Page 54 of The Eighth Isle

My life didn’t flash by me at all, but my eyes did open. I couldn’t keep them closed if I tried with the way the magic was squeezing me, emptying my lungs, freezing the blood in my veins, and my head was seconds away from exploding.

Fuck, it was too much. It was way too much magic, and the image of how Sedelis had died on this very Isle just two days ago was in front of me as I looked at Syra now. Sedelis had been squeezed to death, cut into pieces, then turned to ashes—and the same luck awaited me as the siren stood tall, Storm’s fire all around her but never quite reaching her. An invisible shield protected her from it, even though Storm gave it hiseverything. She was simply too powerful.

Then she squeezed her hand into a fist, and it felt like she pulled the soul out of my body. My magic raged once more, and I no longer claimed any control of it. It could do whatever it wanted.

With Grey’s face in my mind, with the memory of his smile and his laugh and the touch of his hand close to my heart, I let go.

Thirteen

Any second now…

Death had never seemed sweeter.

I couldn’t breathe—impossible to draw in air through this magic that had wrapped around me like a second skin and was squeezing me like it wanted to burst me open—and it would.

My heart couldn’t beat. All my thoughts had come to a halt and my magic was suspended on air, trying but failing to fight this foreign power that was killing me slowly…

Too slowly.

My eyes opened again, despite knowing that it was a much better idea to focus on Grey. Easier. Quicker.

Butit wasn’t. It wasn’t quicker at all because the seconds ticked by and I was still conscious. Still not bleeding.

The seconds ticked by, and when they had for Sedelis, she’d turned into ashes, but not me. Still very much whole.

Syra was no longer smiling. Fire no longer came at her side, and Storm no longer roared.

The siren was looking at me like she’d seen all the horror in the world in the color of my eyes, her lips moving slowly though no sound left them at all.

But the magic was letting me go.

There was no way this could ever make sense in my mind right now, so I didn’t try to think. I just focused on Syra, on the way her hand shook. On the way her hand lowered.

Then she fell to her knees.

Syra was on her knees in the middle of that plaque, and something else was moving to my left—Grey with his wings spread, bloody, his chest torn in too many places, jumping at her with both his hands raised.

His magic hit her in the face, pushed her head to the side, but it wasn’t enough. And he shouted as he came down on her, but I knewthatwasn’t going to be enough, either.

Syra waved a hand only barely, halfheartedly, and the air picked up Grey before he had the chance to touch her or sink his fangs in her neck. It picked him up and threw him back right at the trees, and if Storm planned to spit his fire at her again, he didn’t need to bother. It wasn’t going to work.

Nothing was going to work against her, and somehow that still didn’t matter.

Somehow, I was still alive.

Warmth slipped from my nostrils and into my parted lips—blood. My nose was bleeding, my ribs were bruised, and it was a damn miracle my legs were still holding me when all my limbs were numb.

“No,” Syra whispered, and I realized that I had been deafto the outside world until this very second.

I realized that I hadn’t heard Storm’s roar or Grey falling against the trees the second time. I’d only heard the white noise inside my head, and now my ears were working again.

Now, I heard it when Grey tried to get up and fell down, his grunts of pain, Storm’s growls as he paced in front of him, watching Syra.

But Syra was looking at me and her eyes were glossy, full of tears. Her hands at her sides were still shaking, though she fisted them tightly. She was still on her knees, saying, “No, no, it cannot be…”

Magic rushed inside me—mymagic, as if to nudge me, to tell me to pick myself up, to move, todo somethingother than just stand there like an idiot, watching her, waiting for her to finish killing me.

And my legs finally worked.

---