Crowntide

Isla awakens pinned to the floor of a circular room with a glass ceiling that shows a galaxy shaped like a crown. She cannot move or speak. Cronan resembles Grim but with bottomless eyes and a twisted crown. Realizing that one of his descendants gave Isla infinite, he expresses disgust for his “weak” bloodline. He explains the diamond is sentient and must choose to be claimed. He plans to control the stone by controlling her.

Cronan knows Isla wields six different realms’ abilities, consumes souls, and that her heart fused with the seed of power he and the other founders used to create Lightlark. He conjures a shadow and strikes her forehead with it. Isla forms a mental fortress built from her love for those she left behind, forcing his shadows out. Enraged, Cronan levitates her and threatens to break through, stating every lock has a key. Isla realizes the men she loves are her vulnerability. To protect them, she severs her bonds to Grim and Oro.

Grim’s connection to Isla disappears, but his heart continues beating. He realizes she is alive and must have severed the bond to protect him and Oro from Cronan. Oro insists they must work together to help Isla. He reminisces about the brief friendship he and Grim shared centuries ago and apologizes for not believing Grim’s innocence regarding the curses. Grim apologizes for plotting to kill Oro, but Oro’s flair allows him to sense that Grim is not truly sorry. Grim proposes a truce, promising not to kill Oro unless it helps him get to Isla. Oro accepts. Grim announces he is returning to Nightshade to conduct research and portals away.

Oro paces his throne room holding the Threads of Time. He accidentally unravels a thread and begins seeing visions of the past. He recognizes Horus and sees his parents before he was born.

Enya startles him, breaking the vision. Oro feels exhausted and frustrated. Enya comforts him, suggests Horus might hold answers, and warns Oro to be careful. Despite his weariness, Oro begins unraveling the threads again.

A knight throws Isla into a cell where Lark lies, severely wounded. Isla proposes an alliance, but her ancestor refuses. Lark reveals Cronan was not always so malevolent. She explains her philosophy that death is necessary for creation. She says Horus first wanted creation without death, but Cronan understood the concept of necessary sacrifices. The three planned to create Lightlark together. Lark explains that Cronan used both her and Horus because he wanted to claim Infinite. She taunts Isla, calling her a foolish pawn because Isla still believes she can defeat Cronan.

Grim finds Isla’s book of skyres but cannot decipher the symbols. He portals to the augur’s cave, demanding to know what he taught Isla. The augur explains that Cronan nullifies power and has a personal skyre that amplifies his abilities. If Grim carves this skyre into his skin with a powerful object, he can maintain his powers in Cronan’s world. The augur learned this from the silver-haired woman who sees. He does not know the skyre’s shape but suggests Grim, as Cronan’s descendant, might figure it out. Grim retrieves the magical feather Isla left behind so he can use it to carve the skyre.

Oro has become obsessed with the Threads of Time and watches thousands of years unfold. After two days, Enya, Zed, and Calder intervene and forcibly remove the threads, which have woven into his veins.

Oro insists the knowledge he gained is worth the risk, but his friends fear he is losing control. When his friends try to stop him from using the threads again, he attacks them, injuring Calder and Zed. The violence shocks him. Enya throws the threads aside and says they’re evil. Oro’s friends escort him to rest, though he still hears the threads calling.

Isla endures days of mental torture. Cronan’s shadows batter her defenses until a crack forms and they pour through, changing her memories to reshape her into his weapon. In her altered memories, she beheads Terra and destroys anyone who dares to oppose her. Cronan accesses genuine memories of Isla’s friendship with Celeste, the Starling ruler, watching their bond develop before skipping ahead to the moment Isla killed Celeste for betraying her. He mocks her trust.

The pain weakens Isla. The silver-haired woman’s words echo in her mind, telling her to picture a pool of brave moments. A vision of her younger self appears, and this renews her resolve. She forces Cronan out of her mind and tells him he will not break her.

Grim searches ancient ruins for clues to Cronan’s skyre. He visits the field of nightbane flowers where he proposed to Isla, which is now reduced to ash. He recalls promising her that their love is infinite and renews his vow to find her.

Exhausted from Cronan’s psychological torture, Isla accidentally thinks of Oro and Grim. Cronan latches on, showing her altered memories in which she kills Grim and Oro. Her horror strengthens her, and she forces Cronan out of her mind. Pleased, he identifies Oro and Grim as leverage he can use to make her into his weapon.

Oro finds Isla waiting in a dream and realizes that they can communicate like this even though they are in separate worlds. Oro embraces the tortured young woman, who explains Cronan is trying to turn her into his weapon. He comforts her, praises her strength, and promises that he and Grim will find her. Isla becomes terrified because this is what Cronan wants. She begs Oro not to come for her, but he refuses. The dream ends.

Isla speaks to Grim in a dream. She begins confessing about her past with Oro, but Grim says that he bears the responsibility for her divided affections because he stole her memories of Grim. She asks him to stop looking for her, but he refuses and asks how he can help. They sleep together and voice their love for one another. He wakes up alone.

Grim arrives wet from another failed attempt to open a portal in the pool. Oro reveals he saw Isla in a dream, and Grim confirms she visited him, too. By combining Grim’s portaling power with the Threads of Time, Oro is able to speak to Horus. Oro asks his ancestor how to create a portal to the otherworld, which Horus names Skyshade. Horus says he needs the world’s name, portaling ability, massive energy, a living piece of Skyshade, and combined Sunling, Nightshade, and Wildling powers. He warns that travel between worlds is lethal without a bridge but suggests the linked sacred waters might protect them. Oro is pulled forward in time, and the threads tear from his skin.

Grim and Oro review Horus’s instructions. Grim remembers Isla captured storm essence in a ring she later dropped. They realize the ring contains a living piece of Skyshade. They go to the stables. Lynx is hostile to Grim but deferential to Oro. Grim’s dragon, Wraith, is grieving due to Isla’s absence. Grim enlists both creatures’ help in the search for the ring.

Oro rides Lynx through a battlefield littered with decaying beasts from Lark’s undead army. He receives a vision through the panther’s bond with Isla. He sees her being attacked by shadows in Cronan’s galaxy room. He then sees her being thrown into a dark cell with Lark and hears her scream. Grim and Wraith retrieve the storm ring. Oro tells Grim that Lynx’s connection to Isla is active, and Grim wonders if it works both ways.

A storm briefly restores Isla’s powers, but she cannot break the shademade bars of her cell. Cronan continues attacking her memories. As her mental defenses crumble, an image from Lynx flashes in her mind, and she realizes their bond survived. Through Lynx, she sees Grim and Oro and hears their messages that they are coming for her and believe in her strength.

Seeing her lovers empowers Isla to shatter Cronan’s mental and physical hold on her. He attacks again, but she shields her mind by picturing the silver pool. Her consciousness transports to the Pool of Possibilities and the silver-haired woman. The woman explains the pool shows what might have been and offers peace with the past but warns many drown wanting to live there forever. Isla, knowing she has reasons to return, sinks beneath the water.

Isla finds herself in an alternate past at age eight. Her father and mother are both alive, and the forest blooms around her. They walk through a village where Wren and others give her flowers for her bonding day. Her family embraces, perfectly happy.

Isla surfaces, sobbing. The silver-haired woman explains the vision was real because Isla absorbed her parents’ souls, and they live within her. Her mother reappears, telling Isla she is proud of her. The vision fades. Isla faces Cronan, her mind ravaged by her ordeal but determined to defeat him.

Grim flies on Wraith to his palace. Although part of him fears Isla might choose Oro over him, he resolves to believe in their love. Looking at his hedge maze from above, Grim realizes its shape is a skyre. He lands, takes out the magical feather, and carves the symbol into his arm despite the excruciating pain this causes. The symbol gleams silver, confirming that it is Cronan’s skyre.