She didn’t even make it to the doors of the castle. At the top of the steps, Isla fell to her knees. Her legs had gone numb. Panic closed in around her. She couldn’t breathe. Blood. Everywhere. So many dead. She hadn’t been able to save them.
If she hadn’t been so selfish, so weak; if she had started training like Oro had insisted, she could have helped, she could have been more than just a blight.
She thought of her vision again and Grim’s voice.Come back to me,he had said. That was what he wanted.
The creatures were clearly summoned by Grim. There was a reason they hadn’t hurt her.
Her breathing was labored. She heard Ella saying her name, attempting to pull her up. Her eyes closed, and all she saw in her mind was the woman pointing at her, declaring her the cause of all their suffering.
Isla couldn’t help but think that maybe she was right.
INSIGNIA
The Insignia glowed faintly as if whispering a welcome. Isla hadn’t stood on the marking since the day she had first arrived on the island. The symbol was simple—a circle that contained illustrations representing all six of the realms. This was a neutral place to meet and speak on the Mainland, with the castle standing watch, a beast of stone, towers, and fortress walls.
Isla shifted on her feet, over the rose of Wildling. Oro was across from her, on the sun. Azul stood on the bolt of lightning.
Cleo emerged in a crashing wave, straight from the ocean. Seafoam still puddled at her feet.
The last time Isla had seen her, Cleo had tried to kill her.
The Moonling turned to look at Isla, and her eyes gleamed, as if she was relishing the same thought. Her white dress had a high neckline and sleeves that ran all the way to the floor, covering the etching of the moon.
Whatever she hoped to find in Isla, she was clearly disappointed, because Cleo frowned and turned to Oro. “How, exactly, did she stop it?” Her voice sliced through the silence and a wave crested high behind her as if to meet it. She commanded the seas. All the water in the world bowed before her.
“I’m standing right here,” Isla said. She was more than capable of speaking for herself.
Cleo only slightly shifted direction to face her again. She smirked. “How didyou, once supposedly powerless, now all-powerful”—the ruler made even the wordpowersound pathetic when related to Isla—“stop the dreks?”
Dreks.Was that what they were called?
How did Cleo know what they were?
She probably should have come up with a response to the question if she was going to insist on being the one to answer it. She swallowed. “I—I don’t know. I touched it.”
Cleo said every word like it was its own sentence. “You touched it.”
“Yes,” Isla said through clenched teeth.
The Moonling turned back to Oro. “How many more do you want us to heal?” she asked the king, and Isla understood that she had been dismissed.
Forty-five people were dead. More were still fighting for their lives. She had gotten Wildling healing elixirs from the newland, but they needed more help. Oro had summoned Cleo through Azul, and she had taken her time arriving to the palace.
“Fifty-four are critically injured,” Oro said.
“We will provide healers.”
Oro nodded. “You’ve visited the oracle, I presume. Were you able to wake her?”
The oracle was on Moon Isle and only rarely chose to unthaw. The Moonling shook her head no.
Oro would know if she was lying. “We all know this was likely an attack from Nightshade. We need our realms united. Where do you stand?” he demanded.
“I haven’t made my decision to stay or to leave.”
Oro’s expression did not shift an inch. He had been expecting this. “What is the true purpose of your army and ships?”
“To protect Moonling’s interests when I do make my decision.”
