Page 137 of Keldori By Daybreak

I braced with my bone blades at the ready. It leapt through the air, all four claws extended and hungry, but a green blur tore through the dark and slammed into its side.

Una pinned the rotsbane under her talons and tore at its neck with her canines. It screamed, and its back legs raked at the ground, but then its struggle subsided into violent twitches, and its form dissolved into ash.

New hands grabbed me beneath my arms, and I recoiled.

“It’s me,” Ciarán said, and I let him help me to my feet. Strands of dark hair clung to his forehead with sweat, and half his face was hidden by his cowl, but I could tell he was grinning.

“Where’s Caitria?” I twisted around the clearing. Shouts to retreat echoed through the opal forest, and the remaining soldiers fled deeper into the trees.

“She left when Ferrin did. Are you okay?”

“Ferrin can’t hurt this body. I’m more worried about you.”

Ciarán brushed the dirt from my shoulders. “I’m flattered, Blue, but you don’t need to worry about me. That rotsbane, if it had got you—”

“Una took care of it,” I said. Una bumped her snout up against my shoulder, and I scratched her beneath the chin in proper greeting after being apart all week. “Is that it then? We won?”

“Three tents of Skal and two tents of rations. All up in flames.” The firelight caught the wild hairs that had fallen from Ciarán’s bun, and he grinned in triumph. “You did amazing.”

“I was just the bait!” I laughed.

“And you were great at it. You’re so good at being captured.” There was something magnetic in the way he was grinning at me. I was sure it was just adrenaline. I could feel it too, coursing through my Nightmare-made veins. “We can probably catch up with the others. Wren, you can still go home.”

Home.

I felt like I could take on twelve rotsbane and twenty Ferrins. We could stop any army and any monster he threw at us, and make it to Keel Watch Harbor.

Maybe I was a god after all.

But then—

The crackling of the fire muted, hard to hear over the sudden pounding in my ears. My skin turned clammy, and my breath caught. When I forced air into my lungs, it felt like half my chest was filled with sand and cotton.

I slipped my hand over the lower ribs on my left side.

Something was wrong.

This body was fine, but something was wrong.

My left side…

It didn’t hurt, but cold dread rose where I knew there was supposed to be pain. I pulled at my leather armor, searching for the ghost of an injury I couldn’t feel but still knew was there.

The armor turned to dust as it separated from my body. I pulled my tunic up and braced myself against a tree.

The skin of my side was uninjured and pale in the firelight, but still, something was very wrong.

“Wren?” The triumphant smile dropped from Ciarán’s face.

I let the hem of my tunic fall back into place as I slid to the ground. Ciarán caught me and tried to help me upright. His orange and black eyes took up my field of vision, and I felt like I was falling into them as the world closed in.

“Ciarán,” I murmured.

“What’s wrong?”

I pulled my tunic back up to show him my uninjured flank. He shook his head at me, confused.

“I’ve been stabbed,” I said.