Chapter 6

The skinwalkers gaveme a real fur coat made out of one of the strongest wolverines that had ever prowled Skinwalker Soil. Men led the skinwalkers, and their wives sitting by their sides openly showed me how much they hated me when the leader, Micah Bachian, expressed his condolences for Grey.

Not dead-not dead-not dead!

I swallowed the words once more and kept my mouth shut.

The coat was a light grey in color, and it reminded me so much of Grey's eyes that I couldn't help the flinch when Micah pulled it out of his bag. It had leather ties, and it was definitely something I'd consider if I were to ever visit the North Pole.

As it was, I left it with them, and somebody would take it to my bedroom, I guessed, after the party. That coat, though it was small and would only cover my shoulders down to my waist, looked heavy, anyway.

Then I stopped by the table of the dragon riders, all redheads, and to see me sitting among them would have you thinking we were the same kind. They, too, were men and women, most couples sitting around the main table. Their leaders were John and Flakka Dailis, a beautiful couple with orange eyes and brown freckles dotting their faces. I tried to focus on them as much as I could, as they were the only ones who didn't look like they despised me for breathing the same air.

"We were sorry to hear about Master Grey," John said with a deep nod. "Such an unfortunate event."

"A true tragedy," said Flakka. "If only we didn't resort to such primitive ways of solving conflict."

"Grey wasn't banished because of the duel," I said, despite my better judgment. Reeva said that the people were sent a detailed report, but I knew Romin wouldn't have mentioned anywhere that Shadow had been about to kill me, and that's why Storm had attacked him afterGrey spared the both of them from death and banishment.

If only I could go back in time now. If only I could jump back to that morning, to the moment when Grey turned to look at me, and I begged him in silence to spare them.

Kill them, I would have said this time. I would have screamed it at the top of my lungs—kill them both!

But life didn't work that way, unfortunately. Nobody got a redo button, so I was stuck here, sitting among dragon riders who couldn't really care less about what had happened or how Grey came to be banished. They cared about themselves. About the curse. About power.

So, even though they gave me a good long pause, waiting for me to continue, to finish that thought, I didn't. Because Romin would know, and I didn't want to give him a reason to punish me.

"This is the tooth of Kayandra, the dragoness who laid the egg from which Storm hatched," Flakka then said, reaching for something in the pocket of her red dress. A black leather tie wrapped around a white tooth bigger than my middle finger, sharp as a knife.

My stomach fell. My heart broke all over again.

To remember Storm, how he had saved me, how he'd wailed in despair after Grey was gone, biting himself, trying to kill himself…

"We bring a token of the dragon parent to each bride, in hopes to aid them to better connect to their master's dragon, to appeal to them and be accepted by them sooner. But since Storm is no longer here…" Flakka shrugged her shoulders, looking down at the tooth in wonder, like she couldn't decide what to do with it.

I didn't want it. Fuck, I didn't want any of it. I didn't want the tooth of Storm's mother—another reminder of the guilt crushing my ribcage more every second.

"Thank you." I jumped to my feet the next second, ready to get away. "If you'll excuse me."

With a deep bow, I turned to the next table, the faeries.

And after them, all I had to endure was Mama Si.

Mama Si—the succubi, the original seductress, the woman responsible for all of my misfortunes. I had to talk to her tonight, too.

But was she, though—or was it just me? My na?veté, my luck, my bad decisions, maybe?

Regardless.

She was the last person I was forced to speak to here, and then I'd be free.

So, I moved on to the table of the ruler of Faeries' Aerie, a woman not much older than Emerald had been, this one with orange wings on her back—or what was left of them—and hair that was almost completely white. She smiled at me politely, and so did the four men and three women sitting at the table with her in perfect silence. I got the feeling they were all a little drunk. Their eyes were bloodshot, and they just didn't look like they gave a rat's ass about who I was or what I'd done or what had happened to Grey.

"Our condolences for the Evernight Master," said the leader without even introducing herself.

There went my thoughts, spiraling out of control again. Not dead-not dead-not?—

"Grey is not dead."

The words slipped from me before I even realized I'd opened my mouth. I just couldn't keep them inside anymore, consequences be damned.

"Of course, of course," the leader said, and she really, truly did not give a single fuck about me or the stupid party—or Grey for that matter. "We come bearing gifts, as is custom. The finest of Faeries' Aerie in a box, just for you." She nodded at one of the men with dark-blue-colored hair and barely any wings left on his back, and he waved his hands around, his fingers leaking blue glitter. From that glitter a light wooden box sprung into existence over the table. It had a glass lid, and inside I could see everything they'd put there for me—more glittery dust in all colors neatly arranged and separated, bags of tea, what looked like dried berries of some sort, and honey. The biggest part of the box was full of honey.

Was it the faerie-bee honey that man had made me taste in the Faerie Bazaar that day? I'd actually loved the taste of it.

"Thank you, much appreciated," I said with a nod, eagerly standing up. "Enjoy your night."

"Sure, sure, you, too," the leader mumbled with a wave of her hand, while the others looked at the gift they'd brought me in confusion. Maybe they'd expected me to pick it up?

They could leave it there for all I cared. I'd only taken the golden necklace with the crystal Reeva had put in my hands—and shit, I had her napkin, too. The magical one that fixed makeup. I needed to return it to her before I left.

But all thoughts of napkins and crystals left me when I turned to the last table of the Isles' rulers, and my eyes met Mama Si's colorful ones.

She sat between Assa and Mike, and around her was another man and woman—that same couple I'd once seen at her masquerade party in the Paradise. The same ones who'd been about to come say hi to me, but she'd turned them away with a look. They were here now, and they were absolutely in love with me still, just like Mike.

Assa was the same as always, though, which was a relief. And Mama Si…

"Fall Doll, you made it."

Just those words and I was back in the Paradise as if by magic, tricked into thinking that I was safe. That I was taken care of. That I had any hopes of surviving the likes of this woman who preyed on the pleasure of others and manipulated so well even reality doubted its own self when it came to her.

"So did you," I spit, and right now I was angry. So goddamn angry that I had to sit with her at the same table again, and that I had to look at her, talk to her, allow her to be in my presence after everything.

"I counted my days," she said, waving at the empty chair by her side as Assa moved to the other side of the table. "You've grown even more beautiful than I remember—how splendid!"

Move! I told my legs, and they carried me forward, even though all I wanted to do right now was run through those doors and never come back here again. But Romin was there still, and he was watching me as he sipped his wine and Emil whispered something in his ear. He was watching me, and I'd be damned if I didn't make it through this night in one piece.

"More beautiful than the stars," Mike said from Mama Si's other side. "We've missed you dearly, Fall."

"I'm afraid I can't say the same." I ignored him completely, my eyes on Mama Si.

"Oh, don't be so bitter, Fall Doll. Look at you—look how far you've come! How much you've stirred this place up!" And she laughed. The bitch fucking laughed like she was the happiest person in the world right now. "I love it. Absolutely love it," she told me. "Do you know how the Evernights look at you? They haven't looked at the other brides once in that way—not a single time. You have them eating out of the palm of your hand, Fall Doll."

"I am not your doll anymore," I spit. "I'm your superior now. You'd do well to remember that when you speak to me tonight."

Of course, I couldn't care less about any of that bullshit, but I wanted to get under her skin. I wanted to humiliate her. I wanted to take away her power the way she'd taken mine.

Her smile faltered. "Don't be silly, Fall. You'll always be my doll," she told me, and the aura of magic that naturally hung about her began to intensify.

Mama Si's face was her true one—she did not have a shield of magic like the sirens did, but the magic rather hung in her every pore, like it infused even the blood in her veins. It was powerful—more powerful than the witches, or the other Enchanted I'd met tonight.

How easily I noticed it now. How easily I saw through it. That's because I'd been chosen by the Evernights to become their bride.

"Be careful, Mamayka," I told her, adopting a brand-new persona out of the blue—and it was easy. The need to show her just how much I hated her was so great that it was easy to want to become someone else entirely just to humiliate her the way she deserved. "You're right—I do have them eating from the palm of my hand, and if I wish it, they'll turn on you. If I wish it, you'll have a very, very difficult time in your little Hell when you go back."

To say she was shocked was an understatement, but so was I. More than shocked at my own self.

"I gave you this. I brought you here—is that the thank-you I get?" she then had the audacity to say.

"You don't get a thank-you for stealing my life from me," I said through gritted teeth. "You are evil. You are bad. You're fucking rotten, you know that?"

She was paler than I'd ever seen her before, and I fucking thrived on it. "That's not true. I take care of my people. I do everything I have to?—"

"That is the lie you tell yourself, no doubt," I whispered, leaning closer to her face until I saw all the colors of her eyes that had once fascinated me. Now, she just looked ordinary. "But make no mistake—you are not a hero. You do not care for your people—you only care about yourself. Even in your own book you are the villain. You've just become good at concealing it from yourself because it benefits you." I smiled, and this time I meant to. "But I see you, Mama Si. I see right through you now."

Call me petty, but my shoulders felt a bit lighter already. Those words had been building in me for weeks since she'd first brought me to this place, and now I felt lighter to have gotten them off my chest. She deserved to know just how bad she was. She deserved to know that just because she made herself believe she was a saint didn't mean it was the truth.

And she knew. She absolutely fucking knew.

"You've grown claws," she then whispered, like her own words surprised her as much as mine had.

"I've grown smarter," I said. "And I don't have the patience to even look at you anymore." I looked down at her, the perfect dress and the gloves that were now gone, the magic hanging onto her fingers like she meant to unleash it on me.

She always did it before. Whenever I was stressed in her Paradise or whenever I wanted to run away screaming as my instincts told me to do, she'd touch me, and suddenly it would all seem easier. Better. Not that big of a deal.

Maybe she meant to try to do the same thing to me again, so I said, "If you're thinking about touching me with that filthy magic, think again. You won't like what happens. Your magic tricks don't fool anyone here anymore." Least of all me.

Mama Si had somewhat gathered herself, and she looked down at her hands on her lap now. A second later, her red gloves covered her fingers again.

"Good. Now give me your gift so I may be on my way."

I'd gotten under her skin even if she had already composed herself and wouldn't let me see it again. I'd won, but I still wasn't happy. Lighter, yes, but I still didn't feel like I'd avenged myself. Like she'd received the justice she deserved. The truth was, she probably never would.

"My, my, Fall Doll. You've changed so much in mere weeks," she insisted. "And I'm glad to see it. The Fall you were would have not survived this place with her character intact—look at the other brides. You're nothing like them." Mama Si looked proud, and it made me want to scream my guts out at her.

Instead, I looked her dead in the eye and said, "The gift."

"I'll get to that," she said, pushing her blonde curls behind her shoulder before she threw a quick glance at the Evernights. "You seemed upset with the sirens' gift, Fall Doll. Don't tell me you cared about Grey Evernight."

"I'll say it one more time—" I started through gritted teeth.

"Oh, stop it. Don't keep that attitude with me. I don't care how much you hate me, Fall Doll—I am on your side here." And she came closer. "Do not let yourself get attached to any of them. They serve a purpose—to give you power. A lot of power. They're a source of it for you, just like you are a source of life for them."

"You must be your own special brand of delusional if you think I could ever trust a single word coming out of your lips." Really, it baffled me that she would even bother with this.

"Use them. Become the most powerful version of yourself that you can become. Only then will you truly be able to be yourself—do you understand me?"

"And what—become like you?" I meant to mock her. To humiliate her, but again, she wasn't fazed.

"Yes—and you can be so much more than I'll ever be," she whispered. "You have the four most powerful men in the world at your feet. Be smart, Fall Doll. Use them because they will use you. Use them and thank me later."

I shook my head at her, smiling at myself because I got it. I understood. And if I were after the same things she was in life, I'd have found her advice useful.

"Has it ever occurred to you that I don't want to be anything like you?" I asked. She led a life I didn't want or need, a life I didn't want to have anything to do with anymore. She was everything I despised.

"Why ever not?" she asked, leaning back on her seat, as if she really were that surprised.

"To steal people's lives from them with lies and deceit, and sell the whole thing to yourself as a heroic act—you really see nothing wrong with that?" But she did. Of course, she did—I'd said it myself. She'd gotten so good at lying to herself and believing her lies, too. That's why she kept her mouth shut now. "Like I said—I see you now, Mamayka. You don't fool me. The gift—now, before I leave."

She didn't like it one bit, but finally she waved her hand and something materialized out of thin air in front of her. Something covered in a dark orange cloth, and when she pulled it down, it revealed a beautiful mirror, rectangular, about fifteen inches tall, and with a silver frame made of roses.

"How fitting," I said because it made perfect sense that she'd give me that. A goddamn mirror.

"My kind understands that the one true love all of us have is our own selves," Mama Si said, no longer trying to smile at me or advise me on what the hell to do with my life. No longer surprised at what I said to her. "That is why we must look at ourselves often and long, to see ourselves for what we truly are."

I smiled. "Maybe you should get one for yourself then." I stood up and found Mike grinning at me ear to ear, like he couldn't care less that I'd said all of that to his mistress. Assa wasn't smiling, though. Neither was the couple on my other side. They were just looking at their plates without moving an inch.

"Thanks for coming. I hope I never see you again." This, I said gladly.

They all stood up to see me go, but I didn't wait for a goodbye. I just turned my back to them and looked at Romin to find him smiling, too. Satisfied. Proud. Like he'd heard everything I said, and he approved of it—and that made me wish I'd kept my mouth shut, just so I didn't give him the pleasure.

He saw the question in my eyes, though. He didn't give me a single sign for a good minute, hoping to get me to walk all the way to his table, but I didn't. I just stood there like a damn statue and waited.

Finally, he nodded.

I was free to go.

With my head up, I turned around and walked out those doors as fast as my legs could carry me, ignoring the applause and the calls of the people around me until I couldn't see or hear them anymore.

Nobody followedme to the third tower, but I ran anyway. I took off my shoes and I ran, turning back to look every few seconds, almost feeling Romin breathing down my neck. The paranoia alone was going to fucking kill me in this place, if the brothers didn't first.

But I somehow made it to the tower and upstairs to the third floor, to my bedroom. I dropped the shoes and the crystal necklace—and the napkin, which I'd completely forgotten to return to Reeva after that conversation with Mama Si. I dropped them all and I went into the bathroom to wash my face, to take a shower, to take this whole fucking night off my body as fast as I could.

I caught my reflection in the mirror over the sink and it was a miracle I didn't scream.

Flawless. I looked absolutely flawless. There was a glow to my skin and a light to my eyes that shouldn't have been there, that was in contradiction with the way I felt. My hair was perfect, each strand satin smooth and soft, my cheeks full, my lips pouty—exactly what I didn't feel on the inside. It was all I could do not to slam both my fists to that mirror—that fucking liar.

That was not who I was. I was dying inside; I didn't feel alive as it made me look. I was dying without Grey, and I didn't fucking know what to do with myself or how to convince myself that I wasn't. That I'd been with him only for a short time, that I shouldn't feel so hopeless and desperate without him. That I couldn't have possibly developed feelings so deep in two days—not even close!

But even after I took off my grey dress and I spent at least an hour in the shower, and I let the water wash away my tears, my mind didn't change. These feelings inside me didn't subside.

Wrapped in Grey's black robe, I fell asleep on the closet floor, looking at his portrait, sometime close to dawn.

When I woke up,I found my gifts right outside my bedroom door, possibly put there by Aster and Vinny. They were the only ones who could come in here after I forbade the other brothers, anyway. Or maybe a guard?

Mama Si's pretty mirror was resting by the wall, and the dragon tooth was on top of the wooden box full of glitter and faerie-bee honey. The grey coat from the skinwalkers was folded near them, and the fishbowl with the dead fish was on the other side.

It hurt to see it still. It hurt so fucking much it twisted everything inside me in the worst possible way. How cruel of them to mock Grey. How cruel of them to humiliate him when they made him. They doomed him and every other man of his bloodline since Hansil Knight.

Tears slipped out of me when I grabbed the bowl and went inside the room to the open window—I left it open because this silly part of me still hoped that Grey might come through flying with his gorgeous wings any second. I went to it, and I threw the bowl right outside.

I didn't even hear it slamming against the walls of the castle because I didn't wait. I just went and picked up the other gifts, hid Mama Si's mirror under the bed so I didn't have to see it and shoved the rest in a corner in the closet.

As tempting as it was to sit there and hide from the world and just stare at Grey's portrait on that canvas all day again, I couldn't do that. I needed to move. I needed to make a plan. I needed to explore this tower until I knew exactly what was in it, and how I could use it to my advantage. That's why I got dressed, put on a pair of sneakers, kissed the portrait right on the lips, and I left the room with a banana in one hand and a piece of bread in the other.

The ground floor of the tower had four doors—one of them a small kitchen area, though all the cabinets and the fridges were empty. There was a square table and a single chair to its side, and I could have sworn I saw Grey sitting there by himself, eating in peace, away from everyone. It made me laugh. Typical Grey, I thought. He thrived on his own, and this little room proved it. I would bring my food down here, then collect more from the main kitchen when I saw the opportunity so I could do what Grey did, too. Hide in here from the rest of the world and live all by myself until I couldn't anymore.

The second door led to a lounge area with dark grey furniture, a TV on the wall, desks and bottles of alcohol, and paintings just like in the rest of the castle.

"Very unlike Grey," I muttered to myself.

Behind the third and biggest door on that floor was something very interesting, and I knew it from the smell alone as soon as I opened it. It led to a round foyer with another set of doors across from me, with big leaves and twigs and dirt all over the stone floor.

"You've got to be kidding me," I whispered, when I pulled the door open and saw outside.

Large green trees. Ropes. Dirt. Flowers.

Animals in cages.

It was a goddamn menagerie, and the ceiling of it was made out of glass panels so that I could see the dark sky over us as if I was standing outside.

Mesmerized, I slipped out the door and onto the dirt, not really sure whether I was supposed to, but how could I not? Most of the cages were empty, and more than a few of them were open. Only three were closed, and in the first of them to my right of the little indoor jungle, I saw glowing yellow eyes that made my heart jump.

The cougar.

The cougar with the horns and the long fur was sitting in there, jaws against her folded paws, watching me.

"Good morning, Miss Hayes."

I jumped, and it was a miracle I didn't scream.

Ahead of me, half hidden by the trees was a faerie—a green faerie, his wings and short hair and vest the same identical color as the leaves surrounding him.

"Oh!" I said, hands to my chest as my heart still galloped. "I didn't see you there." And even if I had, I wouldn't have noticed that the pieces of his wings weren't actually leaves—the green of them was truly the same.

"So sorry—I was busy with the wild rabbits," he said, then stepped to the side. "My name is Zane and I tend to the animals with Master Grey." A pause, his eyes moving to the floor. "Well, I used to. Now I do it myself. If that's okay with you, I mean," he quickly added.

I blinked. "Uh…yeah. Yes, yes, sure." Of course, it was okay with me—what the hell did I know about animals? "What do?—"

Something moved from behind that same large tree he was standing next to. It moved and it jumped, and it flew for a couple feet before it landed behind a large bush and disappeared from my sight.

A rabbit with feathery white wings.

"We let the wild rabbits free during the day. They're harmless but they do like to run and jump and make a mess—that one was stuck on the branch here," Zane said, pointing at the tree. "But they're almost good to be off on their own. Another few weeks should do it."

My mouth opened and closed and opened and closed, but before I could bring myself to say a word, the cougar to my left growled as if to get my attention.

I had no choice but to turn.

She was looking right at me still, on her feet now, her nose sticking out between the thick bars of her cage. My God, it was the same cougar that had nearly torn Grey's leg off him that night I found him in the kitchen.

She was still here.

"She's almost recovered, too. Difficult to get her to take the rinch seeds." Zane was right beside me now, and he was taller than he'd looked from farther away. He was taller, and his hair was just as green as the pieces of his wings and just as green as his small eyes.

"What's that?" I whispered, too stunned to even move at this point.

"Rinch—it's a natural antibiotic. Her wound was a bit infected so that's why it took so long to heal. But she hates rinch, so it hasn't been easy hiding it in her meat."

"I see." I did not see shit and I had no clue what rinch even looked like, but I nodded anyway.

"Are you…are you alone?" Because I wasn't exactly attentive right now—someone else could be here and I wouldn't have noticed.

"Yep. Like I said, it was just me and Master Grey tending to them. I've worked for him for the past three years since I moved to the Whispering Woods." He grabbed his hips in his hands and attempted another smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "I'm sorry about, uh…what happened."

He was one of the very few people so far to have said sorry and actually mean it.

"Thank you, Zane. I appreciate it. I'm Fall."

He nodded. "Yes, I know. And I'm sorry I didn't ask before coming back here. I haven't really found another job yet and tending to these animals is all I know."

"Don't be," I said. "You don't need another job, do you? These animals still need help." Not only did I not know shit about tending to animals, but if Grey hired him, he was staying right here.

"I'd be honored to continue to work here. I just thought that since Master Grey is gone…" His voice trailed off.

My heart jumped. "Well, I'm still here. I've never done this before so I would have no clue how to go about any of it."

"And you're not going to shut down the greenhouse?"

"Of course not," I said without missing a beat. It was Grey's—this place was a part of him, and it would remain here in his tower as long as I did.

This time Zane's smile was genuine. "Then it is set."

I was relieved for a moment because Grey cared a lot about these animals—just look at this place!—but then it occurred to me that I didn't have any money to pay this guy with. Romin probably did. The problem was, how was I going to ask Romin for money when I'd already decided that I wasn't going to speak to him again or even leave the tower at all unless I absolutely had to?

For now, I decided I'd think about it and figure out another way. For now, these animals needed someone who knew what they were doing with them, so I turned to leave, to explore more of the tower, wondering if I'd find other people who worked for Grey hiding in these rooms, but…

Just as I was about to walk out, something else came to mind, so I turned to Zane again. He hadn't moved from his spot at all as he waited for me to leave, still smiling.

"How did you get in here, if you don't mind me asking?" Because I sure as hell hadn't let anyone in.

But then Zane pointed his thumb over his shoulder. "Through the back door of the greenhouse. It's the shortest route."

"Shortest route to where?" I doubted he lived here. I'd have seen him before.

"To the exit of the castle that the help uses. From there, the town is just a forest away," Zane said.

My heart almost beat right out of my chest as I returned his smile. "Would you mind showing me the way to your town sometime, Zane?"

His green brows shot up. "Of course. Absolutely."

"Very well," I said, feeling a million times better already. "Please carry on." And I slipped inside the tower again.

Maybe I didn't have to spend every waking second locked up in this tower, after all.

Maybe, just maybe, I could figure out other ways to gather power without bedding the Evernights—and if there was, I wouldn't rest until I found it.