Page 156 of Grim and Oro
The next morning, I awake to screaming.
Enya rushes into my room just as I get to my feet. “Dead—they’re dead,” she yells, sputtering.
“Who?” I ask, rushing forward.
Her normally fiery hands are cold. She’s trembling. Her eyes are full of tears as she breathes, “Everyone.”
No. She has to be wrong.
The screaming intensifies. Screaming inside and outside the castle.
I rush toward my window, to see, and she drags me back just in time—but not before a sliver of sun reaches me.
It slices into my skin—burning. I rear back and turn around, pain radiating across my arm. The sun that always brought me power and peace and life ... it’s now a poison.
That’s when the screaming doubles. Triples.
“Egan,” I say, stumbling toward the door. I look over my shoulder. “Try to find Calder. And Zed.” Is the sun burning them too? Are they all right?
I run faster than I ever have in my life, practically flying down the halls as castle attendants stream out of rooms. Relief feels lighter than air as I finally spot my brother.Alive, he’s alive. I feel it for only a moment, before I see the serious set of his face.
“What’s happening?” I ask, careful to stay away from the windows. He’s with Violet. Of course he is. They’re holding hands.
“It’s a curse,” my brother says. The word is an arrow to the chest.
“How do you know?” I say, slowly.
“Nothing else could be this powerful.”
A curse. A Nightshade ability. Only one person here would be able to spin one.
No. I rush out of the room. Egan has to be wrong. This—this isn’t a curse. But as I move down the hall, I feel it. Something in the air, like a shadow, masking everything. Nightshade power. Overwhelming the world.A curse.
Egan is right. It’s a curse on us all.
I go still as I turn the next corridor. My knees buckle. It’s full of Starlings.
Dead. They’re all dead.
Agnes. I rush over to her. She’s sprawled out on the floor, her hand outstretched, right toward her daughter.Ara.
Agnes’s eyes are open wide and glistening. They don’t close. I fall to my knees beside her and try to lift her head. I cradle it in my lap, the same way she did to me, as a child. I can’t lose another mother. Not again.
“No,” I say. “No.” Water. I need water. Maybe I can heal her, or—
Steps. Echoing. Then, slowing. Stopping in front of me. I’m still staring at Agnes’s lifeless body, but somehow, I know it’s him.
Slowly, I set Agnes back down, onto the floor. Slowly, I rise. Slowly, I look up, fury coiling in my bones.
Grim’s eyes are sharp. “I know how this looks,” he says, his hands outstretched in front of him. “This isn’t my fault.”
The second the words leave his mouth, I feel the lie. It’s twisted, edged slightly in truth, but the bitterness is enough.
My flames barrel out of me in an endless stream, hitting him right in the center of his chest, sending him soaring through the hall. He hits the stone floor with a sickening crack. Energy fills my palms. Flames coat my arms.
“You saw a king weakened by love, getting ready to turn over the crown, and thought this was perfect timing, didn’t you?” I hit him with a burst of Starling energy next, and he goes flying again, landing roughly against the wall. This is my fault. I freed him. Itold himabout Egan’s plans.
“I can’t believe I trusted you,” I say through gritted teeth. “I can’t believe Ibelieved in you.”
