Page 17 of The Eighth Isle

But it wasn’t half as relieving when I was here alone. When I knew that Grey was so far away from me, unable to escape the clutches of the most powerful being in the world.

The sound of footsteps reached my ears before I turned the corner that would lead me to the main hallway. I was planning to take a shower, change my clothes, wait for nightfall—and then I saw them.

Four brides—Vera, Rachel, Paris and Cynthia walking arm in arm, their faces pale, their shoulders hunched.

For a moment, I paused.

God, I used tolikethese women once. I hung out with them daily, told them my stories, listened to theirs.

And then they’d all turned on me for something theyknewI didn’t do, something they saw with their own eyes. Some of them—like Vera—had even turned around and walked away when they saw Tristian dragging me toward his tower that day, his intentions clear.

They’d justwalked awayand left me there.

If you ask me, it takes a special kind of monster to do that. A very,verydangerous kind.

Grey was right about them all along—they were all snakes. But I’d be damned if I allowed any of them to speak to me in the way they had before I left for Agva. If they did, they would regret it. One word—one fucking word—and they would feel my wrath.

With my head up, I walked straight toward them, holding their eyes, never blinking mine. My magic was going wild inside me, burning me with the intensity of a miniature sun, so desperate to be free, to attack, to release some tension from my body.

Not yet, though. Not unless they provoked me.

Unfortunately for me, they didn’t. Instead, they stepped to the side, backs against the wall and lowered their heads as I passed them by. They barely breathed, let alone uttered a single word—and I strained my ears to hear it. Iwantedthem to tell me to go kill myself again just so I could give myself a reason to let go.

It wasn’t meant to be.

I turned the corner and slowed my step, waited and waited, hoping they’d say something when they thought I was far enough away, but they still didn’t.

And before I knew it, I was in the main hall, looking at the doors of the third tower, so familiar yet they looked brand new with the light from the big windows I had never really seen before. They’d always been covered by thick black drapes that had blended in with the walls.

Failure.I felt like such a fucking failure to be here again, away from Grey, and this time I knew he was alive. I knew exactly where he was and why he wasn’t with me.

I knew, yet I was still here, all by myself, and I couldn’t stand to be in my own skin, and those voices in my head were screaming now. Screaming and thrashing and reminding me what a coward I was for caring about showers and clothes and nightfall—no.

Fuck all of it, I wasn’t going to wait for nightfall. I was going to find my way to the Eighth Isle right now.

Turning toward the corridor that led to the main entrance, I ran as fast as my legs could carry me. I ran and I didn’t even bother to look around me, to see if someone was coming, if someone was hiding in the corners, waiting for the right moment to grab me. No, they wouldn’t dare. Not now, not when I’d left Tristian twisted and on the floor right in front of his doors. Not when they knew I wouldn’t think twice about killingthem—withoutfeeling guilty—if they so much as laid their hands on me.

I pushed the main doors open, both of them, and it was easy. So damn easy despite their weight. It was impossible how much stronger I’d become in those three days I’d spent with Grey, but I was thankful for it. Where I was going, I was going to need all the strength and all the magic my body could handle.

The tears that slipped down my cheeks were angry tears, and I only felt them when I blinked my eyes fast from the bright sunlight outside.

What a strange view—the sun shining over the Whispering Woods. The sky blue. The trees green and the birds chirping.

And Grey was still gone.

My heart was hammering in my ribcage as I ran forward with all my strength, and I was shaking but I didn’t let that stop me. I was sobbing, too, with the pain and the anger and the helplessness that weighed me down and the fact that Icouldn’tsave Grey this time. That I was going to die at the hands of Syra when I tried, and he’d be stuck in that place with her forever.

It didn’t matter, though. I couldn’t stop running. Trees all around me, the same ones that had once been dark and scary and had terrified me, but now they looked so ordinary. Sounimportant.Even if there were snakes wrapped around each of these trunks, they wouldn’t scare me. I wouldn’t even think twice about it. Whatever was in my way, I’d ruin it completely.

All that mattered was that I got to Grey.

And then suddenly, arms wrapped around me out of nowhere. I’d been running so fast that my legs raised in the air, still moving.

“Stop, Sunshine.”

I screamed.

Birds flew away, and it felt like they were screaming with me as they went. Arms of steel held me even as I thrashed and cried and tried to free myself, tried to keep running, right through that wall and to the ocean so I could swim all the way to the Eighth Isle.

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