Page 2 of The Eighth Isle

“No!” Syra shouted, and the sound of her voice alone was powerful enough to make the mountain groan.

Grey stepped in front of me, half shielding me from her view as we continued to move toward the exit slowly, but it was no use. He knew it was no use, and so did I—yet I still somehow clung to the hope that we would actually make it out of this cave in one piece.

I shouldn’t have.

“Yes, you did—and you were right to do so.”

All eyes turned to Genevieve, who’d gone closer to the pool’s edge and was looking up at Syra while tears streamed down her bloody cheeks.

Syra stopped shaking her head to look at her, too.

“You were right to do so. Ennaris shouldn’t exist at all! That is why you’re awake today—to finish what you started. To end it for good,” she continued. “I’ve waited so, so long…”

Even now, I couldn’t believe the words coming out of this woman’s mouth.

But Syra didn’t say a single word to Genevieve. Instead, she turned to Sedelis again—who was almost at the edge of the rock where she was kneeling now.

“What have you done?” she whispered, and she could have been crying, too.

“What haveIdone?” Sedelis shrieked. “It doesn’t matter now, does it? You’re awake, and I’ve been looking forward to this for so many years.” The smile on her face suffocated me even before she said, “I’ve been looking forward to the day I killyou once and for all.”

It was like the entire world stopped for a second. Just paused.

Nobody breathed. No heart beat. Nothing moved at all.

And then the thoughts in my head started to race at the same time.

Kill? What the hell did she mean,kill?

Kill who—Syra?!

If we ran, could Grey and I make it to the exit before a fight broke out between the two of them?

Could we actually leave this place alive? Was Storm outside, waiting for us, ready to take us away as soon as we walked out of the mountain?

We found out soon enough.

“Sedelis, what—” Genevieve started, but that’s as far as she could get.

Valentine was suddenly there, his hand around my wrist, shouting,“Move!” as he pulled me to the side.

Grey’s wings spread in front of me like a shield, but not before I saw.

Sedelis with her hands raised toward the top of the rock where Syra was still trying to pull her own hair out. She chanted furiously, words that scratchedmy ears and brain as she spit them, and magic came out of her in a large, powerful wave.

It crashed right onto Syra.

If I hadn’t seen this with my own eyes, I’d have never believed it. The magic hit Syra in the chest and sent her back, threwher off the rock and slammed her against the wall of the cave. She rolled and rolled on the rocky ground at least five times before she stopped, eyes closed, body limp. Sedelis laughed again, but we were too shocked to move. Impossible to accept what was happening in front of us.

“Sedelis, stop!” Genevieve said, and Valentine was trying to pull me away toward the exit, but I held onto Grey’s arm until he turned to me again.

“Go,” he told me, spreading his wings wider so that Sedelis and Syra couldn’t see me at all.

I jerked free from Valentine’s grip and went back to Grey’s side. “I’m not going anywhere without you.” If he thought I would leave him in here and walk out by myself, he was in for the surprise of his life.

“Fall,” he said, and it was a warning. I still didn’t care.

“I am where you are.”

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