Page 31 of The Evernight Court

Some of it was in English and some Faeish, but most was related to animals. He’d drawn shapes of them, just the silhouettes of four-legged beasts, and some with two legs, some with horns and big ears and long tails and wings. A big drawing of an owl took my attention as it was so much more detailed than the others, and the description below was in English:soundless flight due to unique edges of their feathers. Impeccable flying technique. Tapedum lucidum behind the retina; extremely sensitive to light.

For a moment there as I read those words, I saw life with Grey. I saw it in detail, how he’d sit on this chair and I’d sit on his lap, and we’d go over the journal together, and he could tell me about the edges of owl feathers and what their eyes were made of, and what all those drawings on the walls and in his sketchbook meant. We’d talk for hours, and I could explore the inside of his mind the way I’d yearned to do since I first met him. I wanted to know everything about everything he cared about, and I wanted him to know all that went on in my head in detail so we could pick it all apart together.

My God, I wanted that life so much it took my breath away. The Whispering Woods wouldn’t be a prison then. It would be just another place to be in with Grey.

But here I was, all alone and broken, still falling since I remembered myself.

Tears slid down my cheeks, but I pretended not to notice them as I went over the rest of the animals he’d taken notes on in that notebook.

Until I came across the second part of it, and read:

Day 1

She’s here.

I knewit was about me like Grey was right there and was whispering it in my ear.

He’d written about me long before we spoke for the first time.

Day3

I watched her sleeping through the window. She might be an angel.

*She was scared when she saw me. I wish she wasn’t.

*She plays the piano.

Day4

The cortis kineris I let loose around the castle attacked her this morning. The hatchling killed it even though he knew she was safe under my shield. He did it on purpose to earn her loyalty. I have yet to understand his plot.

Day6

She laughed three times today.

Day12

I don’t know how to stopthinking about her.

Day14

She talked to me tonight. The melodies she plays on the piano pale in comparison to her voice.

I wonder if she sings.

*She’s verybad at telling jokes. I’ve never laughed more. She’s perfect.

Day15

She wears blue again.

It might be because of me and that makes me feel…strange. I can’t put my finger on it. Something I’ve never felt before, so there’s a very good chance I am sick with a virus from the cougar I captured last night, one strong enough to make me hallucinate. I’ll research this tonight.

“Oh, my God,”I whispered to myself now, hands in front of my mouth.

All of this. All of these words…

He’d been there when that giant snake wrapped around the tree had attacked me—hewas the one to have let it loose around the castle! And he’d been protecting me from it, too.

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