Page 26 of The Evernight Court

“My kind understands that the one true love all of us have is our own selves,” Mama Si said, no longer trying to smile at me oradviseme on what the hell to do with my life. No longer surprised at what I said to her. “That is why we must look at ourselves often and long, to see ourselves for what we truly are.”

I smiled. “Maybe you should get one for yourself then.” I stood up and found Mike grinning at me ear to ear, like he couldn’t care less that I’d said all of that to his mistress. Assa wasn’t smiling, though. Neither was the couple on my other side. They were just looking at their plates without moving an inch.

“Thanks for coming. I hope I never see you again.” This, I said gladly.

They all stood up to see me go, but I didn’t wait for agoodbye.I just turned my back to them and looked at Romin to find him smiling, too. Satisfied.Proud.Like he’d heard everything I said, and he approved of it—and that made me wish I’d kept my mouth shut, just so I didn’t give him the pleasure.

He saw the question in my eyes, though. He didn’t give me a single sign for a good minute, hoping to get me to walk all the way to his table, but I didn’t. I just stood there like a damn statue and waited.

Finally, he nodded.

I was free to go.

With my head up, I turned around and walked out those doors as fast as my legs could carry me, ignoring the applause and the calls of the people around me until I couldn’t see or hear them anymore.

Nobody followedme to the third tower, but I ran anyway. I took off my shoes and I ran, turning back to look every few seconds, almostfeelingRomin breathing down my neck. The paranoia alone was going to fucking kill me in this place, if the brothers didn’t first.

But I somehow made it to the tower and upstairs to the third floor, to my bedroom. I dropped the shoes and the crystal necklace—and the napkin, which I’d completely forgotten to return to Reeva after that conversation with Mama Si. I dropped them all and I went into the bathroom to wash my face, to take a shower, to take this whole fucking night off my body as fast as I could.

I caught my reflection in the mirror over the sink and it was a miracle I didn’t scream.

Flawless. I looked absolutelyflawless.There was a glow to my skin and a light to my eyes that shouldn’t have been there, that was in contradiction with the way I felt. My hair was perfect, each strand satin smooth and soft, my cheeks full, my lips pouty—exactly what I didn’t feel on the inside. It was all I could do not to slam both my fists to that mirror—that fucking liar.

Thatwas not who I was. I was dying inside; I didn’t feelaliveas it made me look. I was dying without Grey, and I didn’t fucking know what to do with myself or how to convince myself that I wasn’t. That I’d been with him only for a short time, that I shouldn’t feel so hopeless and desperate without him. That I couldn’t have possibly developedfeelingsso deep in two days—not even close!

But even after I took off my grey dress and I spent at least an hour in the shower, and I let the water wash away my tears, my mind didn’t change. These feelings inside me didn’t subside.

Wrapped in Grey’s black robe, I fell asleep on the closet floor, looking at his portrait, sometime close to dawn.

When I woke up,I found my gifts right outside my bedroom door, possibly put there by Aster and Vinny. They were the only ones who could come in here after I forbade the other brothers, anyway. Or maybe a guard?

Mama Si’s pretty mirror was resting by the wall, and the dragon tooth was on top of the wooden box full of glitter and faerie-bee honey. The grey coat from the skinwalkers was folded near them, and the fishbowl with the dead fish was on the other side.

It hurt to see it still. It hurt so fucking much it twisted everything inside me in the worst possible way. How cruel of them to mock Grey. How cruel of them to humiliate him when they made him.Theydoomed him and every other man of his bloodline since Hansil Knight.

Tears slipped out of me when I grabbed the bowl and went inside the room to the open window—I left it open because this silly part of me still hoped that Grey might come through flying with his gorgeous wings any second. I went to it, and I threw the bowl right outside.

I didn’t even hear it slamming against the walls of the castle because I didn’t wait. I just went and picked up the other gifts, hid Mama Si’s mirror under the bed so I didn’t have to see it and shoved the rest in a corner in the closet.

As tempting as it was to sit there and hide from the world and just stare at Grey’s portrait on that canvas all day again, I couldn’t do that. I needed to move. I needed to make a plan. I needed to explore this tower until I knew exactly what was in it, and how I could use it to my advantage. That’s why I got dressed, put on a pair of sneakers, kissed the portrait right on the lips, and I left the room with a banana in one hand and a piece of bread in the other.

The ground floor of the tower had four doors—one of them a small kitchen area, though all the cabinets and the fridges were empty. There was a square table and a single chair to its side, and I could have sworn I saw Grey sitting there by himself, eating in peace, away from everyone. It made me laugh.Typical Grey, I thought. He thrived on his own, and this little room proved it. I would bring my food down here, then collect more from the main kitchen when I saw the opportunity so I could do what Grey did, too. Hide in here from the rest of the world and live all by myself until I couldn’t anymore.

The second door led to a lounge area with dark grey furniture, a TV on the wall, desks and bottles of alcohol, and paintings just like in the rest of the castle.

“VeryunlikeGrey,” I muttered to myself.

Behind the third and biggest door on that floor was something very interesting, and I knew it from the smell alone as soon as I opened it. It led to a round foyer with another set of doors across from me, with big leaves and twigs and dirt all over the stone floor.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,”I whispered, when I pulled the door open and saw outside.

Large green trees. Ropes. Dirt. Flowers.

Animalsin cages.

It was a goddamn menagerie, and the ceiling of it was made out of glass panels so that I could see the dark sky over us as if I was standing outside.

Mesmerized, I slipped out the door and onto the dirt, not really sure whether I was supposed to, but how could I not? Most of the cages were empty, and more than a few of them were open. Only three were closed, and in the first of them to my right of the little indoor jungle, I saw glowing yellow eyes that made my heart jump.

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