Page 66 of The Eighth Isle

My knees got week instantly as if my strings had been cut. Grey felt it so he wrapped an arm around my waist lightning fast, securing me against his chest.

I’m pregnant,I thought, as if I’d forgotten that little fact and it just occurred to me, too.

“Look at me, Fall,” Grey said, concerned now, no smile on those lips. “We’re okay. We’re going to be just fine. We’re going to get out of here soon.”

“We’re having a baby,” I said because it just seemed so absurd to me now that he was here and I was allowing myself to comprehend what those words meant.

His smile was automatic. His hand moved down from my cheek and to my stomach, the other holding me up still. His fingers spread over my stomach, and God I felt like I might burst any second now.

“We’re having a baby,” Grey whispered, and he kissed me again.

But my brain refused to cooperate still, so I leaned away for a second.

“Wait, wait, hold on,” I said. “Just…how?When?” It made no sense—we hadn’t even been together that many times, had we? Not nearly enough for me, at least.

“I don’t know,” Grey said. “I don’t know. I have no idea.” And he was still smiling.

“Stopsmiling!”

“I can’t,” Grey said, shaking his head and moving us closer to the wall near the door, pressing me against it before he suddenly fell to his knees, his hands around my waist tightly. “I can’t stop smiling. I’m happy, Fall. I’m so fucking happy.”

It was a miracle I hadn’t burst into a thousand pieces yet. Tears in my eyes, but these were light. Grey pulled my shirt up and kissed my stomach, breathing in the scent of my skin, holding me tightly.

I ran my hands through his dark hair, his shoulders still covered in dried blood, and I was happy and sad and terrified at the same time—but right now mostly happy.

“You’ve made me the happiest man in the world, my queen,” he said, and I was tempted to laugh.

“We’re prisoners of the most powerful being in the world,” I reminded him, and he nodded.

“I’m aware of that,” he said, looking up at me, cheek pressed to my stomach. Fuck, his eyes looked almost whiteright now. They wereglowing.

I had never seen Grey like that before, even at his happiest. And I fucking adored that look on him.

“But we’re going to get out of here. I have a plan and I’m going to see it through,” he whispered, then continued to kiss all around my bellybutton. “Right now, I need you to be safe, okay? I just need you to be safe.”

I closed my eyes, resting my head against the wall behind me, because his kisses were therapy. Nothing in the world like being with him, and it was already making everything else seem…distant. Not that important, even though I knew very well it was.

“Grey,” I whispered because I didn’t really know what I wanted to say at the moment—too many things. Way too many possibilities.

“We’re going to get out of here, my queen,” he said again. “We’ll leave and she’ll never find us again.”

“The world might end if she doesn’t, though.” If we did get out of here and Syra couldn’t find us, she was going to fucking endthe world, no doubt about it—and this time for real. The stars said it, too.

“Butyou’llbe alive,” Grey said. I shook my head, eyes squeezed shut as he gently touched my stomach with the tips of his fingers, then whispered, “Take care of her—that’s all that matters. We always take care of her first.”

I laughed a little. “It’s an Evernight—pretty sure it’s ahim.” Vampires only sired males.

“I know. I was talking to him,” Grey said, then kissed my stomach one more time before he stood up.

My poor heart was about to explode.

“Grey, don’t leave.” Because now he looked like he was going to.

“I have to,” he said and came closer again until our lips touched.

I knew he did, but God, I didn’t want to be alone again. Was it too much to ask to be frozen in this moment in time forever?

“Kiss me,” I said because that’s the best way I knew how to stop time and make the world disappear, to float in the air with only Grey as my anchor.

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