Oro
And she was trapped with the most powerful person who had ever lived.
And he saw a pool.
A shining, glittering, silver pool, right in his mind. Was Isla projecting this to him?
In the next instant, he saw the endless sea below him again. Nothing but rolling waves that stretched to the horizon. He flew through wispy clouds as the sun warmed his neck and back.
Just when Oro had started to believe he had imagined the pool, the ocean flattened, the waves stilling so much that it looked like a mirror. The water glistened silver and bright.
The pool.
He saw himself reflected in its surface, flying. He wasn’t alone . . . There was a woman with silver hair and eyes right next to him. Matching his pace as they soared through the sky.
He turned abruptly, but the air to his side was clear. Nothing for hundreds of miles.
A voice echoed in his mind, saying, “Oro Rey, king of Lightlark, you have been chosen by the pool.”
Oro blinked. The pool?
As if the woman heard his thoughts, she said, “The Pool of Possibilities.”
He looked down at the water again. A spot below him rippled, as if something had fallen into its center. And as the surface wobbled, the image it reflected transformed.
“You will have a choice to make,” the voice said. He couldn’t see the woman anymore, but he could feel her, could sense her power in the air around him.
“What choice?” he asked.
The woman didn’t answer, but the surface of the pool had settled into an image. A memory.
Oro saw himself with his brother. Violet, the Wildling ruler, was right next to him. This was the moment Egan told him he wanted to abdicate.
“Ask the pool a question. See how events might have unfolded differently.”
Oro didn’t know who this woman was, or what this pool was, or if perhaps he was hallucinating due to lack of sleep, but he couldn’t help but ask the question that had haunted him his entire reign. Through every difficult decision. Through seasons of war and hopelessness.
What if Egan had never decided to abdicate as king?
In the pool, he saw a new future that very strongly resembled his past. Aurora inevitably found out about Egan and Violet’s affair. She cast the curses out of heartbreak and betrayal. Thousands of people died, including Oro’s brother. Oro became king.
Another question, then—
What if Egan had never fallen in love with Violet?
The pool did not shift.
“In every possibility, they fall in love,” the woman said. “There was never any stopping it.”
Oro gritted his teeth and tried again.
What if Grim hadn’t found the heart of Lightlark for Aurora?
It was how she had cast the curses, using the Nightshade power trapped within the heart.
Finally, with that question, Oro saw a new series of events unfold. He watched as a furious Aurora swept through the castle, filling it with Starling energy. She killed Violet first—then Egan.
Then Oro, because he was with them.
At the death of its king, and Oro, the entire island crumbled and fractured, until it was nothing but ruin that sank into the depths of the sea. Until there was nothing left at all.
Oro tensed, blinking as the image in the pool cleared. His heart was racing.
“You see,” the woman said. “It would have led to even more bloodshed.”
It couldn’t be real. But he could feel the truth of it, in the pool. For so long, Oro had hated Grim for his role in the curses . . .
When his actions had actually saved the island. Saved him.
No. There had to have been something that could have changed, to stop all of it. To have avoided the curses.
What would have happened if I never fell in love with Isla Crown?
The pool was still, Oro’s frown reflected in its waters.
“In every possibility, you fall in love with her,” the woman said. “As long as you meet her, you love her.”
Love. He closed his eyes against the memories.
Fine. He needed to ask a better question.
What would have happened if I never met her?
The pool shifted.
He saw himself exactly how he looked at the start of the Centennial. Hollow, cold. Closed off. Dying. And it only got worse through all the trials. Through the end of the Centennial. He never learned to thaw his heart.
The curses were never broken. They finally took their toll on him, and he died. The island died with him.
He ground his teeth, trying to find the right question to get the most ideal future. To finally see where they had all messed up, to bring themselves to their current circumstances.
He tried to find a path where it didn’t feel like his heart and soul were breaking.
What if Cleo had not attended the last Centennial? What if the curses never happened? What if Grim’s father had never declared war? What if I had never lost my parents?
He flew toward Nightshade and lived dozens of versions of his life. Alternate endings to a story he already knew.
And even in possibilities where his family was still here with him, even in possibilities where the curses never occurred, even in possibilities where all his problems had seemed to have been solved . . .
He never ended up as happy as when he had been with her.
The realization stung. He didn’t need the pool to tell him this, but even after the heartbreak of the last few weeks, that hadn’t changed.
Even when he didn’t end up with her, even when she chose Grim, just having known her for a little while was enough to have made him happier than in any other life.
“Why are you showing me this?” Oro asked, his voice tight, his head pounding. He had been flying for hours, but his mind was more exhausted than his body. All of this was in the past. It had already happened. Even if he knew now what he might have done differently, it didn’t matter.
“I told you. Because soon, you will make a choice. You have seen so much of the past already . . . But until now, you haven’t explored your own.”
Oro didn’t know how the woman could sense he had used the Threads of Time, but she was right. He had been lost in the past, had traced his ancestors’ footsteps over thousands of years. He had seen how predictably history repeated itself, over and over.
“You can break the cycle,” the woman said.
“How?” he asked desperately.
But when Oro looked below him, the pool had vanished. Only dark, undulating waves remained. The moon was bright in the sky, glistening off of the sea. He had been lost in his mind for an entire day.
He swallowed, the silver woman’s words haunting him. He had plenty of time left to contemplate them as he raced toward Nightshade.