Page 125 of The Evernight Court

“Let’s find Valentine,” I said, now terrified to even look that man in the eyes.

What the hell, Valentine?! What are you trying to do here?

“We will. If he hasn’t left already,” Grey said, his wings spreading out again.

“You think he has?”

“He’s not tied to this place anymore. To any of the Isles. That was the reason why he wanted to be banished.”

“What if he’s still down there, though?” What if he was still trapped under those rocks?

The thought sent a million mixed signals all over me. On the one side, I’d cared a great deal about Valentine not too long ago, and hehadsaved my life. He’d looked after me before he got banished, too, even if I didn’t know it. Quinn had helped me in a lot of ways, despite my not allowing myself to trust her completely. Her company had gotten me through.

“We’ll find out,” Grey said. Then he leaned down suddenly, put his arm under my legs and lifted me up as if I weighed but a feather.

A small scream escaped me out of surprise. I wrapped my arms around his neck on instinct, and he smiled like that was exactly what he’d hoped I’d do. I loved that he still treated something as simple as ahughe knew he could get from me any time he wanted like it was a precious thing.

“Are you about to take me flying?” I asked, and I realized I’dmissedflying with him as if I’d done it every single day for years, not only two times—literally.

“I am. Do you trust me?” he whispered, kissing my lips gently, pulling me up higher.

“More than I trust myself.” And that was the whole truth of it.

Grey jumped in the air the next second, beating his strong wings and taking us higher without even looking where he was going. Our eyes were locked for a moment, and despite everything, I was smiling. The wind blew my hair back and we could have been anywhere in the world, any Isle or country, and it wouldn’t have made a difference.

Storm roared somewhere close by, coming to join us in the flight, and when Grey turned to our surroundings, I couldn’t look away from him for a second. Such a sight to see, even in the darkness, especially when the wind played withhishair, too, and moved it in all directions. I could lie there in his armsand look at him for hours, but we began to descend much too soon.

Before I knew it, Grey landed on the rocks, the same rocks where I’d almost died last time, and he put me down, too.

Silence.

The air smelled different down here—rot and fire and something else I couldn’t quite put my finger on, and it was unusually quiet. The trees surrounding us looked on the brink of collapsing, and maybe it was my imagination, but in the darkness between them, I could have sworn red eyes were watching us. Storm flew in circles over us, though, his one eye focused on those trees like a hawk.

“He’s not here.”

Grey’s words echoed in my head, and I turned to find him looking to the right, beyond that large rectangular rock that was now broken in half—and the pieces on the other side in front of the cave’s entrance.

The same entrance that had been shut down by those rocks that had nearly pulled us under the same way they had Valentine.

“I thought this was closed,” I said, as we went closer.

“It was. I couldn’t move the rocks at all from the inside when I woke up. I had to take you out through the other side,” Grey said, squatting down, analyzing the empty space and the broken rocks—broken,like someone had hammered at them, and now the biggest one was the size of my fist. I pushed them aside as I went, and I saw the spot where Valentine had fallen. I saw it, and it was empty. Not a sign of him or his clothing anywhere that we could see.

“Did those monsters—” My voice shook when I started to ask, but Grey cut me off.

“No,” he said, and the relief was instant. “There’s no blood anywhere. The beasts would have left signs.”

He was absolutely right.

I turned toward the dark entrance of that mountain. “Maybe he went in?” It made sense, if the cave was already open.

Grey went to it while he held up a finger to me to tell me to give him a second. He closed his eyes and stood as still as the rocks around him, then said, “I don’t hear anybody in there.”

I raised my head to look at the mountain made of rocks. Everything on it looked the same. Everything behind me looked the same, too—just dead trees and darkness and red eyes, but those monsters weren’t approaching us right now. Probably because Storm was flying so close to the tips of those trees and there was no way they could get to us without him killing them first.

“They’ll need time to regroup before they make another attack like that again,” Grey said, stepping behind me, as if he could read the thoughts in my head.

“They’re terrifying,” I whispered, and when he put his hands on my shoulders, I fell back on his chest.

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