Page 143 of The Eighth Isle

I did so reluctantly—I didn’t want to part with that tiny dragon at all. But Reeva and her sisters sat around the pillow with their legs crossed and their eyes focused, and I had no choice but to step back and let them work.

Something’s wrong,said that same old voice in my head—my fucking arch nemesis. And I didn’t have the will to even try to believe that we had anything under control.

Thirty

Shadow was still alive.He hadn’t woken up yet—a lot of magic was put on him, according to Reeva, and it was going to take a while for his body to expel all of it, but physically speaking there was nothing wrong with him now. All his wounds had closed. He was fine—he just needed a bit more time, just like after the duel when Storm stomped him half to death. It had been physical then, and now it wasn’t—but he just needed time and he was going to be back in the air in no time, I knew it.

Then he could tell us where Valentine was.

Still early, though—or that’s what I told myself. It was only nine in the morning, so it hadn’t even been twelve hours since Shadow came back. Since he fell unconscious. Since the witches put their spells on him.

“Not even twelve hours,” I whispered to the blue sky. For the past hour, I’d been out here by the pool, staring at the dark clouds in the distance that seemed to get angrier by the minute.

No cloud was over the Paradise, though. It was Mama Si’s magic, I was sure of it, because she only let it rain when she wanted, and that was usually at night or early in the morning when there were no parties in the yards. Those clouds wouldn’tmake it to us no matter how much I’d have appreciated some rain. Just so it could give me a distraction. Just so I could focus onitfor a second, not on Shadow. Not on Valentine.

I’d slept for a few hours and that had been bliss. But then dawn came and my mind was racing even before I opened my eyes. Even Grey couldn’t keep the dark thoughts at bay with his kisses and his hands. I was too distracted, too afraid, too impatient to see if Shadow had woken up, so I made him get out of bed not half an hour after I woke up.

But Shadow was still asleep.

“There she is!”

“Someone finally decided to come down here and say hi!”

“It’s so good to see you, Fall!”

My heart almost beat right out of my chest when I heard the voices, and for a moment, my body froze in place and I was taken back in time. Back to the beginning, to when I was still just a normal twenty-year-old going through heartbreak, through a traumatic experience, without any clue about what really went on in the world.

Back to when I was just one of the girls at the Paradise—Mama Si’s doll. A real-life princess by day, and an escort by night—or at least I thought I was supposed to be.

But, no, Mama Si had had other plans for me. She’d never expected me to be an escort for humans—but a bride for the Evernights.

Wasn’t it funny that her plan had worked better than she had even dared to hope?

Now here I was, a bride of an Evernight indeed, looking back at the girls who were coming closer to me with smiles on their faces—Amber, Eve, and Peanut.

I had missed them so much, even though I hardly knew them, or maybe I missed the idea of what could have been my life if things were as simple as they’d seemed then.

When I made it to my feet, Amber basically attacked me with a bearhug. My feet were wet because I’d been sitting by the pool and had dipped them in the water, and we nearly fell in together. But then Eva and Peanut grabbed us, too, and we laughed, and they all talked at the same time, as if we had been the best of friends once and hadn’t seen in each other in years.

“Oh, my God, Fall!” Amber said when we finally let go and they joined me to sit by the pool. “You’ve changed so much! You’ve become even hotter—how?”

“Tell us the secret. Is it a new mask? Or a new laser treatment? Come on, spill it!” said Peanut.

“Just let her talk for a minute—why did you leave?” Eva said. “Where did you go? Mama Si wouldn’t tell us anything.”

I smiled. “I just…left the Paradise.” The girls had no idea about what went on on the other side of the Paradise. They werehuman, as strange as it was for me to even think that.

Human.Like I used to be. Like most of the world was.

Like Annabelle, Brandon, and even Missy.

And I wondered, was she even alive? Did my grandmother even care about what happened to me, whether I’d died or not?

Would she even see me now if I ever went to visit her?

Not that I would.

“But why?” Eva insisted.

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