Page 90 of The Evernight Court

“I’m really not.” And I looked down at my body—at my jacket and my bag and the fur coat.

She looked, too, and once more, her brows rose to the middle of her forehead. “What the fuck? Are you insane?! You’re going to get killed!”

Just like that, the tiny amount of patience I’d brought with me ran all out.

I rolled my eyes. “As if you care.”

“Of course, I care, you?—”

“I know, Quinn,” I cut her off. “I know.”

The look in her eyes confirmed it, even though it only lasted a split second before she recovered.

I’d never been very good at reading micro expressions on people’s faces, and I hadn’t even realized how much that had changed until now. Until I started to actually pay attention.

“Know what?” Quinn said, just like I knew she would.

“I know you didn’t accidentally happen to follow me and trap me. I know you’re not my friend.” I had never really let myself trust Quinn, but it still surprised me. I still wished she had been real.

She shook her head, but her cheeks betrayed her when they turned a slight pink. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I smiled. “He sent you.” Valentine had sent her all along. “He sent you to train me, didn’t he.” Because he wanted to help me. He was still watching out for me, even when I thought he was going to kill me the first chance he got.

Valentine fucking Evernight—the most unpredictable person I’d ever met in my life. So typical.

“I—”

“Please don’t bother trying to deny it—you’re only wasting my time here,” I told Quinn. “And I don’t care. I never trusted you anyway. I don’t care why you did what you did, but Valentine is gone, as I’m sure you know. And I need to get to Mount Agva,now.”

“You can’t be serious,” she whispered. “Do you know what that place is even like? If you don’t freeze to death, you’ll be fucking eaten or incinerated by the dr?—”

“Fine,” I cut her off, taking a step back. “I’ll just find someone else to take me.” I had the gold coins. I’d pay people not to ask questions, too. Anything it took.

But before I moved a single step in the town’s direction again, Quinn said, “Wait!” And she raised both hands toward me. “Hold on a second. Just hold on!”

I did. “Yes?”

“Why?” She looked really frustrated, cheeks flushed and glistening eyes wide. “Why do you want to go to Mount Agva—why?!”

“Reasons.”

“Whatreasons?!” she said, exasperated.

Closing my eyes, I took in a deep breath and I reminded myself that I needed her still, that she was safer than anybody else I could find in this town.

“Reasons I cannot reveal to you. All I can tell you is that Romin knows, and I need to get to that mountain by tomorrow, or we will all be in big trouble.”

There. I lied through my teeth, even knowing that Quinn had a sense for truths. I lied, and so what if she caught me? She’d been lying to me since the day we met.

“Master Romin knows,” she repeated, so suspicious I thought for sure she was going to call me out on my bullshit.

“He does,” I said with a nod anyway, and I sounded so sure I was tempted to believe myself.

But Romindidknow, didn’t he? He knew that Storm wasin Agva, and he also knew that Grey was in whatever place the eighth mirror showed.

Technically speaking, Romin really knew.

Quinn squinted her eyes at me for a second… “I don’t get it. But why? Why won’t he go himself?!”

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