Page 108 of The Eighth Isle

“Now I’m going to leave the Burrow and go search for some answers,” Valentine said, and my heart jumped.

“No way.” He was delusional if he thought I was going to let him out of my sight.

“Yes, way,” Valentine said. “I need to talk to people.”

“About what?”

“Aboutyou, Sunshine. About what was done to you.”

I closed my eyes and forced myself to breathe in deeply, and when that didn’t work, I turned my focus to the girls—more of them had come out from under the umbrellas and were watching me.

Just focus on the girls.

“There must be ways to hide it. Conceal it. Make you…undetectable,” Valentine continued.

“The sirens will kill you,” I reminded him, but he shook his head.

“The sirens aren’t focused on me right now. I can easily mask myself and pretend to be someone else,” Valentine said. “Which is why it’s important that I leave right away before they become too desperate.”

“And let me guess—you expect us to trust you,” Grey finally said, never even turning to look at him.

“I saved your lives, so?—”

They both moved so fast I couldn’t have possibly seen it coming. Before I knew it, Grey had Valentine by the neck against the wall, and his feet weren’t touching the floor at all. Shadow was roaring over our heads as he flew in circles fast.

“Stop it!” I said, but they couldn’t even hear me.

“Youruinedeverything,” Grey said, while Valentine tried to push his arm back but couldn’t. Grey’s wings exploded on his back, too, tearing that blue shirt to pieces. “It’s because of you that we’re here, you little shit. You’re lucky she cares about you because I’ve been dreaming about breaking you in half.”

“Grey, please” I said, moving around them so I could grab his arm. “Let go. Right now—let go.” Wasn’t it enough that we had to go through all that, but they wanted to fight now, too?

I wouldn’t allow it.

But the way Grey was looking at Valentine, who had closed his eyes and had rested his head on the wall like he’d surrendered, freaked me out. He wasn’t kidding—he would reallybreakValentine in half right now if he could.

“Grey,” I warned because if he didn’t let go I might have a fucking heart attack. With the way my heart was beating, I wouldn’t even be surprised.

Grey must have heard the urgency in my voice because he finally moved back. He let go of Valentine and stepped back, and his wings disappeared, too.

“Always so goddamn dramatic,” said Valentine as he fixed his shirt, pretending he wasn’t bothered—but he was. He was very much bothered. I saw it in his eyes and heard it in his voice when Shadow landed on his shoulder, those small beady eyes on Grey. “Relax, Shadow. We can’t hurt him—not right now.” And he forced himself to grin at Grey.

“You—” Grey was going to attack again.

My hands were around his forearm and I felt his muscles clenching, so I moved first and got between them.

“Enough!” I hissed. “Are you trying to fucking kill me? Stop with this bullshit—both of you!”

Unfortunately for me, they were both taller than me, so they had no problem locking eyes right over my head.

But,fortunately,they both stopped and stepped back. They’d didn’t attack each other again. Theylistened.

With a sigh, I turned to Valentine. “You can’t honestly think you’ll find ways to hide this from the sirens, can you?”

Because that sounded like a goddamn miracle and my mind was already getting away from me with hopes and ideas.

“I do,” Valentine said, eyes on Grey still. “All magics can be hidden with the right spells and preparations, maybe potions, too. And I know who to talk to about it.”

“The sirens will find you.”

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