Page 30 of Skyshade
And she had shattered all of it.
“I understand,” he said, and he looked like he did. Or, at least, like he was trying to. Most of all, he looked full of regret. He closed his eyes for a moment. Opened them. “Can you ever forgive me?”
She knew what he was asking. From the moment she had arrived, she had made it clear she resented him for everything. He was asking if they could ever go back to how things were before. If she could ever truly love him.
No, she wanted to say.
Instead, she said, “I’m not sure.” It was the truth.
He nodded. She was surprised when he said, “You’re right. I don’t know what love is. I don’t know how to love. If you ever gave me another chance to love you, I would learn. I would learn the right way to love you.”
Then, he left.
STORMSTONE
“I hear congratulations are in order.” Azul’s booming voice overtook the room. She hadn’t seen him since before the fight between Lightlark and Nightshade, when the Skylings had voted for their ruler not to participate.
So, he had heard about her marriage. “Who told you?”
“Who do you think?”
“Zed.” The Skyling was fast as lightning. He hadn’t ever truly trusted her. Now, she knew he never would.
Azul nodded. “I heard the king is...inconsolable.” He studied her, as if waiting for her reaction. She showed none. If she thought too hard about Oro, and their life together, and the betrayal he must feel right now, she would start crying, and she didn’t know if she would ever stop.
Instead, she raised her head. Azul stared pointedly at her necklace. “What would you have had me do?”
“Well, to start, you could have not married him.”
Isla ground her teeth. “When I met him, I was a naïve puppet that had only ever known the confines of her room. Then...after the battle...it was the only thing to stop the killing. To stop the death. To stop everything.”
He shook his head. “No, you knew what he was when you married him. You knew how many people he had killed. You know now. Why stay? To stop a war? You are not a fool, Isla, so stop playing one. Do not think for a moment that Grim won’t invade again. Nothing in the world can come between him and his sights set, not even you.”
She hoped he was wrong.
“I stay because I’m a monster too, Azul.”
He gave her a look. “You are many things, Isla Crown, but you are not a monster.”
“You’re wrong. That is why I came here.”
“To tell me I’m wrong?”
“No. To tell you the prophecy.”
Isla hadn’t told anyone. But someone needed to know. Someone needed to keep her accountable.
She needed to be careful with who she trusted; she knew that. But Azul was the most trustworthy person she had ever met. And, perhaps more than anyone, she trusted herself the least.
She told him every single word. Azul listened, frowning. “It is certain?”
“According to the oracle, yes. One or the other.”
For a moment, it looked like he pitied her. Then, “So which one is it?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I really don’t. But either way, as it stands...either death would mean the end of thousands.”
Nexus bound all people to their rulers. It was a curse.
