Oro sighed, his entire body melting in relief. He slowly made his way back to the ground. They didn’t have time for this, he knew. All their futures were uncertain. But Cinder was only a child. This moment of joy was worth it.
Wraith managed to dredge up half a field with his talons as he landed. Cinder was beaming. She slid down Wraith’s nose and landed on her feet. “I always wanted to ride a dragon!” she said. “I’ve seen so many of them!”
Grim frowned. “You have?”
“In my dreams,” she said confidently.
Grim glanced over at Oro, who shrugged a shoulder. “She says she’s been dreaming about another world her entire life.”
Grim’s brow furrowed, like he was deep in thought. He looked over at the girl again. “You want to help us?” he asked.
She nodded vigorously.
“Good,” he said. “Because that wife of mine you mentioned? The one who’s very nice?”
She nodded again.
“I would like to get her back.”
ISLA
Aurora was sitting in front of a hearth, her hands splayed out on her lap in front of her. She turned as Isla appeared, and she looked exactly as Isla remembered her. It was as if no time at all had passed. For a moment, they just stared at each other.
Then Aurora broke the silence. “I can’t feel it, you know,” she said matter-of-factly. “The fire. It’s always cold here.”
Isla swallowed. She didn’t know whereherewas exactly. It looked like Celeste’s room in the Starling castle but blurred around the edges, like she was dreaming. She didn’t know if this was just a piece of Aurora’s soul and if the rest lived elsewhere.
“Come,” Aurora said, motioning beside her. “Sit.”
Isla didn’t want tosit. She wanted to stab her through the heart for the way she had betrayed her. For the years of deception and lies. For every single person her decisions had killed.
But...she also wanted to hug her. Because Celeste had once been her only friend. Herbestfriend. And those feelings didn’t just die. A love like that was not simply lost.
Aurora sighed. She stood, wiping her faded gray dress to rid the cinders from the hearth. “I wasn’t always like this,” she said. Isla stared at her blankly, not following. “Villainous.”
Isla’s eyes narrowed. “Forgive me for not trusting a word you say.”
Aurora nodded. “Smart. You were always smart. Except when it came to love.” She smirked. “Love made you an utter fool.”
A flash of anger roared to life in Isla’s chest—then withered. Isla didn’t have the strength for hatred. Not anymore, after everything.And especially not for someone already dead. “Love madeyoua murderer.”
Aurora had been in love with King Egan. Once she realized he loved her best friend instead, she spun the curses, killing thousands in the process. She plunged the world into five hundred years of misery.
For a moment, Aurora’s eyes shifted. Her confident expression faltered, revealing the scared and sad woman underneath. One who had killed her best friend over a man. One who perhaps felt...regret.
But in the next instant, her resolve hardened again. She pursed her lips. “My soul was split, too. Just like yours,” Aurora said, looking over at her. “It happened when I was young. When my parents—when they died.”
Isla had never heard this story. Celeste had never spoken of her parents, and Isla always avoided the subject—because of the curses, they would’ve died when her friend was very young.
Aurora continued, “That loss...it split me for good, leaving me to teeter between good and evil. But I let it feed my power, harnessing more energy than anyone could ever fathom possible.” She winced. “Violet...she understood what I struggled with. She made me good.”
As if plunged into Aurora’s head, Isla saw it. Her ancestor and Aurora as friends. It reminded her of her own relationship with Celeste.
The Starling’s eyes hardened. “And then...when she betrayed me...” Aurora turned back to the fire. “She got what she deserved.”
Isla could see those two sides of Aurora as clear as day. Was that Isla’s destiny too? To be torn not between two men but between becoming a villain or a hero?
“When it came to choosing between vengeance and love, you know which one won out.”
