Page 137 of The Evernight Court

“You’re makingwhatright?” Did he mean his banishment?

“This.” He looked up at the ceiling. “This whole thing. This Isle—all the Isles. The Fall of Ennaris.” And he smiled again, so sadly it was heartbreaking.

I shook my head. “I don’t understand. How are you going to make it right? What are you trying to do here exactly?”

“It’s okay. You were human once. It’s okay if you don’t understand what it’s like to be stuck in this cursed place forever,” Valentine said. “I’ve missed you, Sunshine.”

“I missed you, too,” I said, and I meant it. “I missed talking to you.”

“Really?” His brows shot up.

“Yes, really. You’re my best friend, believe it or not. Or at leastyou were,” I muttered, and yes, I was pretending for the sake of getting him out of here so we could talk in peace, away from the gigantic dragon, but it was also the truth. The whole truth without the layer of anger that coated it right now.

“Let’s get out of here and talk, can we? Let’s get out and you can tell me how you want to make it right.”

I reached for his hand and he let me grab it, but when I pulled him to the side, he didn’t budge.

“I can’t do that, Sunshine,” he whispered. “I have to wait here.”

“Wait for what?” Nothing else was on this Isle—we checked a million times a day. “What is going on, Valentine?”

“The end,” he simply said. “The end of Ennaris, as it should have been since the beginning. It was never supposed to survive Syra, Sunshine. It was supposed to perish underneath the ocean—but it’s okay. It will now.”

What the… “Are…are you serious?”

“Of course,” said Valentine, completely at ease. “Ennariswill be no more. The curse will be no more.We…” He gave me a look. “…will be free, at last.”

“You’re trying todestroythe Isles?” said Grey as he slowly came closer from my other side, as if he didn’t want to spook Valentine. I was thankful for it because we needed to know what the hell he was thinking.

“Precisely,” Valentine said without looking at him at all.

“You can’t if you try,” Grey said, putting his hand on my shoulder. “Others have before you, remember? We all learned about George and Elijah Evernight. They tried to destroy the curse. They failed.”

I, for one, had never heard those names before, but Valentine apparently had because he nodded.

“I remember them, yes. But they didn’t have the power necessary to unravel the spell of the curse in the first place—how could they have ruined these forsaken lands? I didn’t really have any hopes myself, until…until Fall.” He finally turned to Grey, and my God, Valentine looked absolutely possessed. “We live off scraps. We’re constantly fighting for survival when the curse has turned the land against us, too. Have you seen the animals here? Do you not realize thatwe’re allgoing to end up like them sooner rather than later?”

“It matters little what we realize or don’t. The curse can’t be broken,” Grey said through gritted teeth.

But Valentine smiled.

Hesmiled,and in it I saw my fate as if written with letters in front of my eyes—we weredoomed.

Valentine was not someone to start something he couldn’t finish. If he was here,tryingthis, it’s because he was sure he could actually do it.

“Valentine, whatever you think you’re doing, stop it. Right now—stop it,” I said, as the fear made the magic in my stomach gather into a ball of raw heat.

“I’m afraid it’s too late for that already, Sunshine,” he said. “The layers of the spell are unraveling. Soon, the curse will be no more.”

“You’ve lost your damn mind,” Grey hissed, coming closer to him. “Youcan’tunravel the curse, you fool!”

As if on cue, even before the words had completely left his mouth, the ground shook again, this time much more violently.

A small scream left me when I almost fell into the pool, but Grey was already pulling me up to my feet by the arm, and Valentine was standing up, too, still smiling.

Still fuckingsmiling.

“I can and I have. The counter spell that was centuries in the making is burning down the layers of it as we speak,” he proudly said, raising his arms to the sides as he slowly moved backward, away from us, and Shadow took his place on his shoulder.

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