It was the morning of the war. The oracle was leaning against the ice, as if she couldn’t hold herself upright. She smiled when she saw Isla.
“You left it until the very last moment, didn’t you?” she asked, her voice echoing. “My very last prophecy, the most important yet . . . and you almost miss it.”
Tears were dried on Isla’s cheeks. She was numb. She had ruined everything. The oracle had demanded she return. “What do you want?”
The oracle hummed against the ice. “My desires matter very little, actually,” she said. “Yours, however . . . Yours will decide the fate of the world.”
Isla shook her head. “Fate has already been decided,” she said. “I opened the portal.” Her voice shook. She had tried to close it again, but the door had not moved an inch.
Wrong. She had done everything wrong.
The oracle looked at her curiously. “Fate has not been decided,” she said. “The battle hasn’t even begun.”
No. That couldn’t be true.
“Wildling,” she said. “You need to understand, the future is split in half. There are two possibilities, not one greater than the other. I see you choosing each path. It changes almost every minute.”
“What paths?” Isla asked.
“Your heart decides the future of the world,” she said. “Your choice decides.”
“What choice?” she practically screamed.
“Oro and Grim.”
Isla froze at their mention.
“You will kill one of them. That much is certain. Which one lives, and which one dies . . . that has not yet been decided.”
She planned to kill Grim that very day . . . but the oracle said it was just as likely she would end up killing Oro.
It couldn’t be true.
Now that she had most of her memories back . . . she didn’t want to kill either of them.
“Nothing is decided,” the oracle repeated. “Both possibilities are just as likely. You will kill one of them, with your own hand.”
This couldn’t be her fate. She couldn’t be the one to decide the future of the world. Why her?
“You, whose heart has been split in two in more ways than one, are capable of both life and death. You are both curse and cure.”
Grim had said those same words to her—
Isla sobbed into her hands. Her mind was at war. The more she remembered—
“They’re almost here,” the oracle said. “Go, now. Make your choice.”
The oracle smiled, one last time, before the wall of ice cracked and fell, water forming a wave that Isla only missed by rising above, using her Wildling abilities.
When the water cleared, the oracle was gone.
Isla raced across the Mainland on Lynx’s back. He was wearing his full armor, scuffed with marks from previous battles with her mother. Lynx hadn’t needed much time to get used to the island. She held tightly as he expertly avoided the brambles she herself had set up, to block the Nightshades. Wind whipped her face. Tears were briny on her cheeks.
You will kill one of them.
No. Days before, she had declared she would help kill Grim. She would put a hold on his powers. But now . . . she remembered so much more.
He was her enemy. He was coming to destroy the island. He was going to kill innocents, kill her, if she didn’t stop him. So why did the idea of hurting him hurt so much? Why did it feel like she was being torn in two?
Their army was lined up and ready, spread across the only clearing left on the Mainland. Skyling warriors glimmered like ornaments, armor shining as they waited above. Ciel and Avel were among them. Each were supplied with dozens of metal-tipped arrows. Zed and Calder had worked hard to make sure of it.
Before Azul had left, hours before, he had given them a gift. A violent storm raged high above the island, contained between rows of clouds, as a fence to keep the dreks from being able to escape once the Skylings began using their special weapons.
Azul had looked devastated to leave. He had clutched her hands in goodbye and she had slipped one of her rings onto his finger, the same way she had the first time they ever saw each other. “Keep it safe for me,” she said. “Until we see each other next.”
Lynx came to a sudden halt in front of Oro. The traitorous creature greeted him with about ten times more fondness than he had greeted her.
Enya stood next to Oro in rose-gold armor, looking determined. She nodded at Isla, then at Lynx, who tipped his head in greeting.
A Sunling called to her, and she excused herself. Isla watched her go and—
“Be—be careful,” Isla said, surprising herself. She didn’t realize how much she had come to care about the Sunling, even after what she had told her.
Enya grinned over her shoulder. “Don’t worry about me, Wildling,” she said, winking. “I do not die today.”
Isla wondered if she could say the same.
She slipped off Lynx’s back and landed in front of Oro. She couldn’t meet his eyes, after what she had just learned. “They’ll be here soon,” she said. She wouldn’t tell him how she had visited the oracle. How could she explain that the woman had predicted she had just as much chance of killing Oro as Grim?
No. Impossible. She would kill Grim today and end the prophecy. There would be no chance that it could ever be Oro.
“Are you okay?” he asked. His hand was warm against her arm.
“No,” she said. “I’m afraid.” She had never been in a true battle before. And certainly not one of this scale. “I’m afraid I’ve already ruined everything.”
Oro shook his head and pulled her fully to his chest. “We have a plan,” he said, lips pressing against her forehead. “The portal being open doesn’t change that.”
No. But it certainly made the stakes higher.
Their plan had slightly shifted, now that they knew Grim was targeting the portal in the Place of Mirrors. Nightshade power didn’t work there, which meant Grim couldn’t portal directly inside. Isla had covered every inch of the isle in poisonous plants. The closest he could get was the bridge, where she would be waiting.
That was where they would battle.
“Isla,” Oro said softly. She looked up at him. He traced her lips with the tip of his finger and smiled. Then his face became serious. “If something happens to me, I want you to leave. I want you to take all my power and leave.”
She frowned. “Oro, nothing is going to—”
“Love,” he said, smiling again. He looked almost happy . . . almost at peace. He tucked away a stray hair and said, “It’s all for you.” He took her hand and pressed it over his heart. His eyes closed, for a moment, and he kept smiling. “All these years, I saved it for you.”
Isla didn’t know why she was crying.
“It’s yours. It will always be yours. Protect the people of Lightlark.”
No. She didn’t know why he was talking like that. All she could say was the truth. “I love you.”
Oro smiled wider, and this was too perfect, too much joy to fit in a person, too good to be true, like a sunny day right before a storm. He produced a rose in his hand and said, “I know.”
She reached beneath her shirt and showed him her golden rose. The necklace she wore below the one she couldn’t take off.
He took her into his arms and kissed her.
That was when she started to worry.
His kiss was desperate, like it might be one of the last things he would ever do. He leaned down and whispered in her ear, “One day, I’m going to take you to my favorite place.” She remembered him telling her about it. A beach on Sun Isle with water the green of her eyes. “And I’m going to lay you upon the rocks.” Her pulse quickened. “And I’m going to make it your favorite place too.”
Isla smiled. She wanted that, desperately. She could see it so clearly—Oro pressing her against the sand, waves washing around them while he wrung pleasure from her, the same way he had in their bedroom.
And she could see beyond that too.
“Tomorrow,” she said. “We’re going to do that not one day but tomorrow. We’re going to win, everything is going to be fine, Lightlark is going to survive, and we’re going to go to the beach tomorrow.”
Oro smiled. Nodded. But she knew him now. She could see the tiny signs.
He didn’t believe her.
One moment, the Mainland was empty, save for their own soldiers.
The next, Grim’s army was everywhere.
Isla’s blood went cold. Grim had portaled them all—thousands—at once. She knew how much power that required.
Shadows and ash erupted across the Mainland and were met by lashes of fire. Wind swept down from the sky. Metal clashed against metal. Screams, cries, bellows—
“Tomorrow,” Oro said, pressing one final kiss to her lips. Then he jumped into the air, straight into the battle.
His effect was immediate. Isla watched in awe as Oro’s fire became a wave that washed over dozens of Nightshade soldiers. As he pulled water from the sea and flooded an entire unit, washing them right off the side of the island. He made a sword of Starling sparks and began fighting, and anyone who dared approach him died.
Lynx knelt, and Isla pushed the ground beneath her to propel her onto his back. She slipped into her saddle. “Let’s go,” she said, and he raced forward.
A group of Nightshades stepped into their path, but before they could draw a single shadow, Lynx plowed through most of them and tore the rest apart with his mighty fangs.
From his back, Isla had the perfect vantage point. She turned in both directions, her arms moving wildly, burying some Nightshades in the ground, and covering others in a sea of poisonous plants. The flora she had created previously also fought back, almost extensions of herself, stabbing with their barbs and thorns.
Near the coast, Isla saw what looked to be a moving wall of water. It was Calder. He swept across the land inside a massive wave with a dozen serpent heads coming out of it. They each lashed out, swallowing Nightshades, drowning them. Calder looked deep in meditation. It seemed contrary to his peaceful nature to kill, and she knew every death would haunt him afterward.
Nightshades fought back with relish. Unlike Calder, most of them seemed to enjoy the killing. Darkness was everywhere, ink turned over, just like in her vision. She watched a Sunling turn to ash. A Skyling was sliced in half by a ribbon of umbra. His pieces fell from the sky, landing amid the barbed brush.
She shot her arm to the side and sent a line of Nightshades hurtling toward one of the Starling shields. Their bodies broke against it. She propelled another group into the center of her poisonous plants. Their screams quickly turned to silence.
No sign of the dreks. Not yet.
Perhaps she had been wrong. Maybe Grim hadn’t found a way to use the sword. Maybe the dreks wouldn’t be a threat. They would be in battle by now, wouldn’t they?
In a flash, the world went sideways as Lynx was struck. Isla just managed to encase them both in a shield of energy, and together they slid across the Mainland, raking through all the plants in their path.
“Lynx!” she yelled as soon as she was on her feet. She raced to the leopard. He was on his side. He wasn’t moving.
She threw herself atop him, guarding him with her power.
No. If he was hurt, if he was—
He made a sound of irritation below her, as if annoyed that she was scrambling to feel for his heartbeat.
She buried her face in his fur, relief cold through her blood. Shadows had eaten through part of his armor. If he hadn’t been wearing it, that would have been his skin.
They could have killed him.
Rage shot through her veins—energy filled her limbs. Oro’s voice was in her head, telling her to calm down. Telling her that being emotional would make her lose control.
She tried to breathe through the anger, but it only intensified, until her power was so saturated, she could feel it like a weight in her chest.
Before she could stop herself, her hand struck the ground before her, and the island shattered. Its terrain rippled, swallowing any Nightshade in its path, until they were buried beneath rock. More of them rushed forward, and she almost smiled, something wicked uncurling inside her chest.
She called her own.
They streamed from her fingers, and she gathered them up just like she had in her training with Remlar.
“Get down,” she told Lynx, and he ducked just as she turned her stream of shadows into a scythe that cut all the Nightshades around her down.
She was panting. She had used too much power too quickly.
But all the enemies around her were dead now.
More were joining them.
Skylings shot powerful gusts from above, forcing Nightshades toward the center. Sunlings created walls of flames. Grim’s army was slowly being boxed in, Lightlark’s legion advancing from all sides.
Now, she thought, grabbing her starstick from its place along her spine. “I’ll be right back,” she told Lynx, who bowed his head, before she portaled to Sky Isle, where her own legion was waiting.
“It’s time?” Singrid asked as soon as he saw her, grinning, clearly eager to join the battle. The Vinderland stood ready behind him, hundreds of warriors clattering their weapons together. Nearby, Remlar watched with curiosity, along with his people and the other night creatures she had recruited.
Their plan was simple. Oro’s armies would surround the Nightshade forces. Trap them. Keep moving them to the center of their battlefield. Then, Isla would portal the second wave of warriors right into the middle, so Grim’s forces would be enclosed in all directions.
“It’s time.”
Isla drew her puddle of stars as large as she could make it. And, with all her remaining strength, she kept it open as the hundreds of soldiers rushed in. She was the last to fall inside.
Battle cries pierced the air. Nightshades were now being smothered. Sunlings, Skylings, Vinderland, and night creatures all fought side by side.
Isla marveled at them. Enemies, united.
She was lifted off her feet by Lynx, who threw her onto his back without stopping. She gripped his saddle and joined the fighting.
The Nightshades didn’t stand a chance. They were almost easily overpowering them.
Then a woman came from the sea, on the back of a swell that dwarfed even the Singing Mountains.
The water crashed across the Mainland, and soldiers were covered, then frozen where they stood. They couldn’t move their legs. Lynx only avoided the ice by jumping at the last moment. His paws cracked as they landed on the frozen ground.
Suddenly, Cleo was right in front of her. She wasn’t wearing a dress. No, now she wore a fighting suit that covered every inch of her body except for her hands and face. It was white, with dark-blue detailing. She frowned at Isla and Lynx. “What a pleasant . . . pet,” she said, tilting her head. “You’re on the wrong side, though, Wildling. You said you wanted your realm to live, didn’t you?”
It wasn’t lost on her that Cleo hadn’t killed the Lightlark soldiers. She could have frozen them solid, but she didn’t. There was still a chance she would change sides.
Isla understood her now more than ever: A woman who had dedicated her entire life to leading her realm. Who had allowed herself one happiness. Who had lost it.
“Why are you doing this?” Isla asked.
“For him,” she said. Her son.
“I don’t understand.”
Cleo reached down into her collar and pulled out the necklace she wore. The blue stone shimmered. “The other world has power we can’t begin to fathom. Souls can rise once more.”
She understood now. Cleo believed there was a chance to see her son again.
“I can’t let you use the portal,” she said.
Cleo frowned. “I hoped you would see reason,” she said. “We really do need you.”
The Moonling raised her arms, and the ocean rushed to wrap around her body, curling, alive, forming her shape. She rose into the air, on a swirl of sea.
She shot her watery hand out, and her arm became a rope of water that sent Isla flying back, right off Lynx. Her leopard roared. Before she cracked her head against Cleo’s ice, a bed of flowers bloomed behind her, bursting through the frost, breaking her fall.
Cleo laughed, the sound muted and distorted by the water surrounding her. “Flowers won’t help you.”
Isla slowly rose. She took a step, and the ice broke. Flowers sprouted in her wake. Vines formed down her arms, long thorns growing against her knuckles.
She had been watching the Moonling fight. She used her hands. She needed them to wield water.
It was impossible to grip Cleo’s wrists in her water-covered form. Isla’s restraints would slip right off the sea.
Cleo was too busy staring Isla down to notice that Enya had become a living flame behind her. An understanding passed between Isla and the Sunling.
Isla charged. Cleo watched her, water swirling, towering.
So did Enya. She jumped, wings made of flames uncurling from her back and wrapping around the Moonling ruler.
Cleo was quick—she sent Enya backward with a thick stream of sea. But, for just a moment, Cleo’s water shield had melted, weakened by the flames.
It was all Isla needed. Roots flew up from the ground and tied around the Moonling’s wrists in seconds. They trapped her legs next. One wrapped around her neck for good measure. Flowers bloomed on the restraints. Isla plucked one.
“The flowers helped,” she said.
Isla didn’t see any more Moonlings. Cleo had a legion. Was she saving them for after Grim’s own army was finished?
Part of her feared that Wildlings might fight alongside Nightshade . . . but her people were nowhere to be found.
Isla wondered if that was better or worse.
She was back on Lynx in a moment, hurtling through the battle. Hope bloomed once more. Much of the Nightshades were dead.
They had a chance, Isla thought. It looked like they could win.
Until a crack sounded through the world, and dreks filled the sky. There were hundreds of them. So many, they looked like nighttime sky ripped to flying shreds.
They were everywhere. Skylings fought back, with their metal-tipped arrows, and some of the creatures were shot down, but they were quickly replaced.
A flash like a bolt of lightning shot above her—someone was twirling a special metal-tipped sword and traveling so quickly, they went through one of the dreks. The creature died instantly and fell, crushing a group of Nightshades.
Zed.
He really was that fast.
Isla breathed in and out, trying to focus her energy to the sky. She had one of the metal-tipped blades in her belt. With a shot of power, she might be able to take one of the beasts out. Just as she was about to try, a drek dipped low, and she was knocked off Lynx with the force of its wings. She hit the ground, and the air was stolen from her lungs.
Lynx lunged for her but was immediately surrounded by Nightshades. She gasped for breath, watching helplessly as he was surrounded in shadows.
No.
Two figures came crashing down from the sky.
Relief rained down her spine. “Thank you,” she croaked as Ciel reached a hand to help her up.
Even now, they were still watching out for her. Even—
Ciel’s kind face twisted in shock as a drek’s talon went clean through his stomach.
Avel’s scream shattered the world. She rushed to catch her twin in her arms, her hands shaking as she tried to keep all the parts that were falling from him together.
No. With a roar, she turned the drek to ash. She fished in her pockets for one of her last remaining vials of Wildling healing elixir. She poured it all over Ciel’s injury, hand shaking.
It was too late.
His eyes were cold and unblinking.
Avel cradled her brother in her arms and screamed.
This was her fault. Ciel was trying to help her.
Dreks landed all around, tearing limbs.
“You need to get up,” Isla told Avel. “They’re going to—they’re going to—”
She refused. She cradled her brother and wouldn’t even look at her. Tears swept down Isla’s face as she created a small dome of Starling energy around them both, hoping it would hold.
She heard a growl. Lynx. He was fighting off too many soldiers. Isla gathered her power and raged against all of them, until they were nothing but dust.
Her energy was drained. She fell to her knees, and Lynx shielded her with his body.
Through his legs, Isla watched, helpless, as death drowned everything around her. The dreks were endless. Grim must have made more.
It was just like her coronation. Limbs being torn. Screams turning to silence. Bodies fell from the sky more than dreks did. The flight force had been reduced to just a few units.
The island would fall. Oro would die. She would die.
A deafening roar sounded across the Mainland. Even the Nightshades stood still. They watched as a serpent with its jaw pulled all the way open swept across the land, swallowing all the Nightshades in its path.
The serpent-woman. She came. She stood on her massive tail and picked dreks off from the sky, stabbing them through with her fangs.
The dreks attacked the serpent, but their talons could not penetrate her scales. The storm Azul had created kept the dreks flying low, and she took out a dozen in a few seconds, hitting them with her tail, piercing them with her teeth.
Oro fought nearby, charring the skies with his flames. Zed sped through multiple dreks. Enya was a phoenix, fire-wings curling behind her as she fought.
It still wasn’t enough.
Isla looked around. The dead were everywhere, from both sides. Grim still hadn’t revealed himself, but this had to be put to an end.
Lynx helped her onto his back, and they raced across the Mainland, passing battling Vinderland, and Remlar, who had been fighting near the woods. He brought dreks down with the smallest movements. They shared a look.
The forest flew by in a flash, and then she was at the bridge. She slid off Lynx.
He would come to meet her. She knew he would. Isla waited for minutes, wincing as she heard the battle raging, willing Grim to come find her.
When more minutes passed, she almost pulled her necklace.
Then, the woods filled with shadows.
At once, the bridge was blocked by a new wave of the Nightshade army. They drew their shadows. They were everywhere.
A howl broke the air in half.
“Even think about touching her, and I’ll kill you,” a voice said. Steps sounded behind her. “Hello, heart.”
