Page 118 of Grim and Oro
Midair, I made it gold. I caught it. Threw it back toward a pile.
“How about this?” She laughed as she threw a silver dagger at me. I turned it gold and caught it again.
We turned a corner. She fished around in her pockets. Threw up a piece of bread she must have kept from dinner. “This?”
It became golden bread. That delighted her.
She ran faster. I chased her through the mazes of the armory, her footsteps loud. Her laugh echoing.
I turned a corner—
And there he was. Albert. Here to investigate all the noise.
It happened so quickly.
This power spilled out of me, as if on instinct.
Before I could stop it, before I could fully process what was happening, his skin was rippling into gold. His eyes were widening. He let out a single gasp of pain.
And then, he went very still. Face twisted and frozen in agony.
The halls went deathly quiet.
“Fix it,” Enya said, gripping Albert as if she could peel the gold off. A sob rattled through her chest as she turned to me. “Fix it.”
But I couldn’t. It was done.
“I killed him,” I whisper to no one. My guilt is a creature clawing through my chest, and I deserve it.
I wish I could trade my life for his. I would do anything—anything—to take it back. To give up these abilities forever.
Because only Enya knows the truth. I was angry that night. Those emotions ... they made it easy to access that power. It was an accident, but if I hadn’t been so upset, if I hadn’t been so hell-bent on taking it out on my father’s weapons, if I had never gone down to the armory ...
Underground, time becomes irrelevant. They drop water into the hole a few times, but not food.
I stop trying to find the fire. I realize I don’t want to. I’ll never be able to use it without remembering Albert’s face.
Soon, the darkness takes over.
Enya is furious.
“You were completely limp when they brought you in! I thought you were dead!” I don’t remember it aside from her screaming.
We’re outside in the woods, where we can speak freely. It’s been days since they fished me out of the hole.
They’re sending me back to the castle. My father will be furious. It will confirm every belief about me he already had.
It’s my mother I feel sorry for. I promised her I would try—and I didn’t. Not really.
Enya turns to me. She grips my hand. “It’s time, Oro.”
I avoid her gaze. “What if I don’t want to?”
She grips harder. “You don’t have a choice. This power lives inside of you. It will burn you from the inside out, if you don’t get it under control. You will burn with it.”
Before, I was worried about others. But in the hole, I had an idea. I could live far away. I could leave the castle. It’s not like my father wants me there anyway. “What if I don’t care?”
“I do,” she yells. I look at her. She’s never raised her voice at me before. She swallows. Her tone is quieter. “I do,” she repeats.
