Page 51 of Grim and Oro (Lightlark)

brOKEN PROMISES

TEN YEARS LATER

I never see Egan and Violet together again, other than for official business.

Until the night I’m at his door, and it opens before I can knock. Violet stands there, startled, her green eyes wide. A second passes. Then, my gaze moves behind her, to my brother. He isn’t wearing a shirt.

His mouth tightens. He knows I’ve seen them. Truth can’t be undone. His eyes stay fixed to mine as he walks over, takes Violet’s hand, and presses his lips to her knuckles.

“I’ll find you later,” he says, in a soft voice I’ve never heard from him. For a moment, his gaze shifts to hers. Love . That, I think, is what it looks like. Dread churns in my chest. Violet moves past me, out the door. I close it behind us and slowly turn to my brother.

“You’re angry,” he says calmly, as he walks toward his balcony—the largest in the castle.

“No,” I say, my voice steady and cold. “I’m shocked. I’m wondering if maybe I never knew you.”

That makes him turn around. His expression is pure hurt. “How can you say that?”

I step forward, my hands in fists, fire flaring within them.

“Because the brother I know would never endanger the island like this. Would never risk the end of peace like this.” I shake my head.

“You’re set to be married in weeks . After prolonging your nuptials for years.

You said it was for the good of the kingdom.

You know how bad it would be to piss Aurora off.

” Starling is now almost purely responsible for manufacturing all our weapons and energy.

In times of peace, that wouldn’t be so important ... but Grim has told me his father never took his sights off Lightlark. He’s also told me that he wouldn’t be surprised if his father was planning to attack, with or without him.

So, we’ve been preparing for the worst. Building up our forces. Aurora is a huge part of that.

“How can you put everything at risk now? For ... for your own feelings ?” I step forward. “A king’s duty is his entire life,” I say, my voice shaking with rage. “ You said that. You said that a king has to give up his own desires for the good of the kingdom.”

Lies . They were lies, clearly, though at the time, they were truths.

Egan’s face is sad. His voice is tired. “I’m not as strong as I thought I was. I’m not as heartless as Father tried to make me. I’m not the king I wanted to be,” he says. His eyes bore into mine. “But you will be.”

That makes the fire in my palms waver. I couldn’t have heard him correctly. “What?”

“I’m going to call off my wedding with Aurora. I’m going to step down as king. And you are going to take my place.”

I take a step back. “No. I will not .”

“You will,” he says. “You’re right. This land deserves a king who can put its needs first. Who can make tough decisions. It deserves you.”

“I don’t want it,” I say through my teeth. “I don’t want to be king .”

“That’s precisely why you should be.”

No. I don’t want this responsibility, this role, this cage. Egan has always known that. And now ... now he’s forcing it upon me. “You would give it all up? Everything our parents worked for? Your duty? For a woman?” I shake my head. It seems impossible.

Egan’s smile is almost pitiful. “One day, you will understand.”

“I will never understand,” I say, meaning it with every part of me. I would never let a woman get in between me and my duty to the people. I would never put this burden on my brother.

“Perhaps,” he says, looking both pensive and sad. “And perhaps that will make you the greatest king yet.”

My legs dangle off the edge of the cliff.

Wild Isle is quieter than the rest, especially at night. I come here, sometimes, to think. Sometimes I have company.

Grim groans as he takes a seat next to me. “They said you would be out here. Didn’t feel like losing again?”

Lately, the Wildling warriors have invited us to their tournaments, to duel. They were quicker to accept Grim’s presence than the rest of the realms. Now he’s practically one of them, spending most of his time here. I say nothing. I just keep staring ahead at the horizon.

Grim sighs and sits back on his hands. “Your brooding is annoying, as always. Just spit it out.”

I haven’t told my friends. Not even Enya. I trust them more than anyone. But I have to admit that they could never understand. Not this.

But Grim ...

“My brother wants to abdicate,” I say. “He wants me to be king.”

Grim’s expression barely changes. He turns toward the sea, and nods. “So, the crown of daggers has been handed to you.” He laughs. “Ruling isn’t the privilege everyone thinks it is, is it?”

“No. It isn’t.”

We sit in silence.

“So, what are you going to do?” he asks eventually, turning back to me.

“What can I do? His mind is decided.”

He purses his lips, considering. “You could get banished to your enemy’s lands, and imprisoned. That should keep you from taking on responsibility, at least for a few decades. I’d be happy to hand you over to my father myself.”

If only. I sigh. “I’m starting to understand why you preferred that prison.”

“A throne or a cell ... they aren’t so different.”

“No,” I say. “They’re not.” And right now, I would rather the cell. I stare down at the churning sea. I consider my fate. Since that conversation with Egan, I’ve thought of this turn of events as a prison sentence ...

But what if it doesn’t need to be?

I think about what I might do as king. What I might do differently from my father and Egan. Could I help this world? Could I keep us from war?

Grim makes a sound of disbelief. “Hope? From you? Do let us into that miserable head of yours.”

I squint at the sea below, at the rocks piercing its surface. “I’m just thinking. Perhaps if I become king, things could change.”

“How so?”

Slowly, I turn to him. It’s not just hope. For once in decades, I feel something almost like excitement for the future. Perhaps this could be the best thing for our people. For both our realms.

“If I become king, you could kill your father. You could become ruler.” We’ve talked about it before. Every time, Grim says he would rather die than become ruler of Nightshade.

This time, he raises a brow. “And?”

“We could finally, for once in our histories, have peace.”

“Peace,” he repeats, frowning, as if the word is new to him. I remember what he said so long ago, in the cells. Why do you hate me? Is it because of something I did? Or because someone told you to?

My voice quickens. “You said so yourself. Your warriors were forced to fight. They didn’t want to overtake Lightlark.

Neither do you. This would be the end of pointless war.

No one else would have to die. We could settle any difference with a simple conversation.

Your father would pay for what he did to my parents .

..” I chew down the painful memory. “And history would be able to move on. We could all, finally, move on. To a better future. One led by both of us. Two people who don’t revel in death.

Two people who could be ... who are .. . friends.”

“Friends,” Grim repeats.

I nod.

Friends .

I offer him my hand to shake. It’s full of everything I’ve promised. Peace. Friendship. And end to pointless death.

He takes it.

The next morning, I awake to screaming.

Enya rushes into my room just as I get to my feet. “Dead—they’re dead,” she yells, sputtering.

“Who?” I ask, rushing forward.

Her normally fiery hands are cold. She’s trembling. Her eyes are full of tears as she breathes, “Everyone.”

No. She has to be wrong.

The screaming intensifies. Screaming inside and outside the castle.

I rush toward my window, to see, and she drags me back just in time—but not before a sliver of sun reaches me.

It slices into my skin—burning. I rear back and turn around, pain radiating across my arm. The sun that always brought me power and peace and life ... it’s now a poison.

That’s when the screaming doubles. Triples.

“Egan,” I say, stumbling toward the door. I look over my shoulder. “Try to find Calder. And Zed.” Is the sun burning them too? Are they all right?

I run faster than I ever have in my life, practically flying down the halls as castle attendants stream out of rooms. Relief feels lighter than air as I finally spot my brother. Alive , he’s alive. I feel it for only a moment, before I see the serious set of his face.

“What’s happening?” I ask, careful to stay away from the windows. He’s with Violet. Of course he is. They’re holding hands.

“It’s a curse,” my brother says. The word is an arrow to the chest.

“How do you know?” I say, slowly.

“Nothing else could be this powerful.”

A curse. A Nightshade ability. Only one person here would be able to spin one.

No . I rush out of the room. Egan has to be wrong. This—this isn’t a curse. But as I move down the hall, I feel it. Something in the air, like a shadow, masking everything. Nightshade power. Overwhelming the world. A curse .

Egan is right. It’s a curse on us all.

I go still as I turn the next corridor. My knees buckle. It’s full of Starlings.

Dead. They’re all dead.

Agnes . I rush over to her. She’s sprawled out on the floor, her hand outstretched, right toward her daughter. Ara .

Agnes’s eyes are open wide and glistening. They don’t close. I fall to my knees beside her and try to lift her head. I cradle it in my lap, the same way she did to me, as a child. I can’t lose another mother. Not again.

“No,” I say. “ No .” Water. I need water. Maybe I can heal her, or—

Steps. Echoing. Then, slowing. Stopping in front of me. I’m still staring at Agnes’s lifeless body, but somehow, I know it’s him.

Slowly, I set Agnes back down, onto the floor. Slowly, I rise. Slowly, I look up, fury coiling in my bones.

Grim’s eyes are sharp. “I know how this looks,” he says, his hands outstretched in front of him. “This isn’t my fault.”

The second the words leave his mouth, I feel the lie. It’s twisted, edged slightly in truth, but the bitterness is enough.

My flames barrel out of me in an endless stream, hitting him right in the center of his chest, sending him soaring through the hall. He hits the stone floor with a sickening crack. Energy fills my palms. Flames coat my arms.

“You saw a king weakened by love, getting ready to turn over the crown, and thought this was perfect timing, didn’t you?” I hit him with a burst of Starling energy next, and he goes flying again, landing roughly against the wall. This is my fault. I freed him. I told him about Egan’s plans.

“I can’t believe I trusted you,” I say through gritted teeth. “I can’t believe I believed in you .”

He’s baring his teeth at me now. Showing his true colors.

The Grim I have known for nearly two decades is gone.

He didn’t even exist in the first place.

I take a step toward him. Another. Ice freezes the ground beneath my feet.

My burning hatred and fury and betrayal run through my veins, heating the fire in my palms.

For the first time in years, I want to kill someone purely for the sake of seeing them dead. Hatred rages through my veins, sharper than ever before. It’s blinding.

I almost kill him. But I am not him. I will be better than this cursed demon in front of me. He is his father.

I am not mine.

I take a step toward him, voice shaking with rage, and say, “You and your realm have taken everything from me. Every single thing I’ve ever held dear.

” I take another step, drawing close to him, so that he can hear the conviction in my voice.

I say the words, meaning them more than I have ever meant anything.

I say them like a curse. “One day, I will find a way to hurt you. One day, you will want something more than anything else in this world, and I will take it from you.”

To think—to think I thought we could have been friends .

My voice sears through the halls. It seems to quiet even the chaos around us. For a moment, he looks shocked. Hurt, just as I am.

I watch as any light within him flickers—then gutters out. A bitter smile overtakes his face, eyes dark and cruel as night. “Well, that’s the good thing about not caring. I don’t want anything.”

Screams sound behind me. Familiar ones. I hesitate for a moment, wanting to hurt him. Wanting to make him feel physical pain to match my own torment. Instead, I run toward the screaming, knowing with certainty that one day, I’ll make good on my promise to him.

By the end of the day, my brother and all the other rulers are dead. The last of my family—gone.

And I am king. The role I never wanted. My heart hardens within me.

It doesn’t thaw for another five hundred years.