Page 138 of The Eighth Isle

He smiled. “We’ll take it to outer space.”

Laughter bubbled out of me and a single tear slipped from my eye. “Yes, I like that. I like that very much.”

Grey crushed me to his chest and kissed me deeply until my heart stopped breaking. “We’ll figure it out,” he whispered against my lips as the last of the sunlight fell on our side. “Whatever it takes, baby. We’ll figure this out. You will be free from this, both of you.” His hand pressed against my stomach.

“I know,” I said, and not just because I believed in Grey, but I believed in me, too. For all my faults and my weaknesses, I tended to keep at it, never quit. No matter how fucked up things got, I could always count on…well,me.This time would be no different.

“Maybe he’ll come back,” I told Grey. “Maybe he’ll realize what he did, and he’ll come back by tomorrow. He’ll explain himself. He’ll make everything right again.” Which was typical Valentine.

And if I chose to believe in this, I didn’t feel as bad. I wasn’t as desperate as a second ago. Maybe it was instinct, or maybe it was my naivety, but that’s how I felt.

Grey smiled, even though he didn’t believe me for a second. “Maybe.”

Reeva wasa bit panicked when we gave her and Mama Si the news. Her sisters were here, it seemed, three of them, and while they made preparations downstairs in the basement, she and Mama Si came to eat lunch with us in the dining room.

Even though I didn’t eat, couldn’t even think about putting food in my mouth, it felt great to spend time with them, to explore their minds, their ideas.

Mama Si still believed that I should keep the magic, that I should even try touseit, that I should give birth to my baby with it and watch him become the most powerful being in the universe. Her eyes sparkled as she talked about it, too, so I knew she’d imagined it, and it made chills run down my back.

Then Grey forbade her from even mentioning that absurd idea again, so we were back to discussing what spell Reeva was going to put together to basically play the role Shadow had played when Syra had given me her magic. I’d have to give it up willingly and push it down whatever transfer link she and her sisters would come up with and hope for the best.

“How will the sirens know?” Mama Si asked as she sipped her white wine. “How will they know that you no longer have that magic?”

“They feel it,” I said, tapping my fingers on the tabletop. “Just like they felt it on me that day.”

“So, that means they’re going to feel it wherever we put it, right?” she asked, and my stomach twisted uncomfortably.

“There are spells,” Grey said, looking at Reeva. “Spells that can shield the magic even from sirens. The witches designed the original spell of the curse that shielded everything from Syra’s senses.”

“That was old, very powerful magic. And we can certainly try again,” Reeva said, but she didn’t sound sure about it. “How will this stop the end of the Isles from happening, though?”

I closed my eyes, not daring to look at her because I had the feeling sheknewthat she’d been lied to. She knew that we had no fucking clue what the hell we were doing—because it was very easy to see.

“Why, the sirens, of course. If they can’t find the magic, they’ll assume it is gone. And if it’s gone, they’ll have no reason to search for it. No reason tokillfor it, destroy for it. They’ll just carry on,” Mama Si said.

Every inch of my skin rose in goose bumps. My eyes opened because I needed to see Reeva now, needed to see when she burst out laughing and figured out that it was all a lie. I needed to see her take her sisters and leave the Burrow. Get the hell out of here with all her spells and scrolls and crystal fortunetellers before the sirens found us. Before they killed all of us.

The moment lasted an eternity. Reeva held my eyes. She didn’t smile and she didn’t frown, nor give any indication about what she was thinking, until…

“All right, then.” She stood up. “Let’s get to work.”

She absolutely knew.

Twenty-Nine

So much magic.

The air was so thick I could hardly breathe. The witches kept on chanting, sitting on the floor, cross-legged, their witch hats on, their eyes closed and hands linked.

They chanted, and they released so much magic into the air it was making me nauseous, but it still wasn’t working. The series of spells they’d been so sure would work at first to pull this magic out of me wasn’t working, and now they were trying another.

My hopes had already crashed and burned.

I looked at Grey and Mama Si standing beside me, our backs to the wall, watching. They were concerned as well, though they didn’t let it show—probably for my sake. They pretended to be focused on what the witches were doing—which to me looked like a scene from a scary Halloween movie.

I needed a break.

“I’ll be right back,” I whispered to Grey and made for the door.

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