Page 85 of The Evernight Court

Grey.

That silhouette was Grey, and I knew it with such certainty I would bet my whole life on it.

My hand shook so badly when I reached for the mirror again, and as I did, I touched the cold metal of the necklace around my neck, the one that the witches had given me. The one that had brought me here. The one that was supposed toshow me what I wanted most.

I hardly saw the crystal now, trapped between the gold, from all those tears pooled in my eyes. “What I want most,” I whispered to the empty room.

It had shown me what I wanted most, and it wasn’t my goddamn freedom. It wasn’tsafety—I couldn’t care less about any of it.

What I wanted most was Grey—except I hadn’t even considered that that was a possibility because Grey was banished. Grey was gone for good, and nothing anyone did could bring him back, not even Romin.

But that mirror…

My God, that mirror said otherwise. I knew the shape of him in my sleep. I knew the shape of him even if I saw him among a billion men who looked like him. It washim.

The tears kept on coming, and I blinked rapidly, eyes on the darkness of the mirror as reality slowly dawned on me. As three words invaded every cell in my body and became the center of the universe for me, just three words that I now breathed for.

Grey is alive.

Eventually I sat down on the floor and rested my back to the couch because my legs refused to carry me still, and all those tears that had come out of me in silence had exhausted me completely. I didn’t close my eyes, though. I just stared at that mirror and waited for it to show me Grey one more time—because it wasn’t fucking broken.

Oh, no, not broken at all. Valentine had lied to me through his teeth—and it hadn’t been the first or last time. That mirror showed another Isle, just like the rest of them. TheEighthIsle, and that’s where Grey was.

Alive. Standing, with his wings spread wide.

Alive, yet I couldn’t get to him, couldn’t walk through this fucking mirror and into that darkness, to that flashing light that had revealed him to me. I was stuck here on this fucking Isle surrounded by snakes, spending every second and every ounce of my energy trying to survive, even though I knew that it would all be useless when Romin’s patience ran out.

They’d turn on me, and I was all alone, even though Grey was still alive somewhere in the world. I couldn’t leave this Isle no matter how much magic I harnessed or used. I couldn’t fucking get to him.

But…

Everything came to a halt and my ears suddenly rang, my mind wiped of all other thoughts. The idea struck me like a slap to the face.

I couldn’t get to Grey, to wherever that mirror showed—that was absolutely true.

But I knew someone who could.

Nineteen

“I have a plan.”

My voice sounded so different as I spoke those words out loud—or maybe it was just me?

“I have a…a plan,” I told Grey’s portrait again, then touched his cheek painted on the canvas. “You’re alive, and I have a plan.” A plan that was most definitely going to get me killed, but it was a plan, nonetheless. That’s what mattered, wasn’t it?

“I’m going to Mount Agva, Grey,” I whispered. “I’m going to find Storm.”

My head hurt so much it was threatening to fucking explode with so many unfiltered, unfinished thoughts.

“Yes, yes, I know!” I said to my own self. “I know Storm is insane now and he could be dead—I know that! But he’s a dragon, and dragons can go throughthe fucking mirrors!”

But the buzzing didn’t stop. My thoughts turned even louder instead.

“Stop!” I shouted, squeezing my eyes shut and grabbing my hair in my hands, hoping a bit of pain was going to make it easier to focus. But it didn’t, because those questions wereeverywhere, and they showed me exactly how impossible this silly idea of mine was.

How are you even going to find your way?my mind asked me.

You think Romin will just let you leave?

---