Page 46 of Grim and Oro (Lightlark)

VILLAINS

Zed slams three different types of drink down in front of us.

We’re at a Skyling bar in the middle of the agora. The owner, Juniper, has given us a table in the very back, far from the rest of the clamoring and conversation.

Calder frowns. “Don’t you have training tomorrow?”

Zed is part of the flight force, an aerial fighting group.

Enya smirks. “It hasn’t stopped him before. Though those of us on land are in more danger than he is.”

We all remember the time Zed got drunk and threw up on a large portion of the agora. He was banned for five years. It would have been longer, but my mother always had a soft spot for Zed and was able to convince my father to shorten his sentence.

“Maybe I’ll take a trip above the prisons,” he says deviously, knowing as much as I do that there are holes in the ceilings of the cells. He hands us each a glass, then lifts his. “To Oro, truth-finder, who is now rid of the Nightshade scum!”

The glasses clink as they crash together. I take a sip and wince.

I shoot the Skyling a look. “Really?” It’s basically pure alcohol.

Zed lifts a shoulder. “Next time, don’t let me order.”

Enya tries hers and nearly gags. “This should be illegal.” She puts it back on the table and gets up to order something else.

Zed, for his part, drinks his entire cup, then Enya’s. He stands and follows Enya to the bar.

Calder turns to me. “So. How was it really?”

I swirl the drink I have no plans of consuming. “What do you mean?” I ask, though I know exactly what he means. The Moonling gives me a look.

I sigh. “He was surprisingly not monstrous in every interaction, but he’s still a monster. What do you want me to say?”

“Just the truth. As you always have.”

The truth is complicated.

“What’s bothering you?” Calder doesn’t have Nightshade mind abilities, but he might as well. He’s uncannily good at guessing at our feelings. It’s what happens when you listen more than you speak.

“He thinks we’re similar,” I explain, then frown, like the words are as bitter as the drink.

“You are,” Calder says, as if it’s obvious. I throw him a scathing look, but he continues, unbothered. “You’re both sons of rulers. Powerful. Caged, in one way or another, by your roles. You both led your land’s armies. You’re of a similar age. You—”

“I get it,” I say through gritted teeth.

“Our enemies are the heroes of their own stories. They are the villains of ours.” He shrugs. “It works both ways. You and me ... we were meant to be enemies, weren’t we?”

We were. My father killed his. His father led an uprising against mine. We were born to be rivals.

“So, you think he and I should be friends?” I ask, my tone cutting.

Calder laughs. “No. I just think the worst lies are the ones we tell ourselves.”

The lies we tell ourselves .

Enya slams her new drink on the table. “You will never guess what that barkeep told me.” She turns to me. “Since when are we keeping secrets from each other?”

I blink. “What?”

Her face falls. “You don’t know, then.”

“Don’t know what?” Zed asks from behind her.

I can tell from her expression that Enya doesn’t know if my ignorance is good or bad news. She doesn’t know how I’m going to take it.

“Your brother is betrothed.”

My first thought is to say, No, he isn’t . But I haven’t seen him in days. Ever since he became king, a gap has opened between us. Instead, I say, “To who?”

“Aurora.”

Zed howls in laughter. “Oh no. Your brother surely doesn’t deserve that.”

Enya sighs. “It’s no secret she’s been infatuated with him for a while.”

She’s putting it lightly. The Starling ruler has trailed my brother around for as long as I can remember.

Back when we were children, she was only an heir.

Then her parents died in a freak accident, an explosion in the Starling castle stables while they were preparing for a ride.

In the blink of an eye, Aurora became one of the youngest rulers in history.

“I still think she killed them,” Zed says, then takes a sip of his new drink.

Calder shoots him a look.

Zed lifts his hands, palms to the air. “What? She wouldn’t be the first to kill for power.”

Enya shakes her head. “No. We heard her, me and Oro. Right before her crowning ceremony. She was a wreck. Sobbing. Still mourning her parents.”

And Egan was holding her, as she cried in his arms. I can’t believe I’m finding out this way. I grip the table, and Enya notices.

“It’s for political reasons, of course,” she says. “Starling is strong as ever. An alliance between them makes sense.”

I must look unconvinced, because she continues. “The war fractured this island. Your brother always puts the good of the people first. It means nothing.”

I consider what Egan said to me about duty . She’s right. If anyone would marry purely for political reasons, it’s him.

Zed throws back another drink. “Do you think they’ll have to share a bed?” He frowns. “She’s attractive, but there’s something a little scary about her, isn’t there? She’s always glaring at me.”

“I wonder why,” Enya says wryly, as Zed polishes off her drink.

Calder looks pensive. “This would be the first marriage between rulers.”

He’s right. My parents were both Sunling. My mother was from a noble family, but she was not of royal blood.

“It will certainly make a statement,” Enya says.

She’s right. But I’m not sure if it’s going to be a good one.

Marriage will create unity ... but it might also be a sign of too much consolidated power.

Enya turns to me. “When are you going to marry?” I shoot her a look.

She shrugs and takes another sip of her drink.

“What? I’m tired of people assuming we’re together.

When women aren’t drooling over you, they’re glaring at me.

” I would say Enya’s exaggerating, but I’m not impervious to the looks. The whispers.

“And it would be nice have another woman in the group.” Enya frowns at us. “No offense, but sometimes you all stink, and maybe if another woman was here to tell you, you’d believe me.”

Zed’s smile is poisonous. “We stink because we actually move all day, instead of letting our flames fight for us.”

At that, a wisp of flame uncurls from Enya’s palm, knocking one of Zed’s drinks to the side. Before it spills on Calder, he freezes it, and it falls to the table, shattering. Zed pops a piece of the frozen drink in his mouth, and Enya rolls her eyes.

“Well?” Enya asks, turning to me again. “When can I expect a new best friend? Preferably one who doesn’t eat table drink?”

I turn to the women at the next table. Two avert their gazes immediately, but one holds it. She smiles. Skyling. She has blond hair and freckles.

“She’s pretty,” Enya whispers, before taking another sip.

I suppose so. I look, waiting for a tug, a feeling. I get nothing. Just vague attraction. I might have laughed at Grim’s assessment of love, but in a twisted way, I agree with him. I don’t believe in love at first sight. Romantic love could never be greater than the love I have for my friends.

Attraction, sure. Sex is great. But talking to one another for hours? Caring enough to collect details about them? Choosing to spend time with them over your friends?

Never.

“At least we don’t have to worry about the Nightshade anymore,” Zed says, holding his empty glass up.

We all cheer to that.