Page 106 of The Eighth Isle

But I knew I wasn’t. Since the moment Syra died and her body turned to ashes, I knew in my bones that something was wrong. I knew it wasn’t over—far from it.

And once again, my gut feeling was proving to be perfectly true.

“Or maybe…it’syou?”

My head whipped to the side so fast my neck could have snapped if I were human still.

Again, Mama Si threw her head back and laughed. “I’m kidding, doll. I’m kidding! You should see your face.” More laughter. “Oh, you could never. You’re far too good to hurt a fly, let alone innocent people.”

Don’t be good.

My eyes closed and I forced myself to take in a deep breath, then step back.

“I’ll leave the Burrow as soon as I can,” I told her, no longer patient enough to continue this conversation—or maybe I was just a coward. Maybe I didn’t want to face the reality of her words.

Because I wasn’t.

My God, I wasn’ttoo good to hurt a flyif that fly hurt the people I loved. Not anymore. And I couldn’t even bring myself to feel bad about it.

“Don’t rush, Fall Doll. Like I said—the sirens might not find you in a day. Maybe two—and maybe nine months!” She smiled. “The Burrow would love to have you. I’ve always wanted to be a grandmother, after all.” And the way she looked at my stomach… “What are you going to do with it, though?”

Again, my arms wrapped around my waist instinctively, even though Mama Si didn’t look like she was about to attack me—on the contrary. She was smiling like she might cry tears of joy any second now.

“Withwhat?” I said, and God help me I was going to launch myself at her if she said,the baby,but…

“The magic,” Mama Si said. “They said Syra put her magic in you somehow—how much of it do you really have?”

Shit. “I don’t know. I don’t feel it. There’s a good chance it didn’t work at all.” And that was my wishful thinking as well. Because I remembered how Syra had been relieved at the end of it before she turned to ashes. I remembered her words—it’s complete now, human.

Whatever she’d meant to do, she’d done it, all right, regardless of what I felt.

“That would be a shame.” Mama Si looked disappointed, but she recovered quickly. “Oh, well. At least you have the baby—that’s even more important, Fall Doll.” She put her hands to her chest. “Will you let him call meNana?”

What the fuck…

“That’s what I called my grandmother. I loved her dearly.”

Words kept evading me, but I finally found two. “You’re crazy.” Absolutely batshit crazy.

“I’ll take it—if I can be hisNana.Will you, pretty please?” She stopped in front of me—and my God, she meant every word. She wasn’t joking or messing with me—she meant it. “Will you let him call me that?”

I’ll be damned… “Yes, Mama Si,” I whispered, desperate to get the hell out of there now. “Yes, I will.”

When she brought her hands over her smiling lips and her shoulders began to shake, I turned around and ran inside the building like my ass was on fire.

Never in mylife had I felt so strange in my own skin, not even when I wasthere—right over there by that heart-shaped, pink pool I was looking at now, with the umbrellas made of glitter, and the comfy loungers, and the beautiful girls wearing sparkly bikinis and drinking colorful cocktails through swirly straws.

Never had I felt like Iwasn’t mebefore, and it was so odd I couldn’t even put it in words.

I couldn’t put my finger onwhatfelt differentexactly, but something did.

Then I felt his energy coming from somewhere close by, and before the minute was over, Grey stepped out on the balcony of the third floor that I’d never been to before but had always seen from the pool areas downstairs. It connected two different parts of the building like a tiny bridge, and it was barely ten feet long, but from here I could see almost all the pools in the Paradise yard—the big ones and the small ones, ones full of people and others empty. I could see the heart pool, too—my favorite, the one I used to swim in with the girls almost every day.

“Are you hiding from me, baby?” Grey said when he stopped behind me and put his arms around my body. I immediately lay back on his chest, releasing a deep breath. His proximity was its own brand of magic.

“Maybe,” I muttered, closing my eyes for a moment and turning my head to the side so he could kiss my cheek.

“Nah, I think you wanted me to find you,” he teased, and I smiled.

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