Page 25 of The Evernight Court

“Be careful, Mamayka,” I told her, adopting a brand-new persona out of the blue—and it was easy. The need to show her just how much I hated her was so great that it was easy to want to become someone else entirely just to humiliate her the way she deserved. “You’re right—I do have them eating from the palm of my hand, and if I wish it, they’ll turn on you. If I wish it, you’ll have a very,verydifficult time in your little Hellwhen you go back.”

To say she was shocked was an understatement, but so was I. More than shocked at my own self.

“I gave youthis. I brought you here—is that the thank-you I get?” she then had the audacity to say.

“You don’t get a thank-you for stealing my life from me,” I said through gritted teeth. “You are evil. You are bad. You’re fucking rotten, you know that?”

She was paler than I’d ever seen her before, and I fucking thrived on it. “That’s not true. I take care of my people. I do everything I have to?—”

“That is the lie you tell yourself, no doubt,” I whispered, leaning closer to her face until I saw all the colors of her eyes that had once fascinated me. Now, she just looked ordinary. “But make no mistake—you arenota hero. You do not care for your people—you only care about yourself. Even in your own book you are the villain. You’ve just become good at concealing it from yourself because it benefits you.” I smiled, and this time I meant to. “But I see you, Mama Si. I see right through you now.”

Call me petty, but my shoulders felt a bit lighter already. Those words had been building in me for weeks since she’d first brought me to this place, and now I felt lighter to have gotten them off my chest. She deserved to know just how bad she was. She deserved to know that just because she made herself believe she was a saint didn’t mean it was the truth.

And she knew. She absolutely fucking knew.

“You’ve grown claws,” she then whispered, like her own words surprised her as much as mine had.

“I’ve grown smarter,” I said. “And I don’t have the patience to even look at you anymore.” I looked down at her, the perfect dress and the gloves that were now gone, the magic hanging onto her fingers like she meant to unleash it on me.

She always did it before. Whenever I was stressed in her Paradise or whenever I wanted to run away screaming as myinstincts told me to do, she’d touch me, and suddenly it would all seem easier. Better. Not that big of a deal.

Maybe she meant to try to do the same thing to me again, so I said, “If you’re thinking about touching me with that filthy magic, think again. You won’t like what happens. Your magic tricks don’t fool anyone here anymore.” Least of all me.

Mama Si had somewhat gathered herself, and she looked down at her hands on her lap now. A second later, her red gloves covered her fingers again.

“Good. Now give me your gift so I may be on my way.”

I’d gotten under her skin even if she had already composed herself and wouldn’t let me see it again. I’dwon,but I still wasn’t happy. Lighter, yes, but I still didn’t feel like I’d avenged myself. Like she’d received the justice she deserved. The truth was, she probably never would.

“My, my, Fall Doll. You’ve changed so much in mere weeks,” she insisted. “And I’m glad to see it. The Fall you were would have not survived this place with her character intact—look at the other brides. You’re nothing like them.” Mama Si looked proud, and it made me want to scream my guts out at her.

Instead, I looked her dead in the eye and said, “The gift.”

“I’ll get to that,” she said, pushing her blonde curls behind her shoulder before she threw a quick glance at the Evernights. “You seemed upset with the sirens’ gift, Fall Doll. Don’t tell me you cared about Grey Evernight.”

“I’ll say it one more time—” I started through gritted teeth.

“Oh, stop it. Don’t keep that attitude with me. I don’t care how much you hate me, Fall Doll—I am onyourside here.” And she came closer. “Do not let yourself get attached to any of them. They serve a purpose—to give you power. A lot of power. They’re a source of it for you, just like you are a source of life for them.”

“You must be your own special brand ofdelusionalif you think I could ever trust a single word coming out of your lips.” Really, it baffled me that she would even bother with this.

“Use them. Become the most powerful version of yourself that you can become. Only then will you truly be able to be yourself—do you understand me?”

“And what—becomelike you?” I meant to mock her. To humiliate her, but again, she wasn’t fazed.

“Yes—and you can be so much more than I’ll ever be,” she whispered. “You have the four most powerful men in the world at your feet. Be smart, Fall Doll. Use them because theywilluse you. Use them and thank me later.”

I shook my head at her, smiling at myself because I got it. I understood. And if I were after the same things she was in life, I’d have found her advice useful.

“Has it ever occurred to you that I don’t want to be anything like you?” I asked. She led a life I didn’t want or need, a life I didn’t want to have anything to do with anymore. She was everything I despised.

“Why ever not?” she asked, leaning back on her seat, as if she really were that surprised.

“To steal people’s lives from them with lies and deceit, and sell the whole thing to yourself as a heroic act—you really see nothing wrong with that?” But she did. Of course, she did—I’d said it myself. She’d gotten so good at lying to herself and believing her lies, too. That’s why she kept her mouth shut now. “Like I said—I see you now, Mamayka. You don’t fool me. The gift—now, before I leave.”

She didn’t like it one bit, but finally she waved her hand and something materialized out of thin air in front of her. Something covered in a dark orange cloth, and when she pulled it down, it revealed a beautiful mirror, rectangular, about fifteen inches tall, and with a silver frame made of roses.

“How fitting,” I said because it made perfect sense that she’d give me that. A goddamn mirror.

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