Page 62 of The Eighth Isle

My hair was loose around my shoulders, a black shirt and pants on me, same as what I’d put on that morning when I went to that beach in the Woods. My sneakers and jacket were missing, but right now I couldn’t think straight enough to look for them.

Right now all I could do was look at that mirror and at the night sky, the tips of the trees that I could see from here—then back again. My eyes always came back to that mirror, to my pale face and wide eyes.

To my stomach.

Strange—I was crying though I really couldn’t tell. I just felt the tears on my cheeks and then saw them glistening in the mirror, picking up the moonlight and reflecting it everywhere like they were precious gems instead of fluid. My hands had closed around my stomach, too, and then I was no longer standing but sitting on the floor, back against the bed, turned to that mirror.

Baby.I was going to have a baby.

I was going to be a mom—me,Fall Hayes, a mom!

Whether I was laughing or crying, I couldn’t really tell, but it could have been both. I hugged my knees to my chest, and I had no idea what I was even thinking, just that I wished Grey was here with me. Just that I wished Grey could bemind-blownbythis together with me. Just that I wished Grey could tell me that he was just as terrified, just as in awe as I was.

But I was all alone.

Minutes or hours must have passed before I was able to stop crying. Before I was able to force myself to breathe, to think straight, toaccept.

The end of the world was coming, possibly only weeks away.

I was pregnant.

And Grey was Syra’s prisoner still.

Picking myself up and dusting myself off and thatjust-keep-goingmentality were no strangers to me. I’d done all of it before, but it never really got any easier. There was no magical formula to it, unfortunately, and each time was different. But the secret, I found, was to have something to cling to, something to put all your focus on—like tying a rope around the edge of a rock to help you climb to the top of that mountain.

When Brandon kicked me out,not going back to Missyhad been my rock.

When I was thrust into the Whispering Woods, it had been my freedom that pushed me forward.

When I thought I lost Grey, it was the desperation to keep the Evernight brothers away that had gotten me through.

And the thought of Grey had taken me to Mount Agva, to the Eighth Isle, and had brought me back here again this morning.

Right now, my rock wasn’t just him. It wasn’t even the end of the world looming ahead nor the baby that I apparently had in my belly.

It wastime.It was the opportunity. It was the chance I so desperately wanted to understand what it even meant that I was pregnant. To come to terms with the fact that there was life growing inside me. This hadn’t been my choice at all—everyone was always talking about how very close toimpossiblegetting a bride pregnant was, so I hadn’t even thought about it. Never hadit even crossed my mind, but I wantedtimeto understand it. To enjoy it. Look forward to it. To just…be.

And the only way I could have that time was if Syra died.

I wasn’t delusional—I knew something like that couldn’t be done. Syra couldn’t be killed, not with all that power flowing in her veins. And my mind was too chaotic right now, my thoughts stretched and my imagination hyper, my fear making everything look so damn gloomy and hopeless, so I didn’t bother to come up with a plan at all. I didn’t bother to even try to think up possibilities in which we saw the end of this alive and intact.

I just got my shit together, wiped my face, and I went to see which door let me out of this room so I could find Grey.

The hallway outside the first door left was silent, dark, empty. I drew in a deep breath and focused all of my attention—and this time my magic, too—tonotbe heard or seen by anyone who could be close to me. It always worked—whatever magic was in me turned me invisible to other people’s senses, and I was hoping that this proved true with Syra as well.

So, faking courage I didn’t have, I made my way down the hallway to the right without any clue where I was going, just that I needed to find Grey. I would know his energy when he was close. I’d feel his magic, I was sure of it.

My legs were still numb, so I didn’t feel them at all. I walked and walked, down hallways and around corners, my only guide the moon in the night sky that I followed all around whichever tower I was in, through the many openings in the walls. Nothing to see, not even doors in front of the empty spaces that were supposed to be rooms. Only the one I’d woken up in had had one, old and wooden and heavy, but there was nothing else here except stone blocks, and sometimes torches here and there.

No fire burned on them. I didn’t need light to see, but I still felt soalone.Like there was not a single living being in this castlewith me—on this whole Isle—and that alone was overwhelming as hell.

When I made a full circle according to the moon in the sky, I almost screamed in frustration. A single stairway going down was all I’d found, and I’d hoped to be able to go up first, to the very top of this tower, maybe all the way to the head of the Great White. From there I could see where I was and which was the fastest way out of this castle. I could see how far we were from the sea.

As it was, I had no other choice but to descend the ones in front of me, my focus still on not being seen or heard or smelled. My focus still on feeling Grey’s energy so I knew which way to go.

I found it the moment I turned the second corner a floor below.

It wasn’t Grey letting out that energy, but it was something else. Somethingbig.Something that radiated it the way I’d felt before.

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