Page 34 of Skalterra By Nightmare
“It’s a quiet town, isn’t it?” I continued. “Nice and peaceful, right?”
Liam cracked his window, and my ears popped.
“Last night at Siobhan’s was as wild as it gets.” His brow furrowed in the mirror. Riley’s disappearance really was out of the ordinary then. So why was Mom so worked up about the missing posters?
The crumpled poster in my hoodie pocket crinkled as I adjusted in my seat. I could figure out Mom’s reasons later. For now, I had no reason to not believe her, and I didn’t want to give her a reason to cut her big European tour short. Besides, Riley hadn’t been gone long. He was probably fine. I wasn’t hurting anyone by taking the posters down.
We drove to two more towns, and I followed behind Liam and Sabrina, reversing their hard work and removing as many of the Riley flyers as possible. I was able to slip most of them into the trash, but a few joined the crumpled poster in my pocket, folded tightly enough that they wouldn’t crinkle with my every movement and give me away.
When Liam insisted on paying for my dinner in the last town, my guilt nearly brought a confession to my lips. I swallowed it, letting it fester in my stomach instead. I picked at the skin around my thumbnails to keep from pulling out any hair or eyelashes. Skin healed much faster than hair grew.
I stayed quiet through our dinner of burgers and fries. Not only did I feel guilty about sabotaging all our efforts this afternoon, but it was hard not to feel like a third wheel with Liam and Sabrina.
It wasn’t that they seemed romantically involved. Far from it. No, they were more like siblings. They ate the food on each other’s plates without asking, and each time Liam’s smile faded as thoughts of Riley returned, Sabrina knew all the right things to say to distract him again.
I wondered if either of them had actual siblings, or if this was it. I had neither biological relatives or friends close enough to consider family, and usually this was where I’d let jealousy get the better of me. Instead, I felt something like growing curiosity. They’d let me tag along on their mission today. That had to mean something. As annoying as Liam was, maybe he wouldn’t be so bad if we were friends.
Of course, if they found out I actively worked against the fight to find Riley, any chance at friendship would be over, so maybe it was best to not get my hopes up.
The drive home was long, and the sun was setting over the ocean horizon. I leaned my head against the car window, resenting Mom, resenting Riley, resenting what I’d done today, but hoping it had been the right thing to do, and that it would make sense after Mom explained.
I’d been so worked up over the fliers, that I had forgotten to be worried about the sound of Galahad’s voice in my head. Maybe I’d killed the Grimguard after all. Or maybe ithadbeen just a dream.
I drifted to sleep to the sound of the sedan rumbling down the highway, not worried about where I might wake up.
10. Transportation Engineering
The low roar of tires on pavement shifted into something harsher and faster, and the jostling of the cab jolted me awake.
I blinked in the dusky light, expecting to see the back of Liam’s headrest but instead found Orla’s face inches from mine. Her green eyes grew wider as I gathered my bearings.
“Wow!” she breathed. I could see my reflection in her tinted goggles where they rested on top of her head. “That’s so cool every time you do it, Galahad.”
I was sitting on a wooden bench, facing Orla. Tiernan sat next to her, but kept his eyes on Fana next to me. A darkening forest rushed past through the rattling window on my right, though it was hard to make out much thanks to the shifting white light that lit our small cabin. Steam hissed somewhere out of sight, and I realized I was on a train.
“We’ll get to Vanderfall by morning.” Galahad stood at the doorway to our train cabin. On the other side of the frosted glass, Ferrin’s back pressed against the door. He must’ve been standing watch. “Should be a quiet night, but stay alert. No one leaves this cabin without me knowing. And Wren Warrender?”
I gulped as he locked eyes with me. I would much rather be sabotaging Riley’s search efforts than be back in Skalterra under Galahad’s command.
“Yes?”
“No one is to know that you are a Nightmare.”
“Why?”
His bushy eyebrows furrowed.
“Lucid Nightmares aren’t legal, but before you get any ideas on using that to escape your employ here, you should know that they’ll punish you just as much as they’ll punish me. Save yourself the trouble, and if anyone asks, you’re a dish maid from Trawler’s Bay.”
He gave a tiny nod, and then stepped out to join Ferrin in the hall.
“Welcome back!” Orla spread her arms wide, smacking Tiernan in the face. “It’s okay if you feel overwhelmed by our advanced technology. Take your time getting oriented. This is a steamcart, like I was telling you about!”
“Right.” I glanced around the cramped cabin, looking for the source of the shifting light. I found it in the glass pipes that ran along the ceiling from our cabin into the next. Their insides swirled with white, glowing mist. “You have electricity?”
Orla and Tiernan followed my gaze to the ceiling.
“Electricity?” Orla repeated. “This is a Keldorian word.”
