Lightlark (Lightlark, #1)

by Alex Aster

Every hundred years, rulers returned to Lightlark, desperate to break the curses. Every hundred years, they failed.

“You are enough, little bird. Better than any of them.”

Five hundred years before, each of the six realms—Wildling, Starling, Moonling, Skyling, Sunling, and Nightshade—were cursed, their strengths turned into their own personal poisons. Each curse was uniquely wicked. Wildlings’ was twofold. They were cursed to kill anyone they fell in love with—and to live exclusively on human hearts. They turned into terrifyingly beautiful monsters with the wicked power to seduce with a single look.

Still, the name suited him. There was something grim beneath that grin, a faint shadow that might become monstrous in the dark.

On Lightlark and beyond, love had a price. Falling deeply and truly in love meant forming a bond that gave a beloved complete access to one’s abilities. They could do whatever they wished with it. Wield it, reject it. Even steal it.

!!!!

Grim was a distraction. She wouldn’t be the fool who fell for his tricks.

oh isla...

Isla cherished them, wrote her favorite lines down on paper. Felt pangs of grief when she was forced to give them away in exchange for another.

“I’m not sure what I enjoy more. Seeing the way you grip a sword . . . or the way your dress grips you.”

“And I don’t know what I enjoy more. Replaying the image of my sword against your throat . . . or thinking about how your heart might look on my plate.” Grim’s dark eyes flashed with amusement. “Careful, Hearteater,” he whispered, towering over her, standing far too close. “I might just give it to you.”

No relics. Just books. Thousands of them.

She might have claimed she hated it. But she didn’t hate it. She hated herself for not thinking his words were repulsive.

She wanted all life had to offer. The long life of a ruler with powers, exploring all Lightlark, a lifetime of friendship with Celeste, perhaps even . . . love. Something she had judged others for. Including her own mother. Something she had always seen as reckless. She wanted, wanted so strongly, selfish things beyond just saving her realm and breaking the curses—

She had strange dreams. Grim was in some of them. Flashes of him. Of her. Of them.

Celeste was a better friend than she deserved.

oh boy

But she had tired of filtering herself, of shoving her emotions down, of telling everyone what they wanted to hear. What had it gotten her?

“I’m not your enemy,” he said, voice softer than she had ever heard it.

Grim looked at her for a long time. “One day,” he said, “I’ll show you.”

“Oh,” he said, eyes trained to hers, as if he wanted to make sure she heard every word, “what I’m feeling can’t be said in a place like this.”

She remembered his words. I am the monster. Part of her was afraid of it. But she wasn’t afraid of him. Even though part of her screamed that she should be.

“Hearteater,” he said into her ear. “You’re killing me.”

“I know you are more than capable of protecting yourself,” he said, head bent low, breath against her nearly bare shoulder. “But should you ever need me, touch this. And I will come for you.”

Before, she believed it was wrong to want anything other than to break her and her realm’s curses. Now, she wanted everything.

“Nothing, absolutely nothing, is wrong with you, heart,”

“If anyone makes a move to harm you, I will ruin them and their entire realm.” His fingers trailed down her face, past her throat, then tugged gently on the pendant at the end of her necklace. “Pull this,” he said. “And I’ll be there.”

Isla believed him. She believed only him.

Isla thought about it, sometimes. The impossible choice. Killing a beloved . . . or dying. Before, it had seemed obvious. Now she knew she could never kill the person she loved. Perhaps that made her mortal. Perhaps that made her weak.

“I was never far from you,” he said. “I knew when you moved into the Place of Mirrors. I guarded its entrance. Had guards stationed nearby. How did you think Ella was able to get through unharmed? Wherever you went, I followed. And when I could not, I had guards monitoring Cleo so I could ensure she wasn’t anywhere near you.”

“I haven’t told you what you do to me.” She blinked. “What?” “I haven’t told you that you’ve ruined me.” “Ruined?” He nodded. “Ruined. Tortured. You haven’t stopped tormenting me since the first moment I saw you.”

“A few conversations with you, and I was ready to make the most disadvantageous trade—all of me in exchange for any part of you you’d be willing to spare.” He shook his head. “You have invaded my mind. I have questioned my sanity. I think about you all the time.”

“Late at night, I ache for you. I ache for you all the time,” he said, face truly looking tortured. As if he had waited a long while to say those words. As if she had been a curse worse than all others.

And something about it all was so familiar, like falling asleep, or humming to the rain, or breathing. Like she had already done it all a thousand times in her dreams.

“What did you do to me?” he said, voice pleading. She felt a finger run down the side of her face. “What did you do to leave me completely at your mercy?”

Isla had everything. The heart. The promise of power. The chance to save her realm. But it all had a cost: Grim’s life.

“I’ll give you anything,” he said immediately. “Anything you need. Anything of mine. It’s yours.”

Remember us, Heart. Remember it all. You will remember. And when you do— You will come back to me.

That was the moment I knew I loved you, he had said. When that arrow went through your heart, and it might as well have gone through mine.