Page 67 of The Evernight Court

A long sigh escaped my lips. “Why do they do that, though? Why…why starve themselves?” The idea of Storm wasting away on a mountain killed me a little, too. He’d saved my life. Had lost an eye in the fight with Shadow, and now he was dying.

“Because dragons connect to their masters and they can’t live when the master dies. They say Mount Agva is like a second home for dragons—not just ones who go to starve themselves when their master dies, but ones who choose to live in exile, away from Dragon’s Den for one reason or the other.”

My brows shot up. “Dragons willingly come to live in the Whispering Woods, too?” I knew there were all kinds of Enchanted on this Isle, but I had no clue that included dragons, too.

“Yes, but only a few of them, I think. The Evernights welcome them so long as they stay on their mountain. Beats me why they even agree, to be honest. Agva is cold as hell. You can see it from about two towns over—it’s constantly full of snow. Basically, the only place on this Isle that even gets snow.”

Quinn pointed her thumb back and I turned to look at the woods, as if I was expecting to see the mountains I’d only ever seen from the distance when Grey took me flying in the rain that night.

My heart broke a little more at the memory.

“Is it that close?” If you could see the place from just two towns over, it had to be closer than I’d realized.

“You could probably get there in twenty-four hours, though I’ve never been,” Quinn said.

“That’s not a lot.” And this crazy idea occurred to me—what if I could go see Storm before he died, if he hadn’t already? What if I could convince him tonotdie instead?

He was a part of Grey, and if he was still alive, then Grey would be alive in a way, too.

Or maybe I could just saythank youfor saving my life.

“Why—you wanna go?” Quinn said, grinning. “I’ll take you for another bag of gold—just say the word.”

I shook my head, knowing how absurd the thought was. “Of course not.” I could barely keep myself safe in the castle. I was not ready to even explore the town properly, let alone go to a mountain full of dragons.

“He’d kill you, anyway,” Quinn said. “They lose all rational thought when their master is gone.”

I flinched. “Yes, I know.” Rominhad said as much, and I’d seen Storm hurting himself with my own eyes when Grey disappeared into the sky that morning. “It’s just my curiosity, that’s all.”

But even so, that night when I slept in the closet, more exhausted than I’d been in ages, I climbed mountains and got shredded by large dragon claws all night long in my nightmares.

Sixteen

I woke up feeling feverish,like a fire was burning inside of me. Like someone was blowing it my way constantly, and I could hardly breathe.

At first, I was confused—the Enchanted didn’t get sick by bugs and viruses, Quinn said one night. So why would I be feverish?

Then I remembered Emil.

Then I remembered Genevieve, and every inch of my skin was already crawling.

Magic. She’d given me magic in exchange for my blood.

“I actually did it,” I told Grey’s portrait, so shocked you’d think I hadn’t lived yesterday at all. “I…I did it, Grey.” I gave Genevieve my blood, and in return, she’d shocked me with her magic.

And if I focused, I could feel it inside me perfectly fine right now.

My hand shook when I raised it in front of my face and opened my palm. My mouth was dry, my heartbeat steady, my thoughts such a fucking mess that I couldn’t even focus. Icouldn’t pick one thing and stick to it, so I whispered to my hand, “Burn.”

The magic that was located all over my chest sort ofseparatedfrom itself and moved, lightning fast, down my arm and to my hand. I felt it, and in my mind’s eye I saw the flame burning clearly now, all other thoughts fading away.

A second later, that same small flame sparked into existence right over my palm.

My ears rang.

It was magic. I was doingmagic.

I brought my other hand in front of my open mouth to stop myself from screaming or from blowing that flame out by breathing on it too hard. I wanted to see how much I could make it grow first. I still wanted to see how brightly it could burn—and it moved. It fucking moved, dancing to the sides like it wanted to seduce me, and it grew at the same speed that it did in my mind.

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