Page 12 of The Evernight Court

A painting.

Without really expecting much, I pushed the shirts to the other side to reveal it, and my breath caught in my throat. For the second time in the past hour, I was paralyzed in place, but the tears must have dried already because they didn’t come. Or maybe the shock of seeing Grey’s face masterfully painted on that canvas wouldn’t let them spill.

Slowly grabbing the edges, I took the painting out and dragged it to an empty wall at the end of the room where I’d laid my open suitcases. The painting reached up to my neck and was twice as wide as my shoulders. It was a portrait of Grey from the chest up. A fucking portrait of him that had captured every color of his eyes, and every curve and everysharp edge of his face, every string of his hair and the right width of his shoulders.

Before I knew it, I was sitting in front of it on the floor with my arms wrapped around my legs, looking at him. So beautiful. So goddamn perfect that I’d forgotten. Just a couple of days since I last saw him, and I’d already forgotten his face. It had blurred in my memories because my mind just wasn’t creative enough to create the image of him properly, like this artist had on the canvas.

“I miss you.”

The words slipped from my lips and they faded into the dark walls of the closet, never to be heard by anyone. But even so, I stayed there, and I analyzed every line and every color on that portrait until I knew it all by memory.

Time flew by and my entire body was completely numb from sitting so still for so long. So much longer than I’d realized.

Then Aster came knocking on the door.

Four

My mind was so crowded.

A party. I was going to a party when Grey was gone. Banished. Who knew where right now, withering away into nothing—and I was dressed to attend a fucking party without him.

Such a vile thing to do. I was disgusted. Enraged with myself—and counting all the reasons why I was doing this wasn’t helping.

I did it again, anyway.

If I didn’t go, Romin would have a reason to come into the third tower, drag me out, andpunishme for disobedience however he saw fit.

If he did, I’d have lost the war before it even began.

If he got to me, I couldn’t learn how to use my magic to keep myself safe from these monsters.

And if I couldn’t keep myself protected, the monsters were going to fuckingeatme little by little for the rest of my life.

So, of course, I’d let Aster blow-dry my hair and put shimmer on my eyelids and gloss on my lips. Of course, I’d lether watch as I put the dress on, the grey one, as the energy of her hatred nearly suffocated me. If she could, she’d have cut my throat herself while she pulled at my hair as she blow-dried it. If she could, she’d have stabbed me in the eye with that eyeshadow brush twenty times before she was done getting me ready.

As it was, she only kept her fake smile on her face and waited without ever uttering a single word.

I didn’t look in the mirror before following her out of the room. There really was no point to knowing what I looked like. I knew what Ifeltlike, and that was more than enough.

Aster took me to the ground floor of the castle, down hallways and corridors and somewhere close to the fifth tower where I’d stayed for over a month after I came to the Whispering Woods. But I’d never been to the doors at the end of a wide, short hallway. I’d never heard as much music in this castle or seen as manycolorsbefore.

Guards on both sides of me, backs against the walls, eyes straight ahead. The big doors were wide open, black and silver, beautifully engraved. Flowers, black and red roses, decorated the doorway, and inside were so many more people than I’d imagined.

Before the minute was over, I was standing in front of them in the doorway.

Aster slipped away without a sound, but I felt it when she removed her warm,badenergy from around me. A fascinating thing to feel, yet I couldn’t be bothered to even explore it or try to understand it better right now.

The music from the band on the stage at the far left of the rectangular room stopped.

The guests, possibly over a hundred of them, all turned to me.

I nearly passed out.

So many eyes. So many colors. So many energies, warmand cold and intense and light like a summer’s breeze—too much, all of it. So fucking much I couldn’t move.

“There she is!” Romin’s voice filled my ears though I still couldn’t see him, didn’t want to. “Autumn Hayes, brought to us by the Blood Burrow. Our newest bride!”

Applause.

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