Page 222 of Keldori By Daybreak

Ferrin was lucky, too, as Gams bled out at my feet.

“Is that so?” Ferrin sneered. “Did Tiernan deserve it too, then? Did the boy deserve to die with his sister?”

“Stop it.”

“Though I supposed you never liked him much, did you?”

I charged, sprinting across the ice to meet Ferrin.

“Wren!” Ciarán called after me, both out loud and in my head.

“Stop her!” Mom’s shriek chased Ciarán’s shout, and Ciarán chased me. I could hear his boots thundering across the ice. Whether to stop me or aid me, I wasn’t sure.

And I wouldn’t find out because when Ferrin was a meager ten yards away, emerald flames burst in a ring around us, trapping me with him in a dome of fiery Skal.

The fire sent a flurry of heated air through the dome that whipped at my hair and cloak. I fell forward onto the ice to catch myself on my hands and knees.

Ciarán, trapped outside the dome, screamed my name over and over in my head. Orange flames spread up outside of the dome, mingling with Ferrin’s emerald fire, but unable to punch through.

“Hello, Wren,” Ferrin crooned. The light of the green fire glinted against the rims of Ferrin’s Skal-goggles, and I remembered Tiernan’s careful observation about the Quillguard. He always wore his goggles. Ferrin’s Nightmares, meanwhile, never did.

Then this was the real Ferrin.

And that meant I could kill him.

“You’re too late,” I said.

“Am I? That Rift looked awfully open to me, and the Frozen God?” Ferrin sucked on his teeth. “Well, she’s definitely seen better days.”

“She’ll be fine when she’s back in the ice and after I’ve killed you.”

“Oh, ho! You’re going to kill me?” Ferrin’s laugh brought heat to my cheeks, and Ciarán’s hiss in my head echoed my own anger. “Go ahead. Make your flail. Strike me dead.” He put his arms behind his back and lifted his chin as if to better expose his vulnerable throat. “I won’t fight.”

Frost melted against my hands where I pressed them against the ice. I wanted nothing more than to put a flail of Skal through Ferrin’s skull, but the mountains were at their limit. It might already be too late after using magick to break open the rock in the shop.

“That’s what I thought.” Ferrin tutted. “I’ve had my theories since you caved in half of my city a few weeks ago, and again when an earthquake shook damn near the whole continent a few nights back. I spent a lot of time with the Firelds. I understand that powerful magick is often too volatile to use, and you, little god, have some powerful magick. Pity you can’t use it without risking volcanic apocalypse.”

I scrambled for a solution, but Ferrin was right. However, as long as I was trapped in here with him, my friends could still do what they needed.

“Seal Gams.” I sent the command through my tether to Ciarán before I lost the metal to give it. “I’ll distract Ferrin in here. Seal the Rift, and get somewhere safe.”

“You’ll be stuck in Skalterra if we do,” came Ciarán’s reply.

“Seal the Rift, Ciarán. You have my mother. Do it.”

“He’ll kill you, Wren!” Orange fire illuminated the ice in front of me as Ciarán tried to break through the dome again.

He’d warned me, to be fair. He’d told me he would choose my life over the fate of the worlds.

“How do you know I won’t blow the volcanoes anyway?” I spat. “I can leave you here to be buried, and escape through the Rift. Or maybe I kill us both. Tiernan did it to Caitria. I can do it to you.”

“Wren, please!” Ciarán begged through the tether.

“The Rift, Ciarán. Are they sealing it?”

He went silent along the tether, and I let Ferrin size me up as I waited for Ciarán’s response.

“They’re getting ready, but I’m not going to leave you.”