She felt the air change as Grim appeared, in the safety of the closest room to the gardens. Finally.
“I need you to do something for me,” she said, her voice finally steady.
“Anything.”
Isla took a breath that felt like there were leaks in her lungs.“Whoever attacked her will come back to finish the job. I need you to make her disappear until she wakes up.”
She was grateful when he didn’t question her request. Grim simply nodded.
And a moment later, Celeste’s body vanished.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
POISON
Everything changed in an instant. Now, Isla wasn’t just fighting for herself, or Terra, or her people.
She was fighting for Celeste.
Tears streamed down her cheeks as she left the castle just past dawn. Isla had failed her friend in so many ways—and she had been blind to it until now. Seeing Terra slowly die should have reminded her that her friend would suffer the same fate if they weren’t successful. Instead, she had quickly abandoned the plan they had spent years formulating, partly because it wouldn’t benefitherrealm. She hadn’t thought enough about Celeste’s.
She couldn’t fix the past, but she could try to help Celeste now.
Oro claimed that she couldn’t be healed by Moonling ability ... but perhaps she could be by Wildling remedy.
Soon she was cutting through a path covered by wild grass. Through a forest that seemed determined to mark her skin a thousand times. Crossing a perilous bridge.
Until she saw herself reflected in the barren woods. Against the Place of Mirrors.
She had to open that vault. By any means necessary. There could be ancient Wildling remedies inside, plants that could draw Celeste’s poison out. She hadn’t seen any in the oasis Oro had taken her to so many weeks before, but perhaps they had been locked away here instead.
Isla knew the door wanted her to open it for a reason. Maybe this was it.
She walked steadily to the wall, not willing to leave without figuring out the lock. It was a strange, long shape. First she tried her fingers. Stuck them in painfully, shoving part of her palm inside to fill the gaps. But when she tried to twist her hand, all she did was scream out as her skin got caught in the metal. It took her nearly an hour to free herself, and by that time, she had cuts across her hand, dripping blood.
She did not give up. She searched every room of the enormous palace that had been her home for weeks. There were strange, curved weapons. Instruments she didn’t know how to play. One, a thin wooden box with holes, she shoved into the lock so forcefully it broke. So, she spent a while trying to get the splinters out, cutting her fingers again in the process.
By noon, she was furious.
Vowing to return, she went back to the castle empty-handed.
Isla had wanted to kill Cleo for a long time. Especially after the assassination attempt at the harbor.
But now ... seeing Celeste lifeless, floating like a specter, wrapped in webbing ...
Now she wanted to kill Cleo and take a long time doing it.
Isla was thinking about all the ways she would make the Moonling ruler suffer as she stepped foot onto Moon Isle with Oro by her side.
Two more places,she told herself. Celeste couldn’t play the game anymore. Isla would have to play for both of them—make sure she won and saved her friend’s realm. It was all that mattered now.
Only two more places left to look.
Snow fell with the hurry of rain, soaking into the crown of her head and dripping in streaks down her cheeks. This time she had worn a thick cape over her long-sleeved shirt and pants to shield her from the cold. Still, it didn’t do much, and she didn’t veer far from Oro, who radiated heat like a sun that had slid down from the sky.
Soon they came upon a tower sticking out of a mountain of snow. Oro climbed through its only entrance, a window, and she followedhim inside, down, then through a hall, until she realized they weren’t in a tower at all.
They were in a palace.
