Page 34 of The Evernight Court

It was very subtle, and if I didn’t know what this place was, I’d have convinced myself that it was only my imagination playing tricks on me. I’d have called itheat, but it wasn’t. It was warmer, yes, but not simply that—it was energy.

It was magic—and it was coming from ahead of me in waves.

Enchanted were close. Nothingemittedit the way they did—it hung to their skin like a scent, and the more of them in one place, the more powerful the tug. That’s how I knew I’d find a big group of them even before I began to hear the sound and see the light.

So much light.

Fire danced atop torches placed on the ground every few feet. Chatter and footsteps and laughter and music came at me long before I saw enough between the trees to recognize structures—houses and buildings made out of brick and mortar, of wood, of stone. I hardly felt myself moving those last dozen steps, completely mesmerized to find that the Whispering Woods was, in fact, a place where people led their lives away from the castle and the Evernight Court. Away from the vampires who ruled the Isles.

And it was amazing to be part of it.

Atown, just like Zane said. It was a townin the middle of a dead woods, and it was thriving. Music came from everywhere, people playing instruments at the corners of the widecobblestone street. Buildings, some as high as four stories, full of light. Full of life.

And Enchanted of all kinds, faeries and skinwalkers and witches and many others were around me, and not a single one of them even turned to look my way.

It was different from the Bazaar in Faeries’ Aerie. So much less color and the crowd was much smaller, and the buildings were farther apart, and you couldbreathehere. You could hear individual voices and laughter and different melodies coming from different parts, both from the buildings and the people playing instruments.

Once again, it was as if I’d stepped into a different world altogether, and I couldn’t believe that I was still in the Whispering Woods, that the castle was right there, barely a thirty minutes’ run from the edge of this town.

Pulling Grey’s jacket closer around myself, I went ahead and into the crowd, walked down the cobbles, searching with my eyes, trying to memorize everything that surrounded me. Flower shops and restaurants, tailors and glassware shops, fortune-telling stands and food trucks—all of it made complete by the people who came and went from all sides, so at ease. At home.

Fuck, this place really was their home. They all chose to leave their Isles behind and come here to the Woods. They all chose to live in darkness forever, and I was beginning to see why. The air wasn’tdeadhere like it had always seemed to me in the castle. The trees to the sides had more color, and there were flowers, colorful flowers on the ground, and pure green weeds growing among the cobbles—and so much light! Not just with the fire from the torches, but with electricity, too. Like in Roven.Exactlyas bright as in Roven.

I followed the crowd ahead, mesmerized by every new thing I saw. The people who looked my way didn’t pay me much attention, for which I was glad. I could have walked thewide streets all night long, analyzed every detail, but after a sharp turn right, I had no choice but to stop.

The music that filled my ears was coming from pianos, and it wasn’t even a question anymore—I was going to check it out wherever it was coming from. I couldn’t keep walking if I tried.

A look around and I found the source of the heavenly melody—the simple wooden exterior of a two-story house, with the words,Enter for the music, stay for the ale,on the left window. I went closer, my heart pounding in my chest in rhythm with the cheerful song, but the glass of the windows only let me see the light inside and some shadows moving about, nothing else.

Without even thinking about it, I grabbed the round handle of the big wooden door and I pulled it open.

It was warm inside—that’s the first thing I noticed. Nobody in here was wearing jackets. Those shadows I’d seen from the window hadn’t been exaggerated—everybody seemed to be moving. Even the people who were seated were dancing, raising their glasses and cheering at the couple playing the pianos on the stage on the other side of the room.

It was the strangest setting I’d ever seen. One piano was green, the other a deep purple, and the players were in the middle of the stage, standing back-to-back. The woman played the green one, the man the purple, and they were both on their feet, dancing and tapping their heeled shoes to the wood of the stage in perfect rhythm. The pianos were taller, too. The boards reached all the way up to their waists, and the players were having the time of their lives if the huge smiles on their flushed faces were anything to go by.

Wow.It was incredible to watch, to hear that sound like I’d never heard it before—a different version of a piano, something new, something like a cross between two things that I couldn’t quite name.

It wasperfect.

Before I knew it, I was moving deeper into the room. All the tables, about twenty of them in front of the stage, were taken, and more people were hanging out at the edges of the room, and even the bar to the far left was almost full, but there were a couple of stools free. A neon pink sign hung from the ceiling over it—Mina’s.

I went for the stool in the corner, feeling like a stranger in this place, but also more at ease the more I focused on that beautiful sound. The more I focused on those incredible performers who were fuckingkillingit on stage, and you could tell by the way the audience responded.

It was like a spell had been cast upon me. I sat on the stool at the very edge of the bar, my eyes glued to them as they jumped and danced and played so perfectly in tune with one another, that when the song ended with a bang, every person in the room was basically screaming and applauding—myself included.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you, you beautiful bunch!” the performers said in unison. The man put his arm around the woman’s waist, kissed her cheek deeply as she smiled, then turned and gave him a peck on the lips.

The people cheered harder.

“Oh, you’re far too kind,” the woman said, her big blue eyes glistening. She wasn’t a faerie that I could tell, but she could have been anything else. No witch hat on her head, and she wore a baby blue dress that hugged her waist and flared around her hips all the way down below her knees. Her partner was the same. Dark brown hair, a black vest and black pants. They looked just like I did, and that made me feel even more at ease.

“That sure was fun. But now, it’s time for something for the soul,” the man said. With another kiss on her cheek, he let go of the woman and went somewhere behind the stage, tocome back with two benches in his hands. He put them in front of the pianos, and before the minute was over, they were both sitting down and playing, the melody just as fascinating as the first, but this one slow. This one like a wave that picked you up and carried you to the middle of the ocean where you could float in rhythm with it for the rest of eternity.

I couldn’t get enough of the sound—or the sight of the two of them pouring their hearts out on those keys.

“What’ll it be for the lady?”

I turned, surprised somebody even knew I was here when everyone in this place had their eyes on the stage.

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