Page 79 of The Eighth Isle

Grey let go of me and my bare feet hit the ground. “Syra left and she didn’t raise the spell to keep us inside tonight. She’ll only be gone a little while, so we have to hurry. Storm will carryyou and I’ll fly close by, just in case someone follows us. I need to be able to move freely. That okay?” he said in a rush, his grey eyes wide—scared, but also excited.

“Are you kidding me—of course, it is, Grey!Let’s go!” I’d jump in the air and grab Storm’s talons myself if I had to.

Grey kissed my forehead deeply. “Whatever happens, be careful, Fall. Don’t take unnecessary risks. Save yourself.”

I shook my head, his words heavy on my shoulders. “Nothing’s going to happen. We’re going to make it. Let’s move.”

Grey smiled at me for a second, fingertips sliding down my cheek. “I love you, my queen.”

“Tell me that when we’re far away from this place.” I rose on my tiptoes and kissed his lips again.

“I will.”

He stepped back, looking up at Storm as the dragon came closer and closer. My heart hammered in my chest and I was so fucking ready to be carried away in the air again. So ready to be done with this nightmare of a life, and I genuinely thought that we would make it.

Grey had been planning this for days, and Syra wasn’t here, and her spell that would have knocked us out if we left the castle wasn’t active, and?—

“Oh, no. Please don’t tell me I’m interrupting something.”

Valentine’s voice filled my head and wiped every other thought away.

Storm growled from over our heads and Grey’s wings were already spread to the sides when he turned to where that voice came from.

I didn’t even want to believe my own eyes, but it was really him. It was Valentine, resting his shoulder against a tree to our right, and Shadow was sitting on a branch over his head, watching curiously, his tail swooshing to the sides.

“Valentine,” I said, as if saying his name was going to mean anything to him. As if saying his name was going to make him understand everything that was going on inside me, all my thoughts and my fear and the hope I’d felt just now when Storm was about to grab me…

“No, no, don’t mind me. You were saying? Oh, wait—were you already preparing to leave?” He pushed himself off the tree and with his hands in his pockets, he took a step back.

“Get out of my face, boy. I won’t say it again,” Grey said through gritted teeth, and Valentine raised his brows.

“Or what?”

My God, he looked so at ease. So perfectly relaxed.

He looked…evil.

“Valentine, please,” I said because we were so close. Syra wasn’t here, and we were so fucking close to leaving I could taste it. If begging him was what it took, I’d do it. So, I moved around Grey’s wing and closer to him, and Grey moved with me.

“Oh, you’re pleading now? How cute,” said Valentine with that cold smile on his face that cut right through me.

“Please, just stand back, okay? We’re not going to stay in this place forever. Just stand back and let us go,” I told him, but even though I was hoping to get through to him with words, my magic was growing inside me, just as ready to unleash on him as it had been a moment ago.

I’d attacked Valentine with it a few times before, so I knew it worked. I knew he was going to end up folded in half on the ground, and so did he.

Yet he wasn’t worried in the least.

“But Syra is not here yet. You can’t just leave without her knowing about it, can you?”

“You little piece of shit. I’m going to enjoy killing you,” Grey spit, and I raised both hands toward Valentine.

“Step aside and let us go.” I said the words separately, slowly, and I was sure he would know that I wasn’t kidding around. I’d attack him—fucking hell, I absolutely would, and he could see my hands just fine, probably feel the energy of my magic, but…

“I can’t. Syra’s still not here. I called for her, and she’s usually very fast, but?—”

Grey jumped forward and slammed onto Valentine before he’d finished speaking, taking him down.

I screamed in frustration as they rolled on the ground for a couple of feet, then both released their magic, attacking one another, throwing one another away. And they both stood up at the same time.

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