Isla
Today was the day.
Aurora had given her all the information she needed.
She would kill Cronan. She would reopen one of her bonds.
Then she would figure out how to kill Lark, who could barely breathe in her current state.
She would figure out how to use her flair to bring everyone back, and all her mistakes would be undone.
Her world, and the entire universe, would be saved.
The knights came for her that morning like they always did. She let them drag her through the dank corridors and push her into the galaxy room. She did not wince when those loud, resonant steps echoed. She lifted her chin when he finally faced her.
And this time, for the first time, when Cronan’s shadows sunk into her mind, she did not fight him.
She gave him everything he wanted, while she clung to the present, fighting to keep her eyes wide open. For someone like Cronan would only bind his power to an object that he kept close at all times . . .
And it hadn’t taken long to figure out what that was.
Cronan must have thought Isla had simply given up. She felt a jolt as he reached the very back of her thoughts, everything she had tried to hide. All that energy it had taken to form those walls, she held on to it now.
And without the pain and force of keeping him out, she realized something she never had before. When his shadows were invading her mind, he was creating a bridge between them. And she could feel the shreds of her power, glimmering.
Slowly, she began to smile. Her plans started to reshape.
As he retreated from her head, his own face twisted in sick satisfaction, she clung to their connection, keeping a thread of his shadows between them.
He didn’t seem to feel it. It must have never occurred to him that this entire time he was torturing her with his mind abilities . . .
She was learning.
She just needed more time. More time to awaken the tatters of power within and shape them into something she could use. “Why?” she said. “Why have you torn galaxies apart? Why use this power for destruction?”
He smirked down at her as if she was the greatest fool in existence. “Some worlds deserve to be destroyed.”
She didn’t believe that. “Every world is worth fighting for.”
“Well, your fight has been in vain,” he said simply, like it was fact. Like she was just an inconsequential speck in his immortal life.
And now, she would be just a memory he would soon forget.
His shadows lashed forward, reaching for her. He had already plundered her mind, and now he would break it and reshape it into whatever he needed. He would use her as a weapon to wield the diamond around her neck, the one he couldn’t claim himself.
He had her pinned down with his shadows. They were firm as iron, threaded through her bones. But she was stronger now, more focused, having plunged into the Pool of Possibilities and made peace with her past. She was a sword who would cleave her own future.
“Anything can be broken,” she whispered, as she broke through his hold. Before he could make a single movement, she curled her fingers around the dagger of energy she had been forming in her palm—
And stabbed it through his shin.
He roared, his knees hitting the ground.
His shadows burst forth, shooting right at her.
But her energy was faster, as it reached across the room, and all those broken pieces of her father’s armor came together, forming a shield as they flew.
She stacked each sheet high and covered it with her own energy, amplifying the power the blacksmith had poured into it.
His shadows met the steel and were deflected, striking Cronan’s forehead and plunging into his own mind.
Prying it open. His face twisted in horror and pain, and inch by inch, Isla’s body returned to her.
She stood slowly and stepped before him.
His eyes were wide and unseeing. With a flick of her finger, those pieces of metal reformed around her, a puzzle coming together on her skin, until she was gleaming.
“You may think my heart is my weakness. Love is my ruin,” she said as he groaned in agony.
“It’s easier to shut your heart off. To consume and destroy rather than give.
” She smirked, just as he had countless times at her.
“But only one thing in this world is infinite, and that is love. Not power. Not you.”
She took a step toward him. “And I am not alone,” she said.
She could feel the whisper of all those souls within her, including her mother and father.
She could feel Grim’s and Oro’s souls intertwined with her own—she could feel their strength, calling to hers.
Reinforcing hers. “I am not alone,” Isla repeated.
“But you are. Because all you do is destroy.”
She was not strong enough to face him on her own, but he was. Cronan roared as he fought his own mind. He twitched in place as he struggled to move. But there was nowhere to run. This enemy he was battling was within.
“All you have is this. And now . . . it’s mine.” He gnashed his teeth at her but could do nothing as she reached for his crown—and took it.
The second her fingers touched the metal, she knew for certain this was the object his power was bound to. Energy thrummed beneath her skin, burning so hot that she almost dropped it. The moment it left Cronan’s possession, he bellowed, as if something critical had been stolen.
She sank the crown onto her head, and the metal seemed to melt into her skull, searching for a host.
Instantly, power rocketed through her body. Power so fierce, so saturated, it called to her own, releasing it all from Cronan’s void-like prison.
It awoke more than enough Wildling power to send through the bond, to help complete the portal. She saw the silver pool again in her mind’s eye. But for the first time, it was not empty.
Grim and Oro were both submerged in its waters. Both halves of her heart were fighting to get her back.
Isla reached for one of them, on instinct. But the silver woman appeared in her path and stopped her.
“There is something else you should know,” she said.
She seemed sadder than Isla had ever seen her, which was surprising considering that Isla was finally breaking free of Cronan.
The woman looked from Oro and Grim in the pool to Isla.
“Throughout history, in times of great upheaval in the universe, souls have been matched.”
Isla blinked. Matched souls? She didn’t understand.
“These pairs are matched not only in soul, but in power.” The woman looked at Isla with true heartbreak in her eyes. “You are the first to have two souls bound to yours. Two perfect, fated matches. Your soul is split, Isla. It will continue to split. Until you die—or kill one of them.”
Isla’s eyes burned. She didn’t know anything about fated matches, or bound souls, and she didn’t care—she loved both of them. Despite reason. Despite circumstance. But hearing this made her understand why it felt impossible to choose.
“It is the cruelest thing in the world, to have to kill your soul’s match,” the woman continued. “But it is certain. One of you three will die.”
“No.” She was tired of this prophecy. Tired of hearing she would have to plunge a blade through the heart of the man she loved.
The woman sighed deeply. “You’ve been preparing for this your entire life. Your fate was written before you even existed.”
“I’m going to rewrite it,” Isla growled.
The woman only smiled softly. “You act as if fate is just something that happens to you. But you are the one who is crafting it. You are writing your destiny with every choice you make.”
Isla froze, turning those words over, shifting her gaze to where Oro and Grim were floating in the pool. She couldn’t imagine anything making her choose to kill one of them. She just couldn’t.
“I can’t,” she said. “I’m not—I’m not strong enough.”
“But you are,” the woman said, fiercely.
“You are strong enough to save not only your world, but the rest. And it starts with this choice. You have seen your past and gained clarity from it.” She brushed a finger against Isla’s wrist, where her mother’s charm rested.
It held her mother’s flair—the ability to see the future.
“If put in the pool, you will see your two futures. And what will happen if you choose one . . . or the other.”
Tears ran down her face because . . . she didn’t want to know. She didn’t want to see. She was afraid of what she would discover. “Are you ready to see?” the woman asked.
“No,” she said.
The woman nodded, in both disappointment and understanding.
“But I’m ready to choose. Once and for all.”
Isla blinked, and the woman was gone. Only Grim and Oro remained, still reaching their hands toward her in the water.
Her hand shook at her side. This felt wrong. Her very soul seemed to protest, like it was tearing at the seams. But she had to.
Her chest rattled with a sob as she reached forward. Not to them both . . . but to only one. Her fingers grasped his.
She loved them both. But one had just a little more of her soul.
“I choose him,” she said. “I choose him.” Isla felt the bridge between them ripple into existence, stronger than ever, as she led him to her. Her chest burned, her soul on fire, as her vision was overtaken by swirls of silver energy.
She blinked. It had only been one moment. When her vision cleared, Cronan was there, still on his knees, like he couldn’t fully stand. He lunged toward her. Toward his crown.
Isla took it off her head and used every shred of remaining ability to throw it across the room.
It shattered, and Cronan seized, as if stabbed a thousand times through the chest. He roared—in agony, in fury.
But instead of going for his broken crown—he went for her. He grabbed her by the neck and slammed her down on the ground, her head cracking against it. His other hand closed around the diamond at her throat. His expression wasn’t cold any longer—it was crazed.
His grip tightened around her neck and she choked, feebly kicking her legs under him.
Without his crown, without the connection of their minds, Isla was powerless once more.
Her vision started to go dark around the edges.
Her limbs felt heavy. He was seconds from claiming her diamond once and for all.
From using it to break into her world and suck it dry.
“Love is nothing but a weakness,” he said, looking mad with fury. “And you are nothing but a fool for breaking my crown, thinking that would be my end. But I always rise. I will make a new crown. And this diamond will be right at the center of it.”
Isla knew she was losing the battle to stay conscious. His face had blurred. Her lungs burned, as if filled with flame. Darkness bled into the edges of her vision.
But before she could succumb to shadow, something in this world . . . broke. And Isla felt a power that could rival even Cronan’s, especially without his crown. Cronan must have sensed it too, because he looked up so frantically that his grip eased ever so slightly. She sucked in a ragged breath.
“What is that?” Cronan roared at his knights, who had started spilling in to the room. The castle shook. The skies split.
Isla could feel him, cleaving through the world like a blade, racing to her in a great burst of energy.
Blood spilling from the corner of her mouth, Isla smiled and said, “That’s my husband.”
And the room shattered as Grim landed in the center of it in a streak of onyx shadow. The knights were sent flying back, and Cronan himself was launched from his feet.
Grim paid no attention to his ancestor. He didn’t spare a glance at the army of knights strewn around the room. He didn’t seem to notice the galaxy beyond the glass ceiling that was currently spilling around them.
No. He just looked at her, like they were the only two people in the universe.
“Heart,” he said, his lips hardly moving. But she could feel that word as if it was carved into her very soul.
She was broken and bleeding, but her lips turned up into a smile that he echoed, and every jagged piece of herself finally clicked into place. The bridge between them was full and final, gleaming. She couldn’t tell where his soul began and hers ended.
This was a love to rival time and space and destiny. This was a love that would shape fate and galaxies.
Now that he was in front of her, she wondered how she had ever survived being a world apart.
But it didn’t matter anymore. He had found his way back to her. Just like he had always promised.
Tears pricked her eyes as she looked, and looked. A thousand apologies and promises sat on her tongue. But she didn’t need to say a word.
“I know,” he said, and she felt like he really did. He knew her. Every part of her.
Cronan’s crown was still on the other side of the room, in pieces. He was on the opposite end, struggling to stand. As he bellowed orders to his knights, Isla scrambled to her feet and ran toward Grim as he moved toward her.
It was over. This torture had finally come to an end. They were together, and nothing, nothing could come between them now. Not even Cronan. With their powers joined, they’d be unstoppable. Their world would be saved. Every piece of her plan would fit into place.
She reached for him. He reached for her. Their fingers were just feet apart. But before they could meet, a shadow snaked through her mind and spoke.
It wasn’t the pain of the intrusion that made her eyes go wide—it was the words.
You think this love is infinite? Watch how easily it is broken.
No.
Time seemed to slow, as Isla reached for Grim, trying to bridge those inches between them. Her husband’s shadows were spilling through the room, killing everyone in their path. Half the knights were already dead. They were nearly at Cronan’s neck.
But Isla saw the exact moment Cronan broke into Grim’s mind. It happened so quickly, she couldn’t even say a word. Couldn’t even warn him.
And Grim stopped in his tracks. His shadows dissipated.
Grim blinked, gazing around the room in confusion. His eyes landed on her, and—
She didn’t see even the slightest glimmer of recognition.
Look how easy it is to take one’s memories, Cronan said, into her mind. You should know. But this time, it’s permanent. His memories of you are gone for good.
Cronan’s cruel laugh echoed throughout her skull.
Anything can be broken.
Impossible. Isla refused to believe it. Nothing could break them. They were infinite.
But as she reached for her bond with Grim that had been forged through countless obstacles, adventures, and memories, like a mosaic, like all of the tiny decisions that had turned into everything, she fell to her knees with a raking sob.
The bond between them was gone.