Page 99 of The Evernight Court

How?!

When he looked at me, it was like he’d forgotten I was even there. “I did what others should have done, long,longbefore me.” Putting away that small bottle in his pocket again, he raised his hands toward the ceiling of the cave. “And I am just getting started.”

The magic that came out of his hands was twice as powerful as mine had been the first day I came here and tried to break out. Valentine’s dark eyes glistened, and a small smile played on his lips, his boyish face now changed.Matured.It had only been a few weeks since I’d seen him, but Valentine had already changed so much.

And I had no clue what the hell he was trying to do here, but I was sure it wasn’t anything good.

That was all I needed to know to get me to move toward him again. If I could knock him out, I could take him to my cave and I could force him to tell me everything.

And I genuinely thought I’d be able to do that with ease because I kept forgetting the state I was in. I kept forgetting how little of me was left on this Isle, and how much the curse had sucked out of me already.It had taken my energy and my magic. I was barely running.

Then the magic exploded all around Valentine, and it hit me square in the face and chest when I was still too far away to touch him. It hit me hard and threw me in the air, and I landed against the wall on my side, then dropped to the floor on my front. I had no hopes that I’d be able to even talk to him, ask a question, say a single word, but I did think that I’dbe able to make it to my feet again just as soon as the pain in my body faded away somewhat.

I was wrong.

The pain faded away, but my body became perfectly paralyzed as more and more magic made the air around me heavy. My eyes were closed, and I couldn’t open them. My lips were sealed, and I couldn’t force Valentine to tell me what he’d done. I couldn’t force him to tell me about Fall—had he hurt her? Was she okay?

Had anyone laid their fucking hands on her?!

My mind gave up on me with the image of her terrified face at the center of it.

I had never felt more worthless in my entire existence.

Twenty-Three

Fall Hayes

My eyes openedand I sat up, completely disoriented, my heart about to beat right out of my chest. The image of Grey’s face in my mind was already blurry, and it had only been a few hours since I last saw his portrait, but I could have sworn that I heard him calling my name. I could have sworn that I heard his whisper in my ear, even if it made no sense.

Something moved to the side, and only when I heard that sound did I realize, it wasitthat had woken me. We’d laid down to rest under a large willow tree at the edge of a forest, and it had been very silent here, but now it sounded like something falling was on the tall grass, something was rolling—and then a small shape moved fast to my right, rising toward the nearest branch.

“Shadow.”

It was Shadow—Valentine’s dragon. The same dragon that should have been in Mount Agva by now, starvinghimself to death because his master was banished. Because his master was as good as dead.

Yet he was here, and though I could hardly see from the small fire Quinn had lit up between us, I could have sworn his mouth was bloody, like he’d just eaten. Or like he’d just attacked someone. Had hurt someone. Hadkilledthem.

His thin, long tongue came out to lick his jaws as Shadow looked at me, tail moving to the sides like always.

“Smells like fresh meat.”

I didn’t even jump at the sound of Quinn’s voice. She’d been asleep a moment ago, but she’d probably heard the same noise as me and she was now sitting up, too, eyes on Shadow.

“I think he just killed an animal that was trying to sneak up on us.” His size had never gotten in the way of Shadow before. He’d even managed to eat one of Storm’s eyes and Storm was twenty times his size, if not more. And that snake he’d killed in the castle yard that morning…

“Oh, I know he did. I heard it all,” Quinn said, rising on her knees as she moved closer to the fire to warm her hands, her eyes still on the dragon. “No wonder nothing’s attacking us. He’s keeping us safe.”

Yes, that’s what he does,I wanted to say.

Except it was so damn confusing. Shadow had always been behind me since I came to the Woods—I’d even named him that because of it. But then he’d also come for me at the clearing that morning like he’d meant to kill me, but…hehadn’t reallywanted to? It had all been just pretend?

So damn confusing.

“We should get going,” I said, pushing the coat of the skinwalkers that I’d used as a cover off my body.

“Yes, we should. I think we’ll get there much sooner if we don’t have to stop and check the perimeter for wild animals every hour.” She winked at me. “Plus, there’s fresh meat anytime something tries to attack us. I’ll be right back.”

While she went to search for whatever Shadow had killed over there by the trees, I folded the coat and grabbed some cheese and bread from my bag and ate as fast as I could. I only had one bottle of water and I tried to ration my sips as best as I could so that it lasted me all the way to that mountain.

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