Page 65 of The Evernight Court

Reaching for something behind her back, even though she only wore a white shirt that fell to her thighs over her black leggings, she produced a small glass bottle. It was a deep green, with silver vines wrapped around the strange bullet shape, and a silver lid on top. She opened it with her thumb and began to pour my blood inside it slowly.

“Which is why I insist, darling Fall, that we makethemfall to their knees. Which is why I insist that we should neveraccept weakness, but instead work for power every day of our lives.”

I shook my head, so desperate, sodisappointedwith both myself and the people I lived with. “Just give me the magic you promised, Genevieve. Your words don’t interest me.”

She wasn’t offended in the least.

“I could teach you more than a few things, Fall, but that only works if youwantto be taught. Safe to say you don’t.” When all of the blood I gave her was inside that green bottle, she put both away behind her back. When she brought her hands forward again, they were empty. “Less wasted time for me, so I am not complaining.” She came toward me, and she walked with such confidence, such a sudden rush, that I moved back, nearly slipping on the first stair and falling to my death.

Genevieve stopped moving. “I will not hurt you here today, Fall. You have my word. Come.” And she held out her hand toward me.

I didn’t want to. Common sense said I should be running away from her on all fours. I should be running like she was the goddamn devil—after all, it would take a lot for Mama Si to consider someone a threat. To want towarnme about them.

But I was done kidding myself by now. I was done hoping that I would somehow magically,naturallybecome strong enough to keep myself safe.

And most importantly, I was done hiding in that tower, afraid they’d come to do to me exactly what Emil had tried to do today. So, no, I didn’t hesitate again. I walked ahead with my head up and put my hand over Genevieve’s.

Enough of this nonsense. They would not make me tremble in fear again.

“My son wouldhatethis,” she suddenly whispered, like itjust occurred to her and the thought made her smile. My stomach flipped and my heart skipped too many beats at the thought of Grey.

Yes—considering how he’d spoken to me about this woman, he would most definitely hate this.

“Your son is dead.” The words tasted like dirt in my mouth, but I had to say them. I had to see the look in her eyes, to be reminded of who she was, just in case—amotherwho didn’t care about her own child.

Then Genevieve said, “Oh, he’s still alive.” Her fingertips touched my chin and raised my head even higher, then traced lines down my neck and to my collarbone as if she were searching for something.

“How do you know?” I asked as my heart slammed in my chest, both from her words and the touch of her hand on the sides of my neck now.

“He’s my son—of course, I know,” she said matter-of-factly. “Won’t be long now, though. Not long at all.” My eyes squeezed shut and I triednotto think about Grey somewhere, all alone, half dead already, waiting for it to be over. Waiting for the curse to kill him, knowing he couldn’t do anything to stop it. “I’m honestly surprised he lasted this long but, oh, well,” she whispered. “Ah—there. There it is.” And she pressed her middle finger to my good shoulder where it connected with my neck. “I sense your magic from here the most.”

I shook my head, suddenly uninterested in the magic. “How does it happen? Where…where is he right now?” I asked instead. Where would his body be when he died? Where was he waiting for his death?

Genevieve paused for a moment and met my eyes. “Where is who?”

It was like she’d genuinely forgotten what we were talking about—or maybe she wasn’t paying attention when we did?

“Grey.” Where the hell was Grey? Not that it mattered because I couldn’t leave this goddamn Isle anyway, but I wanted to know. Maybe it would make me feel better to know more.

Another long pause, and I could have sworn I saw regret and suspicion flashing in her blue eyes. But then she shrugged. “How should I know?”

It was a goddamn lie.

She grabbed my arm and pulled me to the side. “I will be giving you a charge of energy right here. It will hurt.”

“But then how do you know that he’s still alive?” I insisted. If she knew that, then she surely knewwhereGrey was. “Is he in the Seven Isles? Is he out there in the human world?”

Again, that pause that left no room for doubt in my mind that she was hiding something—and I was going to push her about it until she told me. Except she beat me to it.

“Brace yourself.” And she pressed her finger onto my shoulder hard.

Pain unlike any I’d ever felt before slipped into my body all at once. So damn sudden. It broke me apart and it stung and it burned and it froze every drop of my blood in my veins. I screamed, even though it didn’t last. I screamed my heart out even though Genevieve stepped back not three seconds later, with a single drop of blood coming out her nose.

I held onto my arm like I was sure it would fall off me any second as the foreign energy that was now inside my body consumed me. It consumed every single inch of me and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

“What have you done to me?!” I said through gritted teeth, trying to see my shoulder better, but there was nothing there. My skin was unbroken, not even a bit red.

“What I said I would do, darling. I gave you magic—my own magic to strengthen yours.” And she slowly raised herhand to wipe the blood off her nose. “I haven’t done this in so long. It’s so…liberating.”

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