Page 13 of The Evernight Court

It was half-hearted and most barely bothered to bring their hands together a couple of times, but then Romin was coming to me from the head of the room on the right, wearing a black suit and his big fake smile all over his handsome face.

My stomach was twisting so badly I was glad I hadn’t eaten anything the whole day, otherwise I’d have been throwing it all up.

Breathe, Fall, breathe…

But breathing still didn’t change the view around me. Breathing didn’t make it hurtless. Breathing didn’t make Romin Evernight disappear from the face of the Earth like I was praying.

Instead, he stopped right in front of me. “I sent you areddress,” he said, keeping his smile on, barely moving his lips as he spoke.

“It didn’t fit,” I whispered. He knew it was a lie. Iwantedhim to know it was a lie. “Besides, grey looks better on me.”

The way his eye twitched said I’d already gotten under his skin.

“Very well.” He turned to the side and offered me his arm. I debated just moving ahead into the hall and getting it over with, but I wouldn’t be able to walk all by myself. Not because of the heels, but because of my shaking legs. “You look beautiful, Fall. Despite your bitterness, you are absolutely breathtaking,” he said, and when I put my hand on his arm—while trying not to gag—he put his over my fingers and squeezed.

God, please give mestrength…

We went into the room and the band started to play a slow melody again. Everyone was looking at me.

Everyonehatedme.

And soon, I began to realize whoeveryonewas.

The siren sisters were there. My God, I recognized that face—Sedelis. She had legs instead of fins, a barely there white dress made out of shimmery fish sequins, identical to the other five women sitting with her.Sirens.They were sirens, and they were sitting around a table close to the long rectangular one where Romin was taking me, where Emil and Tristian and all the other brides were already sitting at.

“Keep moving, Fall. Don’t lose your head,” Romin whispered as we went, smiling and nodding and waving at the people like he couldn’t tell they were disgusted by the sight of me.

“Sirens,” I breathed, because it couldn’t benormalthat they were there, was it? Sirens belonged in the sea. The fucking sea—not in a ballroom in the Evernight Court!

Were they here to eat people?

Didthey eat people like they used to do back in the day? Did they eat Enchanted or only humans?

God, I was terrified to even imagine it.

“Yes—and I planned to fill you in on our guest list, but you refused to leave your tower. Such a shame,” Romin said. “Look—over there, someone you know.” He pointed at the other side of the head table while I was still caught up on the sirens watching me and grinning ear to ear.

So, I turned.

And I stopped in my tracks.

None other than Mama Si was sitting at one of the tables, with Mike on one side and Assa on the other, wearing a gorgeous blood-red dress and her blonde hair in tight curls just like always. She was clapping her hands still, though youcouldn’t really hear it because of the gloves that extended over her palms from the sleeves of her satin dress.

Mama Si was right there, barely twenty feet away from me.

“Steady. Keep moving. One foot, then the other,” said Romin, and he suddenly soundedconcerned.

He gripped my hand in his as if he thought I might collapse soon, and he wanted to catch me before I hit the floor. In those moments, I was thankful for it. So goddamn thankful that he led me forward so I didn’t have to see that face anymore.

My heart beat like a drum in my chest. My entire body was shaking, and the sounds of the outside world came to me like an echo. Every face and every object around me had turned to a blur, and when Romin said,sit,I didn’t see shit. I just sat down, hoping there would be something to catch me.

There was.

A chair—at the head of the table, with Romin on my right, and Tristian on my left. Emil sat to Romin’s other side with five brides, and the other five sat next to Tristian. All of them were watching me, plotting my fucking murder in their heads—and they wanted me to see it.

Then Romin was on his feet with his glass of wine raised, and he was talking. He was saying something, but the words couldn’t reach my ears because of everything else going on around me. The large room with the ceiling so high, so completely black, it could have been the dark cloud of the Whispering Woods and I wouldn’t know the difference. The lush tables, the flowers and candles and decorations, the waiters coming to and fro with trays balanced on their hands, the band on the other side, the draped windows and the fancy dresses and suits—and most importantly, the guests wearing them.

Faeries, skinwalkers, witches, dragon riders, sirens, and thesuccubi from the Blood Burrow, with Mama Si sitting at the head.

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