Page 50 of The Evernight Court

Bile rose up my throat—I wasthatdisgusted. “Don’t even joke about it,” I muttered, putting the book on the ground near a tree trunk until we were done training. “And thank you for this. I’ll pay you.”

Quinn was still laughing. “Yeah, yeah, I know. You’reGrey’s wife,” she said, imitating my voice. “And one day I’ll get you drunk enough to tell me why you refuse to get over a dead guy, but tonight’s not that night. Let’s get started.”

My eyes closed. I forced myself to inhale deeply and stop the train wreck of thoughts in my head, and those words that hadinvadedmy mind—dead guy, dead guy, dead guy…

“Fall.”

I blinked and my focus fell on Quinn. It took every ounce of will in my body not to scream at her, not to let this heat that had built up in my chest out of me. Right now, I had no clueif it was just rage or if it was actual magic, but I held onto it and I forced myself to swallow hard.

It wasn’t her fault. She didn’t know Grey. She didn’t know me.

And most importantly, she didn’t knowGrey and metogether.

“Don’t say that again,” I said as calmly as I could, and Quinn must have realized her mistake because she flinched.

“I didn’t mean anything by it,” she said. And I knew that. I knew she didn’t.

But that didn’t mean I hated her any less in those moments. “Let’s start training.”

Twelve

The tasteof the ale was lost on me since the first sip. I was either getting used to it, or I was much more distracted than I liked to admit. Even Quinn didn’t say much as we listened to Lenna and Ralf pour their hearts out on their pianos. Lenna was back behind her green one again, and I liked it better than her violin—but maybe I was just biased.

The plan had been to go back to the castle as soon as training was over, but then Quinn said she would be grabbing a drink at Mina’s, and I wanted an ale to make sure I slept tonight. It was the smart thing to do; otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to even close my eyes for longer than a minute after what I’d seen at the lake earlier.

Too much. Too many questions, far too many possibilities—so alcohol it was.

“I should take you to see other places in town. Mina’s is not the only bar that serves good ale,” Quinn said after a while.

“This isnotgood ale.” That was most definitely not why I came here—or why I stayed.

“Then maybe I should take you to trybadale so you seethe difference,” Quinn said, laughing. “But really—there are nicer places here to eat and drink.”

“I’m fine right here,” I told her because I was. The soundmakers were the reason I came back.

“You enjoy their performance,” Quinn said, nodding toward the stage.

“I do, yes. They’re very good.” Better than good—they sounded like home.

“That, they are. But they won’t be here forever. Lenna and Ralf travel around the Isles all the time. They never stay in one place for too long. So, how about I take you to other places in townafterthey’re gone?” said Quinn, then clicked her cup to mine before she drank.

And the question was at the tip of my tongue—why? Why did she want to take me to other places? I knew there was more to this town than the bars and the shops I’d seen in the main cobbled street next to the woods. I hadn’t had the time to go exploring, as she well knew, but I hadn’t been curious about it, either. It was just a town like any other. There was no need to switch bars—they would all be the same, anyway.

I also wanted to ask her why she’d bothered to pay for that handwritten book on the basics of magic, too, which was now sitting next to my cup on the table. So strange that she’d even found it, and I was thankful for it, I really was. But that didn’t mean I didn’t wonder why.

“Doll?!”

I sat up straight in my seat and looked back at the counter—at Toss with his long curly hair and wide eyes, waving his hand at me.

“He’s calling for you,” Quinn said. “Also—whyDoll?”

Strange. Toss didn’t usually call for me to go to him when we came in here, but maybe he wanted to ask me something? Because he was definitely waving me over.

I pushed the chair back and stood up. “Just a namelike any other,” I told Quinn, and I made my way around the tables and to the bar. “Hey, Toss. What’s up?”

“I’ve got a letter right here, and it says it’s for a doll,” he said, holding up an envelope in his other hand.

“Forme?” That was strange. Who could be sending me letters?

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