She drowned again. At her sides, the people she had killed—the ones she desperately wished to see—were almost awake.
Do you really think I’m going to let them live?he said.The moment they surface, I’m going to kill them all.
Through the dark water, she saw his shadows forming, becoming daggers above the surface. If he killed them, she didn’t know if she had the strength to bring them back again. Especially not if Cronan kept her in this cycle of death. She was trapped. He had won.
As water filled her lungs again, burning like flames, she turned to the side and saw someone else, at the bottom of the pool, right by her side. Herself, at eight years old. She was drowning too. Her eyes were wide. Her arms were thrashing. No. That little girl had been through enough. Too much, to end up like this.
She hadn’t fought so hard to get to this world, to undo what had been done, for one man to take it all away. He had tried to break her. He hadhurther. But all his attacks only sharpened the blade within her. He had only made her stronger.
Endure.
When the world pushes you down—you push back.
Find your fire.
We are strong, she told the little girl.I remember.
Isla’s hands curled into fists. Her diamond began to glow like a star—fortifying what was left.
She began to build her strength, not through pain but through love. She remembered Oro pulling her out of the fractured pieces of the island. She remembered Grim bringing her back to life.
Love had always been the only thing powerful enough to conquer death. To conquer fate.
She filled herself with every moment between them, every memory, because it was the one thing she had that Cronan didn’t.
Infinite glowed brighter, cutting through the pool, spearing through the darkness. She could see Cronan looking down at her. And in the reflection in his eyes, she saw her own—and saw they were glowing, just like her diamond.
One look from her made all of Cronan’s shadows melt away to nothing.
The light within her grew, flooding through her blood, until her entire body seemed to gleam. One by one, the shackles shattered.
Thank you for showing me just how strong I could be, she said inside his mind.And for teaching me this. Then shadows burst from her mind right into his.
He bellowed. His mind melted beneath her shadowblades, his walls becoming nothing but dust. Why did he need Oro? What was he planning?
Hidden deep below, she found the thing he feared most. The only weapon that could truly kill him. A dagger with a strangely shaped hilt.
Heartblade.
It could kill anyone and anything. Even her, with Lark’s flair. It was the greatest weapon ever forged in this universe.
Her shadows retreated as she stood, breaking through the waters Cronan had repeatedly drowned her in. And she was not alone. All around her, she was surrounded by herself at eight years old, at twelve, at sixteen, at twenty. He staggered back, but she wrapped her power around his limbs, forcing him to his knees. She tilted her head at him. Her voice came from every version of herself standing at her sides, echoing. “I have seen inside your mind, Cronan, and you are just as broken as the metal you wear on your head. Jagged,mismatched, and forged from hate. This crown is made of everything you have ever claimed. It is a crown of bones and ashes. And now...it will be your ruin.”
Cronan’s mouth parted into a roar, his endless power lashing out—
As she took it.
ORO
You, perhaps, are the only one who can.
Oro kept willing to see the pool once more. He needed to understand why he was the person charged with finding this mysterious weapon that could slay any person or being. Was it because he was the king of Lightlark? Ruler of Sunling? He didn’t know where to start.
It was then that Isla appeared in a rush, warning him that Cronan was invading early. She was gone in an instant.
He was striding into his castle after having alerted his friends and all the volunteer forces when his vision turned silver. The pool and the woman were waiting.
The waters looked different now, dark as ink.
