Page 116 of The Evernight Court

I looked up at him for a second. “I’d know you anywhere. I know the shape of you.”

He slammed his lips to mine the next second and kissed me until I forgot to breathe.

Fuck, I loved the way he kissed me.

“And then?” he asked, and his wings wrapped around me tighter, pushing me higher until we were chest to chest. Irested my head on the edge of them and it was more comfortable than any bed I’d ever laid on.

I was smiling ear to ear as I continued. “And then I knew you were alive, so I went to Mount Agva to get Storm so I could shrink him and take him through the mirror to wherever you were, so he could bring you back to the Woods.”

That had been the idea, as ridiculous as it sounded now.

For a moment, Grey only looked at me, his beautiful eyes never even blinking.

“You went to Mount Agva,” he then repeated.

“I did, yes. And I found Storm, and?—”

“Fall, you went to Mount Agva on your own?!”

I flinched. “Well, no, not my own. There was this girl Quinn who basically led me there and she was with me all the way to the edge of the mountain.” What the hell was Quinn going to think now when I didn’t go back?

Fuck, she probably thought I was dead already.

Grey shook his head, terrified and incredulous at the same time. “You climbed Mount Agva to get to Storm?”

“Yes, I?—”

“I assume you know what happens to dragons when their masters get banished or die?”

I forced myself to roll my eyes. “Yes, I know, Grey. I was there. I saw him. That morning you got banished? He was biting his own wings, trying to tear them off his body. I saw the whole thing.”

For some reason, my frustration made him smile, and I’ll be damned if it wasn’t better than a sunrise.

“And you went to Agva to findthatdragon?”

My mouth opened and closed a couple times. “I was gonna tell him that you’re alive,” I muttered in the end.

His smile grew wider. “Right—and you thought he’d understand you.”

“He did!” I sat up straighter, pushing his wings to thesides, and though he pulled them apart a little, he didn’t let me move away from him a single inch. I pretended to be irritated, but I had a sneaky suspicion he already knew that I loved when he did that. “Hedidunderstand me. I’m here, aren’t I? I got through to him. I talked to him and?—”

“It’s a goddamn miracle that he didn’t kill you, Fall. Dragons lose their minds when they lose their masters. They fall into oblivion within days,” Grey said. “I can’t fucking believe you’re alive.”

“But I had the tooth. The…the tooth from his mother that Dragons’ Den gifted me.” I touched my empty chest as if I was just remembering that I had nothing on me.

“Yes, I saw it. It’s in your bag,” Grey said. “But that wouldn’t have helped. Dragons don’t care much about who birthed them. That’s not their nature.”

“It did help, though. He sniffed me, and he recognized the tooth and then he spared me and flew out of the cave.”

“He wouldn’t have. I don’t—” he started, but I was so frustrated already that I didn’t even let him finish.

“Then how do you explain that I’m still alive?” He clamped his mouth shut instantly. “Exactly. So, don’t lecture me, Mr. Evernight. I had a plan and I saw it through and I didn’t die. I’ll admit that part still surprises me, but it’s the truth. And italmostworked.”

He was chuckling now, his shoulders shaking as he held me tighter to his chest. Never in my life did I ever imagine I could adore being held like this, being cuddled and taken care of as if I were a damn baby, but here we were.

“It almost worked,” he whispered.

“Mhmm. Almost. But Storm refused to let me shrink him and take him back to the castle, and then he just…he lost it.”

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