Chapter 34

I always knewGenevieve was powerful, but I had no idea exactly how much until her magic slammed against me and took me back a couple feet. It was maybe half of the blast Sedelis had hit us with, but Grey recovered from it quickly.

Before the minute was over, he was fighting with his own mother.

It took a moment for my magic to expel hers from my body, and when it did, I was moving again, trying to get to her from the other side, when Shadow popped up in front of me, and then Valentine was right there.

"Sunshine, stop!" he demanded.

I didn't.

Maybe I wasn't much of a fighter, but Quinn had taught me a thing or two about punching people in the face, and that's exactly what I did. I slammed my fist onto his jaw and Shadow didn't stop me. Valentine was caught off guard, and blood spilled out of his mouth when his head flew to the side.

"What the hell is the matter with you?!" I hissed, then kicked him in the gut, too, before he thought to push himself back and protect himself from me.

I kept on going, determined to kick him in the balls so I could knock him to the ground and then out with my magic, though I wasn't entirely sure how to even go about it.

But I'd figure it out. Grey was still fighting Genevieve, and I needed to get to Sedelis right now. So, I charged at Valentine again, aiming to fist him in the face once more—but unfortunately for me, he was done underestimating me. Instead he moved to the side at the last second, then grabbed my wrist too fast for me to move back, pulled and spun me until my back was against his chest and his arms were pinning mine in place.

"Stop it, Fall. You can't do anything about it—stop it," he had the audacity to say, and it made me fucking laugh.

I moved just like Quinn had taught me, slamming my head back and my hips, and stomping on his bare toes with the heel of my boot until he let go of me. I moved away, realizing I needed to turn to my magic if I wanted to make this end quickly, but the thought of Valentine's body twisting and turning and bending over the way Tristian's had done made me sick to my stomach.

"This is insane!" I spit as I moved back just to give myself some space to gather courage. Valentine came for me slowly. "You have to see how wrong this is—Valentine, this is fucking nuts!" Out of all the absurdities of the world, this had never even crossed my mind. Not ever, not for a second.

"It's the only way, Fall," Valentine said through gritted teeth, while Genevieve and Grey were still fighting—her throwing magic at him, he trying to get close enough to grab her. And Sedelis was still standing on top of the pool, chanting with her eyes closed.

"We're all going to die!" I reminded him—he couldn't really be that naive, could he?

"Maybe, but it's for the best," he said. "I can't live like this, Sunshine."

Another laugh that sounded like a scream burst out of me. "So, you're going to doom the whole fucking world?" I shook my head, so enraged, so goddamn disappointed both in him and myself for not seeing it sooner. "How is that for the best, Valentine? How?!"

The look in his wide eyes scared me. For a second there, I'd genuinely believed that I could get through to him, that I could get him to see what he so clearly couldn't see because of Genevieve or Sedelis or his own dark mind—it didn't matter.

But that look in his eyes now said that it would be useless. That he'd made his peace with this long ago. That he really, truly wanted this.

"Syra will not kill everyone," he told me. "But the curse will be gone, Sunshine. We'll be free, and whoever survives, it will be for the best. A better life. A much better future."

I shook my head, stunned all over again. "Let me guess—Genevieve and Sedelis told you that?" He was silent. "And you believed them?" He knew the story of Syra better than me. She wasn't going to spare anyone, and she had the power to do whatever the hell she wanted.

Not to mention if that wasn't even the real story, like Sedelis claimed.

"Just come with me," Valentine said, raising his hand toward me. "Please, Sunshine. I don't want to see you get hurt."

At this point it wasn't even funny anymore. And as much as I loved Valentine, and as much as I wanted to believe that there was something good in him after all, we were running out of time. Grey still hadn't managed to get to Genevieve—the old woman was much stronger than I could have possibly imagined—and I needed to stop Sedelis. Now.

My magic was at the ready. I shook my head at Valentine. "Thank you for the book," I said, and it caught him off guard. "I know you wrote it for me. Thank you." It was because of him that I'd even managed to use my magic at all. "And for Quinn. And for stopping Emil that day."

"Don't thank me," Valentine said. "You…you mean a lot to me, Fall."

And in his language, that meant, I love you.

I knew it even if he didn't say it. In his own way, Valentine loved me—not romantically, but like a friend. Like…the little sister I'm never going to have, he once said.

And it wasn't just because he'd drunk the blood I gave to Genevieve and gained power from it. I knew because he showed me a part of himself I didn't think he'd ever showed anyone else. He'd told me his biggest fear—of being a coward.

The Evernights served a purpose on the Seven Isles, just like the brides did. Just like everyone did, and his brothers, all the Evernights before him, had accepted it. Maybe they'd struggled with the truth of their lives, but they'd accepted it eventually.

Valentine never did.

Whether it was because he didn't want to or his mind was poisoned by the snake that was Genevieve since he was six years old—no idea. But he had chosen to fight against the very thing that kept him alive, and I couldn't accept it.

"You mean a lot to me, too, Valentine," I said, pulling at my magic, raising my hands toward him. "And I'm sorry for this."

His eyes widened a split second before he realized that I was really going to attack him. I meant to just knock him out, not kill him.

Please, God, don't kill him, I prayed.

Then my magic unleashed from me violently, throwing my hands back, and though he moved to the side, he couldn't get away. My magic chased him like I didn't even know it could, and it slammed onto him and pulled him down to his knees instantly.

Valentine began to transform right in front of my eyes, looking at me, mouth open as his lower jaw moved to the side as it shouldn't, distorting his face completely, his arms stretching until his fingers touched the ground.

Shadow was snickering and roaring that screeching sound as he flew around his head, but he didn't attack me.

And I couldn't fucking stand to watch the end of it because I had no idea what the end looked like, if my magic would kill Valentine or not. I was a coward because I couldn't—didn't want to see it.

So, I blinked the tears from my eyes just as Grey managed to slam his elbow onto Genevieve's face about ten feet from the pool's side and send her to the ground. Then I ran for Sedelis with all the speed in my body, planning to tackle her and hopefully pull her under the water, just until Grey was able to knock out Genevieve. Just until he was able to do something to stop this madness for good and take these people off this Isle.

And I thought I had it. I thought I was going to do it because failing wasn't an option. Failing meant death and that concept was foreign to me still—this was all so very sudden. This whole thing—the end of the world coming at the hands of people I personally knew?

No way. Just no way.

So, I didn't even consider that I might not make it.

Until my boots stepped into the water, and Sedelis turned to me, her eyes white, completely white, not a pupil or iris anywhere in them. And she waved her hand at me.

Magic grabbed me as if it had invisible hands and pulled me out of the water, then moved me to the side, toward Valentine who was on the ground now, arms and legs and face twisted at awful angles. Bile rose up my throat as I struggled to move, tried to scream my guts out but couldn't. No air in my lungs, and that magic wasn't just holding down my arms, but it was holding my heart still as well.

I looked at Grey who had pushed Genevieve against the wall with one hand around her neck, slowly choking her to death. And he turned his head at the last second and he saw me suspended in air, completely paralyzed.

He moved so fast his body was a blur. He let go of Genevieve and flew toward Sedelis and slammed his fist onto her side. She couldn't move away in time because she was focused on me. She fell against the water, slipping inside, the surface no longer holding her up—and her magic let go of me. I fell to the ground, coughing, trying to draw in air as my heart picked up the beating, my body desperate for oxygen. My legs and arms were completely numb, and I barely managed to sit up and take in my surroundings again, the fear growing in me by the second.

Three things happened at once.

Valentine opened his eyes, and his body was moving again, his limbs and his jaws going back to normal.

Genevieve was on her feet, no longer smiling, face bloody, one hand around her neck as she looked at Grey and raised the other toward him.

And Sedelis, fighting Grey with half her body in the water, raised a large wave from the pool behind her, and slammed it onto him with all her strength.

My ears rang. Grey fell against the wall and the water seemed to be holding him prisoner against it, keeping his wings back and his arms to the sides. He was struggling to free himself, and I knew he would eventually, but Valentine was already rolling on his back with a painful groan, and Genevieve was already on her way to Grey. There was no doubt in my mind that she'd try to kill him—her own son—and I would never make it to her in time.

Would my magic even work if I unleashed it on her from thirty feet away?

Would Valentine, who was already trying to stand up, stop me?

But none of that even mattered anymore because Sedelis had climbed onto the surface of the water once more, and whispers left her lips in a rush as she turned toward the body of Syra again.

Over.

It was as good as over. Grey could kill Genevieve and Valentine with my help, but he'd need time. He finally pulled one arm out of the magic and the water holding him against the wall, but Genevieve was already in front of him, laughing.

No time.

We could never stop them in time. It was simply impossible.

My eyes closed as Valentine kept on groaning, trying to stand up. Not dead.

But he would be soon. We all would.

Unless…

An image took over my mind—of him at the edge of that lake in the dark that night, of Sedelis's face as she spoke to him, mocked him, said all those words that to me meant nothing at all back then…

Well, they meant a great deal to me now.

"Fall," Valentine said, and my eyes opened.

The decision was already made. I didn't allow myself to even think about it again.

"God, help me," I thought I whispered, then drew in a deep breath and screamed, "Tara een onya verdinis!"

Time stood perfectly still for a long moment. My voice echoed against the high ceiling of the mountain.

Everyone stopped what they were doing. Everyone turned to me with their eyes wide and their mouths open because they all knew the meaning of my words. They all knew that counterspell.

Magic rushed down my arms, fully awakened by those words, and I barely raised them toward the Great White.

"No!" Sedelis shouted, suddenly terrified, but it was already too late.

My magic slammed against the face of the sleeping dragon.

A second later, his eyes opened wide.

Pupils slit, his eyes the same color as the ink that painted the scales on his back, the same color as the water Sedelis was in.

I pushed myself to stand, running to the other side to get closer to Grey. Genevieve was no longer even looking at him, but she was backing away, too, same as Valentine, their eyes on the dragon.

Sedelis was shouting, "Tara een yoris verdinis," and it was the spell to put the dragon back to sleep, but it wasn't working. The dragon raised his head and opened those large jaws, and when he roared, the entire Isle shook.

A miracle I didn't lose balance and fall to the ground, but Grey was on his feet, too, and he was coming for me. No magic or water was holding him back, and his mother was too busy calling for Sedelis to attack.

"I had no choice, I had no choice, I had no choice," I kept on chanting when Grey reached me and took my hand in his.

"It's okay, baby," he told me. "Just run!"

I did.

Grey led me toward the entrance of the cave, and once more, I really thought we were going to make it. I really, truly believed that we were going to get out of this mountain in one piece.

But when we were still halfway there, we heard the laughter.

We heard it even through the screeching sounds the dragon was making as it moved and continued to shake the ground. Dust and rocks fell from the walls of the mountain—yet Sedelis was fucking laughing.

Impossible not to turn to see why. Impossible, because she'd been trying to put the dragon back to sleep until seconds ago, and now…

Now, everything had changed.

The dragon opened his jaws wide and roared once more, so loud the sound slipped all the way to my bones. He raised a leg, his talons bigger than my body, and he was about to bring it down on the pool where Sedelis was—yet she was still laughing.

Because someone was sitting on the raised rock near the dragon, and she moved a hand up with such ease you'd think she was simply waving.

Just a wave, but the Great White stopped.

The Great White froze in place like he'd just been turned into stone with his jaws and eyes still open.

Every inch of my skin rose in goose bumps when my eyes found her face. Forget breathing. Forget thinking about anything other than the fact that that woman shouldn't have been awake, sitting up, and she shouldn't have been able to wave her hand at all.

That siren was supposed to be asleep, buried under a hundred spells. Asleep.

Yet there she was, sitting on the rock, covered by her long hair, her face majestic, the stuff of fairytales, her wide blue eyes searching her surroundings as if she was disoriented. Confused. As if she didn't understand what the hell she was doing here.

"Hello, Syra," Sedelis said, and though her voice echoed in my mind, the siren didn't even look her way. Instead, she stared at the frozen dragon over her head, at the pieces of rock falling from the ceiling still, at Genevieve, and then at Valentine…

And us.

Something moved deep inside me, an instinct I had never felt before. Her eyes widened, and though we were far away, I could tell when her lips parted, and I even felt the shivers washing down her bare back.

Syra was awake, and she was the same siren I'd seen in the Storyteller. The all-powerful siren that ruined fucking continents out of rage.

Yes, Syra was awake, and slowly, those lips stretched into a small smile, even before I realized she was looking at Grey, who'd frozen by my side same as the rest of us.

"Hansil," Syra whispered, and it sounded like all her prayers had finally come true.

For a second there,I was confused.

For a second there, I forgot the rest of the story I'd seen in the Storyteller, the rest of the characters in it.

Hansil Knight—the man she'd fallen in love with, the man she'd ruined Ennaris for.

The man who looked almost exactly like Grey.

Ah,fuck.

—THE END