Chapter 32

Thirty-Two

The sirens attacked. Their magic made the air thick and came at us like scorching heat from the sun.

Then Grey spread his wings and unleashed his own magic, too, a shield that stopped that heat abruptly—and the others came out of the woods, too.

I hadn't seen them, hadn't felt them at all save for Mama Si's magic because she'd wanted to let me know that they were here. So much magic was in the air so suddenly that my breath caught in my throat, air refusing to go down for a moment as I watched the disaster unfold right in front of my eyes: Grey and Mama Si, Assa and the three witch sisters standing in front of us by the lake's edge, arms raised and magic unleashed at the four sirens.

Meanwhile the sirens were laughing, as surprised as they were to see the others had joined. Laughing, because even though they were outnumbered, they knew it wouldn't be a bother to kill all of us. Every single one. It would only take time, and that's all we hoped for. That was our plan—to gain a little time so that we could get this magic out of me and then Reeva could hide it until she hopefully learned how to use it.

"Help me up, Sunshine," said Valentine through gritted teeth, holding onto the tree roots around that rock to get himself on his feet. "And just what exactly were you thinking, coming here?! You can't win against them—they're too strong!" he continued when I pulled him up. He put his hands on my shoulders and looked into my eyes, his face transformed already, back to the way it always was. "I'm going to get you out of here— now. "

"No, Valentine, we?—"

"Move, Autumn!"

Reeva's face came before my eyes as she suddenly came out of the tree line, and I could have sworn she was invisible up until that second. Valentine instantly raised his hand toward her, probably on instinct, and my heart jumped.

I grabbed his arm again and brought it down. " Don't! "

Reeva fell on her knees right behind that rock, half hidden from the sirens and the others who were still fighting, rising in the air and slamming against the ground, so much magic leaking from them it should have been impossible to breathe by now.

"What is this?" Valentine said, turning to Reeva, who had put down that box with the green crystal in the front—the storage vessel where Syra's magic would remain until the witches learned how to make it into a weapon or something to get the sirens to stand down.

"Listen to me, Valentine. Reeva can do a spell that will transfer Syra's magic into that box. All we need is you and Shadow to be our transfer link, okay?"

Valentine looked like I'd slapped him in the face. "Sunshine, no," he told me. "That's dangerous. That's impossible—that box can't contain what's inside you."

"It can, Master Valentine. I've made this myself with the best of my magic—and we need to hurry if we want to make it," Reeva said, still on her knees. "Get down here. If we can do this out of their sight, they won't know until it's too late."

"Sunshine, this is?—"

I fell to my knees and pulled him down by the hands. It was easy because he was barely standing already.

"Sit down and do with me and Reeva what you did with Syra, Valentine," I demanded. "We don't have much time!"

The fight was already getting out of hand. The sirens were all standing, while Mama Si was struggling to make it to her feet, one of the witches was knocked out cold, and Grey was bleeding in several places.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Valentine said. "That box?—"

"This is the best we have. We either do this, or they will kill me. They will take this magic out of me one way or the other—do you understand?!" I grabbed his face in my hands. "Just do what I say for once in your life, will you?!"

By some miracle, Valentine didn't argue. He looked positively shocked for a moment, his eyes wide as he looked at me, saw my desperation reflected in my face.

And he said, "Okay. Let's do it."

"The chanting requires ninety-two seconds," said Reeva, pushing the box between us. "I need you to hold hands and keep them together inside the box. This stone will pull out the magic and store it if you can really act as a conductor, Master Valentine."

"Shadow can," Valentine said, never breaking eye contact with me as I grabbed his hand, held it tightly in mine, and rested it in that box. "Sunshine, are you sure about this?"

I shook my head. "I need this magic out of me. I need…I need to protect my baby." Because as long as that magic was in me, the sirens would never stop.

Valentine closed his eyes just as something slammed against the ground near the lake, and my heart tripped all over itself, thinking it was Grey. Instead, it was Fessa, who fell so hard she made a hole in the ground two feet deep.

"This is it. Focus—and do not move out of my reach for any reason," Reeva urged and turned to me. "Remember to let go, young one. Let go ."

With her hands on both our wrists, she squeezed her eyes tightly shut and began to chant.

As she did, I looked at Grey, who was still fighting, bloody and dirty, his wings half spread on his back. He must have heard me calling for him in my mind because he turned to me for just one second, just to see me, and he smiled.

A small smile, but it was a breath of fresh air through all that fucking magic that was trying to suffocate me.

We're going to be okay.

And then it began.

When Syra did this to me on the Eighth Isle, it hadn't hurt. I'd felt the magic, all its intensity, but it hadn't hurt nearly as much as it did now. It was like something was inside me, under my skin, and it was pulling at my gut, at my backbone, trying to take it out of me.

Now I couldn't breathe for real.

My body was frozen in place, eyes wide open as I looked at Valentine and at Shadow sitting on his shoulder, tail wrapped around his neck like always. Shadow was grunting like he was in pain, too, and Valentine looked the same, though he made no sound. His eyes were bloodshot and his fangs extended again, and he looked like he was fucking choking as he held onto my hand.

Reeva kept on chanting.

Let go, she'd told me. Remember to let go.

Did she mean this pull that was threatening to unravel me completely? Did she mean this magic that was coming from my right arm, right from Valentine's skin, and it was trying to break me into a million pieces?

Because I was trying. I was fucking trying to let go, but it felt like I was giving up. It felt like I was letting my whole life fall apart with that magic, and…

Isn't that what I always do? I wondered. Just fall, fall, and fall some more. I'd been falling since I remembered, and now I had to do it for something good , at least. Now I had to fall to be set free.

A scream tore from my throat involuntarily, and it took all my willpower to give up control, to not try to hold back that magic that was picking me apart.

Then Valentine's eyes rolled in his skull and Shadow roared so loud the sound matched my scream. Reeva's voice grew louder and louder as she chanted even faster, and wind rose around us like a damn tornado, playing with my hair, almost knocking us both down.

It hurt.

My God, it hurt so much and my nose was bleeding and I still couldn't breathe.

All I could do was move my eyes—to Mama Si who was still on her feet but barely, and the witch that fought beside her, and Grey who was trying to keep two sirens from coming closer—while Fessa was…

Still on the ground.

Still crawling out of that hole she'd made, and…

Her eyes were on me while she smiled.

Something's wrong.

Loud roars filled the air all of a sudden, and they weren't coming from Shadow at all. Reeva kept going, and my eyes turned to the sky when two large shadows fell over us— dragons.

Two dragons were flying toward us, one green and one red—both ones I recognized. Both I'd seen before—in Mount Agva.

The exiled dragons Storm had been stuck on that mountain with when I went to get him.

My God, he'd brought them here. He'd brought both dragons here, and though I saw Storm nowhere, I knew he was close, too, waiting to grab me.

Meanwhile the two dragons were already spitting fire at the ground, at the edge of the lake. At the sirens.

Something's wrong.

Why was Fessa on the ground still?

Why was Fessa smiling?

Fire everywhere, and for a moment I thought it had gotten Grey and Mama Si and the witches, too. The heat of it fell on my face. I was trying so hard to breathe, pull free from the grip of Reeva's magic, and from Valentine whose eyes were completely white, rolled in his skull as he and Shadow both shook in place—but I couldn't. I couldn't move. I was completely paralyzed as the pain consumed me little by little.

Grey and the others were okay, though. They'd known the fire was coming, so they'd protected themselves—and so had Raxae, but not the other sisters. They were on the ground, naked, but the dragon fire had only burned their dresses. That's it. It had only knocked them out for a moment, and they were coming to already.

But they weren't really in a rush. Not like one would be when large dragons flew in circles over them and came lower again and spit their raw fire once more.

Stop! I wanted to shout at the top of my lungs. Stop-stop-STOP!

But Reeva didn't. The dragons didn't. The others were still fighting Raxae while her sisters took the longest time to make it back to their feet.

While her sisters looked at me and smiled.

Something was most definitely wrong, and it was too late to stop it now. Too late to hold back, to call out. And God, it hurt so much it was breaking me from the inside.

I could very well be dying.

When I began to choke on thin air, my body convulsed like I was having a seizure, worse than Shadow and Valentine were doing. My own eyes rolled in my skull and everything went dark so suddenly, I didn't even feel if I fell or if I stayed on my knees. I didn't know if Reeva had finished chanting, if the dragons were still spitting fire, or if the others were still fighting.

I saw nothing.

My mind shut down completely.

The pain was fading away.

I floated in darkness for what felt like a long time together with it, but eventually, I felt the pain retreating, leaving me in a rush.

As it did, my body became lighter. My lids, too. When I tried to pull them open, I could.

Light.

Sound came back to me at the same time, rendering me deaf for a moment. My ears whistled and my body was able to move again, and I was trying to sit up on instinct, to take in my surroundings.

I did.

Valentine was on his hands and knees, coughing, and Shadow was barely breathing on the ground. Reeva was there, too, kneeling with that box in her hands, pale skin covered in sweat, nose bleeding, eyes hollow like she was a goddamn skeleton.

She was breathing heavily, those dark, lifeless eyes on me. "We need to get to the castle— now. "

The spell had worked.

"Am I…is it…" I touched my stomach, not really able to produce more words, and Reeva nodded.

"The magic is in here. The Ruit and my spell worked, but we need to take it to safety before it's too late."

I hung onto her words with all my being because what she said meant…

It meant that I was free .

The whole world could have been mine in that second. I hadn't even realized how much of a toll all of this madness had taken on me, but suddenly I felt reborn. I was breathing. I was really free .

Sadly, it was very, very short-lived, that freedom.

Because the next moment, the laughter began.

Reeva was on her feet, holding onto the tree roots, and I was still trying to fill my lungs with air when the sirens began to laugh. Valentine held Shadow to his chest because the little dragon was barely keeping his eyes open, completely spent. They looked just as confused as I was for a moment— why the hell are they laughing?!

Then the sirens moved.

It was more painful to see the next minute unravel before my eyes than it had been to go through that spell that had left me shaking. The sirens let out twice as much magic in the air with such ease, and they basically threw the two large dragons flying over us to the sides, right into the woods. The ground shook when they hit it with heart-wrenching roars that lasted but a minute.

The dragons didn't rise in the air again.

Then the sirens turned to the others, too. Grey and Mama Si and Amika. Their magic hit them, taking them all down at the same time.

A scream ripped from my throat and I took off running—but Valentine grabbed me by the arm and stopped me. "Wait," he said. "Don't get closer, wait…"

The Sirens dusted off their naked bodies, smiling ear to ear.

"How nice of you to do all the work yourselves," Andya said. "We are forever grateful!"

"Your free will, human," Raxae said, shaking her head at me. "You could have spared all of your lives if you'd chosen to give it to us as easily as you put it in that box—but no matter."

"We can make great use of it from there, too. End the Seven Isles, start anew with a different continent. Make one with our magic—oh, what an exciting time ahead!" said Andya, slowly making her way to us—to Grey who was struggling to rise on his hands and knees. "We'll make our own creatures, too—just like we made the Evernights."

"It has always been our destiny," Raxae said, eyes closed as she raised her head to the sky, hands to her chest like all her dreams had finally come true.

My God, I was sick to my stomach.

"Give it to me now, human," said Andya, reaching out her hand toward me. "Don't make me kill you quickly—we have plans for you and your little bastard. Give me the box."

Even though I heard the words and saw and understood, a part of me still didn't believe this was actually happening. That we'd been fooled by the sirens—again. That we'd dug our own grave when we came here, when we thought we had a plan. How ridiculous it all seemed to me now, when it no longer even mattered.

Because once they got their hands on that box, it was over—not just for us but for every creature who lived on the Isles.

No.

Fuck that.

We'd been fools, all of us. We thought we knew what we were doing and we stepped right into the wolf's mouth willingly—but I was still breathing, wasn't I? It wasn't all over, not yet. The sirens were not going to touch this box, I decided, regardless of everything. I was going to do everything in my power to keep it away from them, no matter what it took.

It was a moment's decision. Grey was barely on all fours when Raxae kicked him in the face and knocked him down again. His blood spattered all over the ground.

Valentine was right there by my side, looking at me.

I looked at him, too.

We both knew what we had to do.

My body moved on instinct, and I had no clear plan in my mind. I had nothing, just the tiniest bit of hope, but I turned around as fast as my body allowed, grabbed the box from Reeva's hands, and ran.

Meanwhile Valentine put himself in front of Raxae's magic as it came for me, so fast and intense it could melt the fucking skin off my flesh.

But I was running.

Trees everywhere around me, and I was hoping to find Storm, but Storm's roars were coming at me from behind, from the lake. He must have seen Grey struggling to get to his feet and must have engaged in the fight, too, and I was glad for it. The longer they could keep the sirens busy, the farther away I could get. Find the castle. Get to the mirror room. Jump on any of the Isles. Disappear.

I'd sacrificed everything for it. Everything . I would not stop running.

Seconds or minutes passed—my sense of time couldn't be trusted—but the woods remained the same. I had no idea in which direction I was going, but I didn't dare look back, afraid of what I'd see. I didn't dare wonder if I was going in the right direction, afraid I'd slow down or stop.

And then there was magic.

I tripped on it like one does on a piece of wood or something. I tripped over magic because it was solid, thick as concrete, and I fell forward with the box clutched to my chest with all my strength.

The laughter of the siren—Fessa, if I wasn't mistaken—was in my ears, echoing in my head.

No, no, no…

Tears streamed from my eyes, blurring the view in front of me.

"Just where do you think you're going, little birdie?"

Definitely Fessa.

Move! my own mind urged me. I needed to move. The box was still in my hands—and who cared that commonsense said that there was no way out? Who cared that every instinct in me knew that it was useless, that I would do better to just wait for her to come kill me, not bother to move at all?

No, I didn't care about any of that, not right now. I just tried to get up and keep that box against my chest and run-run- run!

I did.

"Oh, how you amuse me," said Fessa as she moved behind me at the same speed without much effort. I turned to look at her as I went deeper into the woods, trying to find a sign that told me which way the Evernight castle was, and all I saw was her silhouette. She disappeared and reappeared closer to me as we went, like she was playing with me, messing with my head.

"There's no way out of here, human. This whole forest is a loop—you couldn't get out if you ran all day," she said.

And her every word rang true.

A frustrated scream left me when my foot caught on magic again, concrete like a fucking stone block, and I fell on my side for the second time. The box slipped from my arms, but it landed next to me, and I barely raised my hand over that lid. Pressed my thumb over that green crystal. Felt all the power that was vibrating inside it.

Power that could kill me if I touched it. Power that was not meant for anyone alive. Anyone at all—let alone these sirens who wanted to play god. Who wanted to start over. Create life from scratch.

My God, they were actually going to do exactly that.

"You know, I kind of liked you when we first met," Fessa said, and she'd stopped somewhere behind me where I couldn't see. I was glad for it because I was still gathering energy to get up and keep running. Just keep going. Don't stop— never stop.

Fessa laughed. "By the waves, why are you still trying ?! You're already as good as dead. Your Evernights are both dead. All your friends will be dead soon if they aren't already—why bother?"

Stabs at my heart.

Your Evernights are both dead.

No. It couldn't be. She was lying through her fucking teeth.

Except a roar came at me from far away, a desperate roar I could have sworn I'd heard before.

That's because I had. It was Storm, and he sounded exactly like he did that morning Grey got banished. Exactly like it.

Another scream left me, this one deliberate. I just needed to get it out—all of that feeling in my gut. I needed to let it all out, and screaming was the only way I knew how to do it, and get up, get up, get up, keep moving! said the voice in my head, but I tried and I couldn't. My body was halfway paralyzed.

I fell against the ground again and saw nothing but the blur my tears offered me. So goddamn thankful for them.

"That's better," said Fessa with a giggle as Storm roared again, that awful, awful sound. "You see, people just don't understand what it's like to be a siren. To be here since the very beginning. To deal with you lot constantly, every day, for years and centuries and millennia. So damn exhausting, and you little brats don't even appreciate it. You don't appreciate anything! "

So close. She was close enough to me now that I felt her energy. I felt her magic clearly against my skin, and it made me want to crawl right out of it.

My eyes squeezed shut and my mind raced, the fear letting go of me little by little. Because finally I was starting to believe it. After all these days and weeks, I was really starting to comprehend what the end meant.

I was giving up for the first time in my life.

"It's only fair that we cleanse this world of you, isn't it? Start over. Start better. Do more," Fessa was saying, and she must have been pacing around me because I felt her energy shifting, and her voice coming from everywhere at once.

"So exhausting to live the way we live. We give and give and give to the lands. We just… give. "

Her words sparked a memory in me—a memory of Syra that she had showed me back on the Eighth Isle. Of herself and Hansil on that beach. Of the joy she'd felt to be bearing a child, a baby girl.

It broke my heart to remember it even now as Fessa went on and on about what they deserved. It broke my heart to remember her pain, when her sisters had killed her baby, had eaten Hansil in front of her. How she'd felt when they were gone, when she put that piece of his heart in her mouth and swallowed it.

And then the rest of it—all that I'd seen in the Storyteller in Faeries' Aerie. Her rage, her pain, the way she'd acquired so much power—the same power that was now in this box that was radiating raw magic. This fucking box that was going to be our doom.

I remembered how Syra had put her magic into the ground, had ordered Ennaris to fall. Had ordered the entire continent to break apart and catch fire—and it had.

Fessa kept on talking.

My hand shook so badly as I reached for that green crystal on the lid, trying to pull it up.

It mattered little what the hell happened now, right? I was already as good as dead, and Grey and Valentine and everyone else were gone. It mattered little if I killed myself with that magic—better than to let these sirens get their hands on me.

Didn't they say that they had plans for me and my baby?

They did—so I would rather just get this over with myself. There was no way I was going to make it to the mirror room, anyway. Might as well just end it right now.

I remained on my side and waited a heartbeat until I heard Fessa stepping closer to my feet. I blinked the black dots away from my vision just enough to see what was in front of me—the box. Those engraved symbols. The emerald that reflected the sunlight slipping in through the branches so beautifully.

"…and you understand, right? I mean, what my sisters and me did with that curse was insane! A hundred and one layers of magic—such a waste of fucking time! It's only five centuries, yes, but?—"

I opened the box.

Blinding blue light took my vision away once more.

Fessa stopped speaking.

"What…what are you doing?"

I smiled at myself— does it fucking look like I know what I'm doing?!

" No!" Fessa shouted at the top of her voice, just as I slipped my hand inside the box, onto that ball of light as big as my fist buzzing with energy—the magic that had been in my womb.

No idea what the hell I expected, but my breath caught in my throat and I was sure that I was never going to breathe again. My heart stopped beating, too. Completely. My body shut down, but my mind was as active as ever, thoughts running all over it, my vision fading away little by little, all those beautiful colors turning to black.

The last thing I saw was Fessa's terrified face in front of my eyes as she grabbed the box and pulled it away.

Too late.

The magic was in me now. Again—except this time, it did hurt. This time, it didn't settle.

This time, it was eating me alive.

The scream that tore from my throat could have shook the entire Isle. In my mind, it was the same scream as Syra's, just before she ruined Ennaris. The same scream and the same pain— my God. The exact same fate for me at the hands of the sirens.

They, too, had killed Grey, and if they hadn't already, they were going to kill me and my baby. They, too, had taken everything from me. My whole life, when I had barely even had it.

They were monsters, all four of them left, and now I was just as hurt and as outraged as Syra had been. Funny, because I'd felt all that she'd felt in the Storyteller. I'd felt it, and it had terrified me, had stayed with me for so long, as if my body knew that there'd come a day when I'd feel the same thing for myself, too.

Now, here I was.

I saw nothing, wasn't strong enough to stand on my own feet while that magic consumed me, invaded my every cell, transformed me. Not nearly as strong as Syra to speak or to do anything at all accept think. Wish. Hope, even now.

The palm of my hand was flat against the ground. I heard nothing but my own thoughts, and they were completely focused on releasing that magic into the soil. Just like Syra had done—she'd released all of hers into Ennaris, but she'd ordered it to fall then.

Now, the best I could do was pray that it would heal. With that magic that belonged to it, I prayed that Ennaris would heal.

Then I passed out.

Fire.

Fire everywhere.

Something was burning—no.

Everything was burning.

My eyes opened wide, and I looked around me, at the trees on fire, the branches moving as if they were trying to put those flames out. As if they were trying to get away, to survive.

Fessa was no longer there, and the grass on the ground all around me was burning, too. I managed to push myself up just a little, just to see the smokeless flames dancing on everything. Consuming everything.

No sky and no people and no nothing—just fire.

What have I done ?!

My God, I'd ruined it. I'd ruined everything all over again.

My arms gave up on me and I fell to the ground, hitting my face hard in the process.

I passed out again, but this time, I welcomed the darkness with arms wide open.