Page 189 of Skalterra By Nightmare
“You or her,” Ferrin repeated. “I’ve got to be honest, Wren’s been such a thorn in my side, I almost hope you pick—”
An orange blast knocked us sideways, and I sprawled out on the floor. Shouts echoed through the cavern, but by the time I gathered the physical strength to look up, Ciarán had already been subdued.
He’d almost made it all the way to Gams before Caitria had stopped him. He glared up at Ferrin from where she held him against the floor with his arms pinned behind his back.
“The little orphan boy.” Ferrin still had his sword pointed at me, but he kept his focus on Ciarán. “I remember your admissions interview. The question is, do you?”
Ciarán scowled at the question, and Ferrin laughed.
“Is that a no, then?” He turned towards Gams. “I see what you mean about him being too gentle now. This will be my fourth Grimguard, and it feels a bit more like mercy-killing the runt of a litter than dealing with an actual threat. Still. Both can be fun if you do it right.”
Ferrin pulled his sword away from me to hold it over Ciarán’s neck.
“Ferrin, my pet!” A lilting voice called out, bouncing off the ice and wiping the triumphant grin from Ferrin’s face. “You nasty liar. All that talk about preserving Skalterra when you intended on freeing the Frozen God yourself.”
My vision swam with exhaustion, but the fiery red hair and the glint of a monocle at the entrance to the ice cave was unmistakable. Tamora stood in fur-lined boots with impractically high heels and a small army of Nightmares at her back.
Titus’s hulking shape next to her blocked out the late afternoon sun that poured in from behind them.
Stanley had listened. Something I said had gotten through to him.
“The Baron?” Caitria hissed. “You said we didn’t have to worry about her!”
“You’re too late, Tamora!” Ferrin called. “Keldori is mine. Go home, and maybe I’ll let the Grand Barony see the next great age of Magicians.”
Glowing orange eyes caught mine, and Ciarán held my gaze where Caitria held him against the frozen floor. He smirked at me, and then drew his tongue along the glowing ice beneath him.
Skal sparked in his hands, and the air around him erupted in orange flames.
Caitria shrieked, and Ferrin brought his sword down, but Ciarán was already rolling out from under them. An orange spear burst to life in his hands as he leapt to his feet, and he drove the pointed end through Ferrin’s Nightmare chest.
Ferrin roared in rage, and then crumbled into dust.
Red burst overhead as Tamora took advantage of Ciarán’s distraction, and her Nightmares charged into the cavern, led by Titus. Gold and green Skalmagick rose to defend against Tamora’s attack, and shouts and screams echoed through the cave in a disorienting clamor.
The floor shook, but I didn’t have the strength to run. I was pinned to the ice by pain and exhaustion, so I closed my eyes, waiting for the battle to swallow me.
“Wren.” Soft hands cupped my cheeks, and my eyes fluttered open. Gams, so young and ethereal with rosy cheeks and blonde hair that pooled on the ice, smiled behind her round spectacles as she knelt down with me. “My beautiful girl, I’m so sorry. I never meant for you to get dragged into all this.”
She looked so different from the Gams I knew, but also just the same. Her brow creased with the same worry it always did when she fussed over me, and her lips drew down in the same neat frown.
“Did I ruin everything?” I choked. Tears welled in my eyes, and fatigue made the edges of my vision dark and blurry. “Is the world going to end because of me?”
Her frown melted into a gentle smile.
“I told you. I’m taking care of it.”
A green and red blast sent more tremors through the floor, and Tamora’s cackle rebounded off the icy walls of the cave. Caitria was shouting somewhere too, but I couldn’t make out what she was saying through the chaos.
“Look at me, Wren.” Gams’s eyes swam with unshed tears. “I’ve created mountains and seas, but of all the things I’ve made, you have been one of the greatest. What an honor that I should get to look upon you with my real eyes.”
Her hand lingered on my cheek for just a moment more, her blue eyes holding mine. Then her gaze snapped upwards, and she rose to her feet.
“Gams…” I reached out for her, but another explosion rocked the cavern and ice shards fell, forcing me to hide against the cracked floor.
“Protect her,” Gams’s voice, young and so much like Mom’s, said overhead. “Please.”
“With my life, Lady Saergrim.” Arms wrapped around me as the cavern trembled. The floor dropped away, and a cowl-covered chin swam in my vision.
