Page 42 of The Eighth Isle

Those were her exact words.

“Whoa, whoa, wait a minute. Hold on, Fall,” Emil said, shaking his head and smiling, but it was forced.

“How is it that every time I talk to you, you have somethingdisastrousto tell me?” said Romin, already a bit pissed off.

“I don’t know! But how is it that every time I warn you about something disastrous, you never believe me, and then it ends up happening?!”

I’d warned him about Genevieve. I’d told him about Sedelis, about Emerald and those men—what had ended up being just a distraction technique to keep the Evernights busy while Valentine prepared to awaken Syra. They’d organized a big group of over a thousand Enchanted from all Isles with the pretext of overthrowing the Evernights, and even though Romin and the brothers hadn’t had trouble dealing with them at all when they came to the Woods, the plan had worked—they’d really been distracted.

And I’d warned Romin about Valentine, too, but he’d only laughed in my face.

He wanted to do the same now as well. His lips parted and he wanted to say something, laugh or accuse me of being a liar—it mattered very little, anyway.

But in the end, he said, “You’re serious.”

“I am.”

A pause.

“What the hell does that mean?” said Emil.

“I’d advise you to go see Reeva yourselves, but she’ll be busy tomorrow morning. Maybe at noon?” And I turned around to go back to the castle, knowing full well they wouldn’t let me.

Before I’d taken the second step, both brothers basically materialized in front of me. “Don’t play games with me, Fall,” Romin said.

“What the hell doesthe end of the Seven Islesmean?!” Emil demanded, no hint of amusement anywhere on them anymore. They were most definitely not being entertained by me now.

So, I told them.

I told them about Reeva and about the stars, and I told them that I’d seen the constellation myself through the Star Reader. It was more to warn them, to have them tell the people, to maybetryto come up with a plan that might actually work, even though I knew it was useless. Syra wasn’t someone you just stopped—it had taken so much the first time around, when everyone around her had had their full powers, like Mama Si so kindly reminded me.

Now, it was impossible. I’d seen the ease with which she’d frozen a dragon the size of a mountain, the ease with which she’d killed Sedelis, the ease with which she’d expelled us from the Isle and thrown us in the ocean.

I’d seen.

But I still hoped somehow because maybe I was made wrong, or maybe that’s what it meant to be human—who knew?

“So, there,” I concluded while they looked at one another, then at the ground, then at the sky with bloodshot eyes.

“Impossible,” said Emil, but he kept shaking his head because he knew it wasn’t.

“Very possible. Maybe it’s something worthy of your attention and you can think aboutthisrather than wonder whereI’vebeen or whatI’vedone. Maybe you can find a way to warn the people, too.”

“Warn them of what?” Romin said through gritted teeth. “If the stars say it…”

“It’s already as good as done,” said Emil, again—like he couldn’t quite believe his own words.

“Maybe,” I whispered, and his words settled on my chest, too. “So, I guess the question we should all ask ourselves is, what do we want to do most when our days are literally numbered?”

For once, I had a crystal-clear answer: I wanted to be with Grey.

This time, when I turned around to go back to the castle to rest for a bit, the brothers didn’t stop me. They didn’t call for me or tell me to explain—they were too shocked still.

But they knew now. It was their responsibility to share it with the people or go talk to Reeva and the other Isles.

It occurred to me that the gravity of the situation hadn’t quite hit me yet, not the way it did the others. Reeva had near lost it, and Mama Si had actually beengladfor the end, and the Evernight brothers had literally been left speechless—they were still right where I left them, perfectly motionless, staring at the ground with their fangs extended when I entered the castle.

No, the situation had yet to make full sense to me, and it wouldn’t until I found Grey.

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