Oro
It took an hour to get the beast down. And just as one creature was defeated . . . it was replaced by another. And another. They needed to close the portal. And soon.
When he had seen Isla . . . he had expected to feel fury. Hatred. But he didn’t. All he felt was love—unrelenting, stubborn love, and he cursed himself for it. For his inability to forget her.
But then . . . after what she had said . . . He felt just as stuck as he did before she made her choice. All he wanted was to help her, but he was trapped a world away while Grim hunted her.
“FUCK!” In his distraction, a creature with claws the length of his body sliced his side, cutting right through his armor.
The metal was weighing him down anyway. In the air, he tore it off, watching the golden pieces spill into the water.
Now, he was angry. He was angry, because even now as his heart was breaking, the woman he loved still wasn’t safe.
Fucking Grim. Oro knew that he loved her, maybe more than he loved himself. That only meant that Cronan must be more powerful than any of them had ever imagined. Powerful enough to have turned Grim against Isla.
Oro made a blade from Starling energy and cut the creature’s claws clean off.
He shook his head. Fucking. Grim. Oro hated that he felt even a shred of worry for the Nightshade. But after spending so much time with him lately, it had been easy to forget all the betrayals between them.
So all Oro could do was worry and pick up the pieces that Isla and Grim had left behind. Only he and his friends stood between these beasts and the rest of this world. And, as Oro roared, diving back toward the raging creature, he wondered how long they would be able to hold.