Oro’s gaze was pure fire. “Whatever he wants, his intent is clear. He is coming to destroy us. We need to use every resource we have, every bit of ability.” He addressed them all. Heat scorched the room. “This is our home. It is our future. Our power lives here. Without the island, our realms will die. We have twenty-nine days to either save Lightlark ... or lose it forever.”
That night, Isla curled against Oro’s chest and traced him in the darkness. His cheeks. His lips. She touched him gently, just the slightest brush of her fingertips, and felt him shiver. “Oro,” she said. “Growing up, I didn’t experience seasons. It was always warm. But there were a few weeks in the middle of the year when everything felt the most alive. I called that summer, and I used to wish that it would last forever.” She frowned against the memory of her vision. “You and me ... we built an endless summer. And I won’t let anyone destroy it.”
The next morning, he was gone when she woke up. The clock had started counting down, and chaos ensued. Word of Grim’s warning had spread, and people rushed the castle, frantic, looking for answers.
Every willing and able adult was expected to begin training.
It had been centuries since war. Many of the best fighters had died during the curses. Oro went off to Sun Isle, with Enya, to get their forces together. Azul assembled his flight force, a legion in the sky.
Isla felt uncertain about asking any of the Starlings to fight, given most were barely older than children. A few people on the Starling newland volunteered to fight, and the rest who could wield would make weapons and provide energy for a shield that could be used to protect parts of the island.
That night, before going to Oro’s room, she went to her own. She didn’t make it past the entryway before pausing.
There was a flicker of curling white fabric on her balcony.
Cleo.
The Moonling ruler stood there, hands gripping the ledge, facing the sea. Her white hair cut through the night in sharp strands. Her dress was a pale puddle across the stone floor.
Isla swallowed. She wondered if she should be afraid. She waited for the fear to come ... but it didn’t.
A greater danger was coming.Grimwas coming. Fears were relative, she realized. They could feel smaller when placed next to bigger ones.
She wasn’t afraid of Cleo. Not anymore.
The door creaked as it opened. From this angle, the full moon looked like a halo around Cleo’s head. It lit her white dress and skin—she was a candle without its wick. The Moonling didn’t even turn around as she said, “It was a night just like this.” Isla eyed the pool of water around Cleo’s dress. “The worst night of my life. It was a full moon ... just like this one.”
Isla leaned against her door. “What do you want, Cleo?”
Cleo almost smiled. It was a sad expression. “Tonight? It might surprise you ... but I want to help you.”
Her eyes narrowed. “That does surprise me,” Isla said. Vines crawled up the cliff, until they reached her balcony. They didn’t stop until they wrapped around Isla’s arms and down her palms. “Considering you tried to kill me.”
Cleo looked from the vines dripping down her fingers to her face, and smirked. “Wildling,” she said. “If I had wanted to kill you, you would be dead.”
A massive wave crashed against the balcony, and Isla felt the force of it in her knees. Freezing water soaked her legs, and she tried her best not to shiver.
“I heard you were locked in a glass box of a room. Is that true?” Cleo asked. Where was she going with that? How did she evenknowthat? Isla nodded warily and watched as Cleo turned back toward the moon. She stared at it as she said, “You are a young fool, but you remind me so much of him.” Isla could have imagined it, but Cleo’s voice cracked with emotion, splitting from its normal coolness. “My son.”
The sea that had made its way through the teeth of the balcony pillars froze over. It nearly reached Isla, though she didn’t move a muscle.
Son?Cleo had an heir ... ? That couldn’t be right; heirs weren’t allowed at the Centennial—
“He died. The curse took him.” Cleo looked down at the sea, sloshing and churning, and Isla saw a hatred there. “I did everything I could to protect him. I locked him up just like you, and I failed.”
Isla would have thought it impossible to ever feel some sort of hurt for Cleo, though her eyes burned as she thought of her son, locked in his room, and the mother who just wanted to keep him safe. “That’s why you didn’t attend the fourth Centennial,” Isla said. “You had an heir.”
“Our curse was well managed by then. It was more important to secure my realm’s future. I had an heir, because, like you said, I doeverything for the good of my realm.”
It wasn’t just Isla who thought that. She remembered Oro during the Centennial saying Cleo was the most dedicated ruler of all of them. Though she’d had relationships with both men and women before the curses, she hadn’t formerly been with anyone since becoming ruler. She put her realm’s safety above all else.
“Something unexpected happened, though,” Cleo said. “I ... loved him. I had forgotten what that felt like ... to love someone so much, it feels like drowning.” She turned to fully face Isla, and the ice around her turned liquid, before crackling once more. Cleo had always worn dresses with a high neckline, but tonight she wore something more casual. Because of that, Isla was able to see a necklace: a simple ribbon with a light-blue stone that glistened in the moonlight. “I attended the last Centennial for him, so no one else would be taken by the curses.” She looked Isla up and down, her expression still dripping in dismay. “And because of him, I’m helping you.”
Isla didn’t know why Cleo had told her all of this now, when she had been so defensive just days before.
Cleo wanted something from her. She just needed to figure out what it was.
“The oracle,” Cleo finally said. “She’s awake and has a message for you. You’ll want to visit her soon.”
