Page 38 of The Evernight Court

The woman finally squatted down in front of me, with the bag of coins in her hands and a huge smile on her face.

Fuck, she was young. She could be even younger than me, with chocolate brown hair hidden away under the hood, big blue eyes and glossy lips, a mischievous grin that created dimples on her cheeks as she analyzed my face.

“Thisbelongs to the Evernights, yet you have it in your pocket,” the girl said, nodding her head at the bag of coins. Then shetsk-ed me. “How did you steal it? How did you not get caught?”

I closed my eyes, releasing a long breath.

It’s okay,I told myself.She just doesn’t know who I am.

And once she did, I’d be free. The most important thing here is that she wasn’t the Evernights. Everyone else I could handle.

“Put me down first and then we’ll talk,” I said, but she shook her head.

“Do I look stupid to you?” She wasn’t expecting an answer. “You’re capable enough to steal from the castle without getting caught, and I saw you at Mina’s. You lied about what you are.”

Oh, shit.

“Put. Me.Down,” I spit, getting more pissed off by the second. That heat that had gathered inside me was expanding, and it wasn’t just anger. I was aware enough of my own magic now that I recognized it.It was stirring inside me, eventhough I had no clue what to do with it nor whatitcould do with me.

“I will, I will, but tell me how you did it first. You’re no succubi. I felt your energy when you came in, and I feel it right now, too,” the woman insisted, and she sounded genuinely curious. “So, how did you do it? Is it a spell? Are you a witch? Is it a potion?”

Turns out, it’s really uncomfortable to be hanging by a leg, and the more I tried to move, the more I swung to the sides, which in turn made me even more uncomfortable.

“If you don’t put me down right now?—”

“Iwillbe putting you down as soon as you tell me the truth,” she cut me off.

“Yes, I’m a witch!” I said through gritted teeth, trying hard not to lose my temper but failing. “I’m a fucking witch—put me down!”

A second of silence. I watched the corners of her lips turn up and up and up into that smile again… “Liar,” she said. “You’re lying. Tell me the truth.” She raised her hand with the bag full of coins at me. “How did you steal this?”

“I didn’t steal it.”God, please give me patience…

“Then why is it in your pocket? And where did you steal that jacket?”

“I didn’t steal it.”Please, please, please…

“Okay—sowheredid you get it?” She came closer, and I opened my eyes to see her face, the wide eyes, the curiosity in them. “Whoare you?”

The way things were looking, I had two options here. Continue to demand she put me down while swinging from one side to the other without being able to free myself until my head fucking exploded from all the blood gathered in it.

Or—I could simply tell her the truth she so desperately wanted.

“We can do this all night. I won’t—” she started, and I had already run all out of patience.

“I’m Grey Evernight’s wife,” I said, and fuck, it felt so good to say it out loud.

The girl stopped speaking.

Then she smiled. “You’re joking.”

“Look at my face,” I spit. “Do I look like I’m joking?! I am Fall Hayes, Grey Evernight’s wife, and I’m wearing Grey’s jacket, andyouhave just stolen that bag of coins from me because it ismine!” Grey had given me that tower, hadn’t he? That meant everything in it belonged to me, too.

The way the smile dropped from the girl’s face would have been funny if I wasn’t hanging upside down by the ankle. As it was, I counted backward in my mind, willing myself not to scream as she opened and closed her mouth a few times, then finally whispered,“Shit.”

She believed me, at least.

“I’m not going to ask you again. Put me—” That’s as far as I made it before something moved.

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