Page 195 of Grim and Oro
“The most beautiful girl on the island, that’s what I requested,” the floating woman says, studying Isla. “And you’reperfect.”
I suddenly wish the specter was alive, so I could kill her.
Isla looks horrified. I’m grateful she doesn’t linger on the fact that I clearly find her beautiful. “Absolutely not. How do I know she won’t stay in there?” She turns to me. “That you’re not in love with her and just want a body for her to inhabit for eternity?” I give her a look that I hope sums up exactly what I think of that theory. “Well?” she asks anyway.
“Do you trust me?”
The answer explodes out of her. “No! You didn’t even tell me about this until you summoned her!”
That was perhaps not the best approach, I admit. I expected her to be agitated, but she looks absolutely murderous. Which, I realize, is a completely appropriate reaction to finding out one’s body has been bartered. But we don’t have time to waste. And I always intended for it to be her choice.
I sigh. “What will it take?”
She looks ready to scream at me again, but I watch her pause. Consider. And because I know her by now, I know—
She’s plotting something. Shewantssomething.
Finally, she says, “Take me to the Sun Isle library. Let me look inside. Alone.”
There it is. The closest she’ll come to admitting her plan. Libraries. She’s going after each isle’slibraries. The pattern is clear. I’ve watched her do it.
“Why?” I ask, on the off chance she’ll tell me.
“I like books. I want to see what your isle has to offer.”
Truth followed by a lie, searing the end of my tongue.Little liar. I wish I could tell her I know she’s lying.Thatwould be an expression I’d pay to see on her face.
I realize all at once that giving her what she wants means potentially being let in on her plan.
“Fine.” It shocks her. She expected a fight.
Iexpected a fight.
Isla takes a long breath to ready herself. Then, excitement glimmering in her eyes, the specter steps into Isla.
Her body shifts almost imperceptibly, then settles. She closes her eyes. When she opens them again, Isla’s glare has turned into something more ... intimate. She blinks, and there’s a flash of green—
But it’s not at all the same.
Because Isla Crown has never looked at me this way in her life. She has never looked at me like she wants me.
“King. So, this is your taste?” It’s her voice, but it isn’t her. The specter uses Isla’s hands to touch Isla, running them down her body appraisingly.
“Don’t touch her,” I growl, and the specter smiles, then drops Isla’s hands by her sides.
“Very well,” she says. “Can I touch you?”
She takes a step forward, and I stand my ground.
“You said I have a few moments. You didn’t say what I couldn’t do, now did you?”
I give her a warning look, and she just laughs. “Come now. I see how you look at her ... you want this, don’t you?”
She steps into me, and I stiffen.
She tilts her head, brown hair falling along her face, and then she bites her lip. “You want to kiss her, don’t you?” she asks, and I swallow.
“You’ve thought about it, haven’t you?”
