Page 76 of The Eighth Isle

She looked absolutely flawless, too, though she’d cut her hair just below her shoulders.

“It was getting in my way,” she told me when she saw me looking, only for a split second. “Besides, that wasthe oldme. I like this new me better. Do you?” And she threw her hair behind her shoulder.

I said nothing, just continued to eat.

Valentine sat across from me and drank his coffee, looking the same as always. Hair sleeked back, face clean shaven, jacket and shirt pressed, his nails trimmed and his eyes dark and calculating and so full of secrets I had no idea how they hadn’t crushed him yet.

I saw him most often around the Isle, and he always knew I was there. Whether I was looking out the windows or I was in the woods myself, he always knew, and he always looked at me from a distance. Never gave me any kind of an expression and he never came close. He never talked to me, but he was alwaysdoing something, always going somewhere, and Shadow was always flying ahead of him, snickering that strange sound only he knew how to make.

Who knew what he was up to or what Syra was making him do. Who knew in what kind of way this man could fuck up my life even more than he’d already done since the day we met.

The words were at the tip of my tongue when he looked at me. I wanted to call him a coward again, tell him how despicable he really was, but why would I waste all that energy and get Syra angry and have her try to stop me, so then Grey could jump in the middle and get hurt?

Not worth it,I told myself and bit my tongue. Valentine was not worth it.

“Do you have a bump yet?”

The food almost went down my throat wrong when Syra suddenly turned to me, her eyes appearing even bluer than usual with that bright blue dress she had on today.

I said nothing.

“No, I suppose it’s still early. I’ll admit I’m not a very patient person in general, and it’s killing me a little to have to wait.” She shook her head to herself as she chewed her food.

“Wait for what?” I asked, and I kept my voice down and my heartbeat as steady as I could. Because despite everything, I still wanted to know what she was planning to do to me.Withme. With the baby.

“Don’t you worry your little head about it, lovely. You’ll know when the time comes. It shouldn’t be too long now,” she said, waving her fork around. “I mean, I could try right away but I want to do it right. Give it as much time as I can.”

Every inch of my skin rose in goose bumps. I threw a quick look at Grey, who was holding his coffee cup so tightly his knuckles had turned white. His eyes were bloodshot as he looked at Syra from under his lashes.

“It will hurt, but not too much. Don’t worry—you’ll survive it,” she then said, looking down at my body. “I won’t take chances. I promise you that.”

My stomach turned, threatening to make me throw up all that I’d eaten. I gritted my teeth and fisted my hands and I prayed with all my heart that the riot of feelings taking over me right now settled so I could think. So I could control myself andnotsay a single word.

But I already knew that whatever was going on in her head, whatever she was planning, it was worse than I’d had the courage to imagine in the days that I’d been here. It was so much worse than I’d dared to admit to myself at all.

Grey put down his cup slowly, and I saw it through the corner of my eye. He was going to say something,dosomething that would make Syra react, and my heart jumped at the thought of her fork in his wing. I let go of the silverware, too, about to turn to him and beg him to stand down, keep his thoughts to himself for now, because it still wasn’t worth it.

We couldn’t win—it was as simple as that. We couldn’t win against Syra, not right now.

But…

“I’ve been waiting all morning, but you haven’t even mentioned them,” Valentine said, again—in that same calm voice, perfectly bored of whatever we were talking about, his focus only on Syra. “I know you’ve seen them around.”

Syra grinned, turning to him. “Nothing escapes your pretty eyes, does it, V.” And it wasn’t a question.

“Of course not. I promised you my best, didn’t I?” he told her. “And my best means knowing when there are sirens swimming around the Isle—and they genuinely think they’re undetectable.”

Valentine chuckled. Syra downright laughed.

“Oh, let them! They were always so self-important, always up to stupid things just to make themselves feel like they’redoing something,” said Syra, waving him off.

“So, I shouldn’t scare them? I shouldn’t send them away?” Valentine asked.

“No, don’t. They’re harmless. As long as they don’t try to get on my Isle, let them swim with the fishes.”

Sirens are swimming the waters around the Isle.

I looked at Valentine as I put another strawberry in my mouth. Was there a reason why he’d mentioned the sirens in front of me?

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