Page 183 of Skalterra By Nightmare
My grandma was hiding an ice cave in her basement. Of course. Why wouldn’t she be?
“Gams,” I sighed. “What the hell?”
Jonquil stared up at me, as if looking for reassurance, and then led the way down the frozen steps. I followed her, bracing one hand against the icy wall. The cold air warred with the inferno that had been burning inside me since the forest behind Von Leer, and steam rose off my fingers.
The ice seemed to call out to me, reaching for my heart with invisible fingers of Skal. The electricity inside my veins jumped and sparked the deeper we descended into the mosaic of white and blue. I hugged myself, not just because of the cold, but in an effort to keep myself in one piece.
The stairs leveled off, and the glacial walls encased frozen, swirling patterns of light that got brighter the farther we went.
Muddled voices echoed through the icy tunnel. My breath crystalized in the air in front of me as I hesitated in fear and hope, but Jonquil, with her tail held high, ran ahead.
“Wait!” I chased after her, sliding on the ice but keeping upright.
The cavern twisted and opened into a bright well. The floor spiraled downwards around the open space, and at the bottom, two figures stood facing a wall.
Jonquil chirped as she raced down the ramp to reach the base of the well, but I froze.
Ferrin looked up at me from below, and his grin caught the green glow of the fiery blade he had held at Gams’s throat.
“I thought you might be joining us soon!” His tone was casual and light despite the weapon he held against my grandmother. “Come on down, Just-Wren. I’ve got something to show you.”
“Don’t touch her!”
My words bounced through the cavern and were met by the echoing cackle of Ferrin’s laughter. I held my hands up in surrender as I traced Jonquil’s path down the spiraling ramp.
Something dark and shadowed lurked beneath the ice at Gams and Ferrin’s feet, breaking up the bright glow emitted by the walls and floor.
“Go back, Wren.” Gams’s voice was stern. “Please.”
“Oh, no,” Ferrin called. “Wren’s going to join us.”
Jonquil ran across Ferrin’s feet, but instead of going to Gams, she curled up in the middle of the ice, directly over the shadow, and laid her tail over her nose.
“Leave my grandmother out of this.” Power pulsed in my palms, and I contracted every muscle I possibly could in an effort to contain it. If Ferrin saw me use magick, if he decided I was a threat, he might hurt Gams. “I’ll do whatever you want, Ferrin. Just let her go.”
I reached the bottom of the pit. Gams’s frown sat heavy on her face, but she didn’t seem bothered nor shocked by the glowing sword at her neck.
“My love,” she said, “how do you know this man? What secrets have you been keeping?”
Ferrin tightened his grip on Gams’s neck.
“What do you want from me?” I demanded. “Let her go, and I’ll do whatever it is—”
Ferrin laughed again.
“Stop, if I laugh too hard I might cry, and it’s much too cold for that,” he guffawed. “You thinkshe’sthe leverage? Against you? No. Your usefulness has regrettably run its course in all but one way. Precious Gams isn’t the collateral. You are.”
“You’ll be okay, Wren,” Gams assured me. “I promise. I won’t let him hurt you.”
My grandmother was strong. She had been strong my whole life, filled with fire and bite, and now all five-foot-nothing of her stood taller and stronger than ever.
Gams with her sleepy gift shop and Persian cat.
Gams with her Skal-filled chickens and her town full of Nightmares.
Gams with more secrets than I might’ve ever guessed.
“How long have you known about Skalterra?” I whispered. Gams’s eyes wavered behind her glasses, and she shook her head.
