Chapter 17

Seventeen

I felt movement on the bed.

At first, I was sure I was dreaming, but then the heat of his hand on my cheek pried my eyes open, and I thought I heard my name falling from his lips in a whisper.

"Grey," I said, trying to sit up as a rush of panic and excitement ran through me, but he didn't let me. He was on the bed with me, lying by my side, his hands on my face, his wings half spread.

His eyes were bloodshot, too, and there was blood coming out of his nose and the corner of his lips.

My stomach turned. "What happened?!"

"Nothing," Grey said. "It's fine, nothing happened. Calm down, baby."

"What did she do to you?" My hands shook as I reached for the blood on his face—almost completely dry. He wasn't wearing a shirt, either, and his hair was all over the place.

"Nothing," Grey insisted. "Look at me—everything is okay. Breathe, baby. Just breathe." And he brought his lips to mine.

I closed my eyes and held onto his neck and I felt his soft lips against mine, telling myself that I wasn't going to find out what happened if I didn't calm down first.

Telling myself that Grey was here, in my bed, and it was nighttime outside still.

Grey was in my bed.

My eyes opened and I touched his face, ran my fingers through his hair. "You're here."

"She's gone for a little while, off the Isle," Grey said, and my stomach about came right out of me.

"Then what are we—" waiting for, I wanted to say as I sat up, pushing him off me, but Grey stopped me again.

"We can't leave. She's put a spell outside. If we step out of the castle, we'll fall unconscious." Dragging himself closer to me, he grabbed my face in his hands again. "We can't leave, Fall. Not tonight."

Closing my eyes again, I swallowed back the tears and touched his arms. "What happened? Why are you bleeding?"

"I tried to get Storm to pull me out," he said. "Didn't work. I'm fine."

He did sound fine. Pushing myself back for a bit, I looked into his dark eyes. "What is happening, Grey? I never see you. I never see any of you."

"She wants us out of your way. Wants you to be peaceful ," he said, then flinched. "She's convinced you're going to start liking it here. She tried to make me tell her what you like."

"She's fucking batshit crazy."

"But she's getting comfortable," Grey said. "The more of the world out there she's seeing, the more she's realizing that nobody is a match for her, and the more comfortable she's becoming."

Fuck, that sounded awful. "So, how are we ever going to make it out of here? What the hell is she planning to do to me?" That question haunted me more than anything still.

"I don't know yet. I've been trying to find out, but she always knows when I'm close. And Valentine won't speak to me at all. I can't hurt him—she gets angry if I try."

"Then don't try." Just the thought of her driving forks into his wings like that again made me want to break something. Even my magic that had been almost dormant the past couple days raged.

"I won't," Grey said, then brought his forehead to mine. "Happy birthday, baby. I'm sorry I couldn't be with you. I'm sorry that we couldn't celebrate properly."

His words took me by surprise— holy shit, I turned twenty-one!

"It's fine," I said, shaking my head. "Really, I don't care."

"But I do. We'll celebrate the moment we're out of here," he said. Despite everything, I smiled. "And when we do, I'll give you a proper gift, but right now…" He took my hand in his and placed something in my palm, something just slightly bigger than a penny. "Right now, this is all I have."

I raised my hand and turned it to the lamp to see better. It was a round piece of wood engraved on either side. One was an eye, so detailed the lashes on it looked almost real. So perfect. And on the other side… " Een aeva ," I whispered.

"And your eye," Grey said. "It's just a piece of oak. I couldn't make it bigger because she'd have smelled it. I know it's not much, but?—"

I jumped and wrapped my arms around his neck, cutting him off. "It's perfect. Absolutely perfect." And I squeezed it in my hand with all my strength.

"I'll get you a real gift when we're free," Grey said against my neck.

"This is real enough. I don't want another," I told him. "It's perfect, Grey. Thank you."

"I'm glad you like it, my queen," he said, kissing my cheek as I slowly moved away to give him better access.

"When was your birthday?" I wondered. We hadn't had the chance to talk about birthdays yet.

He chuckled. "The day before you arrived in the Woods."

Well, fuck.

I shook my head, smiling, and he continued to kiss my face. "I got the best gift in my life this year, too."

"I had no idea," I whispered. "You should have told me. We could have celebrated together." At least after the Blood Call.

"We did. Every day I've been with you was a celebration," Grey told me. "Talk to me, baby. Tell me how you've been. How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine," I said, and my voice shook a little. "I miss you."

"I miss you, too. I can't fucking stand to be away from you," he said, and this time when he kissed me, he didn't let go for a long time.

It was a breath of fresh air to feel him like that again, all the way to my marrow. It was freedom—real, true freedom. Slowly, I lay on the bed again, pulling him down with me. Grey's wings spread to the sides as he settled himself on top of me, never breaking the kiss. I wrapped my arms and legs around him tightly, bursting with excitement to be able to touch him, to smell his skin.

Just like always, the world out there lost importance in a matter of minutes. Everything paled compared to him. I wanted to lay there underneath him all night and all day and all my life—but the truth was that this was dangerous. The truth was that, if Syra found us right now, she was going to hurt him, and hurt him badly.

"Grey," I whispered between kisses because I still wanted to know. "Where is she?"

"I don't know but they flew away. They won't be back for at least a half hour. She won't leave the Isle for longer than that yet," Grey said against my lips, pressing his hips onto me as if to show me how hard he was.

My body was on fire when I moaned, meeting his next thrust halfway.

"What is she planning? What is she doing all day?"

"Learning, I think. She's learning about the world and the other Isles. Valentine is teaching her," Grey said, and I'd be damned if I didn't hate that man a little bit more.

"And what about the prophecy of the stars? What is she saying about that?"

"She calls it a lie," Grey whispered, and he looked pretty concerned even though he never stopped planting kisses everywhere on me as he spoke. "She says the only person that can ruin the Seven Isles is her, and that she has no intention of doing that when she was given back everything that was stolen from her."

My body turned numb for a moment. "What…what's she going to do to the baby?" I choked, the words barely leaving my mouth.

Grey stopped and leaned back his head for a moment. "Nothing. Not while I'm still alive," he said, and there wasn't a hint of doubt in his voice. "I'll stop her. She won't be touching our baby—or you ."

Our baby, our baby, our baby —God, those words. What they did to me…

Tears in my eyes.

"What if she can't be stopped?"

"She can," he insisted. "She can be fooled. She won't be able to keep us here forever."

"And what if we leave and she decides that she does want to end the Seven Isles after all?" I'd seen it with my own eyes in that Storyteller—how she'd ordered the ground to break and burn. An entire fucking continent, and it had obeyed.

"Then the Seven Isles will be no more," Grey said.

I closed my eyes. "I'm serious, Grey."

"So am I." And he kissed me again.

"Hold on," I said, breathless a minute in. "Hold on, Grey. We need a plan."

"I know, baby, but the only plan that will work is to wait until she's comfortable and find the perfect moment to fly off the Isle. There is no way we can beat her, not even together. I'm already getting weaker because I lost a lot of blood and?—"

"Then take it!" I said, horrified that I'd forgotten. "Take my blood. Bite me, Grey." And I pulled his head down on my neck.

He pushed back again, and he was smiling. "Did I ever tell you how much I love you, my queen?"

"Just take my damn blood. Take all of it." He'd been bleeding on the floor three nights ago, and he was bleeding again tonight—yes, he'd definitely lost too much blood.

"I will," he said, kissing my lips gently. "I want it. I want all of you, inside and out. I'm dying for you, Fall."

His words were like honey down my throat.

"Take me," I whispered, locking my arms around his neck. "I'm all yours, Grey."

The way he looked at me was both heartbreaking and electrifying at the same time. "I keep forgetting how beautiful you are," he said, licking my bottom lip before he pulled it between his teeth and bit, making me moan. "I keep forgetting how perfect your face is. How crazy your body makes me." His hands slipped down to my breasts, cupping them while his wings spread wider and he groaned. "Fuck, you drive me crazy."

"Then take those damn pants off," I said, trying to push the fabric down with my feet, and he grinned.

"Does that mean I drive you crazy, too?" His eyes were sparkling already as he slowly pushed down his pants. Finally.

"More than you know. Otherwise, you would be inside me right now." I only ever felt alive when I was connected to him in every possible way.

Grey paused for a second, then crashed his lips to mine. He didn't let me take a single breath properly from then on, but moved with a new urgency, pushing his pants and underwear down and pulling up my nightgown at the same time. His hips thrust against me and I was soaking wet and shaking for him, even with all that fear burning inside me. Even with the panic of getting caught by Syra.

"How will we know?" I whispered, then moaned again as my eyes rolled in my skull when his hand closed around my thigh and his fingers touched me over my wet panties.

"Storm will warn us," said Grey, and that was all it took to throw my inhibitions out the window and surrender to this feeling completely. Storm would never fail us, of that I was sure.

Grey's fingers slipped under the fabric of my panties and he touched my burning pussy masterfully, just like always. He dipped the tips of his fingers inside me just for a second, then pulled them up to my clit, making me shudder.

"Keep moving baby," he whispered, pushing himself up so he could access me better with his hand, massage my clit while he held me against the bed with his arm around my waist. "Keep moving those hips just like that."

I couldn't stop if I tried. "Grey, please," I breathed, trying to push up so his finger slipped all the way inside me.

"Please what, my queen? Talk to me—your wish is my command," he reminded me.

And I wasn't half as shy as I'd been with him in the beginning, so I said, "I order you to make me come right now." Otherwise, I was going to burst into a million pieces.

Grey gasped—actually gasped like he was in shock, but only for a second. Then his face lit up and he grinned the way he used to, like I'd just put the whole world in the palms of his hands.

"Goddamn, baby. That's the sexiest thing I've ever heard in my life," he growled.

My toes curled all the way and heat crawled to my cheeks, but I was smiling. "Good. Now get to w?—"

That's all I could get out before he stuck his fingers inside my pussy and his tongue in my mouth, all the way to my throat.

It took him less than a minute to make me come. The way he knew my body was scary. He kept his thumb pressed to my clit while he drove those curved fingers in and out of me, slowly at first, and the more he picked up the speed, the deeper inside me he reached. It was like magic—better than magic. I came calling his name right in his mouth the way he liked, and he moaned with me, like he felt my pleasure, too.

The high lasted a long time, and he loved the sight of me like that, lost and breathing heavily, looking at him through half open eyes. Looking at him lick his fingers coated with my juices.

I never knew just how sexy that can be, but he sucked on his fingers as he watched me, and I could come just by the sight alone.

"What about now?" he said with that devilish grin on his handsome face that had me in awe all over again.

"Now I want your cock." No embarrassment whatsoever.

Grey growled, even though he wasn't as surprised as that first time. He growled, then slammed his lips to mine and kissed me furiously, letting me taste the sweetness of my juices that he adored so much. He moved us, fell down on his back and put me on top, and I was already pulling my nightgown off because I needed his hands on me.

"My greedy, beautiful queen," Grey said, when he pushed me up to sit on him, his hard cock against my soaked folds. I threw away the nightgown and watch him admire me as he whispered to himself, perfect, flawless, made for me.

Oh, yes, I was.

As much as I wanted to take my time with him, kiss every inch of his skin and take him in my mouth, there was no telling how much longer we had until Storm warned us. So, I rose to my knees and I took his cock in my hand, played with it for only a second so I could see the look on Grey's face, then I sat on him.

Fuck, the way he stretched me was out of this world still, even though we'd been together too many times to count already. I felt him to my very core, and I took him in all the way at once because I really couldn't wait. My head fell back and my eyes rolled in my skull, and for a moment I just stayed there. For a moment, I just felt him, connected with him the way I yearned to. We became one.

Then Grey wrapped his hands around my hips to hold me in place and thrust his hips up like he meant to break me open.

I moaned, my hair falling over half of my face as we looked at one another, our bodies in perfect sync.

"Do you want me to ride you?" I asked because he still wouldn't let me move. He held my hips so tightly they were going to bruise—and I couldn't wait to see it.

But Grey shook his head. "No, my queen. I just want you to sit there and take it."

Then he began to fuck me from below.

He looked like a man possessed as he held my hips just slightly up then drove into me, picking up the speed before the minute was over. I held onto his forearms as I jumped up and down with the strength of his thrusts, small screams coming out of me each time he slammed into me.

A little while later, he began to move me on his cock instead, and I was already as good as gone. He knew we couldn't make this last, too, even if we both wanted to be lost in this moment forever. We knew, so we were in a hurry.

But even so, Grey moved one hand to my stomach as his thrusts became more and more desperate, and every inch of my skin rose in goose bumps at the reminder.

He held my eyes and continued to move my hips on him, up and down and forward and back. It was an intimate moment unlike any we'd shared so far, and it was perfect. It was ours. It was our whole world and lives wrapped into that one look. I'd carry that feeling close to my heart until the day that I died.

He came hard, thrusting his hips up and throwing his head back, eyes squeezed shut. I continued to move on him until I came, too, crying out his name. It was both incredibly beautiful and sad at the same time when I fell on his chest and raised my head until my neck was in front of his lips.

"Bite me, Grey," I whispered, and he did.

His fangs were already extended, and he bit me gently. It barely lasted ten seconds before he let go, and I had no idea if he'd taken enough, but I was too tired to even ask. And after, Grey wrapped his arms around me tightly, held me there and kissed the top of my head. There was no need for words at all.

I thought I'd have another moment to collect myself. I thought I'd get to kiss him and lay in his arms for a while longer. Just a little while.

But barely two minutes later, Storm roared right outside the windows.

Days passed by in a blur, and before I knew it, it had been a whole week since I'd become Syra's prisoner.

Grey didn't come to my room again, and I rarely saw him outside with Storm when I went for walks. I found books in my room one day after I returned from breakfast, all novels in English, and as much as I wanted to throw them out the window, I held onto them because there was nothing else to do but think.

Think and walk around the Isle, get lost in the woods for hours chasing animals, looking out at the sea, before I had to return to that same trap again at the end of each day. Think about the fact that I was pregnant and there was no telling whether the true end of the world—of this magical world, at least—was ahead of us.

So, I would rather get lost in a fictional world altogether and escape my own reality while I waited for a miracle. For Grey to figure out how to take us away from here. For Syra to realize that this wasn't the life she wanted, after all.

But none of it happened, and I went through all the books fast, reading every second while I was awake and inside the castle.

On day ten, I found nine more books by the door in the morning when I left for breakfast, and I was so excited to read the covers you'd think someone had handed me my freedom back. But it was a kind of freedom. These books freed me from my reality better than anything else ever could.

That same morning, Syra, Grey and Valentine were at the dining table for breakfast, too.

I stopped in my tracks when I saw them through the doorway, and my legs refused to take me forward for a long moment.

But then the idea of being near Grey, even if it was just for a little while, was stronger than anything else in there that scared me shitless, so when Syra ordered me to go in, I went and sat in that chair near him, my heart slamming in my chest.

He looked good. He was clean, his hair shorter, his beard trimmed, his eyes grey and vibrant when he met mine. He hadn't lost blood recently by the looks of it, but I still wished he'd find a way to come to me just so he could feed off me. That night he really didn't take much, and it would give him more strength to do whatever he did around the castle every day.

But I also knew that he wouldn't put me in danger in any way. As long as Syra was in this castle, he would never come to my bed again.

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 was the old me. 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 always doing 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. With me. 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 and not say 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, do something 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're doing 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?

Of course not—but this idea of him that I'd created in the beginning was so damn persistent, and I still liked to think that he wasn't all bad. He wasn't as rotten as I knew him to be. As he'd proved to me that he was.

I guess first impressions really do last a long time.

"Then I will," Valentine said. "What about my brother? Are you planning to see him yet?"

"He's still asking?"

"Every day, twice a day," Valentine said. "Romin is persistent only when he really wants something."

Romin wanted to come see Syra?

I gave Grey another look to see if he reacted, but he didn't. He probably knew.

Why—had Romin finally had a change of heart and wanted to save us or something, or was he hoping to gain something from Syra and would come here to offer his services to her, too, just like Valentine had done?

Yeah, probably the latter.

"Of course, he does—they all want something. Did you not hear the dragon riders?" Syra shook her head, tsk- ing as she gathered her berries on a spoon. "Leeches, all of them, but it's okay. I'll be a just ruler when I do take over the Isles. Right now, I will not see any of them again." And her eyes fell on me. "Not until I've finished the most important thing first."

The most important thing.

Again, that awful feeling in my gut expanded, threatening to take me under right there. I gritted my teeth and reminded myself that I'd only be hurting Grey if I reacted right now, and by some miracle, I managed. By some miracle, I finished my plate and I excused myself, and Syra didn't stop me. She didn't tell me to sit down or wait for her to eat first. She just let me leave the dining room, and they all watched after me until I closed the doors and was alone in the hallway again.

I ran all the way to the room, barely breathing.