Page 33 of The Evernight Court

The door opened, though with difficulty. Animals growled and screeched and barked and meowed behind me, almost as if to tell me not to leave. I walked out anyway, silently promising them that I’d be back.

Trees in front of me—black ones. Dead ones, but they didn’t scare me anymore. I’d memorized the blueprint of the tower, and it only showed the way to the surrounding wall of the castle. But once I found the wall, I’d find the door Zane had told me about, the one the help used. If not tonight, then tomorrow.

So, I started toward the trees, focused on the trunks tomake sure no giant snakes were coming for me from anywhere. The night was quiet. Only a distant sound of leaves whispering reached my ears, but the brothers weren’t there so far. If they saw me leaving, would they stop me?

Of course, they would. Getting me all alone in the woods outside the tower, where they could do whatever they wanted to me?

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I whispered to myself, picking up the pace until I started to actually run through the trees as fast as I could without making too much noise. I should have grabbed a knife from that small kitchen. I should have searched for a damn gun in Grey’s office or something. I should have had the means to protect myself out here in case they came for me.

But it must have been my lucky night because I reached the wall much sooner than I thought.

And I found the door that the help used not five minutes after, following the wall to the west. The problem was the two guards standing in front of it with swords strapped to their hips that they reached for as soon as they saw me.

I stopped in my tracks, and they froze, too. I had no idea what they were, but they were no fairies or dragon riders, just very big men with wide shoulders and narrowed brows, looking at one another, then at me again, perfectly confused.

I would imagine they hadn’t seen brides so close to the wall often. From what they told me before they hated my guts, the brides liked to organize trips to the towns near the castle, and they went there with horses and carriages, probably through the main gates.

But the thing was, theycould.After the Blood Call, all brides could get out of the castle because they couldn’t leave the Whispering Woods if they tried. The curse tied us to this place now, too, just like it did the Evernights, so I wasn’t trapped in here anymore. I had the right to walk out if I wished.

“Good evening, gentlemen,” I said, before I changed my mind and turned back.

The guards finally let go of their swords and bowed to me deeply without making a single sound.

I felt better already. “I want to go outside for a walk,” I said next. “Please get the door for me.”

Queens.The other brides always claimed that here, in the Evernight Court, they lived like queens, and queens demanded that doors be opened for them, right?

A second ticked by.

Part of me expected them to start laughing, draw out those swords and call for Romin or one of the other brothers. Mentally I was already preparing to run as fast as I could back to where I came from, into the third tower where they couldn’t reach me.

Except the most wonderful thing happened—the guards bowed their heads once more without a single word, and they stepped to the side. The one on the left had a key attached to his armor somewhere, and he unlocked the big wooden door that was twice as tall as me, then pulled it open with ease.

“Thank you,” I choked out, not really believing my luck as I walked ahead, barely feeling my legs.

The guards kept their heads down as I went through the door.

Before the minute was over, I was out of the castle all by myself.

Eight

Trees,trees and more trees.

I had no clue where I was going, just walking ahead, incredulous still that I’d actually made it out of the castle walls without being chased by anyone. The guards had let me out, just like that.

I wasout. In the open. In the dark woods.

Where a cougar like the one caged in the greenhouse could jump in front of me any second, and I had no hopes of even trying to run from it.

“Out,” I whispered to the trees. Regardless of everything, I was out.

So, I stopped to catch my breath for a moment, to touch the dark barks, the tips of the leaves on the thin branches hanging over my head. I stopped and I breathed, and I allowed myself to let go of the fear, knowing it wasn’t going to matter. I might not get another chance to be out here again, all by myself, free to go wherever I pleased. I might have to lock myself in the tower as soon as I made it back for all I knew.

That’s why I focused on my memories, the image of the map of the Whispering Woods on Romin’s tabletop, and theone Grey had drawn on the back of that book. The greenhouse was to the south of the third tower, and the third tower was to the east of the castle, which meant I needed to keep going west to reach the nearest town, on the opposite side of the only lake I’d seen on any map of the Whispering Woods.

I was afraid—terrified—but I was also excited as I went deeper and deeper, past trees, the melody of the leaves whispering louder with the stronger wind keeping me company.

And then I began to feel the tug, too.

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