Page 178 of Keldori By Daybreak

“Stay ready,” Ciarán warned.

Minutes dragged into hours. The occasional distant wail, like nails against a chalkboard, interrupted the otherwise calm night. Wind chilled my cheeks as time dragged on, but I remained stationary and ready.

Stanley brought a fresh crate of explosive bottles after an hour of watching, but he didn’t linger. Tiernan followed with a sparse dinner of carrots and stale bread he’d dug out of Tamora’s provisions. He stayed longer than Stanley had but eventually left to patrol the supply carriages, though I was sure it was to be closer to the carriage where Tamora was keeping Fana.

The darkened landscape passed by in a blur of muted color, and while I was excited to be going home, a pang of sadness at the thought of leaving Skalterra forever struck me in the chest.

“Do you think you’ll come back?” I whispered at the wind.

“I still don’t know.” Ciarán’s reply was gentle in my head, but his thoughts flurried against the inside of my skull.

“Our tether doesn’t work from across the Rift,” I reminded him.

“Aw, Blue, are you worried you’ll miss me?” His teasing tone was a cover for the panic that reverberated through our connection.

“What if I am?”

He fell quiet for a moment, and I listened instead to the whistling of the steamed Skal pouring from the engine’s smokestack and the whirring of cogs.

“You shouldn’t be. You’ll have Liam,” he finally said.

“I don’t want part of you. I want all of you.”

“You don’t get to both save the world and have all of me.” He had the audacity to chuckle, though it was a kind sound rather than taunting.

“Because of your rules.”

“Because of the rules set by those who came before us, Blue, and for good reason,” he said.

“You told me your full name,” I said. “You broke that rule.”

“To keep a carnivorous mushroom entity from eating us, yes!”

“And now you have to marry me,” I teased.

“I’m not sure either of us would survive that.”

“Let’s start with surviving the night first.”

A rotsbane’s scream ripped through the night, much closer this time.

“I was starting to think we were going to have an easy ride.” I scanned the tree line, searching for shadows shifting against the slivers of light allowed by the crescent moons. “I don’t see—”

The train shook, and metal groaned. I steadied myself against the pipes, bracing for the rotsbane that was sure to be bearing down on the engine.

The ensuing shriek came from down the steamcart, however, and I backpedaled, trying to get a better look at the roof.

A dark shadow ripped at the metal roof of a carriage several carts away with four, lethal claws

“The roof, Wren!” Ciarán warned.

“Oh, yeah?” I was already jumping for the ladder rungs drilled into the metal next to the carriage door. “Did you think I’d not notice the giant rotsbane up there?”

Wind whipped around me, pulling at my ponytail and the hood of my jacket, but I steadied myself in the gale as I heaved myself onto the carriage roof.

“I’m only trying to help.”

“Help better.” I slipped a glowing bottle from my backpack and into my hand. Running at a rotsbane across the roof of a moving train with a bomb in hand didn’t seem so frightening after facing Ergoth, but there was still a part of me screaming in the back of my head.