Page 33 of The Eighth Isle

“Just a precautionary measure,” she said, folding her hands under her chin. “Now tell me, Fall Doll. Why are you really here?”

The words were right there at the tip of my tongue.

Help,was all I had to say.I’m here to ask for your help.

But I still couldn’t force myself to utter those words out loud. Instead, I said, “She’s coming.”

“Logic would suggest that, yes,” Mama Si said without hesitation. “However, I heard from the Evernights, who’ve spoken to the sirens, and so far, Syra is standing down.”

“It won’t be for long. If she’s not stopped, she’s going to come for us. All of us. All the Isles.”

She knew this. Theyallknew this—that’s why the sirens had looked the way they’d looked last night when they came to the Woods. They’d been terrified because they knew.

“But she hasn’t yet. That certainly indicates something good. Master Romin said that she’s…contentto be left alone with Master Grey,” Mama Si said slowly, waiting for my reaction. I didn’t give her one, though it cost me. “They say she thinks he’s Hansil Knight.”

“Shedoesn’t,” I said through gritted teeth, then sank my nails in my palms again to force myself to keep calm. I didn’t need to lose it right now, not in front of her, and not until I’d said what I came here to say.

“No, no—of course not. But he looks a lot like him, apparently, and so she’s happy to just have him and ignore the rest of us. That’s good fortune, don’t you think?

Good fortune.“That’s you fooling yourself and standing down, so when she does come for you, it will be easy. She’ll meet no resistance whatsoever.” Syra had already killed four of her sisters on top of ruining Ennaris—did they really think that once this illusion she’d put herself in faded and she realized thatGrey couldn’t just take Hansil Knight’s place, she wasn’t going to come for them again?

“Oh, Fall Doll,” Mama Si said, falling back on her chair. “You seem to think therecanbe resistance against that power. You’re wrong.”

I swallowed hard. “She’s not invincible.” And I’d said the same thing to Reeva, too. “She was put under once. She can be put under again—by the same spell.”

“A spell created and cast by a hundred witches at the height of their power, as well as six all-powerful sirens,” said Mama Si. “I’m sure someone told you the story.”

“They didn’t. I saw it myself.” I’d seen it all in detail in Emerald’s library.

“Saw it how?” Mama Si wondered.

“A Storyteller in Faeries’ Aerie.”

Her brows shot up. “You were in the Aerie?”

“Yes, I was. And I saw what happened. I saw all of it—and Grey doesnotlookexactlylike Hansil. Yes, they’re similar, but so are the rest of the Evernights.” That was a lie—Grey looked more like Hansil than any of the others, but they were still different. Their eyes were completely different. “Syra is going to wake up to that fact sooner rather than later, and when that happens, she’ll be coming.”

For the longest moment, there was complete silence in the office, and it struck me that the last time I was here, it was about ajob. Just a job as an escort in the human world—the only world I knew.

Look at me now.

“You saw Hansil,” Mama Si finally whispered, and she looked shocked.

I shook my head. “Like I said, I was in the Storyteller. I saw the story?—”

“I’ve been in plenty of Storytellers, doll, but I’ve never once seen the faces of anyone in them.” She smiled. “They say one needs a good amount of imagination to see what the author portrays. I’m quite the artist, if I do say so myself, but I never saw any of their faces.”

“Does it matter?” Was she really going to dwell on this when it made no difference whatsoever to the situation we were in? But before she could answer me, I said, “Syra is awake. I was there. I saw her. I fought her. She’s awake and very real and she will be coming for the Isles in a matter of weeks.”

“Of course, she—” Mama Si stopped speaking, then raised a brow. “A matter ofweeks?”

Here goes nothing.“Yes,” I confirmed.

“How would you know?”

I read it in the stars…

“A prophecy,” I said, and maybe it was stupid of me to even be talking about this, but what the hell did I even have to lose at this point?

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