He was right. Everyone had a weakness.
She had just discovered his.
But it might have been too late. Because when Cronan finally crawled out of her mind, leaving her numb and gasping, he said, “All that planning with the king...for nothing. What a shame. You could have been great.”
He turned toward Grim. “And you,” he said. “You were going to let her out.”
Grim’s face remained expressionless. Cronan’s hands twitched, and Isla wondered if he would finally strike Grim down.Let him try.
Instead, he took a deep breath and rolled his shoulders. “But I always give second chances.” He looked between them. “I’ll be conquering your world the day after next. I’ve been convinced that perhaps not everyone needs to die. I could use willing servitude. Whichever one of you wins will get to save their realm.”
Isla’s mind was still spinning from the shadows in her head and the fight with the guards. Cronan could see the moment that her scattered head finally put the pieces together.
His smile was sharp as a blade. “That’s right,” he said, taking pleasure in her panic. “You won’t be duelingmeto the death...You’ll be dueling your husband.”
GRIM
His eyes flashed toward Cronan, and his ancestor simply turned to him. He spoke right into his mind, and said,You’ve betrayed me. You didn’t think I could let you live, did you?
Grim swallowed. He didn’t know what he was thinking when he went to her cell. He had heard Cronan’s plans, and he had just acted. It had been instinct.
Even now, he couldn’t find it within himself to regret it.
I’ve seen your mind, his ancestor said.I know you want to save your realm. If you win the duel, I will let Nightshade survive. I swear it, on my crown.
The jagged metal atop Cronan’s head glistened, as if in reflection of the oath. Then, his shadows retreated.
She was going to die.Hewas going to kill her.
It was a certainty he had known from the beginning. Either Cronan was going to end her...or Grim was. It was the only way to prevent the possibility of the destiny he had seen. Only recently did he learn that because of their bound lives, her death would trigger his own.
Though his emotions had been running wild in these last few days, he felt nothing now. Only flat acceptance.
He was going to die. But at least his realm would live. He had meant the words he had told her, just moments before.
I said I remembered a world worth saving. Not that I remembered a life worth living.
Her rush of passion in response, her insistence that he had once been happy, had lit a strange flame within him, a desire to believe her. An unfamiliar yearning to not only survive butlive.
For a moment, he had envisioned a future that was just like she had spoken about, without duties or fate binding them. Now he realized all it had been was a dream. A ridiculous fantasy.
Isla seemed to realize it too. Her emotions were flat as a lake as he led her from the galaxy room to the women who would prepare her for the duel tomorrow. He only sensed the slightest hints of regret and worry, but the rest...was peace.
He wondered what that meant. Had she finally realized he would never remember her? That Cronan was unstoppable, which had been clear even before Isla revealed that his knights were all versions of himself?
Cronan had scattered himself throughout the universe, throughout time, throughout this world. He couldn’t be killed. If one version of him was eliminated, another would be waiting.
Isla had been wrong. Together, they still wouldn’t have had a chance against ending Cronan.
Grim had to save his realm. He had to defeat her in the duel.
He wished the thought of having to kill her didn’t make him frown. This duel was a good thing. Agift, just as Cronan removing his memories had been.
But Grim couldn’t deny now that it felt more like a curse. More like ataking. An absence that he missed.
In his last night of life, he would have wanted more moments to remember.
Cronan allowed him to attend dinner with the rest of the lords of planets. Isla’s seat was noticeably empty. He tried to shove his emotions down, to not feel her absence just as sharply as he had felt her presence, but it was impossible.
