Page 65 of The Eighth Isle

If I turned around and ran, Syra was going to still see me as soon she turned the corner. She was so, so close…

I froze in place right there, unable to move or make up my mind, and my magic was already slipping out of my fingers. Even though I knew, I’d seen with my own eyes that it wasn’t going to do anything to her, I still planned to let out every ounce I had in me, just as soon as I saw her face.

Then he turned the corner.

A small scream escaped me, and both my hands closed around my mouth.

Grey was standing there with his eyes wide open, shirtless still, his skin covered in dry blood, and he was just as shocked to see me.

He ran. I couldn’t bring myself to move a single inch yet, half afraid that this was only my imagination, that Grey was still with Syra, on the floor, unconscious. I froze and I didn’t move until he was in front of me and grabbed me in his arms, crashed me to his chest and kissed my head, and said, “You’re okay, baby. You’re okay.”

Definitely, undeniably Grey. One hundred percent.

My body was finally able to move again. I wrapped my arms around him, too, and I cried.

“You were…you were…y-y-you…” Three minutes in and I still couldn’t speak, couldn’t say a single sentence for the life of me.

Grey took my face in his hands and pushed my hair away, coming close enough so that the tips of our noses touched. “Listen to me, Fall. I need you to listen to me closely,” he whispered, and that alone freaked me out even more.

Why wasn’t he flying us out of here right now?

“Storm,” I choked because Storm was still out there, out of the castle—free—and we could jump out the window right on his back. Grey didn’t even need to use his wings. Storm could get us out faster.

But he wouldn’t hear it.

“No,” he told me. “Storm can’t get us out.”

My poor heart. “Then you can.” I grabbed him by the wrists and held onto him with all my strength. “You can get us out. Just fly out the window—you can get us out, Grey.”

He shook his head. “I can’t, baby. I’m sorry,” he said, then suddenly turned around as if he just heard someone coming from around the corner.

Grey froze in place for the longest moment, and I almost threw up all that I’d eaten, thinking he heardher,thinking she was coming, but…

“Run with me,” Grey then said, and grabbing my hand in his, he started running right back where I’d come from.

I had no choice but to follow, not only because I was scared shitless of Syra coming to kill me by blowing me kisses, but because Grey pulled me and my body moved on its own. He knew exactly where he was going, even though the corridors all looked the same to me.

Suddenly, we were in that same hallway where there was a door, a single door made out of wood, the same door I’d come out of when I woke up earlier.

“No,” I whispered because I knew what this was already.

Except Grey still held me by the hand and I didn’t have the strength to stop him. He opened the door and walked us inside then slammed it closed the same second. It was that same room, same bed, same curtains, same carpet—thatsame room.

“What are you doing?! Why did you bring me here? We need to?—”

“Stop, baby,” Grey whispered, grabbing my face in his hands again. “We can’t leave yet. She won’t let us. If we try, she’ll hurt you. She’s not stable and her oath doesn’t prevent her fromhurtingyou—do you understand?”

Fuck, yes, I understood.

I wrapped my arms around his neck, and we were close enough that I could see every line of his face and every color in his eyes. He was just as desperate as me, it was clear to see, and I hated it.

“You were bleeding on the floor,” I said, and he shook his head, leaning in to kiss me, just a peck.

“I’m fine, baby. I’m okay,” he told me, and when he leaned back again, he was smiling.

For a moment, it took me off guard, and not only because Grey smiled so rarely.

“You’re pregnant.”

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