Page 207 of Keldori By Daybreak

My breath caught in my throat.

There, nestled between two marina shops, was Gams’s gift shop. The windows were broken, the door was gone, and what was supposed to be our entrance to the Rift was sealed with jagged blue stone that filled the building.

The Rift, and Gams’s shop that I’d called home for a few short months, was gone.

42. Ballroom Dance V

I was running across rain-soaked pavement before I realized I’d even leapt from the moving van. Ciarán shouted after me, but the aggressive wind rolling in from the harbor dampened his voice.

I slammed into the rock where it jutted out from the shop’s doorframe.

“Mom!” I screamed. Why was there a rock where my mother was supposed to be? Where had she gone? Was she inside? Was she dead?

This wasn’t part of the plan. We’d done the hard part. It was supposed to be easy from here.

Panic propelled me down the narrow alley between Gams’s shop and the neighboring building. The back deck was awash in a deluge of rain. In the harbor below, abandoned boats slammed against their moorings. A few of them had started to fill with water and were sinking into the marina.

Broken glass crunched underfoot, and I looked up to see more rock had punched out Gams’s back windows.

There was no way in. The entire shop was full of the strange blue stone. I’d come so far only to be stalled by a mysterious boulder sitting where my mom was supposed to be waiting for us.

I readied my fist, preparing to punch the rock, at a loss for what else I could possibly do, but firm fingers wrapped around my wrist and pulled me back.

I punched Ciarán’s chest instead, but he took the blow well and wrapped his arms around me as I collapsed against that familiar Von Leer hoodie.

“We’re so close,” I whispered into its folds.

“We’ve figured out worse. We can figure out this too.”

“Can you feel her?” I pushed away from him and pressed a palm against the rock. It was warm beneath my palms, emanating a gentle heat from its pale blue surface. “You’ve summoned my mom’s Nightmare before.”

“I’m sorry. I haven’t heard her since—”

He cut off, and my panic swelled.

“Since I ashed her in our cave outside Willow’s Grave?” I prompted.

“I know what you’re thinking, but this isn’t your fault,” Ciarán said.

“We don’t know that!”

“Of course we do. Ashing Nightmares doesn’t make mysterious boulders appear where they shouldn’t be. I know you love your rocks, but this one has nothing to do with anything you did. I’m sure of it.”

Rocks.

Of course.

I pushed past Ciarán, running back to the road.

Iseult, Fana, and Orla were pulling the last of our packs out of the research van while Maxwell kept the engine running. I slammed into the driver side door and ripped it open.

“You have to help,” I said.

His eyebrows hitched. “I just drove over twenty-four hours to get you here on threat of broken fingers. I did my part, now you get to do yours and leave me the hell alone.”

He tried to pull the door closed, but I stood in the way.

“You’re a world-renowned geophysicist. What can you tell us about the rock in the shop?”