50. Move-In Day #2
Keel Watch Harbor was gathering on the sidewalks, coming out of their shops to see us off. Even Sorcha and Aoife had come down from the library to watch.
Mom flattened non-existent wrinkles on my hoodie, and tried to smile again.
“I’ll be back,” I promised her. “And I’ve been farther.”
“That you have. Try not to slip into any parallel worlds while you’re at school, alright?” She allowed a sad laugh, but then her chin quivered.
“Mom—”
“I know,” she said hurriedly. “I’m sorry. I just wish your grandmother was here to see you. She’d be so proud, Wren.”
“I know.”
I fell into her one last time, and I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to leave a part of me here in this moment forever so that I could come back to it whenever I needed a hug from my mom.
I’d lost Gams. Nothing would change that. The year that had passed had not dulled my grief, and each day that I woke up without her was a fresh nightmare and a fresh wound.
But Mom had taken every day as a challenge to fill the emptiness Gams had left behind. She never would. No one could. Mom knew that. Yet she tried, even as she shouldered the burden of her own grief.
She’d lost her mother after all, and as horrible as losing my grandmother had been, I couldn’t imagine anything worse than losing a mother.
I hugged her tighter, hoping that if she ever needed a hug from her daughter, she too could come back to this moment.
A haunting melody struck up behind me, carried by Odharnait’s lilting voice. Ciarán’s uncle joined in, then Mom, until those who had gathered on the street all sang the farewell song of Darragh’s Watch.
I stepped back towards the truck, smiling through bittersweet tears. Mom followed me to the passenger door, and kissed my cheek through the open window.
Ciarán climbed in behind the wheel after throwing the last of my bags in the back, and his shoulders heaved with a final sigh.
I waved at Fana and Orla as Ciarán put us in reverse, and pulled away from the curb. We kept the windows down so that the farewell song followed us as far as it could up the hill towards the main road.
I tried to settle in my seat and ignored my mounting nerves by diving into the paper bag of bagels between us.
“You did make me the salmon bagel,” I accused. “I thought you’d already cut the avocado.”
“You got lucky. Ronald came in and ordered avocado on an everything bagel.” Ciarán reached across the middle seat to put his hand on my knee. “And I know salmon was Ethel’s favorite.”
I nodded. “It was.”
He squeezed my knee.
“Wren Warrender, future PhD of volcanology,” he purred. “I like that.”
“Ciarán Ahltira, future-building-maker sounds good too,” I quipped.
“Architects don’t make buildings, we design them. And you can’t call me Ciarán. I’m enrolled as Liam Glass.”
“Fine. But when it’s just the two of us, I’m still going to call you Ciarán.”
“That’s quite alright with me, my Lady.” He grinned, and then frowned. “You’re nervous.”
Damn mental tether.
“And you’re not?” I asked. “You took an entire year off school. What if you forgot everything you learned freshman year and have to redo it?”
“I’m more worried about my classmates asking questions about my hair color.” The way he laughed showed off his canines. “You know you have nothing to worry about, right?”
He let go of my knee to take my hand in his. I hadn’t noticed I’d started to pull at the short hairs at the base of my neck.
“Yes. And no. I don’t think my body knows the difference between starting at a new school and being hunted for sport.”
We pulled onto the highway and the mountains rose up ahead. It almost felt like I was back in Skalterra, looking at the Sentinels on the distant horizon.
“You’ve survived the latter, so I’m sure you’ll manage the former.
” Ciarán grinned. “Some people travel across foreign continents. You traveled across a foreign plane of existence. Twice. You fought barons, and armies, and monsters, and a murderous fungal colony. And none of those even start to compare to the worst villain you ever faced.”
“And who was that?”
“Me.” His eyes flashed orange and black as he bared a devilish grin at me, and the knot in my stomach loosened.
We wouldn’t be that far from home, after all. Like I’d said to Mom, I had been much, much farther. This was a new type of adventure, one I’d dreamt about for long and was finally happening after so much.
I wasn’t alone, and as long as that traitorous, wonderful connection kept Ciarán and me tethered, neither of us ever would be.
The road rose beneath us as we wound our way into the mountains, rattling along in Riley’s old truck.
The AC was broken, so we used the hand cranks to let the windows down.
Fresh air flurried through the cab, smelling like pine and earth.
The radio was broken too, but when I turned too nervous to keep up conversation, Ciarán sang snatches of songs.
The words, foreign and beautiful, soothed my nerves, and I relaxed enough to start to enjoy the drive. I watched ravines, cliffs, waterfalls, and forests pass outside my open window. A strange resolve settled where nerves had been just minutes ago.
“We’ll go back,” I said, using our mental tether to be heard over the air that rushed through the windows. “To Skalterra.”
It wasn’t a question. A flutter of relief nudged at the back of my mind, and I wondered how long Ciarán had been secretly harboring the desire to return home.
“I’ll go wherever you bid me, my Lady,” was his even reply. “What part would you like to go to?”
“All of it. Willow’s Grave. Riverstead. Vanderfall. The Wisting Wilds. Might be nice to see Tulyr again.”
“I don’t think they like me much there on account of laying siege to their city.”
“We’ll figure it out. And then we’ll go see everywhere in Skalterra where we haven’t been.”
“And after we’ve seen all of Skalterra?”
I thought for a moment, then grinned. “I’ll have Davyn sail us to the middle of the ocean, where I’ll make new volcanoes to make new land for us to explore.”
“And once we’ve explored that too?”
“Then you can design me a house.”
He squeezed my hand where it still rested in his. “Deal.”
We made plans together for the rest of the drive. Plans for after college, plans for the summer, plans for exploring the shops surrounding Von Leer together.
When Von Leer University rose out of the trees at the heart of a small college town, it wasn’t nerves and panic that rose in my stomach with it, but excitement for whatever would come next.
College Hall towered over the campus. A bell rang out across stone buildings and manicured lawns.
Piles of luggage dotted the sidewalks between dorms as parents helped their kids move in their things.
My heart beat in my throat when Ciarán parked the truck in front of an older dorm and beckoned for me to get out.
Ciarán, who had once upon a time been the most terrifying single thing I’d ever seen in my life, came around the truck. He put an arm around me, and let orange flash in his eyes for the briefest of moments.
“Welcome to Von Leer University, Blue.” He leaned in, kissed me, and then grinned as I took his hand in mine so we could step into the next adventure together.
The End