Page 2 of Keldori By Daybreak

The ensuing calamity would take care of the armies outside, and would at the very least make the Rift near-impossible to access. But Gams…Sealing her in a pyroclastic flow would not be the same as sealing her in frozen Skal.

“But you would…”

I didn’t want to say the word. It didn’t take the degree in volcanology I so badly wanted to know that Gams would not survive a volcanic eruption.

“I’ve been alive for four hundred years, dear. It’s about time my turn came around.”

No. No, I refused.

“How long before they erupt?”

“A month at most. Maybe less, depending on…” She paused to chew on her lip, thinking. “Depending on outside factors.”

“There has to be a way!” I insisted. I wouldn’t let my grandmother be destroyed by a volcano. Not to save the world. Not for anyone. “Tell me how to save you!”

She shook her head. “There’s no way.”

She was lying. She’d lied to me my entire life about who she was and about who I was. I wouldn’t believe her lies any longer, not when her life was on the line.

“Mom’s still back at home,” I said. “And I’m in Skalterra. I’ll never see her again if you don’t tell me how to save you.”

“Talk to Gladys. She’ll summon her as a Nightmare. It’ll be fine.”

“It’s not the same!” I yelled. “And I know it’s not the same because I spent a month as a Nightmare in a world you didn’t tell me existed for eighteen years! I want my real mom, and I want to save you, so tell me how, dammit!”

“Wren Warrender!” Gams scowled. “You don’t speak to your grandmother that way!”

“Then don’t lie to me!” Blue magick, the same shade as Gams’s electricity, sparked in my hands.

Gams held my gaze, shaking with either the effort of fueling her storm or of holding back all the things I knew she didn’t have the time to say to me.

“The Lyrians will help you get to your mother,” she finally said. “When this is over, find a Lyrian, but Wren. It’s dangerous.”

A Lyrian. I could find a Lyrian.

“I don’t care.”

“Don’t do anything you don’t have to. I called you here to warn you about the volcanoes. Please, get everyone to safety. And if you want to return to your mother, find a Lyrian.”

I tried to crawl along the ice to get closer to Gams, but her winds buffeted me backwards.

“I’m going to save you,” I promised her. Her somber face told me she wasn’t so sure.

“I would never ask that of you, my darling. I’ve loved the eighteen years I got to spend as your grandmother.” A tear traced her cheek, and my heart dropped.

She was saying goodbye.

Why was she saying goodbye?

“Stop it,” I begged, but I wasn’t sure she could hear me over the storm.

“Be a good girl for your mother.”

“Stop it!” I yelled the words this time.

I spun to my feet, putting Gams and the glowing tunnel behind her at my back. Her storm made it impossible to see all the way to the shores of the frozen bay where we stood, but I knew Ferrin was out there with his army.

If I could reach him, I could end this tonight.