Does she think I’m shocked that shecouldsave me? No. I’m not. I’m shocked that she did it with such care. “I never thought you were weak,” I say, sweetness filling my mouth.
She looks surprised to hear that. I suppose I haven’t always been the most complimentary when it comes to her. Or anyone.
But I could be. I could be many things, if she would let me.
“Well, now we’re even, I suppose,” I say, remembering that day on the balcony, when I leaped into the water after her. When all I knew about Isla Crown was her voice, stuck in my head like a curse.
“I suppose we are,” she replies.
We just sit, and stare at each other. I’m stuck here until the sun sets. But she isn’t. “You should go,” I say, wanting the opposite. I don’twant to keep her here. I don’t want to be more of a burden on her than I already have been. I expect her to go.
Instead, she says something that shocks me into silence: “I’ll wait with you.” To pass the time, she proposes a game.
I hate any game that isn’t fireball. “A game,” I say, flatly.
She isn’t deterred by my attitude. And why can’t I be fucking pleasant for a moment? Why do I have to be mean, like I’m hoping to scare her off, like I’m afraid of caring more than I already do?
“Questions, back and forth. I’ll answer one. And then you will. Honestly.” I want to laugh at that word.Honestly. As if Isla Crown has been completely honest with me even a day, since we’ve been working together.
So that’s it. That’s the ulterior motive. The reason she has decided to stay. She wants information. She knows I am quite literally a captive audience here. I frown, remembering Grim saying something similar, centuries before ...
I bury the thought of him.
Fine. Let’s see what she’s so interested in. Let’s see if Isla Crown is capable of beinghonest.
“Fine, Wildling. You start.”
She sits up, excited, and I wait, wondering what she’ll ask me. Wondering if agreeing to this was a mistake.
Her first question is ridiculous. “Be honest—do you ever tire of wearing gold?”
I give her a look. “Yes, Wildling. Though I can wear blue, white, or silver if I choose.” I did for years, during training.
“Your turn.”
I want to ask her so many questions, we would spend days locked in this cave. Some are strategic. Others ... I shouldn’t be so interested in.
She started small. Easy. So do I. “What is your life like, back in the Wildling newland?”
She blinks, surprised. She seems shocked that I would care about her life outside of the Centennial.
I’mshocked that I care about her life outside the Centennial.
“It’s ...” At the last moment, she closes her mouth. Has she decided to change her words? Give me yet another lie? She shifts on the ground. I see her narrow her eyes, as though she’s deciding something. Then she says, “It’s awful.”
I was ready for minutes of nonstop poison, but sweetness fills my mouth. A special sweetness. One I savor. Isla’s truths taste different. Or at least, they do now. They taste sweeter than anyone else’s, like a fruit I’ve been craving for longer than I care to admit.
She continues, and I’m captivated, unable to do anything but hope she never lies to me again. “I love my guardians—they’re my only family. But—” She squints. “Have you ever felt like a bird in a cage?”
Constantly.
I’m trapped inside during the day, because of my curse. My crown is its own cage. I live solely for duty. My wants don’t matter. My very life is tied to this island.
I’ve never heard anyone phrase it that way, I’ve never had anyone who could truly understand, butyes. “Every day for the last five hundred years,” I tell her.
Questions rise to the surface of my mind. I savor these moments like sand running through my fingers, I want to ask her anything I can while she’s being honest, because it’s like being let into her mind, even for just a moment. It’s what I’ve wanted for weeks now. To just know whatshe’s thinking. To just know ...her.
“Who trapped you?” I ask, even though it isn’t my turn. It’s the wrong thing to say. She winces as if the question hurt her, and I curse it, and myself.
