Horus shook his head again. He and Oro wore matching crowns. “You should have left the threads alone. Some powers are better left unused. They destroy the balance.” The balance between light and darkness. The one that was supposed to have existed, before Nightshade and Lightlark became enemies.
“There is no balance in a world of ashes,” Oro said.
Horus went quiet. Finally, he spoke. “Even so...I can’t help you. What you seek...is nearly impossible. We made it difficult on purpose,” he explained. “The portal was built into the very foundation of the island. Meant to be used only as a last resort.”
“You saidnearlyimpossible,” Oro said. “So how do we build a new one?”
He did not drop Horus’ gaze, until finally, his ancestor sighed. “What is your flair?” he asked.
“I can sense truths,” Oro said.
Horus’ eyes narrowed, peering at Oro closely, as if searching for something. “Our world has already almost ended,” Oro said. “But we have survived countless trials. Countless obstacles. I refuse to let our world die now.”
Horus looked down at the threads. Oro got the sense that he was about to turn around again.
But instead, he sighed, and said, “First, you need to know the world’s name.”
Oro took a step forward, memorizing every word he spoke.
The world’s name wasSkyshade. He knew that now.
“Next...you need portaling ability.” Grim’s power. Cronan’s.
“Massive amounts of energy.” That...they would figure out.
“A living piece of the other world.” Living?
“And, lastly, and most importantly...great Sunling, Nightshade, and Wildling power.”
Isla. They would need her to reform the love bonds to access her Wildling abilities. If only they could convince her to help them.
Still, Horus shook his head. “Even then, with all of that...the journey would kill you. The bridge between worlds, the one that brought us here, it was built for a reason. Without a bridge...you wouldn’t survive the journey. Tears between worlds have teeth. That’s what we say...and we learned it the hard way.”
“What if we used linked sacred waters?” Oro asked.
Horus considered that. “If they were truly linked and of the same waters...they might protect you. But you would still need everything else. And even then—”
Oro could feel his energy waning. The throne room was slowly turning to sand, melting all around him. He was falling away, pulled back to his own time.
“Thank you,” Oro said hurriedly. His ancestor frowned with worry. He opened his mouth—but Oro was flung through thousands of years before he could hear what he had to say.
Grim was the first person he saw when he landed. He caught him by the shoulders, keeping him from falling on his face.
As soon as he was steady on his feet, Oro dropped the threads. He gritted his teeth as the strands were pulled through his skin, into a bloody mess on the floor. They shifted into a pile of sand, then back to string again.
“Well?” Grim demanded. “Did you get what we need?”
A slow smile crept across Oro’s face as he said, “I did.”
GRIM
Grim mulled over everything Oro had just told him they needed to create the portal.
“This is good,” Grim said, pacing. Now, at least they had a lead on how to get to her.
“I think I know where we can get the energy,” Oro said from his throne. “But where do we get something living from the otherworld—fromSkyshade?” The Sunling said the word like he was trying it out.
Grim scoured his brain. He tried to remember everything else Isla had been searching for on her own quest to find Cronan’s portal—and he thought of something Azul had said. He had mentioned a ring. Grim remembered it. Isla had wanted to use the ring to capture a shred of storm, to try and find the portal.
