Page 128 of Skyshade
Enya laughed without humor. “Why should we trust you?”
Isla let shadows engulf one of her arms. The other was wrapped in tendrils of ice, air, crackling energy, and fire.
“That proves nothing,” Enya said. “Only that they both still love you, which is obvious.” She glared at each of them, like loving her was a personal failing.
Isla looked at Grim. Begrudgingly, he made the tiniest of flowers bloom in his hand.
Then, Isla turned to Oro. It hurt to look at him. His eyes were not hollow, not lifeless, but full of pain. Fear. Determination. She remembered a time when they had only been filled with love.
Slowly, he uncurled his fingers. Petals dripped from them, onto the floor, roses tipped in thorns.
They both loved her...and she loved them. She wouldn’t do anything to put them in danger, not right now, regardless of what the prophecy predicted.
It wasn’t a guarantee...but it was something.
Enya looked unconvinced. “Why should we listen to you?”
“You don’t have to,” Isla said. “You can listen to his plan,” she said, motioning toward Grim. “It involves using the portal on Lightlark, destroying the island, and sending all of Nightshade to the otherworld.”
Grim nodded, looking as if that plan sounded perfectly fine to him. Enya glared at them both.
“My plan involves sending Lark away forever.”
Silence. Then, Oro said, “We’re listening.”
She told them about the storm season. About the portal on Nightshade—and her plan to send Lark through it. She told them about the missing page she and Oro had discovered, detailing exactly how to do so.
Then, very slowly, she dropped the bone onto the table. Oro’s jaw worked, watching it.
Enya turned slowly to face the king. “Tell me that’s not what I think it is.”
He remained silent.
She stood, fire flaring from her fists, scorching the floor. “That is our greatest relic. And you gave it to her? You—”
“He didn’t give it to me,” Isla clarified. “I stole it.”
Enya whirled around to face Oro, speechless. His jaw tensed.
“I need it to create the markings necessary to close the portal,” she said. “Its power is the best chance we have of defeating Lark.”
Enya looked incredulous.
Grim said, “If you sun fools have a better plan, we’re listening.”
Enya’s fire flared—before weakening. She slowly sat down. For a few moments, her anger heated the room. Then she sighed and said, “And what part do we each play?”
“You and Calder, gather up everyone left on Lightlark, all the remaining forces, then wait for me. We need to portal them to the newlands. Lark is here, and they’re just more warriors to add to her army.”
Enya begrudgingly nodded.
She turned to Grim. He waited, expectant. “Did you do what I asked with the sword?” Cronan’s sword, the one they had searched for in the past, that controlled the dreks. She had asked him to return it to the thief’s lair, but now she needed it.
He nodded.
“I need you to get it back.”
“I can do that.”
