Chapter 60 — Grim

Grim dines with Cronan, struggling with attraction to Isla and the void where their memories once were. Determined to protect Nightshade, Grim resolves to sway or kill Cronan if needed. Cronan offers further memory erasure, which Grim refuses inwardly while feigning compliance. Cronan presses about Isla’s conversion; Grim lies that her love makes her pliable.

After the lords arrive and Isla takes her seat, Grim insists on escorting her back to the cell to gather information. On the walk, Isla probes about Wraith, revealing Grim’s memory gaps. She warns Cronan may seize Wraith and discard Grim after conquest, challenging Grim’s loyalty calculus and hinting the foretold death is only one future.

At the cell, Grim wrestles with missing pieces and fixates on Isla’s diamond. When he grabs it, she claims he gave it to her. Isla then asks about the chain at Grim’s neck; his shadows cannot destroy it, revealing a binding he cannot break.

Isla explains the truth: the necklaces bind them, and she and Grim are married. She cites a scar near his heart from when she stabbed him after his first kiss, which Grim verifies on his chest. The undeniable physical proof cracks Cronan’s narrative and Grim’s certainty about weakness and love.

Grim calls love weakness and points to Isla’s imprisonment, but Isla counters that Grim is the true prisoner under Cronan. She leans close and promises, “I’m going to break you out,” reframing the conflict as freeing Grim from Cronan’s control.