Page 134 of Nightbane
Isla knew what she needed to do.
Remlar was having tea in his hive. A tree grew beneath her, taking her to its highest floor, and she walked through the gaps, right to his makeshift throne. Vines were crawling in her wake, mixing with shadows.
“You look determined, Wildling,” he said, putting his cup down. “You look ruinous.”
“I want you to train me in something wrong. Something treacherous.”
“Oh?”
“I want you to teach me how to cut off someone’s power through a love bond. At least, for a few moments.”
Remlar’s lips crawled into a wide, wide smile. “It would be my pleasure,” he said.
Grim had the Wildlings. Three days remained. She convened everyone in the war room once more.
“I summoned him,” she said, and Oro turned to look at her. His expression was unreadable.
Zed stood roughly. “You what?”
“I thought I could reason with him,” she said. She knew it was risky. Stupid. Still, at any moment he could have portaled into her room and taken her. He hadn’t, which meant Grim wanted her to remember everything. He wanted her to go back to him willingly.
And he needed something from Lightlark, beyond her. She just needed to figure out what it was.
Zed’s look was incredulous. “That ... that’s treason,” he said. “You summoned our enemy to the Mainland castle. The person who is hell-bent on destroying all of us.” He looked to Oro, whose expression had hardened.
“Let her speak,” he said, though his voice did not have any hint of the warmth it had developed over the last few months with her.
“When I was with him, I could feel ... I could feel that he still loves me.”
Azul leaned forward. “You felt the connection?”
She nodded.
Zed still glared at her. He wouldn’t ever trust her, she knew that. If she were him, she wouldn’t trust her either.
Still, he was wrong about her. She loved Oro. She was loyal to Lightlark. She closed her eyes and said, “I know how we can win.” They waited. No one moved an inch. “Grim is too powerful. It makes him nearly impossible to defeat. Especially with the sword. But he loves me—I can use the link and take away his powers long enough for us to overpower him.”
Silence.
Enya was the first to speak. “Have you ever tried doing that before?” Isla shook her head. Not that she remembered. Yet. “Have you ever tried ... even accessing his powers?” Again, she shook her head. Not that she remembered.
Yet.
She turned to face Oro. “But I’ve done it before ... Accessed powers through the link.”
It wasn’t easy to do. Especially for someone like her, who had only recently wielded power at all.
“It requires an intense ... connection,” Oro said. He wasn’t looking at her. He shook his head. “It would be too big of a risk. If you couldn’t steal his powers immediately, he would know what you were trying to do and would portal away.”
Calder said, “Oro. This could change everything. It could change the entire tide of the war. Though ... we would be sentencing all Nightshades to death.”
“Maybe not,” Enya said. “If Isla took all his power, it would spare his people, wouldn’t it?”
“It should in theory, though something like that has never been tested through a love bond,” Azul said. “This is a very ... unique circumstance.” Azul studied her. “You would be willing to kill him?”
The words hit Isla like a stone in the chest, even though she had been the one to suggest it.
Kill Grim.
