Page 140 of Lightlark
Oro walked to one of the shelves assuredly, as if he had done so countless times before. He plucked a book from the rest and opened it.
Markings had been etched across the page in swirling ink, an ancient language she didn’t understand.
“You can read this?” Isla asked.
Oro nodded.
“Read everything,” she said. “Everything about the heart. Please.”
He agreed. But instead of looking down at the page, he looked at her. “Before I do, there’s something you should know, Wildling.” He was serious, no amusement or meanness in his expression.
Her stomach sank on instinct. Ready to be disappointed.
“I would have informed you at the beginning. But after what Grim told you ... I was waiting for him to reveal the information himself.” She swallowed. Tell her what? What could be so important? “I’m guessing he never did.”
Isla just stared at him. Waiting.
“My ancestor, Horus Rey, and Grim’s, Cronan Malvere, created the island.”
She nodded. She knew that.
“And so did yours.”
She blinked. No. That wasn’t true. Isla placed a hand against the table just to feel something steady. Wildlings weren’t even really accepted on the island anymore ... they didn’t helpcreateit. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Lark Crown. She made the land we stand upon. The island was named after her.”
Lark Crown.She didn’t know that name.
“You’re lying. If that was true, everyone would know it. It wouldn’t be a secret.”
Oro’s eyes darkened. “I’ve never lied to you,” he said. “And it wasn’t a secret, not for a long while. Until, like much of our knowledge, it was lost to time. Thousands of years went by. Sunlings ruled for so long,whocreated the island was forgotten. But not by everyone.”
He was serious. And Isla knew he had nothing to gain from a lie like this.
If it was true, why hadn’t Grim told her when they had discussed the creation of the island? She remembered what Oro had said after she had called Grim the most forthcoming ruler.
Not as forthcoming as you think.
Her lips pressed together. No, it was not a lie. Now she understood why Oro had wanted to make a deal with her. Why he hadn’t yet truly betrayed her.
“That’s why you needed me,” she said, her voice very tight. “To find the heart.”
Oro’s expression did not change as he nodded. “It can only be found and unlocked by one of us. Sunling, Wildling, or Nightshade. I assumed ... with both of us ...”
Only joined can the curses be undone.
He was simply following the prophecy. An inexplicable part of her shriveled inside.
All Oro’s words had edges, and they cut into her mind. Oro had confirmed, weeks before, that he believed theoriginal offensewas someone using the heart of Lightlark to cast the curses. He now claimed only a Sunling, Wildling, or Nightshade could access the heart’s powers.
Which meant one oftheirrealms had spun them.
Not Cleo. That didn’t make any sense ...
Had Isla’s ancestor used the heart to cast the curses? Or Oro’s brother, King Egan?
Or Grim’s late father?
