Page 226 of Keldori By Daybreak

Dull blue light filtered through the ice, emanating from the frozen mouth of the Rift where it was encased below us. It wouldn’t keep Ferrin out for long, but it at least would stop Ciarán from crossing into Keldori and ripping it apart as he gorged on Skal.

“Wren!” Mom’s hands helped me up the last ledge of ice. Her arms wrapped around me, and finally, after months, I felt the warmth of my mother’s real self, even as it seemed the world was collapsing around us. “Oh, Wren. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“Is Gams—” I cut off, afraid of the answer.

“Alive.” Mom let go of me to twist around to check on Gams. She might’ve been sleeping if not for the broken glasses, pale cheeks, and bloodstained dress. “I did some rudimentary healing, but she’d already lost a lot of blood.”

I could heal her, but then we’d all die in a volcanic blast. I looked back at the mountains where they continued to spit ash into the sky. The rising sun beyond their peaks outlined their silhouettes in a foreboding red.

Meanwhile, much closer, figures stirred on the shore of the frozen bay. The armies gathered there had noticed the storm had stopped, and now they lined up to watch the Rift. The shrieking of Ciarán’s rotsbane and the groaning of shifting ice must’ve been enough to deter them, because while they lined up, none were brave enough to venture forward.

“What if we reseal Gams?” I asked. “Will she survive?”

“I’m not sure,” Mom admitted, “but it might be our only chance. We’ve got three Sovereigns. Four, if you count me and you separately. We can seal her here. We’ll be trapped in Skalterra, but—”

“Absolutely not!” Maxwell shivered in his cargo shorts, and his cheeks flushed with cold and panic. I hadn’t noticed my father cowering among the icy crags. “You send me home right now!”

“You’re lucky I don’t throw you off this iceberg for shooting my mother!” Mom snarled, and her arms tightened around my shoulders.

“Give the man a break, Eliza,” a cool voice laced with the strain of physical exertion cut over our refuge.

Mom pushed me behind her, and blue light flared in her fists, but Ferrin had climbed up when none of us had been watching. Fana, eyes wide with fear, stood at his side, her thin wrist wrapped in his grip and open air beyond the cliff nipping at her t-shirt.

“Let the girl go,” Mom demanded.

“Or what?” Ferrin sneered. “You can’t hurt me without hurting her.”

It was Stanley and his gun all over again.

“You can’t fight us. You’re all out of Skal,” I said.

“That I am.” Ferrin beamed over his shoulder at Ciarán where he thrashed on the ice, searching for more magick to devour. “Well spent, I’d say. And I don’t need Skal to get what I want.”

His grip on Fana’s wrist tightened as he stepped back towards the lip of the cliff.

“You hurt her, and we’ll kill you,” Iseult growled.

“So violent, just like your grandfather.” Ferrin sighed. “I don’t see why anyone should have to die. It’s all such a waste. There is room within the two realms for all of us, I should hope. So, Eliza, is it? Pleasure to meet you. Unblock the Rift. Let me through. No one gets hurt.”

Orla stepped forward. Iseult tried to pull her back but she shook her off.

“Leave Fana out of it. Please,” Orla breathed. “Let her go, and I’ll go with you.”

“My prodigal niece,” Ferrin drawled. “You’d really come back to your dear old uncle after everything?”

“Orla,” I hissed, but she held a hand out to me without looking away from Ferrin.

“You’re right. No one else should die,” Orla said, and I remembered our conversation on Davyn’s boat. “I’m tired of death. If you can promise that there’s no more, then I’m on your side. I have Oren’s magick. I can get you through the ice to the Rift.”

“Orla!” I said it louder this time.

She turned to look at me. Her eyes were tired and her lips quivered. “I’m sorry, Wren.”

“What happened to ‘we don’t stop fighting’ from two minutes ago?”

“I know, I just—” She cut off, her mouth drawing into a helpless frown, and she turned back to Ferrin. “Tell me no one else dies, and I’ll help you.”

“That’s up to Wren and her friends,” Ferrin crooned. “If they stand in my way—”