Page 132 of The Eighth Isle

Ten minutes later, Grey had pushed the table and the suitcases against the walls, and I was standing five feet in front of the fireplace shaped like a flower, inside a circle with a lot of Faeish symbols that Reeva had drawn on the wooden floor with white chalk. She sat on my right, cross-legged and with her eyes shut tightly, while Mama Si sat at my left.

“If you need more magic supply—” Grey said from right behind me, just outside the last chalk line, but Mama Si cut him off.

“That won’t be necessary, Master Evernight. I got this.” She looked up at me and winked.

The crystal was gone, back in one of the suitcases that Reeva had brought with, and now she only had a notebook in front of her, open, full of those symbols scribbled in black ink. I was surprised she could even read with so many words written over others, some even crossed over completely.

“Will it hurt?” I wondered, just so I could prepare myself for it, and Reeva opened her eyes for a moment, a bit surprised.

“I don’t know, young one. I would hope not.”

I nodded. “It’s fine. Just make it work.”

“I’ll try my best,” she solemnly said, then closed her eyes again.

Mama Si closed hers, too, releasing a long breath as she prepared, and I turned back to look at Grey one more time. The sight of his face calmed me down like a charm, and I needed all the calm I could get right now. I was terrified, but not just because we might not find exactly what was inside me, but thatwe would.

That we’d find it and we confirmed that it couldn’t be hidden or undone, that it was going to kill me slowly. Or worse—that it was going to hurt the baby.

Then Reeva began to whisper under her breath.

Magic rose from the chalk symbols around me, and I felt it clearly. There was no heat coming from that fireplace, but plenty of it came from the magic. The higher it rose around me, the more intense it became, until it went all the way over my head and closed me in a circle.

A loud sigh escaped me when it settled over my skin like an invisible fabric wrapping around my shoulders.

“Reeva,” I thought I said, but my voice could have been only in my head. My eyes were closing, and I couldn’t keep them open at all, and then my feet were no longer touching the floor. I tried to panic, and a part of me did, but the thoughts in my head were…blurry. Very hazy. And my limbs were so light that gravity no longer had a hold on me—that’s why I was floating.

My shoulders had been so tired. I’d been carrying so much on them lately—sadness, fear, regret, helplessness, and the load was a little lighter here in this place, wherever Reeva had taken me.

Little by little, everything faded away, but there was no darkness in my mind. There was only light, bright light that didn’t really let me see anything, and I was glad for it. I didn’t want to remember. I just wanted to float into nothingness for a while.

That’s exactly what I did, but it didn’t last long. Eventually, thoughts came back to me, memories of the past few days—mostly of Syra’s face, the horror that she was in the seconds before her death. I could almost feel her hand around my neck, that ice-cold magic that had wrapped around me…

The same kind that was on me now.

The heat was gone and its place was Syra—allSyra, her magical energy that I knew well, that was so different, so much more powerful than everybody else’s. It was there in that bright place with me, and it wasn’t painful, but it was still uncomfortable. I still felt itslitheringall around me like a living being, and it radiated pure power. Not heat, no—just power, and it buzzed on my skin, pricked me a little bit.

Don’t be good,the voices in my head echoed, and they didn’t stop for a long time.

Then, it started to hurt everywhere at once.

It came from the inside, that pain, and whatever was causing it gained more power by the second. I gritted my teeth, felt the pain of my fingernails sinking into my palms, and I felt my muscles clenching tightly, too. It wasn’t so much that I wanted to scream, but it was steady, each wave a bit more intense, until my whole body was shaking. Until I was beginning to think that there was no end to it, that it was going to keep coming forever.

I had no idea how long I was in that state, in that place that only existed inside my mind, but I was pulled out of itviolently,like someone had grabbed me by the hair and was dragging me across asphalt. My body was on fire like the sun was burning inside it, and my skin felt like it had a million little tears all over.

Then my eyes opened and I saw light.

I saw Grey’s face looking down at me, eyes dark, concerned as he told me to breathe, told me that I was okay, that it was over. I’d collapsed, I guessed, because he was holding me in his arms half-seated.

Cold air went down my throat and I focused only on Grey until my heartbeat calmed down and I was able to think clearly. I was able to remember exactly where I was.

I sat up with a jolt, the blood in my veins already rushing again. My heart skipped a beat when I saw Mama Si kneeling in front of Reeva, whose eyes had rolled in her skull and her lips were parted and her hands were fisted so tightly they’d turned white.

“Follow my voice, Reeva,” Mama Si was telling her, touching her face gently with shaking hands. “Follow my voice. Come back to me.”

“What…what is going on?” I managed to whisper, and Grey pushed me to sit up all the way so I could see the women better. So I could see that Mama Si’s nose was bleeding, her hair was all over the place, and she looked absolutely exhausted.

“Nothing, nothing, all went well. She’s just caught up in the spell,” she said, tapping Reeva’s cheeks lightly. “Reeva, follow my voice. Keep pushing through. Come back to us, okay? Come back.”

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