Page 19 of The Eighth Isle

The sky was beautiful tonight, yet I’d trade all the stars in it, and a thousand moons, for that dark cloud to come back. Still, even now, hours later when I’d calmed down and was able to think rationally, I wished it.

But my wishes had never really found their way to coming true, so I no longer even expected them to.

“She will stand down.”

The words echoed in my head followed by white noise, like I was standing in a different place, a different room—not one where most people present didn’t breathe in air at all. The three Evernight brothers, and the five siren sisters who remained.

None of them breathed, only me.

I turned away from the window and to them.

They sat on the other side of the wide table that Romin had had prepared for their arrival. It was a fancy room, wide and open, with floor to ceiling windows and balconies with beautiful railings in each corner, the curtains pulled to the sides so we could see them. The chandeliers were full of crystals, and the dark red carpet looked brand new, and the feast they’d set up on the table remained untouched—save for the wine Romin drank.

“She will not attack us,” the siren said again—was her name Fessa or was she Raxae? I couldn’t care enough to remember.

“At least for the time being,” said Andya, and her I recognized because of her piercing green eyes, deeper than that pool in the tomb mountain had been.

They sat close to one another, all wearing white dresses, the hems that touched their bare feet muddy. They all looked better, yet worse at the same time.

Better as in their skin had color and their hair was so much smoother than it had been. They no longer looked like animated corpses. They looked alive, and they wore no magic to shield their looks at all—I could tell.

That’s because they no longer spent all their power to keep the spell going. Now, their magic remained inside them, and the difference was staggering.

The look in their eyes, though, was so much worse. Last time, they’d been happy. Excited, with mischievous little grins on their faces, but now they looked grim. They looked afraid. Desperate and defeated.

“Why?” asked Romin, sitting at the head of the table across from them, with Emil on one side and Tristian on the other, while I remained farther away, standing, though they’d brought a chair for me near Emil. Valentine was nowhere to be seen.

“When did you meet with her?” asked Tristian. “Did you see her personally?”

“How powerful is she exactly? Did she gain backeverythingshe had when she ruined Ennaris?” asked Emil.

The siren sisters all looked at one another for a loaded second. Not that I expected a good answer, but I waited with my breath held for them to speak anyway.

“She sent for us soon after she pulled the entire Eighth Isle out of the ocean,” said Mea with the dark and curly hair. “She built herself a castle and plans to stay there.”

If I’d cared enough, I’d have wondered why she sounded so jealous.

“We did see her personally. She’s very much alive. She’s spread our sister Sedelis’s ashes onto the floors of her castle because she killed her—but you already knew this. She was there…” Andya looked at me. “Were you not, Fall?”

“I was.” My voice sounded so different, like it wasn’t coming out of me at all.

“Then you also know that she has all her power,” said the first one again—Fessa. “She’s regained all of it, just as it was before we stopped her from ruining everything.”

My God, she was absolutely terrified. I couldseethe shivers washing down her arms.

“It doesn’t matter,” said the last one—Raxae with the chocolate brown hair that matched the color of her wide, round eyes. “She will not attack. She will not be using that magic on us.”

“Yes, but wh—” Romin started to ask again.

“Grey,” Andya cut him off.

There went my heart, falling and falling all the way to the floor.

“Because she wants Grey, and he’s chosen to stay there with her.”

I saw red.

“He didn’tchooseanything,” I spit before I could help myself.

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