Page 148 of Keldori By Daybreak

Fresh tears bit behind my eyes, but I kept them contained. “I wanted to come back.”

“I know.” She pulled me against her, wrapping me in her arms. I’d lived with her my entire life. I never would again. “I wanted you home, too, but it’s better this way. Okay? I promise. You’ll be safe.”

I nodded wordlessly against her chin. I wouldn’t let her see me cry. She would be sad too. I didn’t want to burden her with my grief on top of hers.

She kept her own emotions at bay as well and pulled away to scan the cave. “Where are your other friends, then? I assume they’ll be going on to Lyria’s doorway. I didn’t get the chance to write the last bit down. I imagine they’ll want to hear it.”

“The notebook wasn’t complete?” Ciarán’s voice turned sharp, and Mom struck a face at his tone.

“It was mostly complete, and excuse me, I was fighting off a small army as I tried to finish it.” Mom narrowed her eyes at me. “What’s wrong? Are you okay? You look pale.”

“You tried to finish it?” Ciarán pressed.

“I did finish it!” she amended. “The notes I gave you will get your friends to the sea cave where Lyria’s door is located, but I need to warn them about the tides.”

My heart pounded painfully in my chest, and I rose to my feet too quickly and clung to the cave wall to steady myself as the floor tilted beneath me. “What about the tides?”

“It’s fine! I mean, if they don’t time it exactly right, they’ll drown, but that’s why I need to speak to them. So where are they?” She turned in the cave, then froze when her gaze landed on Una. “Where the hell did you get an onchú?”

“Drown?” I repeated.

Ciarán’s face reflected my own horror back at me.

“Lyria’s secret door to Keldori is located in a system of sea caves off the soutwestern coast. There’s a string of islands there,” Mom explained as Una approached to sniff her hand. “They’ll be able to access the caves, but unless they enter at the correct time, the tide will rise, trapping them inside and drowning them.”

“And the notebook you gave me, it doesn’t include any of that?” My voice shook. I’d tried to play the martyr and had sent my friends to their death in doing so.

“No, Wren. A crazy woman with a rope dart attacked me before I had the chance to write it down,” Mom snapped, but then her face softened, and she looked around the cave again, more slowly this time. “Your friends. Where are they?”

I leaned against the wall, trying to quell my rising panic.

“They went on ahead with the notebook,” Ciarán said. “We stayed behind to help Willow’s Grave. That’s why we were returning to Sorcha.”

“Then go after them!” Mom snapped.

“They’re two days ahead of us!”

Mom’s face turned pale. “And is there no way to contact them?”

Ciarán shook his head.

“But you’re a nocturmancer,” I said. “You know their names! You can contact them that way!”

“But I don’t know their names,” Ciarán reminded me. “Not their full names, anyway. I already told you. Eldguard, Quill, and Fireld, those are all titles.”

“How far can they have gotten?” Mom asked.

“As far as the nearest steamtrail station,” Ciarán admitted. “Which means, they could be anywhere.”

“But we know where they’re going.” My voice hitched. There had to be a solution. We hadn’t come this far just so our friends could drown. “And we have Una!”

“Wren—”

“We have to try! Ciarán, they’ll drown!”

“They might not if they go into the cave at the right time!”

“That’s a big if! And if they die, then the Rift doesn’t get resealed, and Gams—”