Page 77 of Keldori By Daybreak

I had spent so long putting up walls and barriers. How had Ciarán of all people somehow slipped past every single one? An hour ago, I’d tried to put a javelin through his skull, but now…

My hand may have been wrapped in his rather than pressed against his side, but the quickening of his heartbeat was apparent as it sounded in my ears across our connection, mingling with the rhythm of my own.

He was in my head, I reminded myself, and I didn’t know if it was me or him that so desperately needed to close the shrinking space between us. Maybe it was both of us, because he was getting closer, leaning in as I did, until I couldn’t tell if the heat between us was from the steam or the heat of Ciarán’s breath, and—

“Wren, honey, are you there?” My head snapped around at the sound of Gams’s voice echoing through the bath house.

“What is it?” Ciarán demanded, already rising out of the bath, ready to fight.

“I heard—” I cut off, straining to listen against the gentle slap of bath water against the sides of the basin.

“Wren, I know you can hear me,” the voice said.

“Gams?” I asked the steam.

“Oh, finally! I’ve been trying to reach you for damn near a day! Get comfy, darling.”

I looked back at Ciarán, realizing too late what was about to happen.

“Oh, crap—”

The steam, stone, and Ciarán disappeared from view as the bath water slipped over my head.

18. Geological Climatology II

The frostbitten wind of the Bay of Teeth was all the more painfully cold after the heat of the bath. I fought back against wind-whipped blue hair, catching glimpses of my grandmother through the dancing tresses.

“Gams!” I yelled over her storm. It crashed and burst overhead in a ceaseless display of dark clouds and forking lightning, highlighting my grandmother’s shape in flashes of blue.

She hadn’t moved from her spot ahead of the Rift, but sustaining the storm was clearly taking its toll on her, even in the few days since I’d last seen her. While she still appeared much younger than she had in Keel Watch Harbor, new lines wrinkled the skin around her mouth and eyes. After four hundred years in the ice, her real body was finally aging.

“I’ve been calling your name!” Her glasses caught the light of the sparks dancing between her fingertips, making her expression unreadable. The hair on the back of my neck stood straight up, and lightning crashed into the ice twenty yards away. Ice shards and water sprayed into the air, but Gams didn’t seem to notice, too busy pursing her lips at me disapprovingly.

“I didn’t hear you,” I said blankly. I hadn’t been sure I’d get to see her again, and I drank her in, unsure if this would be our last meeting.

“I should think you didn’t! You’ve damn near got a fortress built around your subconscious. Are you locking me out on purpose?”

“That’s probably Ciarán.”

“Ciarán?” Gams’s eyes narrowed. “You mean Liam? What is that boy doing in your head?”

“He’s keeping Ferrin out.” I fought the blush in my cheeks as I remembered just where I’d been when Gams had summoned me. Either Ciarán would have to let me drown, or…

I hoped he let me drown.

“You should be less worried about Ferrin’s mind getting into your head and more worried about where the rest of him is going.” She nodded at my feet, and I stepped back to take in the tiny spikes of ice that surrounded Gams in a half circle.

The shards clumped together, conglomerating in random bunches. I tilted my head to the side to try to better understand the pattern.

“Half his forces have retreated to the southeast, and a quarter of the Baron’s troops are going directly south.” Gams juggled her electricity in one hand to point at a collection of ice clumps farther from the rest. “More armies show up every day, but they don’t worry me nearly as much as that Quillguard.”

I stepped back again to better take in the shapes.

“They’re people?” I asked. “These represent the soldiers on the shore? Can you see them?”

I twisted around and fought back my hair to look into the sheets of ice, snow, and electricity that raged around us. I couldn’t see fifty yards away, let alone all the way to the shore.

“No,” Gams beamed, “but I’m the most powerful nocturmancer Skalterra has ever known. I can sense their minds on the shore, and it’s easy to transcribe their location here. And Ferrin’s troops, including the Eldguard woman, are on the move. They’ve had two days already, and they’re out of my range. Tell me you got south of the mountains and are somewhere safe.”