“I’m going to leave this open,” he said roughly. “This is your one chance to leave, but Isla—I never want to see you again.”
His eyes finally met hers. And she could see the conflict in them clear as day—how torn he was to be helping the woman who might put a blade through his heart.
Still, he was opening this door.
“Why are you helping me?” she asked.
His eyes fell to her lips, to her neck, down and up again, as if he knew this was goodbye. As if he was trying to memorize her.
“Because I don’t remember you.” Those words were like a blade to the gut. “But I remember a world worth saving.”
There was good in him yet. He was not Cronan, intent on turning entire worlds to ash out of greed.
“If he finds out, he’ll imprison you,” Isla said, perplexed.
Grim only lifted a shoulder. “I said I remembered a world worth saving. Not that I remembered a life worth living.”
Isla’s throat felt tight. The fact that Grim did not think his life was worth saving...
Her eyes burned. She shoved the gate back into place and stood on her toes to grip his shirt in her fists and say right in his face, “Iremember, even if you forgot. You don’t just have a life worth living—you have so much more than that. You have love worth rediscovering. And our love was worth living a thousand times over.” She shook her head. “I can’t do this without you,” she said. “But together...he’s afraid of us. He knows that joined, we can defeat him.”
He looked between the closed door and her. And in his eyes, she saw only rage. “You are a fool for rejecting my help. This was your only chance at survival.”
“You don’t understand,” she said. And she desperately wished he did. “I made a vow. Not just for this life. But the next. And the one after that. And all those that might follow.”
She took a step toward him.
“And when I do finally leave this cell...I’m going to break out of it,” she said, holding his gaze. For a few moments, they just glared at each other.
“You are a fool,” he snarled.
“So you’ve told me.”
“You both are,” a voice said, and it broke through the obsidian like a blade. Before Isla knew it, a new wave of shadows had formed.
And Cronan was walking out of them.
ORO
For hundreds of years, Oro’s heart had felt frozen in his chest. The curses had taken so much. In one disastrous day, everyone’s life changed. His, perhaps, most of all, as he became king.
Until a woman with eyes like a forest blazed through his life, igniting his heart. Igniting hope in a world worth not only saving...but making better. For all this time, he had simply been focused on surviving...not trulyliving.
Isla, on the other hand, was full of feeling. She led with her heart in everything she did, which might not have always ended well, but at least shecared. In a world full of immortals, jaded and bored and angry, she was spring—a breath of fresh air.
They had been enemies, then reluctant allies, then friends, then more. He had never thought it was possible to selflessly love another ruler without politics involved, until he met her.
Oro had grown used to the weight of the world on his shoulders. He always made every decision with his people at the forefront. Now he was questioning everything. He had always tried to do what was just, but nothing about this potential choice felt right.
He sat on the beach, gazing out at the sea that was the color of her eyes.
That is where Enya found him.
He didn’t want to tell her about what Azul had said. Though he knew his friend only wanted him to be happy, she had not made it a secret that she didn’t think he and Isla were a good match.
He couldn’t blame her. Enya was fiercely protective of him. Since he had met Isla, Enya had witnessed him at his lowest. But she also couldn’t deny that with Isla, he had also been at his very best.
After a few minutes of sitting together in silence, Oro asked, “If someone gave you the choice to save me but doom the rest of the world, what would you do?” He heard nothing in response but the roar of the waves, so he turned to look at her next to him.
