Page 150 of Grim and Oro
Find your fire. It doesn’t just apply to flames. It means finding the light in the darkness. Finding the calm in the chaos.
It happens in a ripple. Sparks travel down my armor and across my skin, shielding me in energy. The moment it’s in place, the night creatures are on me, scraping against the glimmering silver—
Hundreds. Crawling from deep below. Covering me completely, raking against the sparks. I close my eyes, then project the energy off me—it sends some flying.
But it’s not enough. There are too many of them. And more are coming. Spindly arms encircle me from below, pulling me down, trying to drag me into the water. I thrash against their hold, fighting to keep the shield, the only thing standing between me and their bladelike claws.
But I can feel my hold weakening. My vision is swirling. My head is still pouring blood from the fall. I can’t heal it without breaking the seal. Without letting them in.
I roar and kick one off, then punch another, trying to clear my vision. But they’re replaced. They’re endlessly replaced. Think.Think.
My thoughts inexplicably go to my friends. To that fallen drink in the bar ... how Calder froze it, and it shattered.
With a final burst of energy, I unleash a flurry of frost, freezing the creatures around me—and they tumble off the sides of the ice, sinking into the waters. The ones below are smothered and weighed down. Until finally, I can see the sky again.
Ara.
I get to my feet. Within seconds, the creatures I didn’t freeze begin surfacing from below, clawing at my bridge. I dissolve the rest of the ice, only creating sheets of it where I step, not giving them a place to hold, but they start to lunge. Start to grab at my clothes.
She’s right there.Right there. And she’s dying. She’s hanging limp in the air, now. Not even screaming. The darkness swirls around her, triumphant.
Enough.
Fury heats the ability in my chest, making it boil over. Fury that night creatures exist. That they would drain achild.
I growl in frustration, and that power, the endless stream that I’ve fought hard to keep buried down, spills over. The next step I take doesn’t just freeze the spot beneath my foot. No.
It freezes the entire lake.
Crackling fills the world, as all the night creatures in the water are smothered, buried. As they claw against the frozen sheet.
My head aches from the effort. My blood feels thinner. But I’m almost to the island. Almost to Ara.
Footsteps.Hundreds of footsteps.
Slowly, I turn. Only to be met with a wave of half-rotted shadow creatures. The ones from the woods have used my ice to get to me.
There’s no time to create a shield. No energy. I take a breath and am buried.
Before a single claw or tooth can reach me, the world goes dark as endless night, and I’m forced across the ice by a powerful wave ofshadows. When my vision clears, the creatures are gone. Every one of them. Gone. Reduced to ash. And Grim is carrying the child across the frozen lake.
I stare at him. For moments, I just stare. All of them. He killedall of them. And there isn’t a scratch on him.
He hands the girl to me. “She needs a healer.” He nods at the sky. “Go.” Ara groans in my arms. Her heartbeat is weak. She’s pale as bone. I look at her, then him. I just saw his powers on full display. Powers he didn’t use during the battle.
He was holding back. I know that now for certain.
I can’t leave him alone. Not after seeing this.
Grim gives me a scathing look. “You’re wasting time,” he says. “She’ll die.”
Is this what he wanted? To be left alone, to do whatever he planned? He growls in frustration, then takes a step toward me on the ice. “I am not running away. I am not going to kill anyone that doesn’t try to kill me first. Nowgo.”
Truth. I linger for one moment. Another. Then, I shoot up into the sky, leaving Grim on the ice.
I pace the hall outside the infirmary. I can hear the Moonlings inside, bustling around Ara. I can hear her mother’s quiet sobbing.
Enya’s warmth engulfs me in a moment. “You did it,” she breathes into my ear, her arms tight around me.
