Page 230 of Keldori By Daybreak

If he could prevent that, then surely I could reverse it as well.

All that Skal swirling across the ice, in the sky, lighting the atmosphere, poured into me all at one.

Ciarán disappeared. So did the ice, the shore, the mountains, and the sky as I stepped into a strange, liminal space.

The worlds stretched out ahead of me like a butterfly pinned against black velvet, every delicate vein of its wings on display. Each wing was its own world and I the fragile insect that held them together.

And both worlds would bend to my will because the Skal surging between them, the Skal that surged into me, was mine.

But it hurt. It burned at every fiber, every neuron, every atom of my being, and I could feel it stripping me away.

I held on. I didn’t care how much of me had to burn to save Ciarán. Because I would do it.

My screams were lost to the slippery rush of Skal. The sound and the fire were all that existed in this liminal space until—

“Wren?” A hand grabbed mine, and the burning lessened. Mom frowned next to me, her blonde hair hanging loose and nearly white in the glow of the rushing Skal. “My beautiful, stubborn girl. What are we doing here?”

“I have to save him.”

“That’s never been done before, my dear.” Gams took my hand on my other side, and again, the Skal’s toll lessened. “It may be impossible.”

“Gams.” I squeezed my eyes shut, and hot tears streamed down my cheeks. “You’re alive?”

“Alive enough to meet you here.”

My hand shook in hers. This strange, rushing place did not hold our real bodies, but Gams and Mom—

I’d waited so long to be with them again, and here we were at the center of converging Skal.

“Where is here?” I asked.

“I’m not sure,” Gams admitted. “It exists outside our worlds, and it’s where I came with the other Sovereigns when we made Skalterra.”

I did not care if saving Ciarán was impossible. I had the best chance right here, between the two best women.

The magick rushed from Keldori, ripping through me, my mother, and grandmother, and I let it build. Impossibly cold, white hot, unbearably heavy, airy and light—

I would take every bit of Skal I needed to save Ciarán.

The last of the Skal sucked into my vacuum, and the magick pressed against everything that made me. Mom and Gams both tightened their hands in mine, and then I let go to step forward out of that strange space between worlds and onto the ice.

I knelt at Ciarán’s mangled, rotsbane body, now in its final throes.

My hands emitted heat and light when I pressed through the shadows of his shape.

All the magick escaped at once.

Ciarán’s rotsbane shrieked, and the sound was needles in my ears and a knife in my gut. Skal shredded me as it burst free, but my magick remade my flesh, bones, and sinew as fast as it was ripped apart. Ice cracked around us like cannon fire, then echoed against the surrounding hills and glaciers.

I screwed my eyes shut against the light, and shadow solidified beneath my hands.

Silence, except for the ringing in my ears, fell. I kept my eyes closed, and pressed my fingers against the familiar ridges of Ciarán’s ribs, scars, and muscles.

His chest rose beneath my touch, and I opened my eyes.

He lay on his back on the ice. The scars and bruises left from the summer painted a tapestry of where we’d been, and I stared at it through a film of tears.

His body, against all odds, was back.