Page 5 of The Eighth Isle

Too late,that voice in my head reminded me.

The exit was right there. Valentine and Shadow were behind us, and Grey was flying at his full speed toward that darkness, holding me tightly to his chest.

Too late, too late, too late…

“Hansil!”

Magic slammed on his back and pulled him to the side—again, like it was a gigantic invisible hand. Grey let go of me and I fell to the ground, and Valentine was on his stomach, too, Shadow still rolling a few feet to the side.

“Where are you going, my love?”

Syra’s voice reached my ears and the fear alone gave me the strength to raise my head, to see where the hell she was.

And did she just call Greymy love?

She absolutely did—and now Grey was being held in the air like Sedelis had been, his wings gone, his teeth gritted as he tried to free his arms from her magic but couldn’t.

My own raged.

I knew who I was up against. I could guess the amount of power one would need to turna sireninto piles of ashes on the ground without breaking a sweat, so I was well aware that I was going to fail. But I stood up anyway, and all that magic that was rushing through my veins burst from my open hands, aimed at Syra. My only intent was for her to let go of Grey. Just let go of him so I could grab him and we could leave this fucking Isle behind for good.

God, I shouldn’t have made Grey stay. I should have just listened to him and gone back home. I should have let him decide.

But I hadn’t, and now here we were.

My magic hit Syra on the chest, and she stumbled back, disoriented,surprisedto see me as if she hadn’t noticed I was there at all until now.

“Watch out!” Valentine shouted, and he was in front of me in a second, but not before I saw Syra’s hand. Not before I realized that shewasn’tgoing to bend over and her limbsweren’tgoing to twist and turn, and my magicwasn’tgoing to hurt her at all.

But at least Grey was on the ground now.

Syra’s magic slammed onto Valentine, and he fell back. I wasn’t fast enough to move away, so now he was falling over me.

We were both falling.

My eyes were on Grey as he tried to make it to his feet, his dark eyes wide and full of terror because he knew he’d never get to me in time—there were at least ten feet between us. No, he couldn’t get to me before I hit the ground.

Except…I didn’t.

And Valentine didn’t fall over me, either. Instead, the world around me went completely dark. Grey disappeared. The cave disappeared. The turquoise glow of the pool disappeared, and for a second that could have lasted an eternity, I was nowhere. I didn’t exist—or if I did, I was lost in oblivion.

Then there was water.

Two

Waterin my mouth and nose and ears. Water everywhere around me. I was moving my limbs on instinct, but the weight of it still tried to pull me down.

Something was moving to my side, too. Somebody was screaming just like Sedelis had done.

I turned, heart in my throat, hoping to find Grey even though deep in my bones I knew that I wouldn’t. Even though I knew that everything had gone to hell already.

I was right.

Valentine was barely holding his head above the water to my right, and beyond him in the distance was Genevieve, pushing herself up as she screamed and howled at the sky—but that’s it.

No Grey anywhere around me.

The sky was a rich blue, no cloud in sight, the sun shining golden almost right over our heads. And the darkness ahead of us, not even fifty feet away over the surface of the ocean, made what had happened perfectly clear.

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