Crowntide by Alex Aster - 90

Isla was coming. Oro could feel her careening through the universe, headed right toward him.

Relief and dread battled in equal measure, after everything he had just seen. His hand shook with both as he used the portaling device to go to the tide pool. The one he and Grim had turned into a portal. It was quiet now, for the first time in days. But its waters glimmered.

Cleo was already there, waiting. She hadn’t left since the moment she had been summoned. Neither of them said a word, not daring to hope, not daring to breathe. A wave crashed toward them, whispering against the sand.

All at once, the sea seemed to shatter as energy dropped into the pool—flinging water to the cliffs and the horizon. The tide pool widened into a crater that nearly took up the entire coast, surging and dispersing, its sand dragged up. And the water that remained now was as dark as a midnight sky.

Oro stood steadfast in place, his power rooting him. Cleo was still by his side. She reached into the waters and pulled out a boy.

Her son. He was alive.

Cleo’s cry of relief sent waves rising hundreds of feet, crashing over cliffs, flooding the island with her joy.

They were all alive . People were emerging from those waters, gasping for air. And Isla was in the center of them, rising like a god.

Her eyes were glowing unnaturally. Her hair was whipping behind her from an invisible wind. She wore armor and held a sword of metal he couldn’t name.

Oro couldn’t stop the panic that raced through his blood. He had seen the future. He had seen the ruin . But when he looked at her, she made him want to forget it all. Forget his crown. Forget his duty.

Forget the future.

“Love,” he said, the word spilling from his lips, and in that instant, her hair settled. The glowing of her eyes dimmed. She blinked too many times, then looked around her, as if in a daze. Finally, her knees gave way. Oro caught her before she hit the sand.

Her eyes widened as she saw him. Green . That green was back, he thought.

“You’re home,” he said, his voice breaking with emotion. She nodded, tears streaming down her face. He didn’t want to speak the words, but in the end, he had to. Their fates were all interlaced. With the future on his mind, he asked, “Where is Grim?”