Before — Chapter 30

Counting down to Creetan’s Crag and missing Grim’s visits, Isla sneaks across the Wildling newland to observe a village and understand her people beyond Terra and Poppy’s accounts. Before she can blend in, she is ambushed, bound, and identified only as a Wildling by two women who admit they are starving for hearts.

When the women return, one hesitates while the other gags Isla and begins carving into her chest to remove her heart. In agony, Isla fumbles for her concealed starstick and, as the blade cuts deeper, manages to grasp it and portal away. Refusing to alert Terra or Poppy, Isla bleeds out into Grim’s room, where Grim removes the gag, burns her restraints to ash, and fetches her healing elixir.

Isla pours the elixir onto the wound, regrowing skin while the pain persists. Grim offers melted chocolate to steady her and harshly forbids nightbane, explaining it brings bliss while killing its users. At Isla’s request he supplies alcohol, then reveals Nightshade training once involved being publicly skinned to build endurance; he watched without reaction to impress his father, a practice now ended.

As Isla stabilizes, Grim destroys her blood-soaked top to erase evidence. Later he appears in her bedroom to ensure she doesn’t bleed out, calling her an “investment.” They spar verbally: she dislikes his dark palace; he apologizes for the window incident. He cannot explain how her starstick reached Wildling and denies knowing her mother.

Their tension spikes as Isla teases him about a harem and their past encounter; Grim admits he can feel flashes of others’ emotions and senses Isla’s, then withdraws, telling her to sleep. Isla hides her fluster, while the night cements a wary, more intimate dependence between enemies.