Page 161 of The Eighth Isle

His legs gave up too, and he fell to his knees for a moment, but he was stronger than me because he stood right back up. He stood up and the wings on his back disappeared, and he used that energy to jog his way to me.

Then we were face-to-face and I was a mess of tears that he caught with his thumbs; he was dirty and bloody and awake. Wide grey eyes awake and conscious. The smile on that face something to die for. To killfor.

“You’re okay,” he continued to whisper over and over again as he touched my face and pushed my hair back.

Meanwhile all I could do was cry and hold onto his arm.You’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay.

Eventually, he pulled me to his chest. Eventually, he sat down on the ground, rested his back on that tree, and took me on his lap. Eventually, I let go and my breathing slowed down and my heart no longer beat like it wanted to break out of me.

We were okay, indeed.

“What happened?” I asked while Grey held me to his chest and played with my hair, head back against the tree, eyes closed. “What…what happened, Grey?”

“Ennaris,” he whispered, forcing me to leave the comfort of his shoulder against my cheek to look at him.

“What?”

“Ennaris,” he said with a small smile, eyes half open. “All the Isles came back together again.”

I shook my head. “I don’t understand.”

Grey began to laugh.

He was shaking from head to toe, and since I was on his lap, straddling him, I was shaking, too. Vibrating. And smiling—because how could I not, when Grey was laughing?

“It’s over, my queen,” he finally whispered, taking my face in his hands and bringing my forehead to his. “It’s over. Ennaris is whole again. It’sone.”

Part of me didn’t believe it, of course. How could it possibly be? I’d seen the burning. I’dfeltthe magic—that awful magic. I’d been so sure that I’d destroyed everything for good, had caused that end just like the stars predicted, but Grey seemed to believe otherwise.

“Tell me,” he whispered against my lips. “Tell me what happened, baby. Tell me everything.”

So, I did. I told him exactly what had happened since the moment I took that box from Reeva’s hands and ran.

Eventually,the others came to find us sitting there on the ground, and they were all laughing and crying, too. Mama Si and Assa, the witch sisters holding Reeva by the arms, helping her to come closer. Her leg was bleeding, and she needed to sit down right away, so she sat next to us. And smiled. And laughed.

They were okay. They were all hurt, but okay.

Nothim,though. Valentine was nowhere to be seen.

I kept searching, kept expecting him to show up with Shadow on his shoulder, looking like shit, covered in blood and dirt, but he didn’t.

“Where is Valentine?” I asked in a whisper. If everyone else was here, why wasn’t he already?

I was sure there was a reasonable explanation to it, but the way everybody just stoppedall of a sudden…

“Master Valentine didn’t make it, Fall Doll.”

I looked at Mama Si’s face and it felt like I was seeing her for the first time. Must have been her hair, half of it burned, and all that blood on her face hiding most of the cuts on her skin.

“What…what do you mean?” Valentine didn’t makewhat?

“Fall,” Grey said, calling my eyes to his. “They attacked him—all three at the same time. He didn’t make it.”

“Oh.”

They meant he didn’tmakeit out alive.

Huh.

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