Chapter 29

Twenty-Nine

So much magic.

The air was so thick I could hardly breathe. The witches kept on chanting, sitting on the floor, cross-legged, their witch hats on, their eyes closed and hands linked.

They chanted, and they released so much magic into the air it was making me nauseous, but it still wasn't working. The series of spells they'd been so sure would work at first to pull this magic out of me wasn't working, and now they were trying another.

My hopes had already crashed and burned.

I looked at Grey and Mama Si standing beside me, our backs to the wall, watching. They were concerned as well, though they didn't let it show—probably for my sake. They pretended to be focused on what the witches were doing—which to me looked like a scene from a scary Halloween movie.

I needed a break.

"I'll be right back," I whispered to Grey and made for the door.

"Are you okay?" he said, instantly concerned, his eyes searching my face.

"I just need some air," I said with a nod.

"I'll come with."

"No. I want to go alone. I'll be right back," I said, not just because he was invested in the chanting of the witches, but I just wanted to be alone with my thoughts for a minute.

Grey didn't like it, but he didn't insist. Before five minutes were over, I climbed on the rooftop of the mansion and closed my eyes and breathed in deeply, thankful for the stars in the sky.

It had been more than half a day since Storm came back, bloody and wounded and alone.

Half a day, over twelve hours, and the sirens hadn't come for us. Valentine hadn't returned, either.

Half a day.

I breathed in the night air deeply and went close to the edge to look at the horizon that I couldn't even see. So dark was the surface of the ocean, and darker still the sky, even though stars twinkled everywhere and the moon was at my back, too.

"I will be okay," I told myself because the witch sisters were working, even if the spell wasn't right now. Not just Reeva, but her sisters Amika, Taylor and Poppy were relentless, even more dedicated than I'd have believed. They wanted to make this work, and I was already getting used to the guilt of knowing we were lying to them through our teeth, using them— "And when the end truly comes?" I asked the night.

What would happen then?

But the night didn't answer.

Just Mama Si's voice in my head said, we'll all be dead anyway.

From the sirens—who still hadn't found me here. The sirens who still hadn't thought to come looking for me in the very place I came from.

Why-why-why?!

And when was anything going to start making any sense?

Would Reeva and her sisters even find a spell that would work, when the first failed so spectacularly?

They'd been so sure of it, had made it sound so simple—lure the magic out of me, push it across this bridge that would be the transfer link, and put it in an object that they'd spelled to serve as storage.

After that, I'd be free, they said. Easy, but it wasn't. Their spell couldn't even begin to do what Valentine and Shadow had done for Syra.

That's because things go wrong where I'm involved, I wanted to tell them. Everything goes wrong when I'm involved!

I bit my tongue instead.

"We have choices," I told myself. "We'll go to Dragons' Den—to John and Flakka. They'll help us. Maybe they'll even find us another Ruit like Shadow. Right?"

I asked the stars this time because they did speak. They'd foreseen the end of the Seven Isles—twice now—so they knew.

But even so, they didn't answer me.

With a sigh, I turned around to leave, go back to the basement, to the others, hoping maybe they were ready for me. Hoping the witches didn't need another break, a drink, food—which wasn't fair at all. It was after midnight and they were exhausted. Of course they needed breaks, but I needed this over with so, so badly.

My mind was on them when I pulled open the door on the rooftop deck, and I wasn't looking around me at all. Even so, I heard something just as I began to descend, and that small sound was so familiar to me by now that my instinct knew what it was before I did.

I stopped, heart in my throat and my breath held, and I turned to the darkness.

For a moment, I saw nothing. For a moment, the entire world held its breath with me.

Then something flew toward me, to my side, missing me by barely a couple of inches, fast as a goddamn bullet. It went right by me and I was too stunned to even scream, only followed it with my eyes when it slammed against the deck and rolled all the way to the wall on the other side.

My legs were shaking when I finally moved closer, hands raised, heart racing. My eyes didn't blink at all as I took in the small black shape, barely moving, and even though I'd recognized the sound of his wings, a part of me still couldn't believe it.

"Sh-Sh-Shadow?"

There it was, that snickering sound.

Shadow was lying against the wall, trying to get his wings to cooperate as his long tail moved like a snake, and he couldn't even raise his head or open his eyes.

Before I knew it, I was kneeling and he was in my hands. Blood as black as his scales was all over him, wings torn, his tongue out.

My God, he was breathing so fast, his tiny chest rising and falling rapidly.

" Grey! " I shouted at the top of my lungs, hoping he'd hear me. Praying he'd be here, materialize out of thin air.

"You'll be okay, Shadow. Just hold on," I whispered, bringing him to my chest. He was no longer trying to move, but he was screeching, and it fucking terrified me. I wrapped him up in my arms and kissed the top of his head as tears streamed down my cheeks and I didn't even feel them.

"You'll be fine. You'll be fine. Hold on for just a little while longer, okay? Please don't die, Shadow. Please-please-please… "

I rocked us back and forth, and whispered to him and kissed his head, but Shadow didn't open his eyes and he didn't stop breathing like he was going to die soon.

Grey found me like that two minutes later, and Storm was right behind him.

"He's in pain," I told Grey when he kneeled in front of me, and Storm landed on the rooftop ledge, making the entire building shake. "He's hurt, Grey. He's in pain." I knew that sound. I knew Shadow—he was hurting, and it killed me because I had no idea what to do.

"Let me see," Grey said, reaching out his hand, but I moved back.

"No! He's hurting! He's wounded, he's—" I panicked, but Grey grabbed my chin in his hand and brought my face closer to his.

"Baby, I can't ease his pain if I can't see him or touch him. Let me look at him."

Ease his pain, he said. He was going to ease his pain.

My hands shook when I lowered them. Shadow lay on my palms, that sound coming from deep in his throat, and he wasn't moving a single inch.

"Can you help him?" I asked Grey as he touched his fingertips to Shadow's chest, searching—probably for wounds. "Can you heal him? You have magic— heal him, Grey."

"I'll try," Grey said, flinching when he pressed his finger to Shadow's side. "There. He's messed up pretty badly on the side. My magic's not very good at healing, but I can close the wound. Don't move him."

I didn't move Shadow a single bit as Grey continued to pour his magic on him, and I felt it radiating in the air, vibrating throughout the small body.

Movement to my side but I couldn't bring myself to even be afraid. Mama Si and Assa, Reeva and all her sisters were upstairs on the rooftop, surrounding us, talking, but I couldn't really understand what they were saying.

Sirens, they mentioned. They know .

They're coming.

"Please, Shadow. Don't die on me. Just don't die," I whispered over and over again.

"Hold on to him and stay down," Grey said when his magic faded from the air, and Shadow was no longer making that sound, still just as motionless.

But he was only sleeping. Because he was breathing and his heart was still beating. I felt it below my fingertips when I touched his chest.

He was alive.

"Is he gonna be okay?" I choked out, looking up at Grey, whose wings were spread on his back, and he looked…concerned.

Fuck, he looked murderous.

"I don't know, baby. But stay down. I'll be right back."

At first, I didn't understand what he was saying—where was he going? Why would I need to stay down?

But then he jumped in the air and beat his wings and moved farther up, and I looked around the rooftop and finally saw what was around me. Storm took off flying with Grey into the dark of the night, and Mama Si and one of the witch sisters were on the right near the ledge looking out at the ocean with their hands raised, their magic at the ready, while Reeva with the rest of her sisters were on my left, holding the same position.

Ready—to fight.

My ears rang when I remembered where I was and what was happening—Shadow had come back to the Burrow, alone and bleeding, so wounded he couldn't move.

Whoever had done this to him had most probably followed him—and who else could have wounded a dragon like Shadow other than the sirens?

The sirens who would be on their way to us right now, and that's why all these people were standing near the ledge with their magic at the ready, and Grey and Storm were in the sky, flying in circles, searching, waiting…

The sirens were indeed coming. It was already as good as over.

I stood up, holding Shadow to my chest still, keeping him warm just in case he needed it. Valentine did not betray me, said a voice in my head over and over again, and I had no idea why that mattered as much as it did when in the face of the actual end.

I moved to the middle of the rooftop and looked around at the night, the sound of the music from the Paradise parties by the pools fading away the more I focused on the magic of the sirens that was so different from everyone else's, trying to sense if it was close…

" Anything ?" Reeva called after a moment, and I turned around, eyes wide and ears sharp…

"Nothing yet," Mama Si called.

Heart in my throat, I went to her, staring out at the darkness of the ocean, thinking, if I leave now, there's a chance that the sirens will spare the Burrow. They would have no reason to attack. Not just because of the human guests and the staff, but because of Mama Si and Reeva and the other Enchanted who lived here as well. They'd taken me in, and I didn't want them to die because of it.

"I have to leave," I said to Mama Si, eyes unblinking as I expected the sirens to pop out of the water that looked as black as the night.

"You're not going anywhere," said Mama Si, and again, it was so strange to see her wearing pants and a shirt, but the look on her face was just as regal as always. Her magic vibrated in the air around her.

"I am. If the sirens come, tell them we forced you to keep us in the Paradise, just like we said. I'm leaving." We'd go somewhere else, find another place to hide. I raised my head to the sky, to see Grey, to call him back down there, but I couldn't make him out in the night. Only Storm, flying in circles all around the Isle in perfect silence.

"Hush, Fall Doll. Stand back. We're ready for them when they come," Mama Si insisted, then Reeva called again.

"Anything?!"

"Nothing!" said Mama Si, shaking her head. "Where the hell are they?"

"I don't see anything at all," Assa then said. "I don't feel them, Mama Si."

"What happened to I'll have to tell them you made me when they come? " I insisted because that's exactly what she told me the first day. That's what we agreed on. "It's safer?—"

But she wouldn't even let me finish.

Mama Si turn to me, eyes wide and bloodshot, no colors in them.

"By the Burrow, I will knock you out myself if you don't stop," she spit. "Step back and let me handle this. You are not going anywhere."

"I—"

Something landed on the rooftop behind me with a loud thud, and we both jumped, terrified, thinking the sirens were already here. Instead, it was Grey with his wings half spread, eyes to the sky still as Storm roared once.

Nobody even breathed as we all looked at him and waited…

Then Grey lowered his head and his eyes locked on mine. "They're not here," he whispered. "The sirens are not coming."

White noise in my ears. Mama Si and Reeva were already coming closer to Grey, asking him how far he saw and how far he felt, and if he was sure of what he said, but I didn't bother. Grey knew what he was talking about—there was no point in asking him if he was sure. If he said it, he was.

I turned for the ocean again, to that ledge where Valentine and I had sat the last time he was here, and I brought Shadow closer to my face as he slept. I kissed the top of his head again and felt for his heartbeat with my fingertips. It was there, steady and strong.

"We'll be okay," I told him, though I was lying through my teeth.

Because I'd been right all along—that the sirens weren't here, that they weren't coming, was a bad sign. That they hadn't found us until now, that they hadn't even knocked on Mama Si's door once, was a very, very bad thing, indeed.

Especially since Shadow was here, wounded, and Valentine wasn't.

A moment later, Grey put his hands on my shoulders and kissed the back of my head.

"He's not coming," I said because I knew about the sirens, and I didn't care about the sirens right now—just Valentine.

"No. Nobody's coming," Grey said, stepping to my side.

"They have him," I whispered. "Something happened, and I think they have him." The sirens, or maybe someone else—I had no idea. But Valentine wasn't gone because he'd wanted to leave or because he'd betrayed us. He was gone because someone had done something to him.

"Probably," Grey said. "Shadow came from the Woods. There's a chance…"

I looked at him, waiting for him to finish that thought, but he didn't, lost in the sight of the dark ocean in front of us.

"There's a chance that what ?" I insisted, turning to face him.

"There's a chance that Romin is holding him," Grey said, and the idea terrified me, too. Romin was absolutely the guy who'd turn on his own brother for his own benefit, and he'd more than happily punish Valentine for what he'd done, for awakening Syra. He would absolutely catch him and keep him and turn him over to the sirens without a second thought if he could get something out of it.

But…

I shook my head, looking down at Shadow. It didn't feel right.

"He's too smart for that," I whispered. Valentine was way too smart not to see Romin coming if he was in the Woods. "He would know—he knows Romin."

"The sirens then," Grey said with a nod, as if that was exactly what he'd feared. The fucking sirens.

"Why haven't they come to the Burrow at all, Grey?" I said as the others came closer to us, too. "Why haven't they once asked Mama Si, when they know that I came from here?"

"Because," Grey said, "they know we're here."

I nodded—exactly what I'd feared, too. "They wanted me to stay here."

"They wanted you out of the way," Reeva said from my other side, eyes glazed over as she looked ahead but was lost in her thoughts.

"While they did… what ?" Mama Si asked from a couple feet away. "What the hell are they planning?"

I had no answer—just more questions of my own. "What do they want from Valentine?"

Nobody said a single thing.

"We have to find him." Valentine could be in danger—he probably was if Shadow came back to me like this, bleeding and wounded.

"Yes, that would help us piece together their plan," Reeva said, her voice shaking. "Possibly the end of the world—just like the stars said."

As I looked at her, two big tears slid from the corners of her eyes and down her cheeks.

And wasn't it funny that I couldn't care less about the end of the world right now when I had no idea where Valentine was and what was being done to him?

"Assa, we need to send scouts to the Woods. Who do you have available?" Mama Si said, but I shook my head.

"Shadow," I whispered, raising my hands to show them the little dragon, sleeping still. "Shadow will lead us to him when he wakes up." I turned to Reeva. "Is there magic that could help heal him?"

She nodded without hesitation. "Plenty of spells." Her hand shook when she reached out for Shadow, touching the edge of his wing with the tip of her finger. "Let's take him downstairs, shall we?"

I nodded. "Let's go."

Together, we all went back into the Paradise mansion while Storm stayed out there, flying in the dark sky, roaring every now and then, no longer bothering to keep it down. Grey stayed by my side every step of the way, as if he wanted to keep an eye on me because he knew I might collapse any second.

When we made it to the basement, he produced a tiny pillow I was sure I'd seen around the lounge areas in the Paradise and waved for me to put Shadow on it.

I did so reluctantly—I didn't want to part with that tiny dragon at all. But Reeva and her sisters sat around the pillow with their legs crossed and their eyes focused, and I had no choice but to step back and let them work.

Something's wrong, said that same old voice in my head—my fucking arch nemesis. And I didn't have the will to even try to believe that we had anything under control.