Isla was drowning, she was sure of it. The ground shifted below her feet. She gripped a decayed branch for balance. “I’ve never been to Nightshade lands,” she said, shaking her head. Backing away another step.
Grim swallowed. “You have. You just don’t remember. I had to take away your memories. All of the ones with me in them.”
She was panting.Like he had offered to do with Juniper.
A memory raced to the surface of her mind—the second thing that had come out of her mouth when she had first stepped foot on the island, ninety days prior.
Have we met before?
Grim had touched her shoulder afterward, and she had forgotten all about it. At the sight of him, something must have peeked through the veil he had put on her memories. And he had snuffed it out with that touch.
Isla blinked too quickly. Nothing made sense. Though it was the least important thing he had said, her head was full of cotton, and all she could focus on was, “My starstick is aStarlingrelic.”
Grim’s eyes were sad. He looked like he was falling apart and trying very hard not to show it. “No, it isn’t,” he said. “It’s Nightshade.” He frowned when she shook her head again. “Who do you think its power came from?”
She wasn’t breathing. Grim’s flair was the power to portal anywhere he wanted to go. The same power as her starstick.
“No,” she said. “I’ve never been to Nightshade lands,” she repeated, her mind spinning, voice breaking. She hadn’t dared, not after Terra’s warnings.
Grim’s voice was gentle. “Heart,” he said steadily. “Where do you think you were before you portaled back to your room for the Centennial?”
Isla remembered arriving at her room, through her puddle of stars, right before Terra and Poppy had entered it. Right before fixing her crown atop her head and addressing her people.
But she didn’t remember where she had been. She searched her mind, digging, begging the memories to appear.
They did not.
If what Grim said was true ... she had been with him that morning.He had taken her memories. Then, just minutes later, he had pretended not to know her. She had looked upon him like a familiar stranger.
It couldn’t be true. None of it made sense. None of it.
There are lies and liars all around you ...
She didn’t know what to do, what to think, who to trust. But she certainly didn’t trust herself.
Or him.
So, she ran into the forest her ancestors had created. Grim waited a few moments before taking off after her. And outside these woods, he might have caught her.
But she was fast as the arrow that had pierced her heart. Quiet as a hummingbird. Before, she had cut her cheek and arms in this same forest. Today, she jumped over all the right vines. Ducked under all the trees.
Until she saw her own self, reflected back at her.
She ran inside the Place of Mirrors, hearing snaps and cracks outside. Through the glass, she watched as the dead trees wove together and formed a wall, encasing her inside.
The forest was enchanted. Did it sense her fear? Was it finally protecting the ruler of Wildling who couldn’t protect herself?
Isla didn’t have time to question it. Grim couldn’t use his powers here, but he was a warrior—it would take just a few good swings of his blade to get through the brush.
She almost slumped over in relief when she saw Celeste inside, eyes wide.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, and Isla realized she was still panting. Celeste was holding something in her hand.
It looked like a giant sewing needle, long as a dagger. Sharply pointed at both ends. It was gold and part glass and glowed brightly, just as the heart had.
The bondbreaker.
“Nothing,” she said, then shook her head. “Everything.”
