Page 149 of The Eighth Isle

“I am not just going to sit here and let them kill Valentine,” I told Reeva. “I won’t do it. And right now, the sirens are power-hungry, and they want to kill me, and if they do, so be it, but?—”

“Never,” Grey said from my side, and he said it matter-of-factly, like it just wasn’t going to happen.

“I’m just saying,” I continued. “Right now, they’re not themselves with everything that has happened, but they settled once after Syra, didn’t they? They’ll settle again, but you have to give them a good reason to want to stand down. Think about it.” I reached out my hand to Reeva and she took it absentmindedly. “If you can force them to stand down like Syra did once, the Seven Isles will be just fine.”

“Unless we all die,” the witch said.

Shadow purred deep in his throat, and his long tail reached out for my hand as if he were calling me.

“Well, then, if we do, my dear friend, the end of the Seven Isles won’t mean much to us, will it?” Mama Si said, eyes glistening as her fake smile stretched her lips. “We win one way or the other.”

“Welose,” Reeva insisted. “We will have left no home, no safe space for the future generations—therewill be nofuture generations!”

“Then what do you propose, Reeva?” I asked again, and my voice shook. “Tell me, what do you propose? If you have a better idea, we all would love to hear it.” I, for one, would jump at the opportunity if there was any way to ensure that none of us died, and the sirens were defeated.

Reeva blinked at me but for the longest moment, she said nothing. So, I continued.

“We either confront the sirens ourselves, fight them,try—or we sit here and wait for them to get tired and come searching for us instead. This power is in me. If we can’t get it out, they won’t stop.” And she knew this—it’s why she was here in the first place.

“So, really, when you think about it, we don’t actually have a choice, any of us,” Mama Si said. “They’re not coming to my Burrow to destroy my Paradise. I would rather go to them.”

“We can make it,” Grey said after a minute. “If we’re fast and precise, we can make it.”

“We can,” I said even if I didn’t believe it. “I’ll be the bait?—”

“No,” he cut me off. “You willnotbe the bait.”

“Grey, it’s?—”

“Baby, they’re not stupid. If you simply surrender to them, they’ll know something’s up. But if we make them believe that they caught you trying to save Valentine, they’ll be much more at ease,” he said.

“That’s very good, Master Grey,” Mama Si said. “I like the way you think—and you’re very right. If they catch her, they’ll be much more at ease, and it will be simpler for the rest of us to get close.”

Well, when they put it like that… “Then we’ll make it easy for them to catch me.” That way they wouldn’t expect the others at all.

“They’ll catch both of us,” Grey said. “It will give me a chance to get close, so that when the rest of you come forward, I’ll be in a position to give you an opening.” Meaning, he was going to attack the sirens.

That did not sit well with me at all. My heart skipped one too many beats, and Grey turned to look at me because he heard it. “We’ll be just fine, baby. We’re going to get that magic out of you today.”

Today.

Shivers ran down my back.

“Then we will,” said Reeva with a nod. “We have the storage vessel. We’re as ready as we’re going to be. And if we make it, if we survive and get out of the Woods, we can create whatever spell we need to keep the sirens under control until they settle.” She stood up, and we all stood up with her as if she’d pulled all our strings. “We will be ready in an hour.”

“I’ll be damned,” Mama Si said when Reeva turned to her sisters, and together they walked out of the room. “We actually managed to agree on this!” She laughed her heart out as she, too, made for the door. “I’ll be ready in an hour as well, I suppose. Good times, good times!”

Shadow jumped off the pillow and on the floor, his wings faster now, but he was still having trouble flying. I leaned down to grab him in my hands. “Rest, Shadow. We’re going to need you at your fullest if we’re gonna get him back.”

Grey suddenly leaned in to kiss my forehead, and I felt his frustration in that kiss clearly.

“I know you think this is dangerous,” I started, but Grey didn’t let me finish.

“Itis, but it’s also necessary. The longer that magic is in you, the more it could be damaging you and our boy.” When he said those words together—our boy—my knees almost gave up on me. “Ultimately, that’s the only thing that matters, and Valentine could be the only person who can undo what he did to you with Syra.”

“Through Shadow,” I said, putting down the little dragon on the pillow again so I could hug Grey. I needed his warmth right now as much as I needed to breathe. “He did it through Shadow.”

“And he will undo it the same way,” Grey said wrapping his arms around me when I fell on his chest.

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