Page 135 of The Evernight Court

“Just do whatever you did to Tristian or those beasts,” said Grey, standing beside me as we both looked at the big round rock he’d put not ten feet away from the entrance of his cave.

I flinched. “Except that rock is not trying to force himself on me or eat me.”Thatmagic had worked only when I was terrified. Completely, utterly terrified.

The look in Grey’s eyes darkened instantly, and I bit my tongue. Any time his brothers were mentioned, he got fucking murderous. I needed to learn how to keep them out of our conversations for a little while, at least.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that,” I muttered. “I just mean?—”

“Don’t do that, Fall,” he cut me off, coming in front of me. “Don’t apologize for someone else’s wrongdoings. Tristian should be sorry.” His eyes closed. “Tristianwillbe sorry.”

“Grey, don’t.”

“He will die, too,” he said, matter-of-factly, like it was a done deal.

“No!” I said, frustrated already. He and his brothers needed to learn their goddamn lesson already. “Look at me,” I insisted when he didn’t reply, and I stepped closer, grabbing his face in my hands. “You will not kill Tristian.”

“He—”

“I don’t care—no killing Tristian!” I couldn’t believe he actually needed me to spell out those words for him.

Suddenly, Grey nodded. “Then I swear it. You have my word. No killing Tristian.”

He was full of shit. “I mean it, Grey.”

“So do I.” And he kissed me. “Now, focus on that rock, baby.” He moved behind me, his hands on my shoulders, while I breathed in deeply to calm my already racing heart. I had yet to learn hownotto be turned on every time Grey so much as gave me a peck on the lips, and by the looks of it, it was going to take me a long time.

“Ireallydon’t know how.” Right now, I was turned on, not scared. The magic was inside me, but I had no idea how to make it do what it had done before. That part wasn’t in the book Valentine had written. The rest of it, making fire and levitating stuff in the air, was easy to do—he explained the process so simply, but not this.

And at the thought of him… “Can’t we just go searching for Valentine first? Maybe he came out of hiding this morning.”

“He hasn’t. Storm would know.”

“Where is Storm, anyway? Is he out there?” He seemed to be spending more time out of the darkness that covered this Isle than in here with us.

“No, he’s around here somewhere. He was in the Woods last night, though,” Grey said, and my heart skipped a beat.

“And?” I was still waiting for something to happenout there,too. For something to change.

Grey shook his head. “Everything’s the same as always. All the Isles are as they should be.” I sighed. That was a good sign, at least. “It’s important that we know what you can do, baby,” Grey continued. “It’s important we know what your magic is. How about you just give it a try? Just imagine that rock is falling on your head and you can’t move. All you have is your magic.”

Well, damn. Just the idea of it sent a rush of fearthroughout me. “I can try, I guess.” And I did. I closed my eyes and I imagined that I was stuck in place, completely paralyzed, and that a huge rock was coming to squash me to the ground. I imagined it so vividly that itfeltreal. In my mind, I could hear it coming for me like a melody, and I could feel the rocks underneath my feet shaking violently.

Fuck, my imagination rocks,I thought, and the magic was there to access easily. I pulled it out with the intent of destroying that rock so it never had the chance to hurt me. That’s all I wanted—to destroy it, to stop it, to keep it away from me at all costs.

When the wave of magic came out of my raised hands, I opened my eyes to see what it would do, and I did. Isawit, even though it was just a wave of invisible energy rippling the air until it hit its target right in the middle. The ground shook harder—this time for real. It shook like someone was slamming a damn hammer at the mountain, and that piece of rock began to change right there before our eyes. It wasopeningup to the sides like it was made out of fucking liquid and it could change shape. It turned square, the edges of it where it touched the ground solid so that there was no way it couldrolltoward me. Instead, it continued to pull itself open down the middle, and it was falling apart like it was no longer made of rock.

“Oh, my God,” I whispered, so completely focused on that rock that I didn’t see anything else until it stoppedspillingon the ground, still rock but somehow moving like it was liquid.

“Fall,” Grey said, pulling my eyes to him, and he was looking at the rock, too. He saw all of it, but that’s not what he meant.

A roar came from somewhere behind us as Storm flew closer, and Grey looked down at the ground. That’s when I realized, it was still shaking. The mountain was still shaking.

Every hair on my body stood at attention.What the hell did I do?!Had I unleashed that magic on the rest of the mountain, too? Because it was still shaking and groaning like it was being hammered at the very foundation.

Except… “It wasn’t me,” I whispered when Storm landed a few feet away, sniffing the rocks beneath his talons. That hadn’t been me at all—not the ground groaning or shaking. It hadn’t been my imagination—someone else had caused it.

“It’s coming from the inside,” Grey whispered, pointing his finger toward the ground, his wings spread all the way.

My ears rang as the realization hit me. “Valentine.”

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