Page 226 of Grim and Oro
Bitterness.
I feel my heart harden.
We walk in silence, until the blue bird swoops down, squawking wildly. Isla follows it, and I follow her, knowing I would follow her anywhere, if she let me. Snow flurries around us, blocking our view, and the ground transitions to ice. The trees become sparser.
The bird finally flies down, right into a nest.
There. It must be there, somewhere. We just have to wait for the heart to reveal itself.
There’s a cave nearby with a view of the nest. I make a fire with little effort, remembering how hard it used to be. How interesting it is that difficult things can become easy, with practice.
She eyes my fire curiously. I want to know what she’s thinking, as she slowly traces a finger around my crown. She startles, then scowls at her finger. A tiny drop of blood falls to the ground, staining it red. “It’s unreasonably sharp,” she asserts.
I laugh. How long has it been since I’ve laughed?
She smiles, not offended at all, almosthappy that I’m happy, and—
Pain splits me in half. I double over, my vision going black for just a moment. My hands turn to fists.
Fire—fire and ice are cutting through me. I feel myself fracture. Outside the cave, snow falls, ice breaks.
My fingers dig into the cave floor as I funnel power, trying to force the world still. We’re too close. Too close to finding the heart for the island to break.
Not yet, I say, with every bit of me I pour into it.Not yet.
My skin is raw. It hurts everywhere. I shiver, tensing only when I feel her kneeling in front of me. I close my eyes tightly and lean against the wall.
“Are you all right?”
I nod, then jolt as another tremor runs through me. My hand slams to the ground, and I feel the stone of the cave break beneath my fingers. Instead of backing away, she leans forward. She isn’t afraid of my power. Not at all.
I feel her hand on my shoulder and go still. She takes it away, and I immediately mourn her touch.
Another painful jolt.
“What—what can I do?” she asks.
I just wantrelief.
This piercing through my body makes me lose any semblance of shame. So, I ask her something I’ve been wanting to say since the very first time I met her. “Sing for me, Wildling.”
It’s not so much a request as it is a plea.
And she does. Her voice is as beautiful as it was that first day, as it was on Carmel. It’s the same voice that’s been echoing through my head for months. Now it echoes through the cave, surrounding me in song.I could die like this, I think, with a smile on my lips.
She sings and sings, and it’s like medicine. Slowly, the pain retreats. My eyes open. I watch her, sitting on her feet, knees near my legs, singing.
Then she goes quiet.
“Why did you stop?” I ask, wondering if I can ask her to keep going.
She motions behind me and says, breathlessly, “Because of that.”
I’m on my feet in a moment. Both of us are. We rush to the entrance of the cave as the sun begins to rise.
Something is floating right below the nest. It’s white, like the moon.
“Is that an egg?” Isla asks.
