Page 49 of Keldori By Daybreak

A new dagger formed in Ciarán’s hand, and Ferrin procured a weapon of his own to fend off the attack.

“Wait!” Orla cried out.

The rotsbane between us lurched towards me, knocking Orla off balance. She regained her grip on her chain and braced her boot against a lava pillar for better leverage.

A grunt echoed across the cavern. Ciarán had Ferrin pinned against the rocky ground. A thrill of excitement and dread electrified my extremities.

I’d ordered Ciarán to kill Ferrin, and that was just what he was going to do. Ferrin struggled beneath Ciarán, but even at this altitude, Ciarán was the better warrior.

“Don’t!” Orla begged. “He’s my family!”

“He’s trying to kill us, Orla!” I shouted back at her.

“That doesn’t mean we have to be killers too. Ciarán! Please!”

Ciarán lifted his eyes to mine.

I gave him a nod, and Orla screamed.

“These are the monsters you’ve aligned yourself with!” Ferrin howled at his niece. “These are the beasts you betrayed me for!”

“Wren!” Orla sobbed. “Make him stop! Please! I don’t want anyone to die!”

An orange blade glowed in Ciarán’s fist, and he raised it to Ferrin’s neck. Every time Ciarán had fought me, he’d been all gravitas and flourishes. Now he looked more like a man taking livestock to slaughter, eager to keep the job at hand quick and clean, with simple, calculated movements and cold eyes above his cowl.

Gams had said once that Ciarán wasn’t made for the brutality of the Grimguards, but he wasn’t shying away from it either.

I braced for the blood I was sure was about to spill from Ferrin’s neck.

“No!” Orla’s shrill cry cut through the room. Metal whipped and whistled as she released her hold on the rotsbane’s chain to unleash a column of purple fire towards the men.

The attack seared across Ciarán’s back, forcing him away from Ferrin. The metal in my hands ripped from my grip as the rotsbane lurched after the lavender magick with a scream. Both chains whipped after the rotsbane, smashing into stone and forcing me to the ground to avoid the spray of rock.

The rotsbane crossed the cavern in three strides of its massive legs and extended its claws to swipe at the lavender sparks. The magick sucked into its mouth as Ferrin and Ciarán both tried to scramble out of its reach.

Ciarán was too slow. The rotsbane raked its long claws down his flank, shattering the bottles of Skal on his belt.

“No!” I clawed at our bond for more Skal, but Ciarán was running on the last embers of his magick supply. My desperation led me to a new source.

I could feel the pebbles of the lakeshore digging into my back and the ghost of my rib injuries nagging at my sides as part of me reconnected with my real body. Fresh magick, my magick, coursed through me, and blue light swelled in my hands.

The rotsbane spun towards me, screaming in hunger, and I let azure flames engulf me.

Something primordial locked into place, heating me from the inside out. That undeniable magnetism that connected me to the mountains of Skalterra strengthened. The pressure of the magma building beneath Skalterra’s crust was a pressure that built on the inside of my head and chest, but I felt every rock, every cavern, and every vein of quartz running through the Second Sentinel as if it were my body that they comprised.

My magick came from the same magick that had made this mountain. The city may have been Ferrin’s, but the rock it was carved from was mine.

Tremors shook the cavern, and Orla screamed my name from the top of the stairs. The rotsbane reached for me with extended claws, but slabs of stone showered from the ceiling to pin it against the stone floor.

“You’ve done enough, Orla! Get out!” I shouted over the rumbling of my earthquake.

Orla’s face turned white, and she mouthed a desperate apology before whisking out of sight.

Rock continued to shatter overhead, and Ferrin’s retreating silhouette glowed green as he fled back down the tunnel towards the city.

The cavern was collapsing, and while I wasn’t sure if I possessed any control over the earthquake, I imagined the stairwell closing behind Orla and keeping Ferrin from giving chase.

The top of the stairwell caved in, whether from luck or from some unknown ability on my end.