“Isla,” Oro said, so gently she looked up at him. “You are not someone to be loved by circumstance.”
She let out a raking sigh. He leaned closer.
“You are loved on purpose. I promise.”
Her eyes stung with tears. “I don’t—I don’t know what to do. I don’t know if I’ll even be able to reach him before—” She cut off her words to keep from crying.
Oro filled the silence, just as he had filled the darkness. “I know you’ll be able to,” he said. “The same way I knew you’d find the location of the portaling device.”
“You have too much faith in me,” she said.
Oro just smiled. “No,” he said. “You just have too little.” He reached out, and she grabbed his hand like it was a lifeline. An anchor. His hands were warm like fire, and they called to the flame in her heart. “Don’t stop now, Isla. He loved you. Remind him. Find the strength to keep going.”
“Find your fire,” she breathed.
He blinked, seeming taken aback. “What?”
“Find your fire,” she repeated. “It’s what—it’s what you told me.” He frowned, like he didn’t remember. “I heard it in my mind...when
I was at a low point. You—you were saying it.”
He looked pensive. “It’s something my mother used to tell me, when I was very young. I’ve kept it with me.”
Isla just looked at him. “Did you find your fire?” she asked.
His eyes didn’t leave her face as he said, “I did.”
Her heart felt heavy. She knew what he meant. “It burned you, didn’t it?”
His expression didn’t change. He just nodded. “It did.” He reached out, as if to tuck her hair behind her ear, before he said, “But it was worth it.”
ORO
Lynx was waiting for him outside the Nightshade castle, pacing restlessly.
“I just spoke with her,” Oro said. “She’s doing okay. She told me where the portaling device is.”
The great panther bowed his head, and Oro reached forward. The moment his fingers brushed against Lynx’s fur, his senses were overcome.
Marrow-deep pain flooded through his head, as if it was being split open. That turned into an image of hands covered in shards of glass. Then flashes of blood on a wall. Isla’s point of view, as her skull was slammed against it.
Finally, Oro saw his face.Grim. Oro was almost relieved to see that he was alright, until the scene changed. And then—
Oro stumbled back, fire flaring in his fists.
Grim had been just inches away, about to kiss her.
Oro felt a strange mixture of anger and sadness—but also hope that it was working, that Grim would help Isla. She needed him to get back to this world. He looked up at Lynx, who only seemed concerned.
“We’re going to get her back,” Oro said, stepping closer to the creature. Lynx bowed his head, this time in mourning, and Oro pressed his cheek against his in comfort. “I promise you, we are going to get her back. No matter what it takes.”
“He likes you a lot more than he likes Grim,” a voice said from behind him.
Oro turned to see Astria, Grim’s general—and Isla’s cousin—carrying a large barrel with both hands toward the stables, stumbling with the weight. The crossed swords she always wore on her chest glistened in the morning light.
She noticed his gaze on the contents of the barrel and sighed. “You have no idea how much it takes to keep him and Wraith fed. This one, at least, feeds himself most times,” she said, motioning her chin toward Lynx. She looked over at Wraith with affection. “That one is spoiled.”
Wraith grinned like it was a compliment. Then he proceeded to eat everything in that barrel in no more than two bites before looking up at Astria expectantly.
