Page 167 of The Eighth Isle

“And you didn’t think to come sayhiand tell me you’re alive?!” I shouted so loud Shadow jumped and spread his wings in panic.

But Valentine only grinned. “I knew you wouldn’t care about me, Sunshine. It’s not like you came to save me from sirens.”

I was laughing and crying and hugging him again like a fucking lunatic, and it lasted a good couple minutes until I was able to focus again.

“You could have just come to my door, you know. Or my window,” I said.

“I didn’t want anybody else to see me,” Valentine said, and when Shadow jumped on his shoulder, he touched his chest with the back of his fingers, like usual. Like when he was praising the little guy.

I reached out my hand and did the same, and Shadow purred like a cat, making me laugh.

“Why not? They’re going to be glad you’re okay,” I said, looking him over once more. He was dressed in his usual clothes—all black. And he looked fine, except for the face. How pale he was. How tired.

But alive.

“Not really,” Valentine said. “You can’t tell them that you saw me, Sunshine.”

I leaned my head back. “What?”

Valentine smiled. “I don’t want them to know I’m alive. I don’t wantanyoneto know right now.”

“Are you serious?” He turned to the sky, hands resting on the railing, and I did the same. “Valentine—why?!”

“Because I want to leave here. I want to leave Ennaris,” he said. “I know my brothers. They won’t let me—and if they do, they’ll try to hunt me down eventually. Romin’s ego is very fragile.” He looked at me and grinned. “He’ll feelless of a manif I’m here and he doesn’t punish me—and I will not be accepting any punishment from him. Or anyone else for that matter.”

I shook my head, at a loss for words for a moment.

“It’s what I want,” Valentine continued. “What I always wanted—to be out there. To be free. I want to learn about life.”

I laughed again, but it came out bitter this time. “Then read a book!”

He flinched. “I prefer making mistakes.”

“But…but Ennaris is finally healed.” As I was sure he’d noticed.

“Yes, thanks toyou,” he said, turning to me as he shook his head. “What you did there was incredibly dangerous. That magic should have killed you.”

“It wouldn’t. I didn’t plan tokeep it,I just wanted to give it to the land so the sirens couldn’t get their hands on it.Magic knows—isn’t that what you write about in your famous book on the Basics of Magic?” The journal he’d written for me by hand to help me get a hold of my magic in the beginning—because he couldn’t just come up to me and tell me the truth, no. That would be too easy. No drama. Tooboringfor Valentine Evernight, I supposed.

“And I’m glad it worked, but please don’t put your hands into magic that powerful next time, Sunshine, okay? Just…don’t.”

I grinned. “You mean the next time the end of the world knocks on the door?”

Throwing his head back, he laughed. “I don’t plan to awaken any dormant sirens anytime in the future, so no. I think we’re safe for now.”

I was smiling, the urge to cry just there as I wrapped my arms around his and rested my head on his shoulder. He kissed the top my head and brought his hand over mine, and for a moment, we just looked out at the blue sky, at the birds flying. At the world.

And it was okay.

I understood where he was coming from. After all we’d been through, it made perfect sense that he wouldn’t want to deal withthe drama of the aftermath—I didn’t, either. He wanted to leave, be free, be out there, and he would.

“It’s okay,” I said eventually, both to him and myself. “It’s fine. Go out there and explore the world. And when you’re ready…” I turned to him and touched his cheek. “When you’re ready, you’ll come home.”

He smiled and it was so sad it broke my healing heart a little bit again. “This isn’t my home, Sunshine. It never was.”

“Not this place—me.You’ll always have a home with me,” I promised him, and I meant it. For all his faults, he was mine. He was my family. We’d always belong to one another.

“Then I will,” Valentine said with a nod. “But I have to go now.”

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