Chapter 29

I pulled the cardigan closer,not because it was cold—it wasn't—but because the sight of the ruins around me made me want to put anything I could between me and this place.

So dark. So…dead.

"He's out there," I whispered without really meaning to, and Grey put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me to his side.

"Yes, there's a chance he is. Probably wounded, too," he said. The thought of Valentine bleeding under a bunch of rocks made my stomach twist uncomfortably.

"I wanna go check." All those rocks had fallen on him, but it hadn't been too long ago. I hadn't slept nearly as much as I thought after he drank my blood, as Grey informed me—barely a few hours. Which meant there was a good chance that we'd still find Valentine right where we left him.

"We will," Grey said. "And then we can leave. Storm has been resting. He's well fed. He can take us back within the hour."

That sounded so damn good.

I wrapped my arms around his waist and sighed. "I can't believe this place exists."

"The sirens choose not to tell anyone about it, and it's for the best. Not only are these animals deadly, but Syra's body is inside this mountain." And he pointed at the ground.

We were on the side of the huge pile of rocks—what he called a mountain—at the mouth of a cave Grey had found to keep himself safe and away from these mutated animals. They were so hungry, so bloodthirsty, they'd go after anyone in their path, and I'd witnessed it firsthand when Storm dropped me in this place.

Chills ran down my back at the reminder of those eyes and those teeth. "Was that cave where I found you the entrance to it?" I asked Grey.

"One of two. The rocks blocked the main one, so I took us out through the other that's right below us." Again, he pointed at the ground, at the steep rocks underneath the narrow space we stood on in front of his cave. You couldn't possibly climb without falling. The only way up or down safely was by flying.

"You were so wounded," I whispered, touching his naked chest underneath the jacket he wore. "You were covered in blood, Grey. I remember you in that cave. You…you were about to collapse."

I'd been so fucking terrified of losing him again, but now he looked fine. Only hours later, he was wide awake and moving and talking—perfectly fine.

Grey kissed the top of my head. "I was about to die, actually. The magic of the curse stopped taking from me, but I had no more blood left in my body. You saved me."

I squeezed my eyes shut as a voice in my head whispered, what if I hadn't gotten here in time?

But I had. I was right here, and so was Grey. "I'd give you every drop in my veins any day of the week," I said, kissing his chest, so damn thankful that Storm had brought us here when he did.

He chuckled. "I know, baby. I almost took too much. You're so goddamn delicious, you have no idea. All of you—inside and out." And he pulled my head up to kiss me.

I surrendered to him instantly—how could I not when he tasted like that?

But something else occurred to me a moment later, something Valentine said.

"I heard you two talking earlier," I said in a whisper because it still shocked me that I'd just gotten here. That I hadn't seen Grey in weeks. That I'd thought he was dead, and I'd been trying to actually accept it and move on.

How ridiculous that idea was to me now.

"I heard what Valentine said about the blood. My blood." About it being the reason why Grey was still alive.

"It makes sense, actually," Grey said, not worried in the least. "Remember back at the castle when I said that your blood tastes different?"

I nodded. "Yes." I'd woken up to him at his desk going through books, trying to figure it out.

"I think that's why. I've spent twenty-one days here on the Eighth Isle, when I should have been dead by the tenth. Or I should have been weak enough that the beasts would have torn me apart. Instead, I fought and killed them until today." He kissed the top of my head. "Valentine was right."

But that couldn't be, could it? "He said it was because you love me."

Which was silly. And made butterflies erupt in my stomach. And completely absurd.

"It is," Grey simply said.

I looked up at him, not sure if he was messing with me. "Right," I muttered, and forced myself to roll my eyes, but my cheeks were still flushed.

Grey gave me that lopsided smile because he could see through me just fine.

"Yes, right, baby. I love you," he said—again, so simply—and my heart tripped all over itself. "I've loved you since the day I laid eyes on you. It just took me a little while to understand it." Then he kissed my forehead.

My eyes closed and I felt like…nothing and everything at the same time. So light and so heavy.

Such a strange feeling.

"There's no such thing as love at first sight," I whispered eventually because this was the real world, and things like that only happened in fairytales.

Grey laughed a bit. "I went my whole life believing that there's no such thing as love—but even I get it wrong sometimes." Stepping to the side, he came in front of me and took my face in his hands until I met his eyes.

Grey looked…happy. Even considering where we were and what we'd been through until just hours ago, his eyes sparkled and his face was so open. I absolutely adored that look on him.

"Standing on top of ruins on a cursed Isle wasn't how I imagined saying this," he said with a mischievous grin. "But no matter where we are in the world, I'll love you with my everything. I am forever at your service and your mercy, my queen."

I thought for sure he was just messing around, but I heard the truth in his words, saw the look in his eyes.

And I was so, so sure I'd find it funny and laugh, but I didn't.

Tears pricked the back of my eyes instead, and though I wasn't going to let them spill, I felt the weight of them on my chest.

"What if I don't believe you?" I said and not because I didn't.

I did believe him, and that was the problem. After Brandon and Mama Si and everything that had happened to me since, part of me wanted to question everything, even Grey. Part of me insisted I should never trust that someone could love me as selflessly as I believed love should be.

"That's okay. I plan to spend every day of my life proving it to you," Grey said without missing a beat, kissing the top of my head.

I laughed a bit, blinking back the tears. "And if it doesn't work and you get tired of it?"

"Never." There was no hint of doubt in his voice at all. "I will never get tired, even if I live a thousand years."

I shook my head, squeezing him to me tighter. "You're full of pretty words, Grey Evernight." And unfortunately for me, I liked them very—very much.

Unfortunately for me, I believed them.

He chuckled. "They're straight from my dead heart, baby."

Laughter bubbled out of me. "How can you love with no heart then?"

He raised my head. "I love you with my soul. Look at me—can you see it?" Our eyes locked, and I could. I absolutely could see it. He'd looked at me like that at the castle, too. Long before this madness began.

"Yes, I see it." As clear as the daylight I no longer even missed.

"I see it, too," Grey said, slowly kissing my lips.

"My eyes are closed," I teased, squeezing them shut.

I was smiling, but there was still that part of me that refused to give up. Even though a voice in my head whispered that I loved Grey, too, I couldn't accept it yet, even if I knew it to be true. The fear of everything it meant wouldn't let me.

"That's okay. You went to find a mad dragon on a frozen mountain to come rescue me, baby. I saw it there." And he kissed me again, this time deeply, slowly, with his everything.

I'd do it again, all of that and more, I thought as I kissed him back the same way.

"Absolutely right," he muttered against my lips, when he'd taken all the air out of my lungs and I could hardly keep myself from jumping him. It wasn't even fair that he could get to me so easily with just a kiss. "Valentine was right. Your blood gives me more life than I ever thought possible."

I was still a bit dizzy from that kiss. "It does?"

"Look at me," Grey said, stepping back just a little. "I was on the brink of death when you found me. And I took more than I would normally need from you, but it healed me within hours. Every wound on my body closed completely by the time I brought you to this cave. That doesn't happen, not even to vampires. Not with normal blood." And he seemed excited about it.

"My magic loved me being with you, too," I said, and my cheeks heated up a bit instantly. "I feel it. It's like heat in my stomach—I can tell it apart from the rest of me easily now."

"Is it strong?" Grey said.

"Very. It's very…" I paused for a moment. "Unusual, I think. I mean, I don't know much, and I didn't really speak to anybody at the castle about this. All your books are Faeish and you didn't get the chance to teach me how to read Faeish, but I have a lot of it, and I think my magic is not like…you know, normal." Quinn wouldn't know about it because she wasn't a bride, and there was nobody else I'd risk asking about it.

Grey thought about it for a second. "Brides grow their magic only by being with an Evernight at first." His voice was a bit strained, though he was trying hard to hide it.

I squinted my eyes at him. "Yes, I know that." I'd been told that over and over again by everybody.

Grey's smile had vanished completely. "I know what we said in there," and he nodded at the cave. "I know you said…" His voice trailed off for a second and he shook his head. "It's okay if you've been with my brothers, Fall, but I need to know about it."

Oh, hell.

Nervous Grey, tormented Grey—for the wrong reasons—could be my favorite Grey yet. So damn funny.

It was impossible not to laugh, even though I tried.

"No, Grey. I haven't been with your brothers," I solemnly said, but my shoulders were shaking.

He looked so perplexed it was a miracle I could hold myself back.

"Then how do you have a lot of magic? How do you know if it's unusual?" he said.

Fuck. There went my own smile, down the drain within a second.

"About that…" I lowered my head as the memory came over me.

"What?" Grey said, pulling my head up again. "What happened, baby? Talk to me."

"I, uh…" I tried for another smile. "I kind of made a deal with your mother." And it sounded even worse to say it out loud.

"What kind of a deal?" said Grey, and he had yet to give me a reaction.

"Blood," I whispered. "I gave her my blood in exchange for a power boost."

His eyes closed and his jaws locked for a moment. "You shouldn't have, baby."

"I know that," I said, suddenly panicked because it really did sound bad when I said it out loud. "I know that very well, but I had no choice. Emil came for me and he almost bit me, and there was literally nothing I could do against him. Not a single damn thing!"

Only when I said those words did I realize what they meant, but it was too late. Grey already looked more murderous than I'd ever seen him before.

"I survived," I added in a breath. "I'm here, aren't I?"

"What did he do to you?" he asked, and his voice was completely transformed. His eyes were bloodshot, so dark it was like they'd never been grey before, and I could see the tips of his fangs slipping down his upper lip.

"Nothing. He did nothing, just scratched me on the shoulder, that's all. Valentine stopped him," I whispered, taking his face in my hands. "I'm fine, Grey! I was fine then, too, but I needed a way to protect myself, and I wasn't about to get in any of their beds, so my options were incredibly limited. I did what I had to do."

"I'm going to kill him," he said through gritted teeth, and he was trying so hard to contain himself that I saw all the veins in his neck.

"Grey, look at me. It worked. There's no need to be pissed about it now—it worked!"

He sighed deeply. "Are you sure?"

"Oh, yes, I'm sure. I swear it, it worked better than I'd hoped. I can shrink things and make them big and make fire and make things float—and I can fuck anything up pretty well, too," I said in a rush.

Grey raised his brows. "Fuck anything up? What do you mean?"

"Exactly that. When Tristian came for me, I used my magic on him." I knew this was going to piss him off even more, but I would rather just get it over with because I wasn't about to keep something like that to myself. He needed to know exactly what they'd done in his absence because I was no longer the naive fool who believed that them being brothers meant anything at all.

Wings suddenly exploded from under Grey's skin, spreading to the sides. His fangs extended all the way, too, and I sighed.

"Grey, please." He didn't have to be so damn stubborn when he could see very well that I was okay.

"I'm going to fucking?—"

"Stop! You're not going to kill anyone, okay?" I cut him off. "Especially since I might have already killed Tristian."

The image of him deformed like that was right in front of my eyes, and it made me sick to my stomach.

But at least Grey got curious enough to want to know more. "You did?"

I nodded. "I kind of…kind of twisted his body completely in the wrong way," I whispered. "I don't know how to explain it, but while he was dragging me to his tower, I just let my magic go and it made his arms twist to his back and he doubled over, and then the doors and the walls and the floor were doing strange things, too. Falling to pieces. Just rearranging themselves—the handle was on the damn wall."

To say it out loud felt so different, though. I realized how fucking insane it sounded. Unreal.

Was it possible that I'd imagined the whole thing? Did I really kill Tristian Evernight?

Because every person on the Isles was going to want my head if I did.

Shit.

"Did it happen again?" Grey asked.

"No, I…" My voice trailed off as the memory caught up with me. "Yes, actually. Here. When Storm first threw me in the woods, some of those beasts, smaller ones, came for me. Not sure if it did the same thing to them as well because I didn't wait to see, but I think it did. It felt the same way, that magic."

Grey thought about it for a moment. "Good," he then said. "That's good. We'll explore it more when we get home."

I sighed. "Or not. I only wanted the magic to protect myself from the Evernights." But if Grey was there with me, I never had to use it again. I never had to make someone's body twist like that.

"And I'm glad you did it, baby," Grey whispered. "I'm so fucking thankful for you." He kissed the breath out of me for a moment, until I felt exactly how thankful he was. When he let go, I was dizzy again. "But I need to know how much of your blood you gave to Genevieve. And why did she ask for blood?"

"Just a little. About ten drops or so. It barely filled her tiny bottle." I shook my head at myself. "She didn't tell me why, though, but it was pretty strange. Why would a bride need blood?"

"She didn't need blood—she needed your blood," Grey said through gritted teeth.

I looked up at him. "But why?"

"For Valentine."

My brows narrowed. "What do you mean?"

"Of course," he whispered, shaking his head at himself. "She figured out that if we feed on the blood of someone we love…" His voice trailed off. "Valentine drank something from a small bottle when he came here."

Every inch of my skin rose in goose bumps. "What kind of a small bottle?"

"Green, with a silver lid." My heart fell all the way to my heels. "Your blood, wasn't it." And that wasn't even a question. I only nodded. "She wanted your blood for Valentine."

"Except Valentine doesn't love me. Trust me, he doesn't want me like that." H cared about me; I knew he did. But he'd admitted it himself when we shared that kiss in the mirror room—it most definitely wasn't it.

"There are many kinds of love," Grey said, touching my cheek with the backs of his fingers. "So I'm told, anyway. I think Valentine does love you in his own, fucked up way."

I shook my head. "But he tried to kill me. Before, he…he tried to kill me." By taking me to Faeries' Aerie. By telling me that I could be free.

"Like I said—fucked up way," Grey said. "It would explain why he had the power to break the last layer of the curse so that he was no longer bound to the Whispering Woods. This place sucked most of my magic out within the hour when I first got here. I tried with every ounce left to break the barrier, and I couldn't, but Valentine…" He smiled and he wasn't amused. "He did it right away as soon as he drank from that little bottle."

Bile rose up my throat. "My God, Grey…" What the hell had I done?

"It's her. She's behind all of it. My brothers could never really see her true face," Grey said, shaking his head. "Genevieve is behind this."

"She's planning something," I whispered. "Mama Si warned me about her, Grey. She sent me a letter and she warned me about her." That alone had been enough to freak me out.

Grey closed his eyes and made a visible effort to calm himself down. It worked—his fangs retreated into his jaw right away. "We'll figure it out," he said, kissing my forehead. "All of it. Let's just get home first."

"Let's find Valentine," I said, now terrified to even look that man in the eyes.

What the hell, Valentine?! What are you trying to do here?

"We will. If he hasn't left already," Grey said, his wings spreading out again.

"You think he has?"

"He's not tied to this place anymore. To any of the Isles. That was the reason why he wanted to be banished."

"What if he's still down there, though?" What if he was still trapped under those rocks?

The thought sent a million mixed signals all over me. On the one side, I'd cared a great deal about Valentine not too long ago, and he had saved my life. He'd looked after me before he got banished, too, even if I didn't know it. Quinn had helped me in a lot of ways, despite my not allowing myself to trust her completely. Her company had gotten me through.

"We'll find out," Grey said. Then he leaned down suddenly, put his arm under my legs and lifted me up as if I weighed but a feather.

A small scream escaped me out of surprise. I wrapped my arms around his neck on instinct, and he smiled like that was exactly what he'd hoped I'd do. I loved that he still treated something as simple as a hug he knew he could get from me any time he wanted like it was a precious thing.

"Are you about to take me flying?" I asked, and I realized I'd missed flying with him as if I'd done it every single day for years, not only two times—literally.

"I am. Do you trust me?" he whispered, kissing my lips gently, pulling me up higher.

"More than I trust myself." And that was the whole truth of it.

Grey jumped in the air the next second, beating his strong wings and taking us higher without even looking where he was going. Our eyes were locked for a moment, and despite everything, I was smiling. The wind blew my hair back and we could have been anywhere in the world, any Isle or country, and it wouldn't have made a difference.

Storm roared somewhere close by, coming to join us in the flight, and when Grey turned to our surroundings, I couldn't look away from him for a second. Such a sight to see, even in the darkness, especially when the wind played with his hair, too, and moved it in all directions. I could lie there in his arms and look at him for hours, but we began to descend much too soon.

Before I knew it, Grey landed on the rocks, the same rocks where I'd almost died last time, and he put me down, too.

Silence.

The air smelled different down here—rot and fire and something else I couldn't quite put my finger on, and it was unusually quiet. The trees surrounding us looked on the brink of collapsing, and maybe it was my imagination, but in the darkness between them, I could have sworn red eyes were watching us. Storm flew in circles over us, though, his one eye focused on those trees like a hawk.

"He's not here."

Grey's words echoed in my head, and I turned to find him looking to the right, beyond that large rectangular rock that was now broken in half—and the pieces on the other side in front of the cave's entrance.

The same entrance that had been shut down by those rocks that had nearly pulled us under the same way they had Valentine.

"I thought this was closed," I said, as we went closer.

"It was. I couldn't move the rocks at all from the inside when I woke up. I had to take you out through the other side," Grey said, squatting down, analyzing the empty space and the broken rocks—broken, like someone had hammered at them, and now the biggest one was the size of my fist. I pushed them aside as I went, and I saw the spot where Valentine had fallen. I saw it, and it was empty. Not a sign of him or his clothing anywhere that we could see.

"Did those monsters—" My voice shook when I started to ask, but Grey cut me off.

"No," he said, and the relief was instant. "There's no blood anywhere. The beasts would have left signs."

He was absolutely right.

I turned toward the dark entrance of that mountain. "Maybe he went in?" It made sense, if the cave was already open.

Grey went to it while he held up a finger to me to tell me to give him a second. He closed his eyes and stood as still as the rocks around him, then said, "I don't hear anybody in there."

I raised my head to look at the mountain made of rocks. Everything on it looked the same. Everything behind me looked the same, too—just dead trees and darkness and red eyes, but those monsters weren't approaching us right now. Probably because Storm was flying so close to the tips of those trees and there was no way they could get to us without him killing them first.

"They'll need time to regroup before they make another attack like that again," Grey said, stepping behind me, as if he could read the thoughts in my head.

"They're terrifying," I whispered, and when he put his hands on my shoulders, I fell back on his chest.

"They're harmless now," Grey said.

"Why do they look like that?"

"The magic of the curse. It's concentrated here the most, and it mutated them. Turned them rabid. To be honest, I have no clue how they survived." Shivers washed down my arms and Grey chased the goose bumps away with his hands. "Baby, I could take them when I was on the verge of dying, even without Storm. Stop worrying." He sounded as sure as always.

"I want to see," I said reluctantly, turning to him. "In there—I want to see."

"Are you sure?"

No, I wasn't sure. But to be here, to come to an Isle nobody even knew existed, to be so close to the actual siren who doomed this entire continent seemed like such a waste. And I could handle my fear, but I couldn't handle the regret I'd surely feel if I left here without seeing.

"Yes, I'm sure," I told Grey. "I have to."

I expected him to try to change my mind, but he nodded instead. "If you promise to be really quiet."

Quiet? I narrowed my brows. "Why?"

"You'll see."

With my hand in his, he took us through that dark hole between the rocks, and Storm remained out there with the monsters.