Grim had spent centuries keeping his realm from destruction. If it fell, it would mean all that pain and suffering would have been for nothing. He wouldn’t let one woman ruin it all.
Shadows engulfed him as he shot out of the room after her.
ORO
She had chosen Grim.
Oro surfaced from the water, gasping. He was alone, so it had worked—they had opened the portal. A wave washed over him, pulling him down into the depths of the pool, salt burning his throat. The sea had gone wild, the tide rushing in nearly strong enough to drag him away.
He almost wished it would.
He and Grim had given her a choice...and she had made it.
Oro crashed through the surface again, the reality of his situation settling into his blood and bones. His heart pulsed with pain he had not known for centuries. Soul-crushing loss. Devastation. He grieved the future he had imagined for them both—a glistening, golden life that now felt like a cruel joke.
She had chosen Grim before, but it hadn’t seemed permanent until now. He always knew that the love he shared with Isla was real, but her love for Grim was real too. And apparently, it was stronger.
Oro closed his eyes, and, for the first time since Isla had disappeared in the center of that maze, he allowed himself to finally break. The tears sliding down his face were a foreign sensation. He hadn’t let himself cry since his mother’s death over half a millennium ago.
Oro had well and truly lost Isla.
A tear hit the water, and the entire island trembled. He was tied to it, irrevocably, by the curse of nexus. And as his heart and soul fractured, the very island seemed to break with him.
The white cliffs to his side began to collapse, falling into the sea in clouds of dust and ocean spray. Oro heard shouting in the distance but ignored it as a massive tidal wave crested the horizon, rushing right toward him and the island.
Power seared through Oro’s veins. He knew the danger of using emotions as fuel for abilities—he knew it was too easy to take too much, to scrape every last morsel of power until he had nothing left. But this loss had finally shattered the locks on his self-control.
The wave reached him and became steam on impact—his body had turned to flame. He soared into the air, wind wrapping around him, mixing with his fire, creating a flaming tornado.
He was king of Lightlark. The most powerful person in this world.
He had never truly allowed himself to delve into the depths of his power before. Maybe he would find something there, something that could stop this pain.
Fiery wind surged around him and the cyclone swelled, taking Oro higher. Below him, the ocean boiled in rings of crackling energy. A bolt of lightning flashed above him, the boom of thunder reverberating through him.
“Oro!” someone bellowed, over the roar of flames of sea and wind. He looked down—a figure had stepped through the fire, into the eye of the tornado.
Enya.
He closed his eyes. He didn’t want to see her—he didn’t want to see anyone. He couldn’t listen to what they had to say.
Oro knew it had been foolish to continue loving Isla through everything, even after he learned she was married. But all his rules and safeguards and trepidation burnt to ash around her. She was his constellation, and he had hoped that they would find their way back to each other.
Now that she was gone...now that he knew she would never be with him again...
Only power could fill this gaping hole in his chest. For almost his entire life, he had pushed down the very thing that made him great. He had refused to give into his unprecedented strength, to lose control over himself. But now...
His tornado grew, energy coursing through his veins like lightning. It feltgood. He lifted even higher into the sky, pulling rocks and trees into his tempest. He would destroy everything in his path. He would pour himself out until he was as empty and hollow as she had left him.
“Oro.”
Enya’s voice was a desperate gasp. He opened his eyes and saw his friend on her knees, grasping at her throat. The air in the center of the tornado was being sucked up too forcefully for her to breathe. It had already extinguished her flames.
Her eyes were wide. Pleading. He had known her for his entire life, and he had never seen her so afraid of him. Not when they were children and he had accidentally gilded an attendant. Not when he had set the sea aflame.
“Your eyes,” Enya said, and he looked up at the water that had joined his tornado. He made a sheet of ice. And in his reflection, he saw flames dance in his irises.
“You’re not—alone,” Enya croaked, and Oro blinked. It was true that he had never felt heartbreak like this.
