Page 43 of The Eighth Isle

And when I saw him again, I’d deal with all of this. I’d probably lose my mind worse than Reeva—butafterI found Grey.

In the main hallway, I heard the slow beating of Shadow’s wings and I knew Valentine was close. I knew he’d been out there listening to us, too, and I was glad for it. He should know, too—that the end he fought so hard for was upon us for real.

And maybe,hopefully, the guilt would crush him under the same way it did me.

Ten

A thousand knotswere twisted in my stomach. I stood alone at the beach, the sun still rising over the horizon on the other side of the Isle. I waited with my heart in my throat, looking out at the water, at the ocean that was grey, just like the sky over it. The sky that still hadn’t absorbed all the sunlight it needed to brighten up all the way yet.

I waited for what felt like a long time for a sign, a word, a whisper, a small breeze—anythingto let me know that it had worked, that Syra had believed Mama Si and Reeva. That she’d been curious enough to go see the stars through Nella Lexis herself.

Nothing.

The sun crawled higher up in the sky and the ocean became bluer with each new blink. Ahead of me was nothing but water, the Eighth Isle too far away to make out with the naked eye. I could see the shapes of the other Isles from the Woods and the Woods from all the other Isles, but not the Eighth. Too far.

Grey was too far away.

“Just what are you hoping to accomplish with this, Sunshine?”

His voice vibrated throughout me, but I was already too numb from standing still in one place for so long that I hardly moved. I hadn’t heard a thing, not only because I was distracted, but because Valentine had stuck to the branches, had climbed the trees of the forest behind me instead of walking to me like a normal person. He spoke to me from higher up, too, just like he had the first time we met.

“Go away,” I whispered, but I knew he’d hear it.

He could hear the erratic beating of my heart, too, and I didn’t have enough fucks to give to try to slow it down or pretend I wasn’t bothered right now.

“I won’t,” Valentine simply said, and I heard it when he landed on the ground.

That first time I saw him jumping off a tree, I thought he was perfectly soundless—he wasn’t. My ears had just been too human then.

“Why are you out here still? What is the point of this?” he said as he came closer, and I refused to even turn to look his way. “What is it that you’re planning?”

I laughed a bit. “Sucks, doesn’t it. When you know someone is up to something, but you don’t know what.”

“It sucks when that someone isyou, yes,” he said, but at this point I wasn’t going to even let myself be surprised anymore. Valentine could do everything he did, even try to kill me, bring about the end of the fucking world—the world whichIlived in—and still have the audacity to come tell me that he cared about me afterward. It was just him, and I would learn to ignore it without letting it get to me.

“Just go away, for fuck’s sake. Why hasn’t Romin killed you yet?” It would be ideal—and very much deserved, anyway.

“Because Romin is not a murderer—only a coward. He’ll banish anyone, but when it comes to killing his brother with his own hands, he chickens out.” He said all this with a straight face.

“Not you, though, right? You’ll do it. You’ll kill the whole world with your own hands, even the people you claim to care about.”

He stopped right by my side, our shoulders an inch apart, and he looked out at the ocean with me. Through the corner of my eye, I could see him—the stubble that covered his cheeks was the first thing I noticed. Before the Eighth Isle, he was always shaved clean. Maybe he’d liked how the beard had grown on him. It made him looked older, more mature. Moretortured,even though his shoulders were back and he gave you the impression that he was perfectly relaxed and in control of himself.

“Go on, have your fun,” the asshole said, and it was all I could do not to unleash all that magic built up inside me at once.

But I wasn’t going to fall prey to his provocation today.

“Oh, yes. Thank you so much for this amazingfun,” I mocked.

Valentine flinched. “You know what I mean.”

“I really don’t. Please, just leave me alone.”

“I can’t.”

“Sure, you can. You just don’t want to.”

“I don’t want to because I know you’re getting yourself in trouble,” he said.

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