She had lied to him too many times to count, throughout the Centennial. Throughout their time working together. And he had known, every time.
He narrowed his eyes at her. “All you did was lie to me, and I still told you about the heart. I told you everything, except for this. Because Cleolovedhow betrayed you looked. It was why she was willing to finally take me anywhere on Moon Isle I wanted. She wasthrilledthat I exposed you and chose her as a partner instead. That I revealed such a critical secret.” He stopped just a foot away. Her hands were still in fists, and she briefly considered how good it would feel to slap him across the face.
“You put me in danger,” she said. “Cleo could have killed me!”
“I was never far from you,” he said. “I knew when you moved into the Place of Mirrors. I guarded its entrance. Had guards stationed nearby. How did you think Ella was able to get through unharmed? Wherever you went, I followed. And when I could not, I had guards monitoring Cleo so I could ensure she wasn’t anywhere near you.”
Isla laughed without humor. “And tonight?”
“Tonight, I went to meet her. You slipped through the cracks by trailing her. But I found you, didn’t I?” He shook his head. “Cleo is planning something. She has been forming a secret legion.” So, hedidknow about it. “The heart is on her isle. If she gets her hands on it before us, I’m afraid of what she will do.”
He was right. Isla was convinced Cleo had spun the curses. If Oro was correct about his theory, that meant she had used the heart before. What was keeping her from doing it again?
Oro’s gaze was relentless. “I trust you, Isla, though you have given me countless reasons not to. Are you going to trust me? For the sake of both of our people?”
Our people.
Isla never wanted to speak to the king again. But she didn’t have a plan. Celeste was still helplessly pursuing the bondbreaker.
And her people were dying.
“Your offer holds, then,” she said, every nerve ending in her body screaming at her not to trust him. To stab her blade through his back and let him see how it felt.
Oro nodded. “When we find the heart, you will wield it. You will receive the power promised.”
Isla would be a fool to trust him again after what he had done. But part of her hoped he wasn’t lying—that there was truly a chance to save her people, and herself.
She also couldn’t ignore the fact that Oro had saved her life. Again. It didn’t make any sense. If he was working against her, why wouldn’t he want her dead? It would fulfill part of the prophecy.
She released her hands from their fists, and the dagger she had swiped from a hidden pocket in her pants while he had been talking clattered to the ground. Oro eyed it on the floor, unsurprised.
“Fine.” She pinned him with the coldest look she could manage. “You know now that I don’t eat hearts,” she said slowly. “But betray me again—earnestly or otherwise ...” Isla bared her teeth at him. “And for you, I’ll make an exception.”
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
CARMEL
“Cleo spun the curses,” Isla told Celeste the next morning. She told her friend everything: The attack. Her and the Moonling’s conversation.
At that, Celeste had frowned. “To what end, though? If she did create them, she hasn’t acted on it. It’s not like she used the other realms’ weaknesses to invade them. She’s done nothing.”
Isla had been thinking the same thing. “I don’t know. Maybe shehasdone something and we just don’t know it yet.”
She also told her that the Moonling wanted Celeste dead. And her friend only shrugged. “I figure everyone here except for you does. I’ll be more careful, of course. But I’ve never trusted her for a moment.”
Finally, Isla told Celeste that Oro had saved her. And what he had claimed.
She had readied herself for Celeste’s judgment, for her disappointment. But the Starling almost looked pleased. “This is good,” she said.
“Good?”
Celeste nodded. “I told you, I’ve been looking for the hidden library. I’m positive it’s in the Mainland castle. And he must know where it is. You can ask him. He told everyone your greatest secret—he would need to tell you. To earn your trust again.”
Celeste’s insistence on continuing to search for the bondbreaker made her want to scream, but Isla promised she would ask when the time was right, just to mollify her friend.
Since the ball, islanders had sequestered themselves on their isles. The lack of power being used on the Mainland had quickened its crumbling.
It was no time to celebrate. Isla and Oro needed to search Moon Isle’s last few locations as soon as possible, before time ran out. Before Terra was nothing more than wood and vines.
