Chapter 25

Their words spunaround my mind still. I didn’t pay attention to where I was going, just let Valentine lead me to a dark hallway. His dragon wasn’t on his shoulder right now but behind us, moving so silently, like he was a damn shadow on the walls.

“What’s the matter?” Valentine said after a minute. “Did they upset you?”

“What—no, no, of course not. They just…” My voice trailed off when it dawned on me that he could literally hear my heart beating. “We just talked. They told me about you and your brothers. And them.”

Valentine threw me a look. “And?”

“And nothing. They’re happy. They all want to be here.” He’d already said as much, but it still surprised me. I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that they’d willingly accepted to be offered as child-bearing subjects and blood-vending machines for vampires. Vampires.

“Yes, they are. They’re basically the queens of the Evernight Court,” Valentine said, making me flinch.

“They’re fucking snacks and baby-makers!” And there’s at least two of them for each brother—how was nobody else freaked out by all of this? How?!

Laughter burst out of Valentine and he brought a hand to his mouth as if to contain it, just as surprised as I was. He was laughing, shoulders shaking though no more sound was coming out of him. For whatever reason, that made me smile for a moment, until I caught myself.

“Right, so,” I said, clearing my throat. “They also told me you’re twenty-four, and you just got your dragon and that you’re probably not going to get…you know, a bride.” Fuck. I stopped and flinched properly as shivers ran down the length of me. That word… “You won’t get one for the first years. They also?—”

“They’re wrong,” he cut me off, and he was most definitely not smiling anymore.

“Well, that’s what they said. I’m no expert on vampire affairs.”

“You’re mine, Sunshine,” he said, and again, I got those same shivers.

“I’m not?—”

That’s as far as I could get before he was in front of me, those eyes pouring darkness into mine. “Let me repeat that so it gets through that beautiful head of yours—you belong to me. I don’t care who said what or what it was like for my brothers. I don’t care if it has never happened before in the history of this Court—you’re mine.” He gave me a second to let that sink in, and I wasn’t even breathing. “How’s that? Clear enough?” A sneaky smile spread on his lips, and no matter how hot he was, it still pissed me off.

“So, you’re just going to force me? You’re going to make me submit to you?” My voice shook and I hated that I was showing weakness in front of this man—no, this predator.

“Never,” he said, watching my lips like they were the most sacred thing he’d ever laid eyes on. “I will never force anything on you that you don’t want. I’m not going to make you submit to me, but I will do everything in my power to make you want to.”

“I won’t,” I spit, just because he still sounded like he believed his own words.

But the asshole smiled wide. “I think you will, Sunshine. I think you’ll beg me to take you.” Suddenly, his fingers gripped the side of my waist, squeezing my ribs until I couldn’t breathe anymore, his eyes so bloodshot. I was too shocked to move or make a single sound when he growled, “Mine,” like a real beast.

“Back. Off,” I hissed when I found my voice, and I tried to push him back, too.

The problem was, I’d have had a better chance moving a fucking mountain.

“As you wish,” Valentine whispered, finally stepping away and letting me breathe again.

“And I will do anything in my power to make it out of here even if it kills me. I will run away even if it costs me my life. I’d rather die than wait to be eaten in this fucking horror house.”

Unfortunately, my words didn’t faze him at all. “Trust me, Sunshine, if there was a way off this Isle without dying, we would be long gone.”

“Not we. I’m talking about myself.” If he thought I’d take him with me, he really was fucked up in the head.

“Once the magic of the spell connects with you, it doesn’t let you go anymore. There is no way out. No way,” he said. His every word rang true. My stomach twisted again, and all that delicious food I’d eaten was going to end up on the floor in front of his feet any second now.

Goddamn it, how did I let myself get here?

“Come with me,” Valentine said after a minute, offering me his hand again. “I want to show you something.”

I walked ahead with my chin up without touching him, praying with all my heart that this nightmare ended soon.

“What’s that?”

The door he led me to opened to a narrow corridor with absolutely no light in it. None.

“It’s okay. Don’t be afraid—it’s just us,” Valentine said, offering me his hand again.

I crossed my arms in front of my chest. “Yes—that is precisely my problem.” He was here with me, and he seemed to be under the impression that I would trust him, just because he claimed me for himself and promised me that nobody was going to hurt me.

The asshole pulled his lips halfway into his mouth to stop from smiling, and still failed. “Then I promise that I won’t hurt you if you come with me—how’s that?”

“Not good enough. Promise you won’t come near me or touch me at all.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Valentine said, not bothered in the least.

“What? Why not?”

“Because I only make promises I know I can keep.”

I rolled my eyes. “Then I’m not coming in there with you.”

That place looked like it would lead to a dungeonwhere they took people to torture them or something. Or maybe trusting Mama Si had traumatized me worse than I’d even realized.

Again, Valentine lowered his head to hide his smile because my misery amused him. “How about you stay here then, and I go all the way to the other side by myself and I open the other door and turn the light on? Would that help?”

“It would help if you told me what was back there.”

“It’s a surprise. Stay right there.”

Where else was I going to go with blood-sucking vampires roaming around this place freely? Worse—they owned the whole damn Isle!

I said nothing.

He disappeared into the darkness two seconds in, and I held my breath, now even more curious to see what his idea of a surprise was. Then a door opened on the other side of the dark corridor. A second later, a little light came through, and I could make out the shape of him only slightly.

I could also see the black floor and the color redin whatever room he was in, standing in the doorway now, arms spread to the sides.

“Well?”

Great. Now I was too curious not to go through.

Taking in a deep breath, I stepped into the narrow corridor, eyes on Valentine as he waited for me by the door. I heard the sound of wings beating somewhere behind me—the dragon following me again. No idea why that didn’t scare me shitless, but maybe it was the excitement of seeing what was back there?

“It should be terrifying how quickly I’m getting used to it,” Valentine said when I stopped in front of him and he didn’t move away to let me through.

“To what?”

“To how your heart beats when you’re looking at me.”

I flinched, stepping back for a second. “I’m not looking at you in any way, actually.” I might have noticed how hot he was once and again, but that was it. “It’s not fair for you to be saying things like that.”

“I agree,” he said. “It’s even less fair to be feeling it.”

Oh, he was good. He was really good.

“You really think love-bombing me is the answer? Really?”

Valentine narrowed his brows. “Love-bombing? I’m afraid I don’t know what that is.” I found no hint anywhere on him to suggest he was lying.

A sigh escaped my lips. “How about this: just keep those very strong and very personal and very overwhelming thoughts to yourself, okay?”

“Never. How else will you know what you do to me?”

Aargh!

My cheeks were bright scarlet already. He was impossible.

“Will you step aside so I can get into wherever you brought me?”

“Of course.” And he finally moved so I didn’t have to look at him anymore.

Instead, I was looking at a theatre.

My mind drew a blank for a moment. My body was moving all on its own, taking me forward and straight onto the small stage, the black floor covered in a thick layer of dust. There were five rows of red seats in front of the stage, twenty-five of them in total, also covered in dust, like this place hadn’t been opened for months, maybe years. Over my head were curtains, red and black and grey, and different figures held up by all those ropes tied to metal hooks on the wall.

Then, there was the grand piano to my right.

A black piano covered by dust that made it look grey. It was on the very edge of the small stage and it almost looked abandoned—just like I’d felt my whole life. Just shoved to the side, overlooked, left to collect dust.

“This room was built some ninety years ago by one of my ancestors who fancied himself a dramatist and built this stage to basically entertain himself. It’s the only piano we have, I’m afraid,” Valentine said, then he stepped forward, closer to the edge of the stage, and he raised a hand toward the piano.

He raised a hand and waved his fingers, and the dust rose as if each particle was being pulled by invisible strings. Only one of the limelights on the ceiling was working, but it was enough to make that dust sparkle like magic glitter, like stardust as it floated in the air following Valentine’s hand, slowly, steadily, and then it disappeared right into the ceiling.

“So, what do you say, Sunshine? Do you want to give it a try, see if it still works?”

No more fight left in me.

On the inside, I screamed. On the outside, I barely gave a nod, and then went over to the bench that now looked almost brand new, with shaking legs and a hammering heart. Valentine could hear it, and I knew that my composed face wasn’t fooling him, but I really didn’t mind that he was here now or that his dragon was flying in circles over us. I just pulled open the board and took in the keys, so smooth under my fingertips. Exactly like home.

My stomach did a flip, my instincts trying to warn me. The last time I was given a piano just like that, I was willing to believe anything a complete stranger promised me. I was willing to give up an entire world just to be able to play this every night, thinking I’d have my freedom.

This piano was very real, not made out of tree roots, but the meaning behind it was the same. I was being given what I wanted most, and I was learning that things like that didn’t come at no cost. They were never really free—on the contrary. I’d have to pay a price for this. I knew it, and right now I agreed. Right now, I was going to play just to feel at home in my skin for a moment. Just this once.

“What will you want as payback if I play a song?” I asked Valentine, who was standing right behind me.

A pause. “Nothing.”

I looked back at him. He was a damn liar. They were all liars, and I wouldn’t allow myself to trust a word out of their mouths again, but I still couldn’t make myself stand up from that bench. So, I nodded, and I turned to the keys again, and I began to play my favorite song.

The sound of it was different because we were in a closed space, not like that clearing in the Blood Burrow. It was different, but still the same. It still awakened me like nothing else ever could, and my fingers were slow at first, but they picked up the tempo without my having to even think about it a few seconds in. I couldn’t tell you what it was about the melody that filled the air, my ears, my heart—it just understood me. It knew me inside and out, and I sort of allowed myself to be everything I was when I played.

“May I?”

The melody suffered a terrible twist as my body jumped and my fingers froze at the sound of Valentine’s voice.

He was looking at the edge of the bench, asking me if he could sit with me.

Funny, I’d always wanted someone to sit with me when I played, so I could show them who I was without words. Maybe that’s why I found myself nodding—or maybe I simply did it so he could let me get back to my melody.

Valentine sat at the very edge, never even touching me, and I continued to play.

Just like that, the music picked me up and took me out of this world. I’d been so ashamed, so angry with myself for allowing myself to end up here. I’d judged myself so harshly for being such a damn fool, but in those moments, I understood. I got why I’d said yes to Mama Si. I understood completely.

And then Valentine’s hand was pressed to my chest.

This time, I was well aware that he was sitting with me. This time, he didn’t take me off guard and my fingers continued to play as I looked down at his hand over my chest, right over my heart. His eyes were closed, and his head lowered as he listened—both to the music and my heartbeat, I assumed. I had no idea what it was about him and heartbeats, but maybe it was a melody to him, too. Maybe it was what kept him grounded like it did me.

So, I didn’t protest, didn’t push him away, just continued to play my melody from the beginning, knowing well that this was a trap, and stepping into it willingly.

“What’sit like out there, in the human world?”

I turned to look at Valentine, sitting at the edge of the bench still. His hand was no longer on my chest. I’d stopped playing a while ago, and now I was just looking at the keys, thinking.

“We do have movies, whatever the townspeople bring in from the other Isles that are connected to it. And we have a few books, but not many,” he continued, looking at the keys, too.

“I guess it’s just a jungle like any other place. A constant fight for survival, even if it is in different ways.” Not a physical war but an emotional one. A mental one people fought.

Or at least I had.

“Were you happy?” Valentine asked.

The question hung in the air for the longest time, and I refused to acknowledge it because I knew the answer. It was painfully simple: a bold no that was unapologetic.

“Sometimes,” I said instead because there were times that made me think of happiness, at least. Those three years before I moved with Brandon, when I snuck into my high school building almost every single night and played instruments. I was free in those few hours.

Pulling down the fall board, I ran my fingertips over the polished wood for a moment.

“That was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard in my life,” Valentine said.

“Lacrimosa,” I said with a small smile. “A section of Mozart’s Requiem. His last composition, in fact—he died before he finished it completely.” And I often thought that’s why it resonated with me so much. I’d always felt…unfinished, too.

What a silly thought.

And Valentine said, “I meant your heartbeat while you played it.”

I also laughed. “You’re pretty obsessed with heartbeats. Is that your fetish or something?” I said, more bitterly than I intended.

He smiled and I only saw it from the corner of my eye. “I’m not obsessed with heartbeats. I’m just becomingobsessed with yours,” he said.

Shaking my head, I turned to him. “Do you hear everyone else’s heartbeats?”

He nodded. “Yes. My ears can pick up the smallest sounds when I focus. Heartbeats are easy because they appeal to the part of me that survives through the blood hearts pump.”

Shivers washed down my back. “What’s that like? Are you…are you always hungry? Do you only feed on blood? What happens if you don’t?”

He looked a bit taken off guard by my sudden questions, but he answered me anyway. “It’s all I know. I was born like this, and no, I’m not always hungry. I can go weeks without feeding on blood, and longer without food. I don’t need much of it to sustain me,” he said, curiously looking at me, waiting for a reaction. I didn’t give him any. “If I don’t drink blood when I start to get hungry, I get hungrier faster, and when I’m starving, I lose the rational part of my mind completely. I become what this”—he pointed a finger at his face and moved it around with a small mischievous grin—“conceals so well.”

Goose bumps on my forearms, and he looked down at them covered by the leather jacket, as if he heard them.

“And how do you feed?”

His grin grew. “Animals. We have laws in the Whispering Woods. The Evernights do not take from our people, only from animals, until their brides willingly offer them their life force.”

Suddenly I was back in the dining room with Vera and Lucinda and Cynthia, and they were telling me all about how it was a privilege to let a damn vampire feed off their neck.

“The women told me about your brothers. About how this whole thing really works,” I said, trying not to let the sudden fear show on my face.

“Half-brothers,” he then said. “We all have different mothers.”

“I see.” And I wanted to ask him where their mothers were, but I didn’t think he’d appreciate such a personal question.

“It’s very difficult for vampires to conceive. My father has sired the most children in the history of this Court—most only sire one, two the most.”

“Is he alive?”

“No—Grey killed him about eleven years ago.”

I gasped. “Grey—as in your half-brother?” It was him—the one with the grey eyes. The dragon rider who’d been watching me from his dragon’s back in the rainstorm in the morning.

My stomach twisted and turned a million times at the memory.

“Don’t be so surprised, Sunshine. It’s the way of the vampires. We kill our fathers long before their time comes. It’s a power play, the way of nature.”

I shook my head, “It really isn’t.” There was no way in any hell I’d believe that it was natural to kill one’s parent.

“It is in the Whispering Woods.” And Valentine didn’t seem too happy about it. “That—and also Grey is…dangerous. More dangerous than most. Be careful around him when you can.”

I practically saw Grey watching me through my window in my mind’s eye. Fuck. If someone like Valentine considered something dangerous, how big of a monster could Grey Evernight really be? Was he really a gentle giant, like Cynthia said?

Yeah, I really didn’t want to know right now.

“You said you’re not immortal,” I said instead, if only to distract myself from the image of those light eyes.

“No, but our lifespan in normal circumstances is about two hundred years. Of course, very few Evernights have actually managed to live that long, but it’s possible. We do age, just very slowly. All Enchanted age and die. Only sirens are immortal,” he explained.

Sirens—like Sedelis, the siren who’d held me in the water and had manipulated me with her magic to see on her what wasn’t there—shiny, glowing skin and lively eyes and beautiful hair, when in fact she looked like a fucking corpse.

“Tell me your story, Sunshine,” Valentine said what must have been minutes later, and my heart tripped all over itself.

But there was no point in telling my story, was there? Not just because it was a short pathetic story of me following anyone who bothered to try to convince me that they were decent because it was all I knew and the best I had. No, not just because of that, but because it was my story and he was a stranger and this was his world, not mine.

So, I leaned back on the bench and said, “I’m tired. I want to go to bed.”

Valentine didn’t like it. He held back a flinch, and I thought for sure he’d insist.

Instead, all he said was, “As you wish.”