Page 223 of Grim and Oro
I regret every cruel thing I ever said. Any sharp remark. All thorns, trying to protect myself from the painful and arduous process of opening up my heart.
“So, what do we do now?” Enya asks. She’s frowning, but she doesn’t look surprised.
She never thought my plan would work. She thought I was clinging to an impossible scenario. Perhaps I shouldn’t have spent so many decades on this strategy. Perhaps, if I had been more capable, I could have gone down a different road. One that would have worked.
“Say our goodbyes?” Zed responds unhelpfully, using his wind to throw daggers against the wall.
“Speak for yourself,” Enya says.
I whirl to face her. “You have time?”
She dips her chin. “I do.”
I do.
Then she doesn’t die this way. Or at least ... that isn’t her previous fate.
I wonder about the oracle’s prophecies. Can they change? Everything I’ve read says every single prophecy has always come to pass, but these are uncertain times. Do the curses take precedent?
My life is bound to hers.
If she doesn’t die now, then it means we do it, don’t we? We figure it out?
“Tell me,” I say, begging. “Please. This—this could be important.”
Enya sighs. “My answer is never going to change, Oro,” she says. Her smile is sad. She places her hand on my shoulder.
“I live past the hundred days. Happy?”
Yes.
“You couldn’t have told us that before?” Zed snaps.
She shoots him a look. “I don’t know as much as you think I do. Just ... a few details. I didn’t really know what they meant for a long time. The circumstances ... the timing ... but I do now.” She doesn’t say anything else.
But Enya’s words spark an ember of hope. All is not lost. Somehow, we will figure it out.
“Calder.” I turn to my friend. “I need your help.”
We go back to Moon Isle, where we’ve been countless times since my training. We go to the Vinderland territory, a place few would dare return.
The place we first became friends.
When I was here with Isla, they attacked us. Isla fought back. We both did. We both killed several of their people, in self-defense.
And I killed even more of them before, when they captured her.
They hate us more than ever. But they might be the key to finding the heart.
Perhaps they took it from the roots in the tree, or even from the abandoned castle. Perhaps they’ve seen it.
Calder knows every inch of this isle. He’s searched for the heart before without success, but the Vinderland know this land better than even Cleo.
The Vinderland are fractured, according to Calder. There is a small, rebellious sect that split from its leadership.
They are our best bet.
We’ve stopped in front of a cave with hundred-foot icicles sticking from it, like a beast’s back.
