Page 196 of Mama Si's Paradise

I couldn’t fucking breathe.

“What?” said Emil. “Are you fucking nuts?”

But Valentine raised his head. “I challenge you, Grey Evernight, to a fair duel at the next dawn,” he solemnly said. “Do you accept?”

Both my hands were in front of my mouth because I didn’t want to scream now. I couldn’t speak, couldn’t articulate words, and all I’d do was scream if I allowed myself to let out a sound, and I didn’t want to.

I wouldn’tneedto because Grey wasn’t going to accept. He knew Valentine was the youngest, and they fought with their dragons. He knew Shadow couldn’t even compare to Storm.

Heknewthis, but…

“Gladly,” Grey said with a nod. “I accept your challenge, Valentine Evernight. We fight at dawn.”

I hardly saw anything at that point.

I thought I called Grey’s name, but I couldn’t be too sure. All I remember was Romin turning to me, saying,“take her away,”and then there were hands on my arms, pulling me up the stairs. Whispers and cries and curses in my ear, and I walked and walked and walked, but I couldn’t really see where I was going. Where I was being taken.

A door opened and I was shoved inside—“Stay there!”a woman said. Could have been Rachel.

The door closed with a loud bang. My legs gave up on me and I slid down the wall, arms wrapped around my head.

I stayed there, cursing my fate, for a very long time.

Forty-Two

I couldn’t breathe.A hand squeezed around my neck, invisible to the eyes but I felt it just the same. I felt it squeezing the air out of me little by little, and it wasn’t going to stop until I did something to silence the voices in my head.

My fault, my fault, my fault.It was all my fault that Grey almost killed Tristian. That Valentine challenged Grey to a duel come dawn.

My fucking fault, and I couldn’t live with it.

Gone were the memories of sunshine on my face, of Faeries’ Aerie, of freedom. Gone was the need to find my way back to the human world, far away from the Seven Isles.

Now, I just wanted this nightmare to end. I just wanted the Evernight brothers to stop turning on one another. They were brothers, for fuck’s sake, not enemies.

And I was going to make this right.

When I walked out of the room, my legs were numb, for which I was thankful. I didn’t want to know how badly they’d shake when I came face to face with Valentine. I’d find him, wherever he was. I’d find him and I’d talk to him, make him back thehell off.

Was he out of his fucking mind to challenge Grey?

Greyof all brothers, when he himself told me how dangerous he was!

I had no clue how duels really worked. All the brides had mentioned was that the Evernights fought with their dragons, but Grey had killed his father in a duel, hadn’t he? And that meant death was an option.

No, Valentine wouldn’t go through with it. It was still not even eight p.m., and I had the whole night to convince him to withdraw the challenge.

So, I searched for him in every room of the fifth tower, sure I’d find him somewhere. Sure he’d be waiting for me or that Shadow would show up and lead me to him.

But I reached the ground floor again and Valentine was nowhere to be seen.

Only Cynthia and Paris were passing by, possibly on the way to the lounge room where they drank tea or wine or whatever they pleased with the other brides.

At first, I was relieved to see their faces. I could use a smile, a kind word, some fucking encouragement right now—but no. I stopped, and they did, too. I smiled, and they fuckingflinchedat the sight of me. They flinched and moved away like I’d assaulted them.

If I still had enough energy left to be shocked, I would have been. As it was, I just watched them walk away from me,hurryinglike they were afraid I might follow them or try to stop them, and disappeared from my sight.

I don’t care,I told myself. They could flinch and frown and do whatever the hell they wanted—I could not care less about anything other than Valentine withdrawing that challenge.

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