Page 95 of The Eighth Isle

I thought she was going to attack me again, and my magic responded. It vibrated as it slipped from my chest and down my arms, ready to explode—but then Valentine stepped in front of me.

“That’s far enough,” he told Raxae.

I looked at Grey, who closed his hand around mine. He raised his other one up, and Storm stopped roaring the same second. He flew closer to us, too.

“On my mark,” Grey whispered, his eyes focused ahead on the sirens, and I nodded.

“Step aside, Valentine. We have unfinished business to tend to, apparently,” said Andya.

“We had a deal,” said Valentine, and Grey slowly moved behind me, his hands firmly on my waist. Storm was right there, wings beating, talons ready to grab me. Grey planned tothrowme at him, I thought, and I had no problem with that.

“Yes, yes, we know,” said Fessa.

“Yet you seem to need the reminder,” Valentine insisted, arms at his sides, hands fisted tightly. Shadow was on his shoulder with his wings spread, ready to take flight at his call. “I give you Syra at her weakest, and Fall walks away when you kill her.Thatwas the deal.”

“We remember the deal, Valentine,” said Raxae, her voice getting darker by the second, and she took another step forward. “But the circumstances have changed.”

“Changed, how? You killed Syra,” Valentine spit, and he moved forward, too. “I gave her to you, called you even sooner than I said I would. Fall walks away now.” Another step. “Shewalks. Away.”

“Get ready,” Grey said in my ear, and I braced myself.

“Valentine,” I whispered because he had to come with us, too. But if he heard me, he didn’t even turn his head.

“Don’t you realize what’s happened here?” Oreinne said, coming closer to Raxae, her eyes on Valentine. “She’s given herself to the human!”

Raxae nodded. “And as long as her magic exists in the world, Syra will never be truly dead.”

My stomach twisted into a thousand knots. Grey’s hands around my waist tightened.

“She’s in there,” she continued. “And we need to kill it, if we’re going to kill Syra for good. There is no other way.”

And the sisters said: “It won’t hurt, I’m sure.”

“Better now than later.”

“We will not leave a single threat against Ennaris unattended.”

“Never again!”they sang in unison.

Bile rose up my throat.

Valentine turned his head toward us for just a second and exchanged a look with Grey.

“Jump!” Grey shouted, and Valentine moved forward at the same time.

I jumped, but only on instinct because I had no hopes of controlling my body right now. I jumped as I watched Valentine raise his hands and unleash his magic on the sirens, and Shadow was flying toward them fast, too. He went right through the side of Andya’s neck, making a bloody mess of her, and she fell to the ground on her knees, choking on her own blood.

I jumped and Grey pushed me with twice as much strength, and then talons wrapped around my arms in a familiar way. Storm was carrying me with a heart-stopping roar, but my eyes remained down there on the ground, on the siren sisters that were fighting Valentine and Grey as they tried to get to me, tried to attack me with their magic.

Each time they did, Grey would fly in front of me and catch it.

That’s when I realized that he wasn’t coming with me. That’s when I realized that Valentine wasn’t running, either. They’d just takenmeaway, and they were planning to stay and fight.

Then Storm took us so high up in the sky that I no longer even saw them from the darkness.

“No, no, no, no!”I shouted at the top of my voice. “Put me down, Storm! Put me down right now!”

Except Storm didn’t take orders from me, so all he did was fly us even higher up until it was a struggle to breathe. Until the air was so thin, I became lightheaded.

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