Page 53 of The Eighth Isle

In those moments I saw in her eyes as clearly as I saw the sky that her mind was already made up. In those moments, I believed—trulybelievedfor the first time that Syra was evil.

Even if she hadn’t been before, and even if she’d wanted to change the world for the man she’d loved, that woman was gone. That siren was buried still in the tomb mountain.

ThisSyra was a completely different person.

Grey was already in front of me, but I went closer, went by his side, touched his hand. If I was going to die right now, might as well go down together with him.

“The prophecy,” I forced myself to say despite the tears. “Did you see the stars? Did you?—”

“I did, indeed,” Syra said, slowly coming closer until she was standing right in the middle of the round plaque, her dress moving like it still didn’t know it was out of water. “I saw the stars, read them. The witches are right. The world might collapse any day now.” She smiled. “And it will the moment I wish it.”

I shook my head. “You’ve been asleep for five hundred years. Don’t you think it’s time to let go of the past? Don’t you think it’s time to accept that you can’t have Hansil back, that he’s gone, that?—”

“Don’tyou dare…”

Magic, raw and intense, was suddenly in the air. It was everywhere, so much of it, it got stuck in my nostrils and down my throat, and it made my own inside me rage—not only with anger, but with fear, too.

So much magic…

“Don’t you dare speak his name,” Syra finished, fisted hands raised, no smile on her face anymore but anger. Just anger.

“He’sgone,” I insisted, and Grey intertwined his fingers with mine. I felt his eyes on me—he was trying to tell me something with them, but I didn’t want to hear it. He was trying to tell me something when he squeezed my hand, too, but I didn’t care.He’d want me to run when he attacked, I knew that already, and I wouldn’t. Fuck that, I’d come to get him—or die trying.

“You are not fit to speak of him,” Syra told me, and the edges of her dress were already rising in the air, floating, just from the intensity of the magic that leaked out of her. “I’m glad you came here, Fall. I was going to come find you myself, but I’m glad you came. Now, you die.”

“If you touch her—” Grey started, but I didn’t even let him finish.

“Let her,” I said. “We’re all as good as dead anyway—let her kill me,” I said and never once looked away from her. “Just know that you’ll becomethemwhen you do. You will become the people who ruined your life. You will be one and the same.”

Unfortunately, Syra didn’t care about my words.

If anything, they amused her.

“Fine,” she said with a shrug. “I’ll take it. I’ll be like anyone at all—do you want to know why?” One step closer, then another… “Because I will never be a victim again.”

Finally, and for what felt like the first time in my life, hope left me. Really, truly left me.

For the first time since this madness began and I was thrown into the Whispering Woods, I believed with all my heart that it was over.

Grey tried, just like I knew he would. He spread his wings and he beat them, and he made for Syra with all his strength, even though he knew it was useless. We both knew we were dead already.

Storm attacked, too. Whether it was by Grey’s orders or not, Storm opened his jaws wide and spit his fire at Syra as she stood there in the middle of that circle with her hand raised toward me, just a single hand.

A smile on her face.

A dragon breathing fire at her from the left and a winged vampire running for her, fists raised and fangs extended.

I didn’t try. I didn’t bother to release this magic inside me at all—or to stop it. I just didn’t bother.

Instead, I closed my eyes and I smiled at myself because I’d done it. I’d done the impossible—I’d seen Grey one last time before the end of the Seven Isles. Beforemyend.

Now, I would die in peace.

The heat of Syra’s magic was unlike anything I’d ever felt before. It was coming for me even through the fire that Storm bathed her in. It hit Grey first, and though my eyes were closed, I felt it when it picked him up and threw him to the side, heard it when he slammed against the trees.

Nothing stood in its way of me now.

A second later, the magic wrapped around me like an invisible hand—andsqueezed.

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