Still nothing. He’d either shut me out or was ignoring me.
Time blurred. The last thing I remembered was being on a horse. Was I thrown from it?
That didn’t explain why Ciaran was on foot.
Where had the horses gone?
Acrid smoke billowed in the air, stinging my nostrils, and I buried my face against Ciaran as he stopped abruptly.
Noise crashed back into me—wailing, tools clanging, voices shouting. Ciaran lowered me to the ground, and the familiar shape of my mother loomed over me as he bolted away.
I sat, still shaking, as Mother pressed a bottle to my lips—one of her bitter tonics that I knew better than to question. I swallowed, the medicine turning my stomach, but clarity rushed back to me. “What’s happened?”
“Skinwraith attack,” Mother whispered, her face pale.
Oh … no, no, no.
Anything but that.
She must have seen my panic. “Rykr encased the skinwraiths in a wall of ice, then turned it to mist. They’re gone, for now, but his powers didn’t go unnoticed. Worse still, there’s already a rumor snaking its way around the camp that Giulia Bernardi was killed by—and turned into—a skinwraith. That a blade of ice was found near her body.”
Fuck.
The realization hit like a punch to my lungs. Ciaran.
He was the only one who knew besides my family.
Who else had he told?
I stumbled to my feet, searching for him. It didn’t take long—his size and red hair made him easy to spot as he was hunched over on the field.
“Seren, wait.”
I didn’t listen. As I strode toward Ciaran, anger surged through me, drowning out every other thought. I grabbed him by the collar, yanking him back. “You fucking son of a?—”
His red-rimmed eyes, glassy with exhaustion, stopped me. His face was drawn, pale. Then I saw why.
Moira lay on a stretcher in front of him, deep gashes marring her arms and legs—one on her cheek. It would scar, but my mother could help her pain. I released him, fury momentarily checked.
“S-Seren,” he sputtered.
I ignored him, dropping to my knees beside Moira. Pain twisted her face. I cradled her cheek, my fingers smearing in blood. “Moira, are you okay?”
“It h-hurts.” Tears welled in her eyes. “But Rykr. He … saved me.”
My lips parted. Rykr? I’d been so busy focusing on my anger with Ciaran that I’d barely processed what my mother had said.
“Rykr encased the skinwraiths in a wall of ice, then turned it to mist. The skinwraiths are gone, for now, but his powers didn’t go unnoticed.”
He’d wielded ice?
A shiver rippled through me. What did that mean? He’d never mentioned having that power when I’d shown it to him.
Moira sniffled. “He saved all of us, really. There were so many. But he pulled one off me after he started wielding ice—it had me, Seren.” Tears slipped down her cheeks.
Ciaran shuffled in beside me, taking Moira’s hand. “All that matters is that you’re safe now.”
His voice reminded me of my anger and fears. “We need to talk. Alone.” I stood, glaring down at him. “Now.”
