Page 88 of The Evernight Court

I’d never moved so fucking fast in my life.

I ran forward without really seeing anything, and I made it all the way to the opposite wall before my legs threatened to give up on me and I had to stop and hold onto a lamp. Theenergy that had spilled out of me had taken with it the strength to even stand straight, to move, to run—but I still saw.

I still saw Tristian in front of the open doors to his tower, and he was…deformed.

His bloodshot eyes were on me. His mouth was wide open, and his chin wasmoving,his lower jaw twisting to the right at such a strange angle—but that wasn’t the most disturbing thing about him. His arms had twisted back at the shoulders, and one was gettinglongeruntil his knuckles touched the floor, while the other was moving farther and farther back, and he was trying to make a sound but all he managed to do was groan.

I was crying as I watched him slowly changing right in front of my eyes, until he doubled over and didn’t even resemble a human being anymore.

And that wasn’t all.

I noticed the wall first.

It was turning to dust, like something was eating at it, and it fell to the floor in piles of grey. The doors were groaning and screeching as the metal and wood bent over at strange angles, parts of it missing, parts of it breaking down and falling to the floor—the floor which now had two huge holes in it around Tristian, and one of his elongated legs had slipped inside it.

It was a fucking scene from a horror movie or a nightmare I was stuck in—that’s the only thing that made sense. Because no way was this real. Tristian was on the floor, doubled over, his body completely deformed, just like the floor and the walls and the doors around him.

Pieces of wood had appeared on the walls. The metal that had been on the doors wasmeltingright there on the floor and the door handle was hovering in the air, pieces of it falling off right over Tristian’s body as he groaned like an animal, no longer moving his limbs…

I ran.

Somehow my legs carried me, and I ran as fast as I could back to the main hall. The leather bag with my food in it was on the floor still. I grabbed it and I charged into the doors of the third tower like my soul would leave my body if I wasn’t fast enough.

Only when I was up on the third floor and locked myself in the closet did I stop running. Only when I sat on the other side of Grey’s portrait and hugged my knees to my chest and closed my eyes did I stop crying.

Then I just waited for them to come find me and burn me alive.

Twenty

Nobody cameto find me or burn me alive.

Get up,a voice in my head urged me.

I’d had a plan, right? I’d planned something before I went to the kitchen, foolishly thinking that Romin’s word was going to keep me safe despite knowing who Tristian and Emil were, how they thought. Foolishly thinking nobody was going to sneak up on me anymore, just because Romin had ordered it.

But I’d had a reason for going out there in the first place. I’d gone to get food because I was so fucking hungry, and I alsoneededfood to carry with me on my way to…Mount Agva.

To Storm, so I could convince him to come back with me, so I could shrink him and take him through the eighth mirror, so then he could find Grey.

Grey, who was alive and standing and with his wings spread to the sides, as if he were waiting for me. As if he was calling for me to save him.

I sat up straighter instantly, the image of Tristian’s deformed body and wall and floor and doors right there infront of my eyes still. That had been my magic. All I’d wanted was for him to let go of me and not be able to reach me anymore, and my magic had done…that.

Had I killed him? Had I left him for dead on the ruined floor in front of his tower?

“Does it matter?” I asked Grey’s portrait, and I could have sworn his face looked mad. I could have sworn his eyes were bloodshot, and he said,no.No—it didn’t matter. No—Tristian could rot in hell for all I cared. I would not feel bad about it, even if I’d killed him. He was going to bite me and rape me and do with me whatever he wanted.

I most definitely didn’t regret anything at all.

But right now, I had a choice to make. I could either sit here and wait for Romin or Emil or anyone else to find him and come through that door and kill me for real.

Or I could get my shit together and go find Storm.

It didn’t take me a full second to make that decision.

I stood up and I put on the clothes I’d prepared before going to search for food in the kitchen. Boots and two pairs of pants and a thick cardigan from Grey’s closet, as well as his leather jacket. And to top it all off, I had the coat the skinwalkers had gifted me at the party to keep me warm no matter how cold it was on Mount Agva.

Then, I put the necklace of the witches around my neck, and the dragon tooth that the dragon riders had given me, too. They said it belonged to Storm’s mother, and that they’d brought it to me to help me connect with Storm better. The other brides had told me once that the tooth didn’t really work, that the dragons never cared about them—not that the brides ever tried to make friends—but maybe it would work this time. Maybe Storm wouldn’t eat me when he smelled this on me, and I told him that Grey was alive. It was worth a shot since it was light, and I barely felt it around my neck.

---