“For now,” Isla said. She rubbed her eyes, trying to erase those images from her mind.
The woman sighed. “Yes. For now. But you must forgive yourself in order to move forward. It’s the only way your mind will be focused enough to make the right choice next.”
Isla wanted to believe her. She knew, after seeing what she had in the pool, that she was right. But her shame lived in her very marrow. It was deep, and insidious. She would never forgive herself for what she had done. Not until she was able to bring them all back.
“Don’t let your mistakes haunt you, Isla. Use the past to fix the future.” The woman was right. Isla needed to learn from her mistakes, not live by them.
She had asked the pool to show her all her regrets, to see how different choices might have changed things. But that was the thing about life, she realized. There was no perfect scenario. Sometimes, the ending was inevitable, no matter how many times she tried to change it.
If her choice decided the fate of the world, she needed to make it after she had forgiven herself—as well as those who had hurt her. And maybe those same people could help her now.
Isla closed her eyes. The woman had said she could speak to people in her soul. People she had killed.
That was how she ended up walking into a familiar room.
And seeing a familiar figure with long, silver hair.
ORO
“Who’s this kid?” Grim asked. Oro had brought Grim to Maren’s cliffside cottage to meet the Starling who would help them reach Isla.
“I’m not a kid!” Cinder said, energy flaring around her in anger.
Grim raised an unimpressed brow. “Yes. You are.”
She glared at him, then whirled to Oro. “I don’t like him.”
“Join the rest of the world,” Oro grumbled, and Cinder laughed. Grim glowered at them both.
Cinder tilted her head at Grim, then. “Hey! You’re her husband!” she said. “You’re...the villain! The one we were preparing to fight against!”
Grim nodded without a word. If he had feelings about being called a villain, he didn’t show them.
Cinder made a face. “But she’s so nice! Why would she marry...” Her nose scrunched. “You?”
Grim looked over at Oro. “We really need her?” he asked flatly.
Oro nodded.
He sighed. “Isla...likes her?”
Oro nodded again, narrowing his eyes at the Nightshade since Cinder could obviously hear them.
Grim ran his hand down his face, looking monumentally irritated. Then he sighed again, knelt to her level, and said, “I have a dragon. Want to meet him?”
Oro rolled his eyes as Cinder proceeded to retract all her previous assumptions about Grim, correct as they were. With a flick of Grim’shand, Wraith appeared in the skies above, making the ground tremble when he landed.
Cinder screamed with joy, sparks streaming from her in ribbons. Fearlessly, she hurled through the air on a stream of energy, landing between the dragon’s eyes, her arms wide in an embrace.
Wraith went cross-eyed then sighed, settling on the ground. He didn’t seem to mind as Cinder clumsily climbed onto his back. “I want to fly!” she commanded.
Grim began to protest—when Wraith shot into the clouds. Grim and Oro looked at each other, frozen, their eyes wide.
A moment later, Oro was shooting toward the clouds as Grim portaled away.
Oro raced through the skies like an arrow, cursing Grim, cursing Isla for marrying him, cursing Cinder for being so impressed with a dragon. But mostly hoping Cinder was okay. Almost worse than that fear was the realization that Maren would skewer him if she heard about this.
But when he reached them, he found Grim on the dragon with Cinder. And the girl was lighting up the sky in silver, her joy permeating even the clouds.
