Page 43 of The Evernight Court

“How about we do eight instead? I still want to enjoy my night,” she said, looking me over slowly.

“No, ten is good,” I insisted. Ten was considered late, and though I knew that the Evernights didn’t sleep, and just because it was late didn’t mean they weren’t out there, hunting and walking and doing whatever they wanted, I at least had a lower risk of running into someone else when I left the castle. For now, I wanted to take every precaution I could.

Quinn opened her mouth to say something, then thought better of it. “As you say, wife.”

The word made my stomach twist. “Fall is fine.”

“Weird name, but okay,” she said, clapping her hands, then rubbing them together. “First, I need you to show me what you got, how much you know. Then we’ll take it from there.”

I crossed my arms in front of my chest, looking around the darkness and the little light that came from the town beyond the tree line. “Nothing,” I muttered, rubbing the goose bumps from my arms. “I know nothing, really. I’ve never fought a day in my life.”

She squinted her eyes at me. “You surely fought in school sometime.”

“Nope. Never.”

“Are you serious?”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s no big deal. Plenty of people have never had to resort to violence before. Besides, I thought you knew when I was being serious.”

“Wow,” Quinn breathed. “You’re like…a different species. Abrand-newspecies.” And she waved her hands at the sky like she wasrevealingthis out of thin air.

“Quit the drama, won’t you? Justtrainme to do what you did last night,” I said. “And how to set up that trap.” I could use a trap or two around my bedroom, I guessed. Just in case. “Actually—howdid you make that trap, and when? If you saw me at Mina’s, when did you have time to come set it up?” I looked up at the tree now, at the branch from which that rope had been hanging last night, holding me up by the ankle. It wasn’t there anymore.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. You are, apparently, a beginner. A really,reallygreen beginner. Trap projection is advanced,” she told me with a smug smile.

“Then get meadvancedreally quickly so I can do that, too.”

“I can’tjust dothat. There are things—” She started, and she was going to go on and on about it, so I cut her off.

“That’s an order, Quinn Adringer.” She clamped her mouth shut. I’d never been one to give orders, but I’ll admit that was satisfying as hell. “You want the rest of that money, don’t you?”

“Oh, I do. I really, really do,” she admitted.

“So then let’s get to it. Teach me how to defend myself and how toproject traps, and we’ll both be happy.”

“Okay,” she said, stepping away from the tree. “Let’s get to it.”

Energy buzzed on my skin. “Okay.” I was ready for it. So goddamn ready to be moving, to bedoing something, then?—

Quinn’s fist connected with my jaw and I fell back as my mouth filled with blood, too shocked by the sudden movement to even feel the pain at first.

“What the fuck?!” I spit and blood sprayed out of my mouth, and my jaw hurt like hell, too. I stepped back a couple feet, holding onto my face, looking at Quinn—had she lost her fucking mind?!

“Oh, boy,” she said with a deep sigh, grabbing her hips and shaking her head. “You weren’t kidding.”

Anger rose inside me, and with it came the magic, climbing up my throat like it wanted to come right out of my lips. Come out anddevourQuinn, destroy her completely.

The urge was so strong, so sudden that I stopped moving completely until it passed.

What the hell was that?!And why did I feel like I was chock-full of magic just now, like I might burst in it any second?

“Don’t do that again,” I said, spitting out the blood in my mouth. My teeth were fine. I’d just cut the inside of my cheek with them when Quinn hit me, nothing more. It would heal in no time.

“Yeah, no kidding,” she said, and she looked genuinely concerned for me. Or for the fact that I didn’t have reflexes to even stop a direct hit to the face.

Damn.

“Let’s start running for a bit to get your blood flowing and those muscles warmed up. We’ll find a good place to start with basics.”

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