Chapter 31

Thirty-One

I held onto Grey's neck with all my strength, and I barely blinked as I looked ahead at the massive island in front of us, so much bigger than it had seemed when it was completely wrapped up in a dark cloud of magic. The Whispering Woods was alive, the trees green and the beaches white, thriving , and you could feel it in the air around it. You could feel the magic radiating from the land itself.

Shadow roared that awful sound from the makeshift bag I'd made with some sheets to keep him comfortable, to keep him around me at all times because Grey insisted that he carry me all the way there. Storm flew behind us, a few dozen feet higher and in perfect silence, while Mama Si, Assa, Reeva and her witch sisters were in their boats below us, sailing so fast it was a miracle they hadn't tipped over yet.

"I feel them," Grey whispered when we were still far away from the nearest beach. "They're here, all right."

"How?" I asked.

"The land. It's chockfull of magic. Can you see it?"

"Yes," I said because I could. "I thought that was just the Woods."

"It's the sirens. Ennaris is so well connected to them that now that the curse is gone, the land thrives the most where they are. You remember Syra and the Eighth Isle, don't you?"

"I do." The way she'd raised it from the ocean with a wave of her hands. The way she'd made every tree green and had healed every mutated beast within minutes.

"What if…" I stopped to swallow hard. The wind blowing on my face wasn't doing me any favors when I could hardly breathe as it was because of the thoughts in my head. "What if that's how it happens, Grey? What if we actually kill them today and that's how the end comes to be?"

If the land was so tightly connected to those women, it would most definitely not survive their death.

"We won't," Grey said. "We won't kill them. Mamayka was right—we can't if we try. Stop worrying, my queen. I'll be with you every step of the way."

"I know that. It bothers me so much." It was one thing to put myself in danger, but Grey? The people that I loved?

That was a whole different monster.

"Nobody will hurt you again, baby. Do you understand? I could do nothing against Syra, but I can keep them off us for hours if need be."

"Hopefully it won't come to that. Hopefully the first part of that spell works, and as soon as we have Valentine, Reeva can do it." She'd take this magic out of me and store it in a box—a very simple box made of wood and gold, no wider than a few inches, with symbols engraved everywhere on it, inside and out. They said that it could hold magic, any kind of magic inside it. The green crystal that was on the lid in place of a lock would be enough to keep anyone else from opening it again.

They said it would work, the witches, and maybe it was my paranoia because the first spell hadn't, but Reeva didn't seem so sure. I saw it in her eyes—she was terrified. She looked defeated, just like she had that day when I first went to visit her in Witches' Wing.

Either way, I took it. We were all going to the Whispering Woods to confront the sirens for the last time—and we either died in battle today, or we survived and the Seven Isles became free at last.

We landed on the beach not two minutes later, and Storm disappeared into the woods somewhere. Easy to do because of the large pine trees, and he knew this place by memory, Grey said. He knew how to keep under the radar until we needed him.

That, and… "There's something he needs to do first, but he will be back in time for when we need him."

I was going to ask what that something was, but Grey then brought his finger to his lips to tell me to keep quiet, and I did. Shadow was wrapped up in sheets around my shoulder, and Mama Si, Reeva and the others were almost there, too—we could see them approaching fast.

Grey took my hand in his and moved forward, between the trees. We all knew the plan. We weren't going to that lake together. It was important that the sirens thought we were alone, at least in the beginning.

We were close to it, barely a mile out, and Grey had decided to land us here because we wanted to confront the sirens in daylight. The dark would work in their favor in the woods. Their senses were even more enhanced than Grey's.

Ten feet into the trees, Shadow moved and moved relentlessly in the sheets until I had no choice but to pull him out, and he finally jumped on the ground.

"What are you doing— stay !" I whispered, but he didn't. Stretching his wings wide, he beat them and they took him up, all the way to the lowest branch of the tree to his side. From there he continued to hop from one branch to the other until he was able to fly again.

I shook my head—he was a stubborn little dragon, I'd give him that.

And he was giving me that snickering sound again, the one that wanted my attention. He wanted us to follow him.

So, we did.

Hand in hand, we followed Shadow as he flew a little and jumped over branches, and Grey looked calm enough that I knew we were going in the right direction. The woods looked so alive, so different in daylight and with healed trees. I'd forgotten just what a forest should look like in those nights I'd been out here, training with Quinn. Now, with the sun shining over us, even though the trees were dense and it was dark beneath the canopy, it felt like I was in a different world altogether.

Then I felt it—the energy coming at me in waves, so intense it was impossible to miss if I tried. Grey and I stopped at the same time, and even Shadow was no longer jumping on branches.

Grey and I looked at each other, and I heard his voice in my head clearly. They're here.

The sirens were here, possibly less than fifty feet away from us. It was time.

Grabbing his face in my hands, I kissed his lips, and my heart broke thinking it might be the last time I did. Grey had much more faith in this whole thing than me, but he kissed me back with the same urgency.

Whatever happened today, I would always have the memory of this, at least. Nothing and nobody could take it away.

Then I raised on my tiptoes and guided his lips to my neck so he could bite me, take my blood and gather strength, gather more magic than ever before. God knew we were going to need every ounce we could get.

His fangs slipped into my skin and I closed my eyes, letting go because I knew he'd hold me to his chest. It was over fast because he didn't take much from me. In fact, I thought he took very little, but when he let go and stepped back, his lips were stained still before he licked them, and his cheeks were flushed, his eyes wide and so light they looked completely white.

He looked… full.

"The more I feed from you, the more impactful your blood," he whispered to me. "My body's getting used to it. It stores it better. Uses up less." All of this seemed to be as surprising to him as it was to me.

"Good," I said, giving him one last peck on the lips. "Let's go."

Even if Shadow hadn't showed us the way, and even if we hadn't been here ever before, we would have found the lake in the woods just because of the heavy magic that tugged at our senses, showing us exactly where the sirens were.

We were on the other side of the lake by the looks of it, not the woods near the castle walls, and I realized it only when I caught a glimpse of the water's surface glistening with the sunlight. Grey and I stopped again, and by the looks of it, nobody was in the small clearing surrounding the lake, yet the magic was still there. The sirens weren't hiding—and that made me so damn uncomfortable. I knew the plan, and I knew that we were supposed to get caught by them as we went closer, but fuck, it was so hard to go against my instincts like that. So hard to push through, take one step after the other, purposely slamming my feet against the ground a bit harder so that they heard me. So hard not to let the fear make me run or at least try to hide better.

Grey squeezed my hand as if he could hear the thoughts in my head, smell the fear on my skin. He squeezed my hand to tell me that he was there, that he wasn't going anywhere, and it still took me forever to force myself to take another step, and another…

Eyes on Shadow, the voice in my head said. Just keep your eyes on Shadow…

"Oh, there they are. The happy couple has finally made it!"

Every inch of my skin rose in goose bumps at the sound of the siren's voice—and I couldn't even tell you who spoke. It was high-pitched and scratched my ears as much as it soothed the fear that was crushing my shoulders.

And then we saw her.

Fessa simply appeared in front of us, barely ten feet away between the trees, wearing a see-through white dress that fell to the ground around her feet, her wet hair falling to her hips, her blue eyes sparkling with mischief.

"Welcome home, lovers. We've been expecting you."

The siren turned to the side and waved for us to continue, toward the clearing and the lake—toward the other two sisters who were now standing at the edge of it with smiles on their faces and their hands folded in front of them. They, too, wore their hair wet and their dresses see-through—the same joy and mischief in their expression.

Grey gave me a look, and for a second, I thought I saw regret flashing in his eyes. He didn't want to be here any more than I did, and he hated that he had to bring me himself—but we also knew that we had no choice. Running was not an option, not from sirens. This was the only way.

His wings exploded on his back and he grabbed me by the arms to pull me up in the air, when…

" Ah-ah-ah! " said someone behind us—Andya with her hands raised, and we hadn't even noticed her there. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. There's no place to go now, Grey. Please, join us by the lake. We have quite the day planned out." And she laughed.

Her sisters joined her.

It wasn't hard for Grey to pretend to be heartbroken and panicked and enraged—he really was all those things, not because he couldn't take me away but because he'd brought me here. So far everything had gone according to plan, and even though I was scared shitless, I continued to pray with every ounce of will in me that the rest of this day continued to go exactly as planned, too.

"It's okay," Grey whispered, just like the sirens would expect him to. "It's fine. We're okay. Come on, let's go." And with my hand in his, he continued to walk toward the lake.

"‘Atta boy," Andya said from behind us, and Shadow was already flying over the water when we came out in the open.

"You've made us wait so long," Oreinne said, shaking her head.

"But they're here now. No harm done," said Fessa with a wave of her hand. "Everything is going to be juuuuust fine." Her smile could have come straight out of a horror movie.

Something moved to our left, something behind a large tree that had wrapped its roots around a dark, almost black piece of rock. I saw his legs first, his body hidden away by these roots, and the blood in my veins turned to stone.

Another few steps and there he was, lying on the muddy ground, three feet away from the lake's edge, face bloody and bruised, clothes torn, body zigzagged with a thousand tears everywhere.

My mouth opened as if to scream, but I couldn't let out any voice. Valentine's eyes were closed, and he wasn't moving an inch while Shadow sat near him on the ground and nudged him with his tail.

"Don't tell us you missed him," one of the sirens said, and they laughed again. "Oh, what a wonderful, wonderful day…"

I ran.

Drink, drink, drink!

My hand shook as I pressed my bleeding wrist to Valentine's lips. Shadow had sliced it open with his tail and I hadn't even felt it, and now my blood was coming out and it was slipping inside Valentine's lips.

Because he was alive—he had to be. Even though he was bruised and battered and bleeding, he was a vampire. He was still alive.

What felt like hours later to me, his eyelids started to open—just slightly but it was movement. And then his tongue came out and licked some of the blood off his lips and off my wrist. His fangs extended, too— alive .

But…

"That's enough, human. Come, stand up. Come here, let us look at you."

A hand on my back. I thought it was a siren at first, and all that magic that was twisting my insides wanted to come out of me at the same time, attack whoever was around me.

But it was only Grey, and he grabbed me by the arm and pulled me up while Valentine was still trying to blink his eyes. He was licking the remaining blood off his lips slowly.

"Valentine, get up," I urged him, and when he heard my voice, his eyes opened wider.

But Grey pulled me to the side, farther behind that rock, closer to the tree line.

"He will be okay," Grey told me. "Keep your eyes ahead."

And I did. I looked at the sirens, all four of them standing there by the green lake that bent the light of the sun so beautifully. The sirens, too—what a sight to see with those smiles on their face and that spark in their eyes.

"I don't think we had the chance to congratulate you properly on your pregnancy. Oh, we were so happy to hear it," said Raxae, and you could tell just by the sound of her voice that she wasn't. "So crazy that our sister Syra stored all of her magic in your womb, though— so crazy! "

And they laughed.

I risked a look at Valentine. Shadow purred as he nudged him on the cheek with his head, until he finally managed to push himself to sit up. I could be mistaken, but the wounds on him were closing, and all those purple and blue bruises that had been all over his face were fading away.

Grey grabbed my hand in his and I looked at the sisters again.

"We don't want it," he said, and I knew it was a way to distract them until Mama Si and Reeva came. "We don't want the magic Syra put in Fall. If you give us the chance, we will get rid of it. She will be no more."

The sisters looked at one another, smiling like fucking snakes.

"I see," Andya finally said, more composed than the rest. "You are asking us to trust you, then. Trust that you would even know what to do with that kind of power. Trust that you would be able to make it disappear, as it should."

"We can, and we will," Grey insisted, and when Valentine almost fell down on his face again, I moved. I couldn't even help myself.

Letting go of Grey's hand, I went to Valentine, pushed him up until he rested against that rock while Shadow settled on his shoulder right away.

"You…you c?—"

"Stop it," I said, pushing his overgrown hair from his face. "Save your energy. Let my blood heal you."

It was already doing it—his eyes weren't swollen anymore, and that bruise on the left side of his jaw was completely healed. The tears on his arms and torso were nothing but red marks.

"You came back for me," Valentine said. "You came back for me again, Sunshine." And the asshole was trying to smile.

"Shut up!" I urged him. "Just shut up and save your energy. You need to heal, Valentine. Don't speak."

He was smiling still when he closed his eyes and rested his head on the rock because he knew I was right. The faster he healed, the sooner we could get this over with, and he seemed okay already. So, I turned to the sirens again, not letting go of Valentine, and watched while they spoke to Grey.

"…no idea what to do with it. It's more power than you could have ever imagined," Raxae was saying.

"We have means to contain it," Grey insisted, slowly coming closer to us.

"Don't be ridiculous—it cannot be contained !" Raxae insisted, like the word had offended her.

"You have to understand, Grey, that we have to make sure that magic is gone. To do that, we have to kill Fall—there's no other way," said Andya, making my stomach twist a million ways.

Valentine's hand wrapped around my ankle, but I didn't even look down at him—only Grey.

Grey, who had his hands in fists and was clenching his jaws so hard his teeth could break, but when he spoke, his voice was perfectly calm.

"No. That's not an option." The way he mastered his emotions was to be envied.

"Then we have no choice but—" Andya started, but Raxae cut her off.

"Actually, there is another way," she said, waving her finger at us as she paced around her sisters, eyes on the ground. "If Fall was to surrender that power to us, we would be able to destroy it so that Syra may never rise again." She stopped. Smiled. "It could all go very smoothly if we come to an agreement." Her eyes met mine. "If you willingly give that magic to us, we can make it painless. You and your baby don't have to die."

Ice-cold chills ran down my back. I felt it—the feeling and the magic that was coming at me, foreign magic that I knew, but I was so focused on the sirens that it took me a second to recognize it was coming from Mama Si.

That calming magic of hers wrapped about me like a cloak. She was telling me that she was there. They all were, and if the sirens knew it, they weren't reacting.

I forced myself to smile even though on the inside I was screaming. And I told Raxae, " Never. "

"Are you sure? You would rather die and kill your unborn baby?" Andya said, stepping in front of her sister.

"Every single time." I would rather die than give these creatures more power to fuck things over the way they had for the past five hundred years.

"Very well," Andya said, turning to the others. "We tried the nice way. Now…"

Grey stepped to my side, right in front of Valentine's feet. I wanted to reach out for him as tears pricked the back of my eyes, but I couldn't. Because Grey would be fighting the sirens now. He and the others would keep them distracted, while Reeva, Valentine, and I did what we had to do to end this thing once and for all.

Fuck, it was so hard to breathe.

This is what we came for, I tried to tell myself. This is the right thing to do!

Except it felt very, very wrong.

"Now, we try the hard way."

The voice of the siren echoed in my head. They all raised their hands at us at the same time, smiling still.

And in the next ten minutes, everything changed.