Skyshade (The Lightlark Saga Book 3) (The Lightlark Saga, 3) (Volume 3)

The gates loomed far ahead. The shred of storm she had stolen had long dissipated, melting down until she was back on her feet. She had been walking for hours in the open desert, shoes sinking into the sand. Now at least, she had reached the twisting canyons.

She was walking through one of the strangely shaped tunnels, hand dragging against the smooth rock, when she heard it. Something cutting through the air. Her breath hitched. She turned just in time to see a dagger pierce the stone wall inches from her face.

Her dagger.

One she had discarded on the journey. One that must have been picked up, by someone who would have known how much the blades meant to her.

Someone she had betrayed.

She ran.

Her legs felt boneless beneath her as she stumbled through the canyon, ducking, turning, barely missing the sides of the twisted rock that curved wildly under shards of sunlight.

Oro was the king of Lightlark. The ruler of Sunling. Even with the storm, she could not outrun him—not here in his own lands.

Another dagger. This time, just inches from her hip. She cursed. It seemed he had collected them all on his journey back. He had been right on her heels.

She tore around another curve of undulating stone, then stopped, breathing far too quickly. He was faster. Stronger here, in this heat.

Just before Oro turned the corner, she summoned any remaining energy she had—and used Grim’s Nightshade ability to disappear.

It wasn’t a power she had mastered. Her shadows were slippery in the heat, especially with her strength waning.

Still, she willed herself to keep a hold on them as Oro inched into her line of vision, another one of her daggers held loosely in his hand.

This wasn’t the Oro from before the battle, the one who had called her his favorite everything. No, this was the coldhearted king she had met on the first day of the Centennial, his eyes narrowed in anger—in betrayal. His tall, muscular frame tensed with the practice of a hunter. He took a few more steps. Stopped. Looked up.

Then, very slowly, he turned.

And looked right at her.

He squinted. Isla’s heart froze. She glanced down at herself. She was still invisible. She looked back up and found him in front of her.

She wasn’t breathing. She didn’t dare move an inch as he took a step. Then another. As he tentatively raised his arm. Reached for her.

It was a shame she hadn’t learned to walk through walls, because when his fingertips brushed her cheeks, they both felt it.

And then, she became visible.

Before he could say a single word, her Starling shield rippled onto her skin, and she launched a wave of energy at him.

Oro crashed into the rockface with enough force to crack it. She turned to run, but Oro’s hand shot forward. A sheet of stone from behind him ripped off the canyon, hit her hand, and pinned her against the wall. It curled around her wrist, trapping it above her head. With one more movement, her other wrist joined it.

His look was pure fire. Pure satisfaction.

He was using her own power against her.

They both knew what that meant.

He stalked over to her. A dagger of energy formed in his hand, and he raised it against her cheek. Isla glanced down at it. This was good, she tried to tell herself. This was what she wanted. For him to hate her. For him to resent her.

It was not all she wanted.

“You stole from me,” he said, as if he still couldn’t believe it. “You left me. You betrayed me.”

She just stared at him, chest heaving.

“Did you think I wouldn’t find you?” His face was just inches from hers, close enough to see the specks of gold in his amber eyes, simmering with fury. “Did you think I wouldn’t catch you?” He leaned closer. “You can’t hide from me,” he growled. “Even if I can’t see you, I can feel you. You are relentless. You are a gravity I’ve tried to escape, but I can’t. I can’t , Isla.” His voice shook. He was one of the most powerful rulers in history, but his arm shook with restraint as he brushed his thumb against the wrists he had pinned above her head.

He looked like he hated himself, truly hated himself for his words. He looked like he hated that she shivered beneath his touch. He shook his head. “You chose someone else, you left, and still, I wait here like a fool for the day you might return.”

He pointed just beyond the gates, close to the forest where he had found her.

“I go to that cliff, that beach, every single morning because the sea is the green of your eyes, and it’s the closest I get to waking up next to you.”

She shook her head. “Forget me,” she begged. “I’m not good for you, Oro.”

“You don’t think I’ve tried?” He said, eyes blazing. “My love for you is like that forever flame, Isla. Relentless. Stubborn. Endless. Burning brightly, even if you’re not around to see it.”

A tear slipped down her cheek.

His anger abated. It was replaced by pain. “Come back,” he said, his voice breaking, and she closed her eyes tightly. “Stay.”

“Oro, I can’t.” He didn’t understand. He didn’t get it.

“You can,” he said, and she opened her eyes to find his widened, desperate. “I’ve driven myself mad thinking about it. I understand why you left. You wanted to stop the battle. You wanted to stop the death. But I can’t understand why you stayed. I kept . . . I kept waiting for you to come back. So I came to you, thinking there must be something wrong, that he was somehow keeping you there, but then,” his voice broke as he cut off. He closed his eyes and took a breath, as if gathering strength. “Then you gave me this.” He pulled the golden rose necklace from his pocket.

He carried it with him. He hadn’t melted it down or thrown it into the sea, as she had imagined.

Oro must have sensed her surprise, because he said, “I wanted to destroy it. I wanted to burn it. But I couldn’t.” He shook his head. “Why, Isla? I would have thought the words you told me, the time we shared, had been a lie—but I could feel their truth. So why?”

He leaned closer, and she leaned away, her wrists still pinned above her. They were made of stone. She had energy left. She could remove them, but she didn’t. She didn’t, even as his lips lowered toward hers, as he said, just inches away from her skin, “Tell me you don’t miss me. Tell me you don’t think about me. Tell me you don’t go back in time and change your mind.” His lips grazed her cheek as he said, “Tell me that, and mean it, and I will leave you alone forever. I swear it.”

She lifted her chin high and forced herself to meet his gaze. “I don’t miss you,” she said steadily. “I never think of you. I don’t go back in time and change my mind.”

His lips were just over hers. She felt his breath against her mouth. He leaned closer, like he might kiss her, like she might let him, and said, “Liar.”

Then, he walked away, leaving her pinned against the stone.

He made it a few paces before he cursed. Isla wrenched herself from the wall and turned the corner.

The gates stood there, in view.

And an army stood beyond them.

Isla recognized the stillness of Lark’s bloodless soldiers.

They were blocking their path, making exiting impossible, unless they wanted to risk getting cut down by dozens of blades.

Worse—they weren’t just Nightshade. They were Skyling. Starling. Sunling. Some faces, Isla recognized from the battle, fighting on her side.

Now they stared blankly.

Oro’s eyes were pure fire and fury, understanding coming over him. “I’m going to kill her,” he said, his voice a dark promise.

Her words were barely a whisper. “She can’t be killed.”

He turned to her. “Then I will throw her into the forever flame and watch her burn until the end of time.”

The bloodless soldiers watched them, waiting. Isla suspected what would happen, but she sent a spiral of flames through the gaps in the gates anyway.

They dissolved the moment they hit the gold. It was impenetrable, on both sides.

They were trapped. Only death awaited on the other side. The army could stand there forever if needed; they were already dead.

Without water, in this heat . . . Isla and Oro would soon join them.

They didn’t have time for this. She needed to get back to Nightshade. She knew what she had to do. “I’m sorry,” she told Oro.

Then, she pulled her necklace.

She could almost feel the air change around them, the sky going taut. His power cleaving through the world to get to her.

The ground itself shuddered as Grim landed just beyond the gates, in a scar of streaking shadow.

In an instant, the army of dead was ash. He walked over their sizzling remains, eyes never leaving hers.

Until they slid to Oro.

He looked between them.

Before she could blink, a shadow scythe was hurtling toward Oro, ready to cut him down. Only the gate stopped it.

Her look was crazed. “Don’t hurt him,” she said, stepping in front of Oro, even though she didn’t need to.

Grim just looked at her. Slowly, the shadows that had gathered in his hands withered. She turned to Oro. “You too.”

He glared at her as he cut his hand . . . and opened the gate.

She flinched, waiting for them to ignore her order, to fight each other until the death, like before. But they both stood very still. They both turned to her.

The army’s ashes swirled at her feet. They were just the beginning.

“Lark is here.” She looked at Oro, then at Grim. They were enemies. She could almost taste their hatred. But Lark would destroy them all if they remained on different sides. “We can’t defeat her divided.” She couldn’t believe the words that were about to leave her mouth. “The only chance we have is to work together.”