Page 53 of The Evernight Court

Mama Si

I readthe whole letter three times, then checked the back to make sure I wasn’t missing anything—then I sat back on the floor and I just stared at nothing as her words tried to make sense to my mind.

Did I believe for a second that she really had been excited to see me or that I’dwoundedher by telling her the truth about who she was?

Absolutely not.

Mama Si was not one to do me favors, even warn me like this, out of the goodness of her heart. No, I was no longer foolish enough to believe that.

But Mama Si was also a very smart woman, and by keeping in touch with me in secret, she was setting her path for the future. She wanted to be in my good graces because she knew I was a bride, and she knew that all the Evernights wanted to make me theirs, and she saw power there. She saw power that she could use to her advantage later.

And I could use that, too.

Especially since her warning rang in my ears as if I was hearing it spoken with her own voice—the silver-haired who live in the clouds.

I looked at Grey’s face on the portrait again, and wordshe’dsaid to me before that duel came back to raise all the hairs on my body at attention.

“Genevieve,” I whispered, and it was like every inch of me knew that it washer.She was thesilver-hairedMama Si was talking about in her letter.

Unfortunately for me, I believed her warning with all my heart.

They were watching me.

Someonewas watching me—I felt it with every step I took as I made my way to the south wing of the castle, to Genevieve’s chambers. I was so nervous, so scared, so fucking frustrated with whoever was following me that I risked exploding. They were there, yet every time I turned to look, the hallways were empty.

It was still morning, barely nine a.m., and I knew the brides would all be in the dining room for breakfast. That’s why I’d decided to leave my tower now. I knew I was being watched, but there was something about feeling those eyes on the back of my head without being able to seewhowas watching me…

A little while later I heard that sound I recognized even though I hadn’t heard it in a while. It was of wings beating—almost perfectly silent, just barely there.

That’s when I realized that it was Shadow flying somewhere behind me, hiding so well I couldn’t even catch a glimpse of him no matter how hard I looked.

Without hesitation, I began to run.

If he was coming for me, I’d rather make it hard for him to catch me. There was no escaping that dragon, especially with his speed, but I tried anyway, and if someone heard me—one of the brothers—and they came to catch me before I reached my destination, so be it. The fear didn’t let me slow down for a single second.

By some miracle, though, I made it.

By some miracle, I stopped in front of the doors that led to the spiral stairs of the entrance to Genevieve’s chambers. Shadow wasn’t there. He hadn’t attacked me.

Without giving myself a chance to think, I pushed the doors open and I went through to the other side.

Silence.

No more wings beating. I was on the other side of the doors and there was nobody there with me, just the light coming off the many lamps on the walls, and their reflection bouncing off the chrome-colored material of the spiral stairway that led to Genevieve’s room. The one I’d been to that first time I met her. The one Mama Si had calledcloudsin her letter.

She was right—the room did look like a sky, a grey, cloudy sky on a warm February day. That’s what it had seemed like to me when Valentine brought me here then.

But now, when I walked up those stairs like I was in a dream, and I reached the very top of that strange room that reflected light better than anything else I’d ever seen in the castle, it looked like a trap. Not an open sky—just a fucking trap.

And Genevieve was right there, sitting on a long white couch, feet tucked underneath her, a cup in her hands as she looked at me and smiled like I was the love of her life.

I froze for a good moment as if to make sure that my eyes weren’t lying to me, that I wasn’t just seeing things. She was so still, her plastic smile so perfect, her silver hair done in soft curls, half tied back and half loose to frame her face, just like last time.

Except last time I hadn’t known what hid behind that soft, beautiful face.

Last time, I hadn’t known who Genevieve truly was.

“Welcome, darling. It’s so good to see you again,” she saidafter a moment, and her smile didn’t waver. She didn’t stand up at all, just continued to drink her tea slowly, her eyes never leaving mine.

---