Page 100 of The Eighth Isle

He finally did—and he took the red dress with him.

I was smiling and shaking my head as I put on another dress, this one a rich green with pieces of velvet here and there, and I wore some flats, even though the heeled sandals were so pretty. All the lingerie and the shimmery lotions and everything I’d gotten at the mall that night—so many things!I’d missed all of them, more than I’d realized.

But eventually, I had to get back to reality and leave the closet—thefeelingbehind. Eventually, I had no choice but to leave the room with Grey because I wanted to see Valentine. Not just to make sure that he was okay, but to ask him exactly what Syra had done to me.

Grey led me to him. He said he heard Valentine and Shadow upstairs somewhere, and he took me up to the third floor, which was familiar enough. Large spaces and big windows and sunlight coming through, and the scent of roses hanging in the air, just like always. But then he continued up a narrow stairway I hadnever seen before and took us through another two doors before we came out—on the rooftop somewhere west of the building.

Valentine was sitting on a ledge with Shadow on his shoulder, looking at the sun that would take another couple of hours to set into the horizon.

I’d only ever been on the rooftop of the Paradise once before—another one with enough space to land two helicopters safely. But it had been dark then—we’d gone to the mall at ten p.m.—so I hadn’t seen much.

This rooftop was a lot smaller, and there wasn’t much to see except concrete and a wide, open space. With these new ears I heard the sound of the music coming from the pools around the building, and with these new eyes I saw the silhouettes of the Isles ahead—the Whispering Woods and Witches’ Wing and Dragons’ Den.

A whole world I’d had no idea existed, and now I was part of it, too.

Valentine didn’t turn when he heard us. Only Shadow flew off his shoulder and came over my head, wings almost completely silent as he checked to see that I was okay.

“Can you give me a minute?” I asked Grey. Not that I had anything to hide, but I knew talking to Valentine would be completely different if he was here, too.

Grey didn’t like it, but he kissed me on the lips and said, “I’ll be a call away.”

“I can take him and he knows it,” I said, loudly so I knew Valentine would hear it, too. I could have sworn I heard him snorting.

But a moment later, Grey left, dragging his feet, and then we were alone, the three of us.

Releasing a long breath, I went closer to Valentine and I looked out at the sun, too. At the incredible colors. At the skythat was a million shades of blue merged together so perfectly, not a cloud in sight.

“It’s beautiful,” I said, then realized that this was all new to Valentine, too. He’d spent his whole life in darkness, and the sunlight was something he only saw for the first time weeks ago.

“Eh. I told you before, it was kind of disappointing,” he said, finally turning toward me, and at the sound of his voice, my heart skipped a little beat.

He heard it—he always heard it, and he smiled, same as always.

But Valentine looked okay. Whether I wanted to hug him or push him off the ledge was still debatable—probably the latter—but he really did look okay. More than that—he was wearing a pink shirt. A rosy pink that made his eyes look a million times lighter, and I thought to myself,Mama Si did it on purpose. She gave the brothers these colorful clothes on purpose.

And I loved it.

“The sun was disappointing to you,” I said, stepping onto the ledge so I could sit with them, too.

“Yes,” he said, waving his hand at the view. “I expected it to look more like”—he paused, then looked at me—“you.”

He did tell me once that I reminded him of the sun—it’s why he started calling meSunshine.

“Smooth, Valentine. Really smooth.”

“It’s the truth,” he said with a shrug. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m good,” I said with a nod. “You’re wearing pink.”

A smile stretched his lips. “Suits me, I think.”

“It really does,” I said with a nod. “Makes your eyes pop.” Something Adam used to tell me that was supposed to be agoodthing.

Laughter burst out of him for a second. “Does it now? I think I need a mirror.”

“Don’t go falling in love with yourself,” I said, smiling myself.

“I wouldn’t dare,” Valentine said. “My standards would be too high for everyone else.”

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