Page 142 of The Eighth Isle

Especially since Shadow was here, wounded, and Valentine wasn’t.

A moment later, Grey put his hands on my shoulders and kissed the back of my head.

“He’s not coming,” I said because I knew about the sirens, and I didn’t care about the sirens right now—just Valentine.

“No. Nobody’s coming,” Grey said, stepping to my side.

“They have him,” I whispered. “Something happened, and I think they have him.” The sirens, or maybe someone else—I had no idea. But Valentine wasn’t gone because he’d wanted to leave or because he’d betrayed us. He was gone because someone had done something to him.

“Probably,” Grey said. “Shadow came from the Woods. There’s a chance…”

I looked at him, waiting for him to finish that thought, but he didn’t, lost in the sight of the dark ocean in front of us.

“There’s a chance thatwhat?” I insisted, turning to face him.

“There’s a chance that Romin is holding him,” Grey said, and the idea terrified me, too. Romin was absolutely the guy who’d turn on his own brother for his own benefit, and he’d more than happily punish Valentine for what he’d done, for awakening Syra. He would absolutely catch him and keep him and turnhim over to the sirens without a second thought if he could get something out of it.

But…

I shook my head, looking down at Shadow. It didn’t feel right.

“He’s too smart for that,” I whispered. Valentine was way too smart not to see Romin coming if he was in the Woods. “He would know—he knows Romin.”

“The sirens then,” Grey said with a nod, as if that was exactly what he’d feared. The fucking sirens.

“Why haven’t they come to the Burrow at all, Grey?” I said as the others came closer to us, too. “Why haven’t they once asked Mama Si, when they know that I came from here?”

“Because,” Grey said, “they know we’re here.”

I nodded—exactly whatI’dfeared, too. “They wanted me to stay here.”

“They wanted you out of the way,” Reeva said from my other side, eyes glazed over as she looked ahead but was lost in her thoughts.

“While they did…what?” Mama Si asked from a couple feet away. “What the hell are they planning?”

I had no answer—just more questions of my own. “What do they want from Valentine?”

Nobody said a single thing.

“We have to find him.” Valentine could be in danger—he probably was if Shadow came back to me like this, bleeding and wounded.

“Yes, that would help us piece together their plan,” Reeva said, her voice shaking. “Possibly the end of the world—just like the stars said.”

As I looked at her, two big tears slid from the corners of her eyes and down her cheeks.

And wasn’t it funny that I couldn’t care less about the end of the world right now when I had no idea where Valentine was and what was being done to him?

“Assa, we need to send scouts to the Woods. Who do you have available?” Mama Si said, but I shook my head.

“Shadow,” I whispered, raising my hands to show them the little dragon, sleeping still. “Shadow will lead us to him when he wakes up.” I turned to Reeva. “Is there magic that could help heal him?”

She nodded without hesitation. “Plenty of spells.” Her hand shook when she reached out for Shadow, touching the edge of his wing with the tip of her finger. “Let’s take him downstairs, shall we?”

I nodded. “Let’s go.”

Together, we all went back into the Paradise mansion while Storm stayed out there, flying in the dark sky, roaring every now and then, no longer bothering to keep it down. Grey stayed by my side every step of the way, as if he wanted to keep an eye on me because he knew I might collapse any second.

When we made it to the basement, he produced a tiny pillow I was sure I’d seen around the lounge areas in the Paradise and waved for me to put Shadow on it.

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