Page 14 of The Evernight Court

A hand on my thigh.

“Absolutely stunning, though grey doesn’t really become you.”

I looked down at Tristian’s hand resting on my thigh, and I had this crazy urge to burn it. Stab it. Break it.Undo it.

Something stirred deep inside me. A charge of electricity rushed throughout me, and before I could tell him to take his filthy hand off me, he jerked it back all by himself.

“Whoa, there, Fall. That wasn’t nice,” he said, as if he feltmy intent. And the asshole was still grinning.

“Behave,” came Romin’s voice from my other side. “We have guests in our presence.”

“Don’ttouchme,” I spit anyway because if Tristian put his hand on my thigh again, I was going to lose it and stab him with a fucking fork no matter who was in our presence.

“Oh, but I wouldn’t dare with that magic charging my fingers,” he said, openly mocking me. His shoulders shook with laughter.

Magic,he said. What I’d felt just now—that charge of electricity, what I thought was just a disgusted reaction to seeing his hand on me—it was magic. He hadn’tfelt my intentat all, only raw magic.

And it had been so…chaotic.

“Behave,” said Romin again, but he was also stifling his smile as he brought his glass to his lips and drank. “Don’t look grim, Fall. You have a duty to entertain our guests. After all, they are here for you.”

“Are you serious?” I breathed. “They hate me—do you not see? They want to kill me!” There were maybe a few people sitting in front of us who didn’t mind the fact that I was breathing. The sirens looked at me like they were waiting for me to grow an extra head, and they wereexcitedabout it.And Mama Si and the people at her table were in awe of me—but everyone else? Yeah, they wanted to skin me the fuck alive right now.

“Oh, they wouldn’t dare,” Tristian said with a wave of his hand as he poured me a glass of wine.

“They’re just bitter about Grey’s death. The more Evernights are alive, the more chances of an heir, and the more power for them,” Emil said from Romin’s other side. “Give it a decade or two, and they’ll have completely forgotten that fucker.”

“Grey isnotdead.” The words slipped out of me before I could control myself. There was so much wrong with the words he said—Grey’s death.

No. It made no sense. I still hadn’t accepted it.

“But soon he will be,” Romin said. “Anyway, Emil’s right. Give them time. They’ll get over it.”

“Andyou’llget over your first Evernight, too, once you realize life can be so much better for you,” said Emil with a sick grin on his face, and he actually raised his glass at me.

It took all I had not to flip him off.

“I came,” I whispered. “I showed up. They saw me. Now, I’m leaving.” And I’d crawl all the way out of those doors—those doors that were nowclosed—if I had to.

“Not yet. You can’t leave yet,” said Tristian. “Go on, drink your wine.”

“They’re all here,” I spit, turning to Romin—hecalled the shots around here, anyway. I didn’t need to waste breath with Tristian.

“Yes, they are. They’re here to honor you. We do this for every bride and—” Romin started.

“Yes, I know that! But Grey is not here.” How did he not see the absurdity of making me sit here in front of all these people to be looked at like I was a fucking criminal they yearned to behead?

“Butweare,” said Emil with another wink.

“And you’re lucky because your blood is compatible with all of us. That makes you extremely valuable to us, Fall. To all of Ennaris,” Romin reminded me once more. “If you were to choose one of us?—”

“Orall,” said Tristian from my side.

“—then all of these people would have forgotten what you did.”

Oh, God, he couldn’t be fucking serious. “WhatIdid?” I said, and my voice came out high-pitched. “You mean whatyoudid!Youbanished him.Youwere afraid?—”

“Silence,” Romin spit, and before I knew it, his warm and heavy magic fell on me like a goddamn veil, and my lips sealed shut instantly. So much power. “I enforce the rules—that is all I do. Grey broke said rules because of you. Because he couldn’t stand the idea of Valentine’s dragon touching you. Because he wasjealous.”

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