Page 117 of The Evernight Court

His laughter faded. “Lost it, how?”

“I don’t know. We were on this wide ledge covered in snow, and I was talking to him, trying to convince him tocome back to the castle with me, when all of a sudden he and two dragons that apparently live on Mount Agva began to roar and spit fire at the sky.”

“Really,” he said, shaking his head. “I thought only one dragon lived on Agva currently.”

“No, there are two. One green, another red. I saw the red one in detail—he wasthisclose to eating me when I first climbed up.” I showed him with my fingers, and the memory was still scary as hell, but now that I was here in his arms, it didn’t really have any effect on me. Didn’t even make my heart skip a beat.

“Fall,” he warned, as if to say,don’t fuck with me.

“I swear, it happened. But then Storm came out of nowhere and the red dragon panicked. He started to fly, and his wings basically threw me off the cliff. I was falling and I thought I was done for, but then Storm caught me midair and took me to this cave, where he yelled at my face like mad until he sniffed that tooth hanging around my neck.”

Now that I thought about it, that hadn’t been too long ago, had it? Because it felt like ages to me.

Grey shook his head, then opened his mouth, then closed it again with a sigh. “Are youtryingto drive me insane?”

“I am trying to tell you what happened.” And he seemed to be taking it very differently than I expected, and that just made me laugh. “I’m fine, Grey. You can see me. I’m sitting on your lap.”

And very much aware how his cock was pressed to my hip. And very much turned on, too—but I remembered that both those things were pretty normal when I was near Grey.

“You could have died,” he said, bringing his forehead to mine as he pulled me up higher. “You should have stayed in the castle. You shouldn’t have risked your life like that.”

“Anddo whatin the castle?” I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed his cheek as I spoke. “I never even left yourtower. It was the only thing keeping your brothers off me because I forbade them from entering through the doors.”

“Smart girl,” he whispered, biting my jaw. “That’s my smart girl.”

My toes fucking curled. “It only worked because you actuallygaveme your tower for real.” Which had shocked even his brothers.

“You have my everything, baby. Not just that,” Grey said without missing a beat.

“Then stop panicking, will you? I’m here. I’m fine. We both are.” Somehow, in some fucked up way, after everything, we’d really ended uphere.

“Yes, we are. I can’t believe Storm brought you here. I can’t believe he even went to Agva when I forbade him from doing that when he was just two months old,” he said, planting kisses all over my face with every few words. It was one of my favorite things in the world that he did this when we talked.

“Youforbadehim from starving himself?” I said, eyes closed as I soaked up all the kisses.

“Yep. He was barely as big as me by then, and I told him that if I ever died or got banished in the future, he wasn’t allowed to starve himself or go to Agva at all. He still did it.” And he shook his head as if he were disappointed.

“Oh, he did. I don’t think he could help it. He’s fine now, though, right?”

He nodded. “Yep. He ate a lot. He’s out there, flying.” And he pointed up at the ceiling.

My heart skipped a long beat. “Where are we, Grey? How are you still alive? How amIstill alive when Storm flew with me out of the Woods? I thought the barrier was supposed to shred me to pieces.”

“It is. Itwas,” he said, then closed his eyes with a sigh. “It was Valentine.”

Every inch of my skin rose in goose bumps. “He’s here.” Valentine was here and I’d seen him fighting with Grey, and he’d saved my life from those rabid beasts that had been about to devour me.

“The curse is made of one hundred and one layers—and the last layer is the spell that binds us to the Woods. Valentine unraveled it as soon as he came here,” Grey said. “I think that’s what Storm and the other dragons felt. They could tell the spell was lifted. That’s why Storm flew you out of the Woods.”

So many questions invaded my mind within the second, but… “Where is he?”

The way Grey looked at me made my stomach twist and turn. “He collapsed under those rocks.”

“And? Did he…did he…”die? I couldn’t even say it.

“I don’t know. If he managed to push off all those rocks, and if the beasts didn’t get to him, there’s a chance he survived.” Yet he didn’t sound very hopeful.

I shook my head, at a loss for words for a minute. “Hewantedto get banished.”

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