Page 146 of Skyshade
I wasn’t sure if it was going to work, but it did. Your mother still needed blood to survive, but she could fall in love with me without feeling compelled to kill me.
I wish I could tell you every detail of our story, Isla, but it will have to be saved for a different time. I can tell you this, though. In the early days of meeting your mother, I could not stay on the Wildling newland. She was under near constant supervision, and my presence would have been noted. So, every night, I would return to a place I had discovered years before, when my ruler had first given me use of the portalingdevice. An uncharted island so lovely, I called it by the name I always wanted to give my future daughter—Isla.
Each day before I left your mother, I would take one of her favorite flowers or fruits from her garden. It would annoy her endlessly. She thought I was doing it to be cruel, but I was planting it here. On this island. So that it would be made up of all her favorite things.
Every fruit, every flower, every animal, every insect on this island was loved by your mother, Isla. And she was loved, let me tell you.
When she was with child, your mother began having strange dreams. She started to believe that our child would be born at the cusp of a new era. And that she would either save our world...or end it.
Did you ever wonder what your mother’s flair was? She never told her guardians, so I’m guessing you don’t know.
Your mother could see the future, Isla. And that is how we know that your life will be a difficult one.
It is how I know you will read this letter on the eve of a day that will change your life, and this world, forever.
It is how I know what your flair will be.
It is how I know your birth will kill us both.
If you feel guilt for what you did, let me put an end to it. We knew what would happen if we chose to have you, Isla. We knew all that would occur. We made a choice, and we have never once regretted it.
You will have my flair. You will not know the pain of the curses. But you will not have your mother’s, not yet. We took another trip to the blacksmith, and your mother told him he would die within the next quarter of a century. He was so pleased, he did us the favor of creating a vessel for your mother’s flair. She wanted it to be your choice, to knowthe future, or not. She knows you will make many hard choices.
Your mother’s flair is here. It’s been waiting for you. Take it, and you will know everything.
You might be wondering how I can be so cavalier about my own imminent death. The truth is, my regard for my own life is nothing compared to my regard for your mother’s. From the moment I met her, I loved her. From the moment we were married, I swore to protect her from anything that would ever cause her danger. I have killed anything that ever sought to harm her. There has only ever been one person I have loved more than your mother, Isla. Only one person I could bear losing her for.
And that is you.
Tears swept down her face, falling onto the page. They knew. They knew she would kill them, and they had her regardless.
They knew everything that would happen to her. And still...they believed in her. They believed she would make the right choices.
Beside the letter was a bracelet. She recognized the blacksmith’s work. It had a tiny charm. A vial.
Somehow, she knew, breaking the tiny vial would mean claiming her mother’s power. Knowing the future.
Knowing whether she would be able to change her fate. Knowing which of the two men she loved would live.
Part of her wanted to break it, take it, know immediately to stop the doubt and pain. Another part didn’t want to know. Just wanted to stick to her plan.
She fastened the bracelet onto her wrist.
Then, she got on Lynx’s back, pet him between the ears, and said, “Let’s go home.”
ILLUSION
Her plans were in place. Her hair was still wet, her arm burned, and her muscles were sore from everything she had prepared.
Everyone knew their orders. Grim was making sure of it now.
Lynx was sleeping peacefully in the middle of the hall of the winter palace. She heard him release a low growl and knew exactly what that meant.
She turned, nearly crashing right into Grim.
Isla hadn’t seen him so exhausted in a while. His shadows were pulled in tighter than usual. His posture was slightly bent.
Still, he picked her up by the backs of her legs and set her on the dining table she had been pacing beside. “You’re disappointed,” he said, his cold nose running up the side of her neck, making her shiver. “Why?”
