Page 94 of Keldori By Daybreak

“We shouldn’t have tried to trick him. Linsey would be—”

I cut off when I felt the gentle weight of his hand against my back.

“He would’ve turned her into a rotsbane eventually, Wren. It’s not your fault.” He let the silence fester a moment, and then he pressed, “Is there anyone else from Keldori who might be in danger?”

I snorted. “No. I didn’t have many friends.”

“Good.”

My father was still in danger. Ciarán’s javelin had saved him from turning rotsbane this time, but Ferrin, if he survived the flood, could summon him again.

My stomach heaved, and Ciarán caught me as I lurched to the side and vomited over Una’s shoulder.

“You hit your head again,” he murmured, patting my back as I coughed up the last of my stomach bile. “If you didn’t need a Ceremender before, you definitely do now.”

I grunted in response and collapsed back against Una’s neck.

“Linsey,” I said again. “Can we save her? Is there a way?”

Ciarán sighed behind me.

“The answer is still no,” he said, though I hardly remembered asking the first time. “Focus on staying alive while I find you help for your head.”

I wasn’t sure how much time passed on Una’s back. I flitted in and out of varying degrees of consciousness. At one point, I opened my eyes and watched Ciarán walking beside me and Una. His hair was down, brushing against his shoulders, and the stern set of his brow and chin made me close my eyes again and pretend to still be asleep.

Later, after the sun had set, he was behind me again, jostling against my back as Una continued forward.

There were more trees here, though their trunks were spindly and the undergrowth was sparse. Moonlight cut through their gnarled branches to cast intricate patterns on the lichen-laden ground. I watched them for a while before letting hazy half-sleep take me again.

“Wren!”

I woke to hands pulling me down off Una’s back and morning sun bright in my eyes.

“Careful,” Ciarán hissed.

“How the hell are you alive?” Iseult’s voice was too loud, and the sun was too bright. I tried to hide behind the musty folds of my hoodie sleeves, but Orla pried my arms away to better survey me.

Una laid down, and Orla helped me lay back against her green flank.

“Una swam us out,” Ciarán explained. “Do you have food?”

A warm, weighted something crawled into my lap, and I burrowed my fingers into Jonquil’s fur.

“She looks awful.” Orla’s voice wavered. “Wren, I’m sorry. This is my fault. I thought we were safe at the keep.”

“It’s fine,” Tiernan’s curt tone cut her apology off. My head swam, but I was able to put two and two together. Orla still didn’t know we’d lured Ferrin in on purpose. “Here. Give her water.”

The lip of a bottle pressed into my lips, and cool water slipped over my sandpaper tongue.

“Thank you,” I rasped. I tried to blink my friends into focus, and Tiernan and Orla’s faces swam into view. Then I thought about what they might look like if they were to change into rotsbane, and I closed my eyes again.

“We’re at the edge of the Opal Forest,” Iseult was saying somewhere overhead. “That there, that’s Willow’s Grave just beyond this valley.”

I opened my eyes, and my heart quickened at the sight of the valley full of lush trees.

After everything, I had no reason to be scared of the woods anymore. I’d faced so much worse. Maybe it was the fresh memory of Linsey’s transformation, but the thought of going through the forest made panic swirl in my discombobulated head.

The emerald forest canopy swayed in the wind that ran through the valley, but through the shifting foliage, bright flashes of glittering stone caught the late summer sun. The movement of the leaves seemed stilted, and after staring a moment longer, I realized it was because the tree trunks themselves weren’t moving, only the green vegetation of their canopies.