Chapter 15

Genevieve was not in a rush.As she spun the plastic cup around, she looked at my shoulder, my grey shirt and my ripped skin, dried blood all over me.

She raised a brow. "Do I want to know?"

Maybe she didn't. I told her anyway. "One of the men you insist would fall to their knees for me tried to rape me."

Was it hours ago or minutes—or even a day?

I had no idea.

Genevieve didn't laugh the way I expected her to. Instead, she rolled her eyes and said, "Men. They think they're entitled to everything."

Reaching for something behind her back, even though she only wore a white shirt that fell to her thighs over her black leggings, she produced a small glass bottle. It was a deep green, with silver vines wrapped around the strange bullet shape, and a silver lid on top. She opened it with her thumb and began to pour my blood inside it slowly.

"Which is why I insist, darling Fall, that we make them fall to their knees. Which is why I insist that we should never accept weakness, but instead work for power every day of our lives."

I shook my head, so desperate, so disappointed with both myself and the people I lived with. "Just give me the magic you promised, Genevieve. Your words don't interest me."

She wasn't offended in the least.

"I could teach you more than a few things, Fall, but that only works if you want to be taught. Safe to say you don't." When all of the blood I gave her was inside that green bottle, she put both away behind her back. When she brought her hands forward again, they were empty. "Less wasted time for me, so I am not complaining." She came toward me, and she walked with such confidence, such a sudden rush, that I moved back, nearly slipping on the first stair and falling to my death.

Genevieve stopped moving. "I will not hurt you here today, Fall. You have my word. Come." And she held out her hand toward me.

I didn't want to. Common sense said I should be running away from her on all fours. I should be running like she was the goddamn devil—after all, it would take a lot for Mama Si to consider someone a threat. To want to warn me about them.

But I was done kidding myself by now. I was done hoping that I would somehow magically, naturally become strong enough to keep myself safe.

And most importantly, I was done hiding in that tower, afraid they'd come to do to me exactly what Emil had tried to do today. So, no, I didn't hesitate again. I walked ahead with my head up and put my hand over Genevieve's.

Enough of this nonsense. They would not make me tremble in fear again.

"My son would hate this," she suddenly whispered, like it just occurred to her and the thought made her smile. My stomach flipped and my heart skipped too many beats at the thought of Grey.

Yes—considering how he'd spoken to me about this woman, he would most definitely hate this.

"Your son is dead." The words tasted like dirt in my mouth, but I had to say them. I had to see the look in her eyes, to be reminded of who she was, just in case—a mother who didn't care about her own child.

Then Genevieve said, "Oh, he's still alive." Her fingertips touched my chin and raised my head even higher, then traced lines down my neck and to my collarbone as if she were searching for something.

"How do you know?" I asked as my heart slammed in my chest, both from her words and the touch of her hand on the sides of my neck now.

"He's my son—of course, I know," she said matter-of-factly. "Won't be long now, though. Not long at all." My eyes squeezed shut and I tried not to think about Grey somewhere, all alone, half dead already, waiting for it to be over. Waiting for the curse to kill him, knowing he couldn't do anything to stop it. "I'm honestly surprised he lasted this long but, oh, well," she whispered. "Ah—there. There it is." And she pressed her middle finger to my good shoulder where it connected with my neck. "I sense your magic from here the most."

I shook my head, suddenly uninterested in the magic. "How does it happen? Where…where is he right now?" I asked instead. Where would his body be when he died? Where was he waiting for his death?

Genevieve paused for a moment and met my eyes. "Where is who?"

It was like she'd genuinely forgotten what we were talking about—or maybe she wasn't paying attention when we did?

"Grey." Where the hell was Grey? Not that it mattered because I couldn't leave this goddamn Isle anyway, but I wanted to know. Maybe it would make me feel better to know more.

Another long pause, and I could have sworn I saw regret and suspicion flashing in her blue eyes. But then she shrugged. "How should I know?"

It was a goddamn lie.

She grabbed my arm and pulled me to the side. "I will be giving you a charge of energy right here. It will hurt."

"But then how do you know that he's still alive?" I insisted. If she knew that, then she surely knew where Grey was. "Is he in the Seven Isles? Is he out there in the human world?"

Again, that pause that left no room for doubt in my mind that she was hiding something—and I was going to push her about it until she told me. Except she beat me to it.

"Brace yourself." And she pressed her finger onto my shoulder hard.

Pain unlike any I'd ever felt before slipped into my body all at once. So damn sudden. It broke me apart and it stung and it burned and it froze every drop of my blood in my veins. I screamed, even though it didn't last. I screamed my heart out even though Genevieve stepped back not three seconds later, with a single drop of blood coming out her nose.

I held onto my arm like I was sure it would fall off me any second as the foreign energy that was now inside my body consumed me. It consumed every single inch of me and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

"What have you done to me?!" I said through gritted teeth, trying to see my shoulder better, but there was nothing there. My skin was unbroken, not even a bit red.

"What I said I would do, darling. I gave you magic—my own magic to strengthen yours." And she slowly raised her hand to wipe the blood off her nose. "I haven't done this in so long. It's so…liberating."

Genevieve was smiling when she met my eyes, but she looked tired all of a sudden. Fuck, she looked exhausted, like years of life had been taken from her within seconds. At least a decade older, her skin no longer radiant, her hair flat, her eyes almost colorless. Almost like Grey's.

Then she laughed. "Don't look so worried on my account, Fall. I promise I will be just fine." And she winked at me. "But my end of the deal is complete. Now, I need to lie down if you don't mind."

I kept shaking my head at myself, at that sizzling energy that was still inside me, except it was no longer hurting me. It was very uncomfortable, but the pain, that stinging sensation was gone.

"Wait, hold on," I said when she turned around to leave, walking toward the wall across from me even though there was no door there that I could see. "What happens to me now? What…what…"

"It's raw magic inside your body, a lot of it at once, different from how you're supposed to harness it," she said as she went. "Now, go back to your tower and rest. My magic should merge with yours within a couple of days. Then you'll be able to do with it as you please." She pressed a hand to the shiny surface of the wall, and it pushed open, just like that.

"Wait, Genevieve," I said because I still needed her to tell me about Grey. I just wanted to know where he was, that's all. I needed to know so badly.

But Genevieve didn't wait. She disappeared behind that door that closed the next second and disappeared from the wall, leaving me all alone in the sky room.

I knew that I wouldn't be able to open it if I went after her, so I didn't waste time trying. I just turned around and descended the stairs, then ran back to the tower as fast as my body allowed.

Someone was watching me, but whether it was Emil or Tristian or Valentine or Shadow, I had no idea. There was no time to stop and look. No time to stop and listen for footsteps or beating wings. I was scared and dizzy—so fucking dizzy that I almost fell on my face ten times by the time I was inside my bedroom in the third tower.

Then I fell on the bed sideways, my body so fucking heavy, so warm, buzzing with energy, and I passed out within seconds, thinking about Grey.

It wasnine p.m. when my eyes opened, which meant I'd slept the whole day. I woke up disoriented as hell—and so hungry I could eat a damn horse.

Memories from that morning came back to me slowly, and the more I remembered, the more afraid I became.

Emil. Then Valentine. Then Genevieve.

Releasing a long breath, I took in every inch of the bedroom just to remind myself that I was all alone. Then I looked at my body, sure that I'd find marks and scars all over my shoulders—except nothing was there. My pale skin was unbroken, not a sign of where Emil's teeth had torn it or where Genevieve had pressed her finger and basically set my body on fire from the inside with her magic.

Nothing. I was perfectly okay—physically speaking.

And I'd done it. I'd given Genevieve my blood, and she'd given me a charge of her magic. Within a couple of days, you'll be able to do with it as you please, she said. Just a couple of days.

Raising my hands in front of my face, I analyzed my fingers, hoping to see something different, something that would tell me it had worked, but I found nothing. Not a single sign that Genevieve had given me her magic, all that magic that had left her completely spent. Had aged her ten years within three seconds.

Wow.

I had been here a long enough time now, but the idea of magic, actual raw magic, still fascinated me. And the idea that I could do it myself was still very much a fantasy to me.

Part of me wanted to stay in the room and think and try to do magic and try to figure out everything at once, just skip training with Quinn and go back to the woods tomorrow. But I knew that if I did that, I'd only be making myself miserable. I'd be driving myself mad with questions and theories, and I'd end up regretting having stayed inside.

That—and I really needed to eat. I might not have food in the tower kitchen, but I had golden coins that could buy me food in the town.

So, I took a quick shower just to wash away the dried blood on my arm and shoulder, put on some clean clothes, and I ran out of the castle within half an hour.

Twenty minutes later, I was sitting at the nearest restaurant to the woods, looking at possibly the biggest steak I'd ever eaten in my life, and I dove right in. It could have been the world's worst steak and I wouldn't know it from how fast I ate. I hadn't been that hungry in ages, but I was done within minutes, and then I felt like my stomach might explode.

There was no time to sit and enjoy the quiet night, the people, all kinds of Enchanted dining at the tables around me or the beautiful slow music coming from the speakers in the round room. I had to get back to the woods to meet Quinn right away.

I didn't tell her about what I'd done with Genevieve, and she had no reason to ask me if something had happened. There was no wound on my shoulder, and I didn't hurt anywhere as we trained, so there was no need to even talk about any of it. I liked Quinn, but I wouldn't let myself trust her. Not that Genevieve was going to keep what happened a secret, but I would just rather not talk about it with anyone if I could help it.

But when we sat down near a tree to rest after training, I said, "Where do they go when they get banished?"

The question had haunted me all day. Genevieve had planted it in my head, and I couldn't stop thinking about it.

"You mean, the Evernights?" I nodded. Quinn thought about it for a minute. "No idea. They just disappear, I think. The curse sort of eats them little by little."

I flinched. "But they have to be somewhere, don't they? They'd have to end up somewhere physically before the curse kills them." It hadn't occurred to me before this morning because I was constantly trying to escape the thought of Grey being banished. Grey being dead. But it made sense that he would still be somewhere physically.

"I guess so," Quinn said, brows narrowed. "I don't think I've ever heard anybody talking about that, to be honest. No Evernight has been banished in at least a century until Master Grey, so I have no clue. All I know is that if their dragons don't get banished with them, they starve themselves to death on Agva."

A long sigh escaped my lips. "Why do they do that, though? Why…why starve themselves?" The idea of Storm wasting away on a mountain killed me a little, too. He'd saved my life. Had lost an eye in the fight with Shadow, and now he was dying.

"Because dragons connect to their masters and they can't live when the master dies. They say Mount Agva is like a second home for dragons—not just ones who go to starve themselves when their master dies, but ones who choose to live in exile, away from Dragon's Den for one reason or the other."

My brows shot up. "Dragons willingly come to live in the Whispering Woods, too?" I knew there were all kinds of Enchanted on this Isle, but I had no clue that included dragons, too.

"Yes, but only a few of them, I think. The Evernights welcome them so long as they stay on their mountain. Beats me why they even agree, to be honest. Agva is cold as hell. You can see it from about two towns over—it's constantly full of snow. Basically, the only place on this Isle that even gets snow."

Quinn pointed her thumb back and I turned to look at the woods, as if I was expecting to see the mountains I'd only ever seen from the distance when Grey took me flying in the rain that night.

My heart broke a little more at the memory.

"Is it that close?" If you could see the place from just two towns over, it had to be closer than I'd realized.

"You could probably get there in twenty-four hours, though I've never been," Quinn said.

"That's not a lot." And this crazy idea occurred to me—what if I could go see Storm before he died, if he hadn't already? What if I could convince him to not die instead?

He was a part of Grey, and if he was still alive, then Grey would be alive in a way, too.

Or maybe I could just say thank you for saving my life.

"Why—you wanna go?" Quinn said, grinning. "I'll take you for another bag of gold—just say the word."

I shook my head, knowing how absurd the thought was. "Of course not." I could barely keep myself safe in the castle. I was not ready to even explore the town properly, let alone go to a mountain full of dragons.

"He'd kill you, anyway," Quinn said. "They lose all rational thought when their master is gone."

I flinched. "Yes, I know." Romin had said as much, and I'd seen Storm hurting himself with my own eyes when Grey disappeared into the sky that morning. "It's just my curiosity, that's all."

But even so, that night when I slept in the closet, more exhausted than I'd been in ages, I climbed mountains and got shredded by large dragon claws all night long in my nightmares.