Page 144 of The Evernight Court

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.Notdead.

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 becausethey 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. “Justrun!”

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 thedragon 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.

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