Grim #2
Still, he whirled to face the Sunling. “You don’t think I regret it every day of my life?” He blindly cut down the next prisoner. Then the next. “I was trying to save her. I thought—I thought you were the only way.”
“What about the necklace?” Oro demanded, his hand covered in blood as he buried his dagger into yet another heart. “Its power?”
“It wouldn’t have worked,” he said simply.
Once Grim had claimed the diamond, he realized that he misunderstood its capabilities.
The diamond only amplified powers that already existed.
Isla’s life was tied to his—and barely holding on.
Even if that, itself, was amplified, it wouldn’t have been permanent.
No, they needed to go to the otherworld, where life could be brought back for good.
In the end, he decided to give it to her during the Centennial, when killing was permitted. He thought it was the best way to keep her safe, since he couldn’t openly protect her. All she had to do was pull the diamond, and he would come for her.
Now, he wondered if he had sealed her death the moment he clasped that necklace around her neck. Cronan must have wanted that stone . . . and his ancestor wouldn’t hesitate to kill Isla to get it.
Grim shook away the thought, gutting another prisoner. Oro frowned but kept fighting. They didn’t speak for a few moments, but it was like the Sunling couldn’t help himself.
“It didn’t have to be like this,” Oro said, roughly. “We were . . . we were . . .”
Friends, was the word he couldn’t say.
That made Grim pause. Suddenly, centuries’ worth of rage rushed to the surface, and he huffed a cruel laugh.
“Yes. We were friends. Until you accused me of starting the curses. Until you didn’t believe me when I told you I didn’t, even though I know you fucking knew I was telling the truth.
” He had guessed at the Sunling’s flair a long time ago, during his time in the cell.
Oro had made it obvious, with his ridiculous questions.
Grim saw a hint of regret pass over Oro’s features.
It did nothing to calm his fury. “You were my only friend, and you didn’t believe me,” Grim said, turning to face him. “You didn’t believe your own power.” He bared his teeth. “It was as if you had been waiting that entire time for a reason to hate me.”
Grim supposed he had given him another reason, after taking Isla’s memories away. After invading Lightlark again. But by then he had long given up on their friendship.
Grim shook his head. “Even after you invited me to the Centennial, when you had another theory about who started the curses . . . you still looked at me like an enemy.”
Oro barked a laugh. “Yes, and good thing too, considering you were planning on killing me with Aurora.”
That had been his plan. To have Oro fall in love with Isla, gain access to his abilities, then for Oro to die. Open the portal. Save her for good. It hadn’t been personal against the Sunling, not really. At least that’s what he told himself.
They both glared at each other, before they started battling again.
“It must have been hard,” Grim spat, taking his anger out with every blow.
“What?” Oro said tersely. He seemed to be doing the same.
“Losing her.”
It was Oro’s turn to clench his jaw and grip his dagger so tightly, Grim thought he might break it.
“You know how hard it was,” Oro ground out, before he lunged forward once more.
Silence. Just their groans and the roaring prisoners as they fought forward an inch at a time. Grim tried to focus on the task at hand, tried to forget the Sunling was even next to him, but the same thoughts and fears circled his mind until he finally voiced them.
“Isla is my wife,” Grim said. “She chose me. She was living with me . . .” He turned to look at the Sunling. Their blades swung at the exact same speed. They were both dripping in blood, having killed hundreds of prisoners so far. “Why fight this hard for her?”
He needed to know the Sunling wouldn’t betray them. What if he planned to use the power they claimed down here for something else? He couldn’t take that risk.
Oro shook his head in near disbelief. His gaze locked onto his, for just a moment, and it was full of intensity. “Because I love her enough to want her back, even if it’s not with me. Can you say the same?”
The Sunling shot forward before Grim could respond, leaving bodies in his wake. Grim trailed behind, thinking about what he had said.
If Isla chose Oro . . . would he ever accept that? Would he ever stop fighting for her?
A few months ago, he would have said no. But now . . . after seeing the pain of taking away Isla’s choice . . .
If she chose Oro, he would have to accept it. But he would never stop loving her. Never stop hoping she would change her mind.
He hated the flash of pity he felt for the Sunling, and the realization that, yet again, they were not so different.
“You’ve made the same mistakes I have,” Grim said, back next to him.
“No.” Grim could see the anger steadily building in Oro.
If they weren’t on these enchanted lands, he was sure that fire would be shooting from his palms. “I didn’t take Isla’s memories away.
I didn’t make decisions for her.” Oro looked him up and down in pure disgust. “Isla deserves better than you.”
“And what is that?” Grim scoffed. “You?”
“At least I’ve been honest with her. I’ve trusted her.”
Grim’s laugh lacked any mirth. “You love the Wildling part of her. The creation. The goodness. You resent that she’s Nightshade. You flinch at her darkness. I love all of her. I don’t recoil at her mistakes. Unlike you.”
Oro returned the same humorless laugh. “And look what happened. She killed an entire village . . . for you. You fed that part of her instead of helping her find her way back to herself.”
“It’s who she is,” Grim snarled. “She is both. Light and dark. Together.”
“She might be Nightshade,” Oro said, “but she is not a monster. She doesn’t want to be. She runs from that side of herself, yet you . . . you bring it out of her. You make her the monster you want her to be, so that the monster within you isn’t alone.”
Grim recoiled as if he had been struck. No. That wasn’t what he did. He supported her, no matter what. He didn’t judge her. He wasn’t making her into a monster.
Oro gave a bitter chuckle as he twisted his dagger, wrenching it from the ribs of a wailing prisoner.
“You don’t even know how you’ve corrupted her, do you?
You just care that she’s yours. You don’t realize she’s only yours because she’s so ashamed of what she’s done that she thinks all she deserves is a monster like you. ”
The breath shot out of Grim’s lungs. That couldn’t be true. Isla loved him. He knew that. Before everything that happened, before she destroyed that village, she loved him.
He shook his head, rejecting the Sunling’s biting words.
“She is my wife. I do not need to prove our love to anyone, least of all you. We will be reunited, and we will begin our life again. Together. We will have our family.” Grim strode forward, slicing his weapon to the side, gutting yet another fanged creature.
Oro just laughed. “Family? You think you’d make a good father?” he said. “You, who was responsible for the deaths of all his own siblings? Who killed his beloved sister to ascend the throne?”
Grim stumbled forward, shocked into silence. He had told Oro that fact centuries ago, in confidence. It was one of the most traumatic events of his life. And for him . . . for him to throw it in his face . . .
Fuck this.
Fuck working together. Fuck him.
He growled as he whirled around—and hurled the Sunling through the wall of water.
Oro’s body was swept away, and Grim watched smugly as he had to fight back to land.
He finally emerged a few yards from Grim, gasping and sputtering.
A prisoner lunged for him, and he hardly stabbed the man in time.
Oro looked up at Grim through his wet hair, eyes blazing with fury.
They both launched at each other, weapons lifted—until the ocean walls shuddered around them.
Grim turned to Oro with open panic. They needed more time, they hadn’t found the lost king yet.
Never mind the fact that if Cleo lost her hold, they’d never make it back to the surface without their powers.
The sea roared, and Grim thought this might be the end, but then steps began punching out of the wall of water, over and over, forming haphazard stairs that hardened into ice.
They looked at each other, blades still raised. They didn’t need to speak to know what this meant. Cleo was tiring out, and she was giving them a way back to the surface. They had to hurry.
Hot fury toward Oro was still burning under Grim’s skin. But as they glared at each other, they shared a silent understanding. Their love for her came first. Hatred for each other came second.
So, they turned and started sprinting.
They fought recklessly, razing prisoners down in bloody arcs, not caring if they caught a claw or fang here and there, not slowing as guts coated them from head to toe. They moved as one, Oro ducking to stab a prisoner in the shin to stop him in his tracks, Grim cutting off his head.
“He’s close. He has to be,” Grim said, as the prisoners became more creature-like. One was a scaled beast sitting on a pile of skulls. Grim wondered how he was able to feed down here, until he noticed the closest bodies to the creature were missing their heads.
Oro paused, realizing the same thing—that to reach those prisoners while chained itself, the creature must have a way to get close.
They both came to a stop just as the beast opened its mouth, revealing row after row of teeth.
He noticed something arcing above the creature’s head and realized it was a horned tail, cracking forward, ready to split them into pieces.
It was a scorpion. A giant fucking scorpion.
Grim gripped his sword and prepared to attack when suddenly a whip-like tongue shot out, heading right at him.
He lifted his sword to cut the tongue clean off, but the creature was smart.
Its tongue darted around his blade and wrapped around his body, pinning his arms to his sides.
He heard his sword thud against the sand before he was being pulled forward.
The tongue’s hold was like a vise. He couldn’t move, and he roared as he tried. This monster would not stop him from getting to that king. From getting to Isla. But he didn’t have powers here. And without his sword . . .
The beast’s tongue constricted, and he felt a rib shatter. Fuck, it hurt. He should have given Oro more credit.
The barb came rushing down, straight toward his chest. Grim closed his eyes, anticipating the pain of being ripped apart and—
There was an ear-splitting howl as something shattered all around him.
What the—? Grim blinked, only to see a thousand pieces of silver raining down as his spine hit the sand, the beast’s tongue spasming next to him.
Oro must have cut it off with Grim’s sword and blocked the stinger with the blade.
And the stinger had broken it like it was no more than a toy, and not an ancient relic.
“Get off your ass,” Oro snarled, pulling him to his feet, just as the stinger came down again, right where he had been.
Grim stumbled after Oro and ran as fast as he ever had in his long life, the scorpion right behind them.
Its chain was longer than the others. It didn’t seem to have eyes, and as the stinger cleaved down around them with little aim, Grim guessed that its tongue had been its main sense.
Sand scattered as the tail carved deep holes in the ocean floor.
One strike missed his leg by only inches.
The scorpion was fast, nearly upon them now. “Jump!” Oro yelled.
Grim leapt forward as far as he could, rolling when he hit the ground and bracing himself for impact.
But it never came. He slowly looked back and saw that the chain had finally pulled taut. He and Oro laid beside each other, gasping for air, watching as the scorpion roared, its barb reaching just a foot shy of them.
“Thank you,” Grim breathed, begrudgingly.
Oro sighed. “Don’t say that.”
“Why?”
Oro turned to him. He looked tired. His crown was off-kilter and filthy. “Because then I’ll really think the world is fucking ending.”
Grim shook his head. He stood and offered Oro a hand. The Sunling had saved him. They had saved each other.
They were both battered and bruised, sporting broken bones and covered in guts. But together, they crested another craggy hill—and stopped in their tracks.
Because there, sitting alone in the distance, was the lost king.