If Isla chose Oro...would he ever accept that? Would he ever stop fighting for her?
A few months ago, he would have said no. But now...after seeing the pain of taking away Isla’s choice...
If she chose Oro, he would have to accept it. But he would never stop loving her. Never stop hoping she would change her mind.
He hated the flash of pity he felt for the Sunling, and the realization that, yet again, they were not so different.
“You’ve made the same mistakes I have,” Grim said, back next to him.
“No.” Grim could see the anger steadily building in Oro. If they weren’t on these enchanted lands, he was sure that fire would be shooting from his palms. “I didn’t take Isla’s memories away. I didn’t make decisions for her.” Oro looked him up and down in pure disgust. “Isla deserves better than you.”
“And what is that?” Grim scoffed. “You?”
“At least I’ve been honest with her. I’ve trusted her.”
Grim’s laugh lacked any mirth. “You love the Wildling part of her. The creation. The goodness. You resent that she’s Nightshade. You flinch at her darkness. I loveallof her. I don’t recoil at her mistakes. Unlike you.”
Oro returned the same humorless laugh. “And look what happened. She killed an entire village...foryou. You fed that part of her instead of helping her find her way back to herself.”
“It’s who sheis,” Grim snarled. “She is both. Light and dark. Together.”
“She might be Nightshade,” Oro said, “but she is not a monster. She doesn’t want to be. She runs from that side of herself, yet you...you bring it out of her. Youmakeher the monster you want her to be, so that the monster within you isn’t alone.”
Grim recoiled as if he had been struck. No. That wasn’t what he did. Hesupportedher, no matter what. He didn’t judge her. He wasn’t making her into a monster.
Oro gave a bitter chuckle as he twisted his dagger, wrenching it from the ribs of a wailing prisoner. “You don’t even know how you’ve corrupted her, do you? You just care that she’s yours. You don’t realize she’s only yours because she’s so ashamed of what she’s done that she thinks all she deserves is a monster like you.”
The breath shot out of Grim’s lungs. That couldn’t be true. Isla loved him. He knew that. Before everything that happened, before she destroyed that village, she loved him.
He shook his head, rejecting the Sunling’s biting words. “She is my wife. I do not need to prove our love to anyone, least of all you. We will be reunited, and we will begin our life again. Together. We will have our family.” Grim strode forward, slicing his weapon to the side, gutting yet another fanged creature.
Oro just laughed. “Family? You think you’d make a good father?” he said. “You, who was responsible for the deaths of all his own siblings? Who killed his beloved sister to ascend the throne?”
Grim stumbled forward, shocked into silence. He had told Oro that fact centuries ago, in confidence. It was one of the most traumatic events of his life. And for him...for him tothrowit in his face...
Fuck this.
Fuck working together. Fuckhim.
He growled as he whirled around—and hurled the Sunling through the wall of water. Oro’s body was swept away, and Grim watched smugly as he had to fight back to land. He finally emerged a few yards from Grim, gasping and sputtering. A prisoner lunged for him, and he hardly stabbed the man in time. Oro looked up at Grim through his wet hair, eyes blazing with fury.
They both launched at each other, weapons lifted—until the ocean walls shuddered around them. Grim turned to Oro with open panic.They needed more time, they hadn’t found the lost king yet. Never mind the fact that if Cleo lost her hold, they’d never make it back to the surface without their powers.
The sea roared, and Grim thought this might be the end, but then steps began punching out of the wall of water, over and over, forming haphazard stairs that hardened into ice.
They looked at each other, blades still raised. They didn’t need to speak to know what this meant. Cleo was tiring out, and she was giving them a way back to the surface. They had to hurry.
Hot fury toward Oro was still burning under Grim’s skin. But as they glared at each other, they shared a silent understanding. Their love for her came first. Hatred for each other came second.
So, they turned and started sprinting.
They fought recklessly, razing prisoners down in bloody arcs, not caring if they caught a claw or fang here and there, not slowing as guts coated them from head to toe. They moved as one, Oro ducking to stab a prisoner in the shin to stop him in his tracks, Grim cutting off his head.
“He’s close. He has to be,” Grim said, as the prisoners became more creature-like. One was a scaled beast sitting on a pile of skulls. Grim wondered how he was able to feed down here, until he noticed the closest bodies to the creature were missing their heads.
Oro paused, realizing the same thing—that to reach those prisoners while chained itself, the creature must have a way to get close. They both came to a stop just as the beast opened its mouth, revealing row after row of teeth. He noticed something arcing above the creature’s head and realized it was a horned tail, cracking forward, ready to split them into pieces.
It was a scorpion. A giant fucking scorpion.
