Page 60 of The Evernight Court

Laughter burst out of him so suddenly, and it took him a good few seconds to stop himself. I flinched, looking away to the side. That wasn’t meant as a fucking joke. I wasn’t here to make him laugh.

“I wanted to send you flowers for that, but I figured you wouldn’t appreciate it,” he said after a moment.

“I tried to warn him, you know. About you. About Genevieve. He didn’t listen. Doesn’t care.” I sighed, getting angry with my own self now. “Go on, then. Get it over with.”

And wasn’t it funny that we’d met in possibly this very forest for the first time, too, Valentine and I?

“Go on with what?” the asshole had the audacity to ask.

I forced myself to roll my eyes. “Withkillingme.”

He moved back like I’d just slapped him across the face. “Never.”

It was my turn to laugh, except my laughter sounded bitter. “Says the guy who tried to kill me two weeks ago, then got Grey banished because he saved my life!”

His head lowered and his jaws clenched, and even Shadow flew off his shoulder and up to the canopy, disappearing from our view as if he were suddenly uncomfortable.

“I wouldneverhurt you, Sunshine. Never,” Valentine insisted, whispering now.

“Don’t fucking patronize me, Valentine!” I hissed. “I was there—I saw you! Shadow was coming for me. He was?—”

Suddenly, he stepped right in front of me and grabbed my arms in his hands. “I know you don’t believe me, and I know what it looked like, but I would never hurt you, I swear it.”

“Get your hands off me,” I said, jerking away as I stepped back. “You’re good at this. You’re so fucking good, but I’m done believing you, Valentine. You sent me to Faeries’ Aerie to kill me, and?—”

“How was I to know you would come back?!” he cut me off, and he sounded as pissed off as he was desperate now. His eyes were red. His tight fists were shaking at his sides. It was only matter of time before he broke my neck, yet I still didn’t run.

“How was I to know that you would sacrifice your freedom the way you did?” he demanded. “You thought I would die, and you came back, Sunshine. You fucking came back tosave me!”

It was an accusation if I’d ever heard one, and I couldn’t find a single word to say still.

Valentine lowered his shaking head. “It was always easy to plot and to not care, because I knew that nobody else did,either.” He looked up at me from under his lashes, a ghost of who he used to be.

And he whispered, “Then you came back. How was I to know that youcared,Sunshine?!”

His words broke me. Just when I thought I’d reached the limits, that I couldn’t possibly handle any more pain, the universe showed me that I could still endure. Because in those moments I caught a glimpse of the real him—a boy who didn’t really believe in love or caring or connection. I heard him,understoodhim, and I could barely stand on my feet.

“But you did,” I whispered because I was done being the fool now. I was done seeing the best in him, done making excuses. Doneunderstanding.

We are all responsible for our own actions, anyway.

“Youdidknow. You just didn’t want to believe it because…I don’t know why, Valentine. I don’t know what you’re planning—are you going to challenge Romin next? Or are you going to run away?” He made no sense to me still. As much as I understood some parts of him, I had no clue who Valentine was.

He laughed, just as bitterly as me, shaking his head. “Don’t be silly, Sunshine. The only way out of this place is banishment,” he whispered. “And Romin wouldn’t spare me. He’d go right for my neck.”

Tears in my eyes. “You banished him. You…you banished him.” Damn it, I would not cry in front of this man, so I blinked a million times until the tears moved back again.

“Don’t expect me to feel bad about Grey’s death, Sunshine. I won’t,” the asshole said, making my skin rise in goose bumps.

“You tried to kill me! You cheated. You…” I grabbed my head in my hands—how was it that nobody believed me when they’d all been there and had seen it with their own eyes?How?! “You tried to kill me,” I ended up whispering, completely defeated.

Valentine was right in front of me again, eyes wide and sincere—or I’d have believed so before I saw who he really was.

“I know this is difficult to believe. Trust me, I know, but I would never hurt you. Please don’t be afraid of me,” he insisted, and it just infuriated me more.

“You tried to kill me, damn it. Why won’t you admit it? Why did you lie to them about Faerie’s Aerie—why?!” Was he purposely trying to make me think I was mad? Was he trying to get me to lose my mind for real?

But Valentine lowered his head with a deep sigh and stayed perfectly silent for a moment, then said, “There are things I can’t explain to you, Sunshine, and it’s for the best. But you never have to be afraid of me. I swear I will not hurt you no matter what happens next. Please—pleasebelieve me.”

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