Oro didn’t say a word about the cut on her hand. He didn’t get angry. All he did was scoop her from the ground of the Place of Mirrors and bring her back to their room. He cleaned her wound, and fed her broth, and brought her medicine. Ella was in the Skyling newland now, almost everyone was, so he went down into the kitchens and made everything himself.
Oro had found her through their link. She had called to him, her essence just a whisper . . . and he had answered.
He had always answered.
He deserved so much better. Enya was right.
Why didn’t she ever listen? Why didn’t she ever learn?
When she was back to her previous strength, she said, “I need to tell you something.”
The castle was empty. The attack would happen the next day. Azul, Oro, Isla, Zed, Calder, and Enya stood on the stairs in front of it for their meeting. The legions had their orders. They had their plan.
But something had changed.
“I know why he’s coming,” she said. She told them everything. About the other world. The portal. The fact that using it would completely destroy Lightlark.
“Why would he want to go to a different world?” Azul asked.
Isla didn’t know. That part didn’t make any sense. In her memories, he had told her about the other world without showing any interest in visiting it.
What else wasn’t she remembering?
Zed paced up and down the stairs. “Whatever his reason is, we have to make sure the portal stays closed,” he said. “We must—”
“It’s already open,” she said, tears streaming.
A storm cracked the sky in half. Wind howled around them. “What do you mean, it’s already open?” Zed demanded.
She felt everyone’s eyes on her.
Terra was right. She was still so foolish. She had been so blinded by her need to get the vault open, by her desire to prove herself as a true Wildling, that she had given her enemy the key to destroying everything she loved.
Her voice was just a rasp. “I opened it for him.”
