Page 219 of Keldori By Daybreak

“What are we doing? We can take this loser.” Iseult flicked the visor of her helm into place, but Ciarán put his hands out to keep her from drawing a Skal-weapon.

“What he’s holding is called a gun,” he explained in a low voice. “He pushes a button, and it will kill Wren’s mother.”

Iseult blanched. “Why? Who would invent that?”

“Should we go see your grandmother?” Stanley called, pulling Mom deeper into the tunnel. “Do you think she might stop her storm if I threaten her daughter and granddaughter?”

I absolutely knew she would, but I stepped through the supply closet door anyway. There had to be a solution. I hadn’t come all this way just for Stanley to best us with a gun and an inferiority complex.

“We can beat him,” Ciarán said in my head as he followed me into the Rift.

“We can, but as long as that gun is pointed at my mother, we don’t make a move.”

“I’m faster than he is.”

“You are not faster than a bullet.”

The ice cave sloped downwards, and shifting, cloud-like shapes danced beneath the frozen surface.

“Is this the Rift?” Orla asked. “Did we make it?”

“Yes.” I kept my eyes on Stanley as he walked backwards down the slope.

Disarm Stanley. Save Mom. Reseal Gams.

And then it would be over.

Thunder cracked up ahead, and wind screamed. Flashes of blue lightning refracted through the ice, and the opening of the cave was awash in the dark of late night.

Blue electricity cut through the shadows, sparking and arching between Gams’s fingers as she held her storm.

She had aged more, finally looking like the Gams I knew. It had been at the cost of magick and strain, but I selfishly preferred her this way.

My grandmother, holding the worlds apart for weeks so she might save everyone within them.

She was greater than the worlds themselves.

I’d told her I’d make it back to her, and here I was, but Stanley had stolen all the love from what should’ve been a triumphant moment.

Gams’s stance softened as we approached.

“Wren.” I couldn’t hear her over the storm, but I saw her lips move as she said my name.

“Saergrim!” Stanley roared, dragging Mom out onto the uneven ice.

We followed with our hands up, passing under Skalterran skies once again.

Gams stiffened, and the electricity in her hands surged.

“Stanley.” She said his name as if he’d just walked into the shop to buy chips and chickens, but her eyes sparked a dangerous blue and the magick around her swelled, kicking up the skirt of her gossamer dress. “What a surprise to see my favorite customer here of all places. And with my daughter at gunpoint no less. Lovely.”

“Line up,” Stanley barked. “All of you. With the Frozen God.”

We did as he asked and even with my mother held at gunpoint, to be next to Gams again was a relief.

Nothing bad could happen now. We had Gams.

“Wren.” Her voice cracked as she whispered my name.