Before she could knock, the door flew open. Celeste stood there, eyes wide.
She threw her arms around her friend, even though it still hurt to move. Pain barreled through all her bones, her organs tightened, and she choked the words, “I thought you—Celeste, you—”
“I know,” Celeste said quietly. “It was Azul.”
Isla pulled back to meet her eyes. “I know. I got your message.” She held her hand up, revealing the diamond on her finger once more. “Why?” “I have no idea. He must be planning something.”
Isla wanted to sit and speak with her friend, allow herself to feel relief for more than just a few seconds.
But she had to move again.
“I did it,” Isla said, voice breaking. “It’s a long, terrible story, but ... I found the heart. And wielded it.”
“What?” Celeste said, like she might not have heard her correctly.
Isla smiled. “I’ll tell you everything later, but for now ... stay hidden and wait to hear from me.” She gave her friend another quick embrace. “All of this will be over soon.”
She turned to leave, then stopped. There was something she needed to say.
“I’m sorry, Celeste. For everything. I’ve been a terrible friend. Terrible partner. But I’m going to make everything better. I promise.”
With another final squeeze of her hand, Isla raced down the hall. Celeste frantically called after her, but she didn’t stop. It was dusk. The sun was setting.
She raced back to her room. Grim was gone.
A moment later, her balcony doors burst open.
Oro flew through, landing in the center of her rug, his skin marred and healing right in front of her. He had flown through the waning light, she realized, when the sun still barely shined. Enough to burn him, but not kill him.
She froze, staring at him.
“You’re alive,” he said sharply, like an accusation, his chest still heaving. His eyes were wide.
She nodded. There was a pause.
“Good.” He straightened. Swallowed. His fingers unfurled, and the heart sat in his palm, glowing like Oro had reached a hand into the sun and taken a fistful of its shine. It looked less like a yolk now and more like an orb. Golden. Fiery.
“We did it,” she said, breathless, hand going to her aching heart. She smiled, even though her chest felt like it had been halved.
He handed the heart to her. It gleamed in her palm, winking.
“Bathe, Isla,” he said. “Get dressed.” Only at that moment did she register the dried blood in her hair, the dirt on her clothes. “Then meet me in the library.”
Before she could say a word, he flew back through her balcony, into the night.
She gripped the heart in her hand, wondering how Oro could possibly trust her with it. The king of Lightlark, untrusting of everyone, had handed over the island’s most prized possession. The key to ending the curses. The key to her future. The key to the island.
Evenshethought he was foolish for doing so.
Isla didn’t part with it, bringing it into the bath with her as she scrubbed herself down quickly, not lingering too long on the mark on her chest, which had further healed but still looked pink against her skin. A permanent bruise.
She put on a dress. Red, like the blood she had spilled.
Ten days.
They had found the heart with ten days to spare. But there was still a rush. The island could crumble away at any minute. Terra could die that very day. Isla had watched her through the puddle of stars before going to find the heart with Oro. The only part of Terra that hadn’t succumbed to the forest floor was the right half of her face, her eye still opened wide. The other was closed.
Isla clutched the heart tightly on her walk to the library, and it pulsed in her hand. Glimmering. Speaking to her in its strange language, a siren call that promised power.
