Crowntide by Alex Aster - 91

“He chose Cronan,” Isla said, Oro’s amber eyes the only anchor in her crushing sadness. The sun was bright behind her back, its warmth like a caress.

Her body was slowly coming back to her, both brimming with power, and spent. Both filled with happiness at seeing Oro again, and grief at having lost Grim again.

She could have killed Cronan. They could have . . . together.

“I’m sorry,” Oro said, and he sounded like he meant it, but she shook her head.

“He loves me. The fact that I’m even here is proof of that.” Isla had desperately reached for the bridge between them—and felt that thread. It had formed sometime in that forest. He loved her .

But the blade he had seen reflected in those waters had made him falter.

“Love—” Oro said, the word so soft, she almost didn’t hear it. She frowned. Why did he look so full of regret? So torn? So . . . devastated?

Her muscles tensed. “You saw the futures, didn’t you?” Isla asked. Oro hesitated. But he would not lie to her. She knew that. Finally, he nodded. Dread spilled through her bones. “What did you see?”

He opened his mouth . . . then closed it. Like he couldn’t get the words out.

She scrambled out of his arms and took a step back. He took a step toward her, and it felt almost like another duel. Isla wondered if she should be raising her blade.

But before she could see what he would do next, the world went still, as if it was holding its breath.

Then, everything broke.

The sky ripped open with a howl that shredded her senses. Portal after portal formed over them all.

Dozens of worlds. Cronan’s worlds .

Coming here to conquer.

Cronan needed her dead to get the diamond. With Lark’s power within, she couldn’t be killed without her permission. Unless he found that dagger.

It was the only way to kill him too. War was upon them now. And it could only be finished by the Heartblade.

The pool had shown her that with the Threads of Time and travel across the galaxy, fate had been changed. Fractured. There were more possible futures than before. Now, the prophecy might not be about her at all.

Grim, Oro, and Isla’s choices would define destiny.

Only these facts were certain. One of them would wield Heartblade. One of them would die by it, for good. One of them would either save the world or destroy it.

This all ended with a blade through the heart.

The only question was—

Whose?