Chapter 33

She madeeye contact with me for a split second, and I saw exactly what people saw when looking at a siren when she was wrapped up in her magic, or before Syra broke Ennaris—flawless skin and beautiful eyes, cherry-stained lips and gorgeous, shiny, thick hair framing the beautiful heart-shaped face.

But thankfully, Sedelis didn't give me attention for too long, and when she turned to Grey, I saw right through her magic, saw her true face, her blue eyes, her dead skin.

This, I told myself. This was who she really was, and I would remember it the next time she was looking at me.

Then she burst out laughing.

Grey grabbed me by the hand and pulled me back, toward the wall of the cave, away from Valentine and the pool and the siren in it.

"My, my, Grey! Who would have thought you'd still be here?! I'm genuinely impressed," Sedelis said. "I thought you were dead!" More laughter, and it cut right through me like a goddamn blade.

"Grey, what is happening?" I whispered, holding onto his hand with both of mine as he continued to walk backward. He turned to look at me, and I already knew the answer to my question, but I just needed him to say it for me, spell it out for me—because how could I trust my own mind?

"They're trying to awaken Syra," Grey whispered with barely any voice, but I heard him anyway. I read the words on his lips, too.

Awaken Syra. Exactly what I'd thought, except… "But we know." We all knew what happened if Syra woke up, didn't we? Everybody in the Isles knew that if she did, it would be the end. She would destroy Ennaris just like she'd planned to do in the beginning—and she could! She was the most powerful being in the universe, and she could wipe out the entire world if she wanted. She would destroy everything.

"We do," Grey said, in his eyes the same surprise, the same sorry I was afraid I'd find. We both turned to Valentine, still not quite believing our own thoughts.

My God, he'd meant it. He'd meant everything he told us.

He really wanted to bring the end of Ennaris.

"Valentine, no," I whispered because he was sorry, too. I knew him, I knew that face and his dark eyes, and I could read him well enough to understand.

"I'm sorry, Sunshine," he said. "But it's the only way. The right thing to do."

Was he fucking serious? "Killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people is the right thing to do?!"

Another laughter from Sedelis. "What do you care, youngling? You hate our kind, do you not?"

"You will not awaken Syra," Grey said, hands fisted and wings spread, the one on his right behind me curving up around my body just slightly. His voice was almost robotic.

"Oh, Grey. I always liked you," Sedelis said, and with her hands on the edge of the pool, she pushed herself out of the water.

I saw her fishtail clearly, the way her skin merged into the grey scales, the muscles underneath, the fins that started on her back and moved down to the tip of the tail before spreading into a grey fin—and I also saw it when it began to change.

The process lasted maybe three seconds, and by the time she sat down on the rocks near the pool, her fishtail was gone, in its place now long legs that were able to carry her easily. She rose to her feet completely naked, her dark hair like snakes sticking to her skin, covering her breasts, reaching all the way to her hips, but the rest of her was bare. She smiled at Grey, her face straight out of a fucking nightmare.

"Stop this, whatever you think you're doing. Stop it now, before it's too late," Grey tried again, though he knew it was a lost cause. I knew it, too.

Because she was here.

Sedelis was here, and if it had been just Valentine, I really believed I could have gotten through to him eventually. But, of course, it wasn't just Valentine. Something so big—of course, he was not alone in it. That he was able to unravel the spell—that he even knew the counter spell to do it—said that he had help. He had a lot of help, and it wasn't only from Sedelis.

The sound of laughter came from the left, right by the dark entrance of the cave. My heart stopped beating altogether, and I held my breath, dug my fingernails into Grey's hand as we both watched and waited…

"Always the straight arrow, my Grey."

A second later, Genevieve stepped into the cave, and she was smiling with the same ease as always.

Impossible, my mind insisted. My eyes had to be liars because no way was Genevieve really here. No way was she coming closer with that fucking smile on her face.

But then Grey whispered, "Mother."

He saw her, too.

The bad feeling in my gut that had started ever since we didn't find Valentine under those rocks reached its peak. My gut was churning, and my heart was hammering. I couldn't stop looking at Valentine every few seconds. He kept his eyes on me, too, the sorry in them like a knife straight to my heart.

It couldn't be. Valentine might have been dark and mysterious and have little regard for other people at the castle, but he wasn't this man. He would never do this. He would never plan to kill people—he just wouldn't.

Except…he'd been okay with killing me once, hadn't he?

"Since the day you were born, I hoped and prayed that you would be the one to bring us to this point today, my son. Pity, for you had the power. You had everything you needed, if you'd just trusted your mother," Genevieve said, going to stand with Valentine and Sedelis, arms around herself, that loving smile on her pale face. As if she really thought that anyone here would believe it.

"You're worse than any Evernight ever born," Grey said though gritted teeth. "You're a goddamn snake."

But Genevieve smiled wider. "You've always seen the world in black and white, my Grey—which is funny, don't you think?" she said with a sigh. "I am what I need to be—and I'm still proud of you for surviving this place. It shows how strong you can really be when you want to. And, of course, with Fall's blood in your veins…" Her ice-cold eyes turned to me, raising every inch of my flesh in goose bumps.

God, how could she be so cruel? How could she look her son in the eyes and say things like that?

Sedelis's laughter echoed against the high ceiling of the mountain—she really seemed to be in a great mood.

"Ah, young love," she whispered, bringing her hands to her chest. "I honestly didn't think a vampire had the capacity, but I'm glad you do." She put her hand over Valentine's naked shoulder, but he jerked it off, looking at her like he was disgusted.

I wanted to call out to him with all my strength, beg him to stop this—beg him to stop them.

Except a voice in my head said that it would be useless to try. Because it was already too late.

"I won't let you go through with this," Grey said, and his voice had calmed down somewhat. His fists weren't as tight. He'd managed to get himself under control, and I wished I could do the same. I wished I could stop shaking, so that this magic inside me didn't burn me alive. It was so intense, so fucking powerful that it was making it hard to breathe.

"How sweet," Sedelis said, batting her lashes at Grey. "And I admire the courage, but I'm afraid there really isn't anything you can do about it at this point. It's already done. The spell that keeps my sister under has been broken. The layers of it are burning down as we speak." She turned to Valentine again. "You did a good job, little pup. None of this would have been possible without you."

Valentine clenched his jaws hard but said nothing, and he wouldn't look at me anymore, either. He just stared ahead, the muscles of his torso clenched.

"She'll kill you, too," I said, and my voice came out strong when I expected but a whisper. "You realize that? If you wake her up, she'll kill you first." Sedelis had to know this. Syra only did what she did to Ennaris because her sisters betrayed her by eating the man she loved. Did Sedelis really think that when Syra woke up, she wasn't going to finish what she started by going for her sisters first?

Sedelis shrugged, like the thought didn't scare her at all. "And she'll be right to do it, don't you think? After what me and my sisters did…" She suddenly grinned like the devil. I saw right through her magic and to the horror of her face. "And you don't even know the realstory!"

The real story? What the hell was the real story?!

"Alas, it's a fate I've accepted. I've tried for centuries to get my sisters to see that it's better that we perish, but they're still blind. They still cling to survival," Sedelis continued, moving closer to the pool, looking up at the Great White, still sleeping, at the rock upon which lay Syra. "Ennaris was meant to fall then. We should have never stood in her way."

I shook my head because something felt off here.

Sedelis wanted to die? She wanted to see the end of Ennaris—and her sisters didn't even know she was here?

I squeezed Grey's hand and whispered, "We have to find them." We had to find the other sisters because they could surely put a stop to Sedelis. They would know how.

And Grey said, "We will." Except we'd have to get out of this mountain and off the Eighth Isle first—but how could we do that when the three of them were still here?

"Make a choice, my son," Genevieve said. "We will be going through with this one way or the other."

"Why?" I said before I could help myself. "Why would you want to die? You have power! You have everything, you?—"

"Don't tell me what I do or do not have," Genevieve said, a smile on her face but her voice ice-cold suddenly. "You of all people should know, when you were brought to the Whispering Woods without your consent. Tricked—just like I was." My mouth opened and closed, but I found nothing to say, and she continued. "They took my freedom from me. They took my life from me and they expected me to sit and smile and take it because it's the way of their world." She gave a quick look at Sedelis, who smiled lovingly at Genevieve like they were fucking friends.

"But I wasn't as strong as you were in the beginning, I'll admit. After the Blood Call, the very night of that party they claimed to throw in my honor, I was going to end my life. I'd decided it," Genevieve whispered, moving closer to Sedelis, taking her hand between hers. "But Sedelis convinced me to work with her instead. She promised me freedom."

Sedelis raised her other hand to Genevieve's cheek. "And you are about to have it, darling."

Goose bumps washed down my arms. "It's not freedom—it's death. It's the same thing as if you'd have killed yourself," I spit—-how did she not see?

"Of course not. I'll want to avenge my stolen life before I go," Genevieve said. "But it's useless to talk about it now, I guess. The spell is almost finished, and when the last of its layer is undone, Syra shall rise again."

"Valentine," I whispered because he had to see what was going on here, how Genevieve had manipulated him. He had to see that killing innocent people wasn't going to fucking set him free. "Please stop this, Valentine. This isn't right."

He raised his head and met my eyes, but not a single emotion was in his. He'd put on his mask already, and now he didn't even look sorry anymore. He just looked…bored.

"Valentine is a very smart young man. I'm basically his mother. He's spent more time with me than Grey since he was six years old. He knows exactly what goes on around here," Genevieve said, touching Valentine's cheek with the back of her fingers. Valentine tried to hide his flinch, but he didn't move away from her touch like he had from Sedelis.

"You're nothing but a manipulative, bitter woman—you are not his mother," I spit, and I prayed to God that Valentine didn't believe her.

But he said nothing.

"I will notlet you go through with this, Sedelis," Grey said again. He was right—Genevieve didn't matter right now. It was Sedelis who had all the power.

The siren was still smiling, and on her distorted grey face, it looked so fucking vile. "Try and stop me then."

"Grey," Valentine said, but I already knew that Grey had made up his mind to attack. I felt it in the way he squeezed my hand, then let go, and his wing that had been half wrapped around me to protect me spread all the way.

He was going to attack—and so would I.

It wasn't even a question. I had magic for a reason, and I was going to fucking use it before it was too late, before they really went through with their plan and it was over for good.

So, I let of go Grey as he charged forward, wings spread and hands out, and I ran with him without giving myself a second to think. The magic inside me raged. I had no purpose for it other than to stop Sedelis. Whatever happened, she could not awaken Syra. If I died stopping her, so be it.

Except Sedelis laughed, and her laughter echoed in my head even before Grey beat his wings and I saw her face when they folded. I saw her hands aimed at us and felt the magic that left her grayish skin like it was my own.

Raw power slammed against Grey and me, picking us up and throwing us back a few feet, right against the rocks of the cave floor. We rolled and rolled until we reached the wall. The pain barely registered and the foreign magic wreaking havoc inside my body squeezed my lungs hard until I choked.

But my magic was there, too. It came straight from the pit of my stomach and it rose against that energy that was making it impossible to breathe, until it expelled it out of me violently.

By then, Grey was over me, pulling me up by the waist, and my feet touched the ground.

"You're okay," he whispered. "You're okay, you're okay…"

"Grey, we have to stop them," I said, because yes, I was okay, but I wouldn't be for long, and neither would he. If Syra woke up, it was game over for all of us. We were all going to die.

The images of the story I'd seen in the Storyteller were right there in front of my mind's eye, the way Syra broke an entire continent and set it on fire as well. Such power shouldn't exist in the world. It just shouldn't.

"We will," Grey said, pushing my hair away from my face as we turned to the side so we could see the others—Genevieve and Sedelis talking, while Valentine stayed behind them and looked at us with Shadow on his shoulder. "And I'm not going to even tell you to stand back, but look at me, baby." I did. "Stay alive."

My heart fell all the way to my heels. The look in his wide grey terrified eyes confirmed that this was all, indeed, real. This was actually happening, even though I had yet to wrap my head around it. It was happening, and there was a chance that I was never going to see Grey again. That I would die right here in this cave.

I grabbed his face in my hands and kissed him.

So many things I wanted to say. So many fucking things I'd planned to say to him in the coming days and months and years. For once in my life, I'd been looking forward to the future with all my heart, knowing he'd be there with me, and now here I was, about to be ripped to shreds all over again.

There was no time to tell Grey all that was on my mind right now, but I could say one thing I'd been holding back on, one that mattered the most.

"I love you," I whispered against his lips, and I hoped he knew it came from the bottom of my heart.

Grey kissed me again. "And I love you, een aeva. I'll see you when this is over."

The confidence in his voice gave me all the motivation I needed. "Deal."

We both turned to the others again, to find that Sedelis was already facing the pool, and she was getting inside it.

Except…when her bare feet touched the surface of the water, she didn't go under, didn't sink as she should have. She continued like that, walking on water right before our eyes, until she reached the very middle, spread her arms, and began to whisper.

Magic erupted from her on all sides, and the wave of it hit us all equally, but this one wasn't meant to attack. It didn't throw us back, didn't knock us against the ground, just pushed our hair back as if to show us what it was made of. How powerful it was.

Grey spread his wings to the sides just as Genevieve stepped in front of the pool, turned toward us, waiting for us to attack. Protecting Sedelis.

"Ready?" Grey whispered, and as strange as it sounded, I was.

"Ready."

We ran.