Chapter 33
He was watchingme from the other side of the hallway like a fucking hawk.
Light eyes and thick brows narrowed, hair perfectly disheveled, a new unripped shirt covering his wide shoulders—and I cursed myself a million times for leaving my room for lunch. I should have stayed inside. Who needed food? I certainly didn’t, not when Grey Evernight was waiting for me right near the corner that led to the dining room, leaning against the wall with his hands in his pockets and his eyes on me.
Just when I’d decided that I was going to keep away from him no matter what. Just when I’d decided to spend all my time in my room when Valentine wasn’t around, he finally came for me.
He was going to make me go with him to wherever he wanted to take me, and he was going to make me talk to him and drink with him and walk with him—no.
Not when he scared me shitless—for all kinds of fucked up reasons. Not when I’d thought about him as much as I had since that night.
Stupid curiosity.
Instinct took over. I turned around and walked back to where I came from, around the corner and toward the stairway of the fifth tower.
Please, please, please?—
“Stop.”
I stopped dead in my tracks like someone had pressed pause on my body. Grey’s voice, thick and dark, filled my ears and sent ice-cold chills all over me. Fuck, the way my heart was tripping all over itself…
Closing my eyes, I focused on breathing, on slowing my heartbeat as much as I could while he came closer.
Before the minute was over, Grey was in front of me, looking down at me like I was both his favorite snack and a deadly threat to his life.
My control flew out the window.
“Are you running from me, Fall?”
Oh, God… “No,” I forced myself to say. “I’m actually not feeling well. I was just going back to my room.”
“Why? What’s the matter?” He looked down at my body like he was analyzing my insides, and once he realized the shirt I wore was a dark green, he actually had the decency to look disappointed.
Couldn’t blame him—I’d worn blue because he’d liked it on me two days in a row, and I couldn’t even explain to myself why.
“Just that time of the month soon,” I muttered.
Grey arched a perfect brow. “You were on your period two weeks ago.”
Ah, shit.
I swallowed hard. “Must be ovulation then.”
“Must be,” he said, looking at my cheeks that were quite possibly steaming.
Again, he looked like a different person right now—not the hostile guy you didn’t want to be even looking at for fear you’d provoke him just by existing. Instead, he seemed curious—even more curious about me than that night I saw him in the kitchen. As curious as I was about the inside of his head.
Don’t look at his face, don’t look at his face, don’t fucking look at his face…I chanted in my head, knowing I’d lose the battle if I focused on him harder because he was absolutely breathtaking. Such a fucking sin for a monster like him to look like this, to lure me in better than that siren did in the ocean.
“I want to show you something I made for you,” Grey said after a second, and my heart fell all the way to my heels. “You think you can spare a moment for me when you’re feeling better?”
“Of course,” I choked, both terrified and thankful that he would let me go for now, at least.
Because the thoughts in my mind were a mess, and my body was even worse.
The simple truth was that, whatever it was about him, I was not ready for Grey yet. God, I was not ready for him at all. I couldn’t trust myself to be around him, not until I’d gotten my body under control and killed this stupid attraction and impossible curiosity about him that burned me from the inside.
“Then I will fi?—”
“Grey, darling.”
We both turned toward the other end of the hallway, and I was sure I was just hearing things because I thought I recognized the voice.
It was Genevieve wearing her white shawl around her shoulders, the ends of which touched the floor lightly as she walked—and her bare feet.
“Mother,” Grey said, just as shocked as I was. I’d considered maybe I was seeing things because of my desperation to escape this situation, but she was definitely there.
“I need you for a bit upstairs. Do you mind, darling?” Genevieve said with a bright smile on her face, her hair loose around her head, silver and curly like it was made out of satin.
Brows narrowed, Grey turned to me, and he was back to being his usual self, the guy people turned away from at first glance.
But even so, when he spoke to me, his voice was soft. “Please excuse me, Fall.”
“Of course,” I said again, owning no other words in my vocabulary at the moment.
Regretful. Grey looked fucking regretfully at me for one last time, and he started walking toward Genevieve, who smiled at him just like a mother does at her child.
Until that moment I’d had a very hard time thinking of him as her son, but now I saw it. Same jawline. Same round cheeks. Same straight brows without an arch.
“Go ahead, darling. I’ll be right there,” said Genevieve with a light touch on his arm as he passed her by. Grey threw one look back at me quickly, then disappeared around the corner without a word.
I forced a smile on my face as the woman came closer. She was a bit taller than me, which I hadn’t realized while we were sitting down in her sky room. “So good to see you, Genevieve.” Especially since most days I was convinced I’d made her up.
“It’s good to see you, too, Fall. I really must go soon, but I just wanted to say I adore how the amethyst looks on your finger. It has already made such a difference on you.” With the same genuine smile, she raised a hand to my cheek but never actually touched me.
“Thank you. I never take it off anymore,” I said, looking down at the ring she’d gifted me. And I meant it—I never took it off, not even when I bathed.
“I’m glad,” Genevieve said, putting her hands to her heart as she slowly started to move backward, making not a single sound as if she were gliding on the hardwood floor, not stepping on it.
“Wait—can’t you stay? How are you? You look well,” I said because she was so full of positive energy and I was desperate for some of it to rub off on me.
But she shook her head. “I’m afraid I can’t do that, Fall. But keep wearing that ring. It becomes you,” she said, going closer and closer to the corner. “Remind me because I forget—did I tell you that that amethyst is magical?”
“I—what?” Surprised, I raised my brows.
“Yes, magical,” Genevieve said. “It’s undetectable, and it can turn you perfectly invisible to everything when you’re not in the Whispering Woods. Not physically, mind you, but magically. Even the curse wouldn’t be able to find you at all.” And she winked.
“Oh.” What the fuck was I supposed to say to that? “No, I didn’t know that.”
She leaned her head against the wall of the corner, half her body disappeared around it already. She looked at me like a loving mother, too. I don’t know why that broke my heart a little, but I no longer tried to follow after her.
“Do you know another thing I’m curious about, though?”
“Uh…no. What are you curious about?” If I knew something she didn’t, there was no harm in telling her, was there? She’d been here so much longer than me, anyway.
“What changed?” she said as she stared at the floor, almost like she was talking to herself.
“About what?”
“About you, Fall. Why are the brothers so desperate for you so suddenly?” Every hair on my body was suddenly standing at attention. “Grey, I understand. Valentine, too—but the rest, why? What changed?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know.” I hadn’t even thought about it at all, to be honest.
She squinted her eyes at me. “Aren’t you curious, though?”
Well, of course, I was curious. I was curious about everything all the damn time! “I-I-I—wait!”
Genevieve slipped around the corner. “Take care, Fall!” she sang, her voice already distant, and I knew that even if I chased after her, I wouldn’t catch her. The way she glided on the floor was insane, and my feet were stuck to it, my mind a vortex all of a sudden. I couldn’t focus on a single thought for a long time.
Eventually, I made my way back to the fifth tower and straight to my room because there was no way I could eat lunch now without throwing up. And since Valentine was back from Mount Erid, I’d just wait for him to come find me after dinner so we could go to the theatre, and I could play this madness away on the piano.
I fixed my makeup.I combed my hair nicely—it didn’t even take effort to make my natural waves stand in place now. It had also grown at least an inch since I came here. No frizz, just shine. And my skin hadn’t seen a pimple since I’d been thrown into the darkness of the Whispering Woods by a dragon.
Not that it mattered, really, but it was something to think about. Something to keep my mind occupied so it didn’t wonder about the castle, the brothers, about Grey and Genevieve and her words. The ring was on my finger—such a beautiful piece. Invisible, she said. Invisible to any magic, even the curse.
Beautiful, yes, but it looked so ordinary I almost laughed. Maybe Genevieve had been messing with me. Because if she hadn’t, I’d be tempted to think, why? Why would she give me something that was surely extremely valuable? Why would she bother?
A knock on my door.
Ring and makeup and everything else forgotten, I shot to my feet and I basically ran to it, forgetting a lot of things—like it was still just four p.m. and we didn’t go to the theatre until after dinner.
I was wearing one of the dresses they’d put in my closet, not my usual pants because I’d gotten nostalgic about that short time in which I actually enjoyed dressing up. It was a simple cut, V neck, thick straps, a slit that went up to my thigh, and the hem lightly grazed the floor around my feet. The color of it was a rich green, though, which suited me perfectly. It was in my color palette, as Adam had taught me once, so it made everything about my face look more lively.
Only when I opened the door and saw Valentine’s wide eyes did I remember I had it on.
Valentine definitely noticed. That’s why he froze in place.
“I was just trying it on,” I muttered, crossing my arms in front of my chest. “Why are you here so early?”
The little dragon landed on his shoulder as if he, too, were curious to see why Valentine wasn’t moving or blinking or talking yet.
“Hi, Shadow,” I said, just to give him a moment to collect himself.
“I haven’t seen you in a dress since the day you came here, Sunshine,” Valentine whispered. “You look like a dream.”
Impossible not to smile. “Smooth, Mr. Evernight. Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome,” he said with that wicked grin.
I shook my head, but I was still smiling. “Are we going to the theatre already?”
“No, actually,” he said. “I wanted to show you something if you’re not busy. Right now.”
Busy, he said. I’d have laughed if I wasn’t pretending.
“Nope. I’m free right now. Nothing on my agenda.”
“Good,” he said, then his eyes scrolled down my body again. “That dress was made for you, Sunshine, but you might want to take it off before we leave. You’ll need more practical clothing for where you’re going.”
My brows shot up. “Oh?”
He waved at the room. “Go on. Go change. And hurry.”
I did.
Before three minutes were over, I was at the door again, wearing a pair of stretchy black pants and a grey shirt, just like usual.
“Jacket, just in case,” said Valentine when he saw me. He was resting against the wall opposite my door, arms crossed, wearing Shadow’s tail as a necklace as the dragon relaxed on his shoulder.
It struck me that he was so young.
Grey wasn’t old, either—thirty-five from what the brides said, but Valentine looked like a teenager in comparison.
And fuck if I knew why I was making said comparison.
Without a word, I went back in and grabbed my leather jacket, feeling as if I had drunk a cup full of fucking lava.
“Get a shawl to cover your hair, too. The red one,” Valentine called from the hallway while I was still coming out of my closet.
“I don’t—” have a red shawl, I was going to say because I really didn’t think I did, but then I looked at the rack where five different shawls were folded neatly, and I realized I did, in fact, have a dark red shawl at the very end.
“How the hell did you know?” I asked when I came out, the soft cashmere almost melting against my hands. It really was a gorgeous thing, the red of it dark, the ends of it tied into knots.
“I know what you have in your closet,” he said matter-of-factly. “Come on. Let’s go.”
He started walking down the hallway and Shadow leaped in the air, stretching his wings wide as he flew soundlessly.
“Are we going outside?” I wondered, rushing to reach them.
“You’ll see,” Valentine said. “Let’s hurry. Romin and Grey aren’t in the castle right now.”
My heart did a flip. Where are they? I wanted to ask but clamped my mouth shut. If he wanted to hurry up because Romin and Grey weren’t here, that meant he was doing something he wasn’t supposed to be doing.
Excitement shot throughout me instantly together with fear, but when we descended the stairs and went down the third hallway, I recognized where he was taking me—the mirror room.
No problem with me. I loved that place, had come back to it with him a couple of times, as well as with the brides. Today, though, Valentine seemed to be extra cautious, looking on all sides, sniffing the air, straining his ears, and even Shadow was constantly flying in circles ahead of us at every corner, as if he wanted to make sure that our way was clear.
“Why so secretive, huh?” I asked when we finally went through the old wooden door that was as thick as me. The mirror room was empty, still as mysterious as that first time, with darkness around the center where the mirrors were placed. But since my eyesight had gotten better, now I could see the walls made out of stone perfectly fine. The room was basically a cave and it didn’t even have any corners.
Valentine pulled me between the mirrors without a word, and the light coming off them felt heavenly against my eyes, like even my eyeballs had missed the sunlight without my realizing it at all.
How long had it been since I was in the mirror room, anyway? Must have been over a week.
He pulled me to the middle and sat me down on the round couch, right in front of Dragons’ Den, the mirror showing the bright blue sky and the side of the mountain, while a few dragons flew in the distance.
“Listen to me, Sunshine. I’m going to tell you something today, and I need you to promise me that you’ll keep it to yourself no matter what happens, okay?”
I blinked. “Okay, now you’re kind of scaring me.” He really was. The way he was looking at me, eyes wide and dark and panicked. Valentine was never panicked.
“Promise me, Sunshine,” he said, grabbing my hands in his.
“I promise, yes,” I said automatically. “What is it? What’s going on? Is everything okay?”
Valentine raised a hand to touch my cheek, and he smiled but it was forced. “Pick an Isle, Sunshine,” he then whispered. “Pick an Isle and you’re free to go there.” Then he nodded his head to the side—to the mirrors.
I was pretty sure I heard him wrong. “Excuse me?”
“Pick any of the Seven Isles, and you’ll be able to get there through these mirrors. For the whole day. You can stay there until nightfall. You can leave the Whispering Woods.”
My mouth opened and closed about a million times. “You’re joking.” He was fucking joking—no way was he telling me the truth.
He shook his head. “I’m really not.”
“Then you’re teasing me.” He had to be.
“No, Sunshine. It’s not a joke, it’s real. Romin and Grey aren’t here, and Tristian and Emil are busy. You get this half day only. So…” He stood up and pulled me by the hands, then spun me around to face the mirrors, his hands on my shoulders as he slowly turned me toward each. “Pick an Isle. Any is fine, but I’ll have to suggest you stay away from Sirens’ Lair.”
I forgot to even blink as I looked at the shiny, bright surfaces of the other five isles. “I don’t…I don’t understand.” He was joking with me, or he was maybe testing me, but there was no way this was real.
“You’re free for today. The curse will still keep you in the Isles, but you can leave this castle. You can leave the Whispering Woods. You can visit the other Isles. You can be in sunlight again, Sunshine. Now—before the Blood Call.”
I shook my head and turned to him, desperate to understand. “But why? Why would you…why?”
He wasn’t supposed to be doing this. And if Romin found out, what the hell would he do to Valentine?
He took my face in his hands, coming closer. “Because it’s the best I can give you.”
I held onto his wrists, shaking my head, trying to understand better. And he was coming closer and closer, his eyes locked on my lips.
“Valentine,” I warned because he was coming in for a kiss, and he knew how I felt about this. About him.
“I know, Sunshine. I know you don’t want me like that. As much as it sucks, I’ve made my peace with it.” He smiled sadly. “But how about a kiss before you go?”
Before you go.
I was actually leaving the Whispering Woods.
Oh, my God. No way could I think to speak in time, and Valentine took that as a yes.
The next second, he slammed his lips to mine.
My mind was wiped completely clean instantly. I was kissing Valentine Evernight.
He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me to his chest. He held me there tightly, and it didn’t feel so bad at all. In fact, it felt amazing to be held with such urgency, to be kissed so gently. Even though I didn’t have those kinds of feelings for Valentine, he was still hot as fuck.
And while he slipped his tongue in my mouth just slightly, it occurred to me I’d never felt so warm and fuzzy with Brandon either, even though I’d been so sure I was attracted to him.
But most importantly, it occurred to me that he was the only guy I’d ever kissed in my whole life, so when Valentine let go of my lips and pressed his forehead to mine, he found me smiling.
“What? What is it?” he whispered, pushing my hair away from my face.
“Nothing. I’m just thinking how you’re the second guy I’ve kissed in my life.” And I had no idea why that was so damn funny.
So sad.
Valentine grinned. “In the ideal world, I’d have been your first and only,” he said, but he was teasing me.
“Show me that ideal world and I’ll follow you to it blindly.” Because the world we lived in was far, far from it.
“I can’t do that, unfortunately. That world isn’t real. The stuff of fantasies,” Valentine said, pressing his lips to my forehead before he let go of me and I stepped back, my lips still warm. It had been a good kiss. I would remember it forever.
“Thanks for that.” I touched his cheek. “You’re pretty okay for a bloodsucking vampire.”
This time, he was the one laughing. “Why, thank you, Sunshine. I don’t think I’ve ever received a more humbling compliment,” he said, shaking his head. “But you have to get going. There’s no time.”
Time.
The word rang in my ears.
The room we were in came into focus again, as if I’d forgotten all about it. The mirrors. The other Isles. Valentine’s promise that I could actually feel sunlight on my skin again.
“Until nightfall,” I whispered, looking at the blue skies in the mirrors in wonder.
“Yes, just today. Until nightfall,” Valentine confirmed.
I could be free until nightfall, but that wasn’t what was making my stomach twist and turn so violently, though. It was the ring around my finger that suddenly weighed a million pounds.
“Valentine, if they find out?—”
“Nobody’s going to find out,” he cut me off.
“And if they do?” I insisted.
“They won’t,” he said again. “Don’t worry about that part, Sunshine. Just pick an Isle and go.”
“But…but…” Confusion made a mess out of my insides. It was so chaotic in my mind I had no clue what I was even thinking.
“You only have so many hours,” Valentine said. “Won’t you rather spend them out there?” And he looked at me with so much hope, like he wished he could be the one spending his hours away from here.
“Can’t you come with me?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer.
“I can’t get through the mirrors if I tried. I’m tied to the Whispering Woods.” He then leaned down to grab the shawl that had fallen off me and I hadn’t even noticed.
“When should I be back?” I asked, my voice small, barely a whisper, as other ideas, bright ideas developed in my mind at an incredible rate.
“Before midnight would be ideal. I’ll be waiting,” Valentine said. “Be careful out there, Sunshine. Don’t tell anyone your name or where you come from, okay?”
“They won’t be able to tell?” Because I was pretty sure I stood out like a sore thumb among everyone around here, including the brides.
“I don’t think so. A lot of people visit different Isles all the time. Have you picked one yet?” said Valentine, turning to the mirrors again.
And I realized, this was real. I was really doing this.
My eyes searched the mirrors one by one.
Witches’ Wing. Dragons’ Den. Skinwalker Soil… “Faeries’ Aerie,” I said almost reluctantly. The Blood Burrow was out of the question—I would not come face-to-face with Mama Si again, knowing what she could do. How easily she could manipulate me without batting an eye and feeling no remorse whatsoever. The other Isles all looked good, but the faeries intrigued me the most. They had wings. They had colorful hair. They were magic, and I wanted to see them from closer up so badly.
“Good,” Valentine said. “Boats come to Faeries’ Aerie all the time with travelers from the other Isles. They sell the best spices and the most powerful magical herbs. You can pretend to be searching for something in their market.” He pointed at the large rock upon which the town of the faeries was built. “Yes, Faeries’ Aerie will do,” he concluded, talking to himself more than me.
“Are you sure about this, Valentine?” I asked, as one of those bright ideas forced me to stop and look at him again. Really look at him.
Forget that we were friends or that we’d just shared a kiss—did I really trust this guy? Was he going to throw me under the bus? Mama Si had and I hadn’t suspected a thing. Was he trying to play some kind of game that I was too naive to recognize?
“I’m sure that you need it,” Valentine said, grabbing my hand in his, running the pad of his thumb over the purple amethyst of Genevieve’s ring.
That same ring that apparently made me invisible to magic, even to the curse that tied me to the Isles.
“I’m sure it wasn’t fair that you ended up here and even less so that you have to stay.”
The look in his darkened eyes said so much to me in that moment. It was almost like he knew. He knew exactly what the ring could do, and I almost told him what Genevieve said. The words were right there, at the tip of my tongue.
But then I had the good sense to keep my mouth shut.
“It isn’t fair, Sunshine. And again, this is all I can offer you until the Blood Call. Then, you’ll be stuck here forever, too, just like me,” Valentine said.
My heart kept on breaking.
“Thank you,” I choked, not sure what the hell to even say at that point—but I would not be telling him the truth. I wouldn’t tell him that if I could actually make it to Faeries’ Aerie for real, he would never see me again. My mind was busy plotting ahead already—I’d find a way off the Isle and back to the real world if the curse didn’t stop me. I’d swim all the way to land if I had to—I would not be returning to the Whispering Woods again.
“There’s no need to thank me,” Valentine said, raising my hand to kiss my knuckles as if he knew exactly what went on inside my head. “Shadow will come with you just until he makes sure you’re safe. Then, you’ll be on your own.”
Fuck, he knew. He knew exactly what I was going to do.
“What if Romin and Grey return?”
There went my heart again, skipping too many beats at the mentioning of his name. It was the fear, I knew it was. Grey looked like he could ruin this whole castle with a wave of his fucking hand, so much more dangerous than any other creature I’d ever come across. Even more so than fucking Balthazar. Of course, I was afraid—it was only natural.
So why was I suddenly hurting to think that I would never actually know what he’d made for me?
That’s what he’d said last night, hadn’t he? He’d said that he made me something.
Why the hell did I care to know what it was?
“I’ll handle them. You go,” Valentine said, pulling me out of my ridiculous thoughts. Then he turned me toward the mirror. “Now, Sunshine. Close your eyes and step into the mirror. It will take you where you need to go.”
My heart about broke out of my ribcage. I could hardly breathe, but my eyes were stuck on the bright blue sky above the large rock that was Faeries’ Aerie, and the promise of freedom was so powerful it got me moving, even though part of me didn’t want to. Part of me was too afraid of the unknown.
“Go,” Valentine whispered from behind me, and Shadow was already flying, moving closer to us from the ceiling before he simply slipped into the mirror like I’d seen him do that first time I saw this place.
I turned to Valentine once more, rose on my tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “Thank you,” I said again.
He gave me a small smile.
Without allowing myself another chance to overthink, I stopped in front of the mirror.
Drawing in a deep breath, I closed eye yes and I walked right into it.