined you would. Your Nightmare was so…” He paused as his eyes roved over me. “So vivid. But this?”
“Are Orla and Fana dead?” I asked more forcefully this time.
