Chapter 8

Trees,trees and more trees.

I had no clue where I was going, just walking ahead, incredulous still that I'd actually made it out of the castle walls without being chased by anyone. The guards had let me out, just like that.

I was out. In the open. In the dark woods.

Where a cougar like the one caged in the greenhouse could jump in front of me any second, and I had no hopes of even trying to run from it.

"Out," I whispered to the trees. Regardless of everything, I was out.

So, I stopped to catch my breath for a moment, to touch the dark barks, the tips of the leaves on the thin branches hanging over my head. I stopped and I breathed, and I allowed myself to let go of the fear, knowing it wasn't going to matter. I might not get another chance to be out here again, all by myself, free to go wherever I pleased. I might have to lock myself in the tower as soon as I made it back for all I knew.

That's why I focused on my memories, the image of the map of the Whispering Woods on Romin's tabletop, and the one Grey had drawn on the back of that book. The greenhouse was to the south of the third tower, and the third tower was to the east of the castle, which meant I needed to keep going west to reach the nearest town, on the opposite side of the only lake I'd seen on any map of the Whispering Woods.

I was afraid—terrified—but I was also excited as I went deeper and deeper, past trees, the melody of the leaves whispering louder with the stronger wind keeping me company.

And then I began to feel the tug, too.

It was very subtle, and if I didn't know what this place was, I'd have convinced myself that it was only my imagination playing tricks on me. I'd have called it heat, but it wasn't. It was warmer, yes, but not simply that—it was energy.

It was magic—and it was coming from ahead of me in waves.

Enchanted were close. Nothing emitted it the way they did—it hung to their skin like a scent, and the more of them in one place, the more powerful the tug. That's how I knew I'd find a big group of them even before I began to hear the sound and see the light.

So much light.

Fire danced atop torches placed on the ground every few feet. Chatter and footsteps and laughter and music came at me long before I saw enough between the trees to recognize structures—houses and buildings made out of brick and mortar, of wood, of stone. I hardly felt myself moving those last dozen steps, completely mesmerized to find that the Whispering Woods was, in fact, a place where people led their lives away from the castle and the Evernight Court. Away from the vampires who ruled the Isles.

And it was amazing to be part of it.

A town, just like Zane said. It was a townin the middle of a dead woods, and it was thriving. Music came from everywhere, people playing instruments at the corners of the wide cobblestone street. Buildings, some as high as four stories, full of light. Full of life.

And Enchanted of all kinds, faeries and skinwalkers and witches and many others were around me, and not a single one of them even turned to look my way.

It was different from the Bazaar in Faeries' Aerie. So much less color and the crowd was much smaller, and the buildings were farther apart, and you could breathe here. You could hear individual voices and laughter and different melodies coming from different parts, both from the buildings and the people playing instruments.

Once again, it was as if I'd stepped into a different world altogether, and I couldn't believe that I was still in the Whispering Woods, that the castle was right there, barely a thirty minutes' run from the edge of this town.

Pulling Grey's jacket closer around myself, I went ahead and into the crowd, walked down the cobbles, searching with my eyes, trying to memorize everything that surrounded me. Flower shops and restaurants, tailors and glassware shops, fortune-telling stands and food trucks—all of it made complete by the people who came and went from all sides, so at ease. At home.

Fuck, this place really was their home. They all chose to leave their Isles behind and come here to the Woods. They all chose to live in darkness forever, and I was beginning to see why. The air wasn't dead here like it had always seemed to me in the castle. The trees to the sides had more color, and there were flowers, colorful flowers on the ground, and pure green weeds growing among the cobbles—and so much light! Not just with the fire from the torches, but with electricity, too. Like in Roven. Exactly as bright as in Roven.

I followed the crowd ahead, mesmerized by every new thing I saw. The people who looked my way didn't pay me much attention, for which I was glad. I could have walked the wide streets all night long, analyzed every detail, but after a sharp turn right, I had no choice but to stop.

The music that filled my ears was coming from pianos, and it wasn't even a question anymore—I was going to check it out wherever it was coming from. I couldn't keep walking if I tried.

A look around and I found the source of the heavenly melody—the simple wooden exterior of a two-story house, with the words, Enter for the music, stay for the ale, on the left window. I went closer, my heart pounding in my chest in rhythm with the cheerful song, but the glass of the windows only let me see the light inside and some shadows moving about, nothing else.

Without even thinking about it, I grabbed the round handle of the big wooden door and I pulled it open.

It was warm inside—that's the first thing I noticed. Nobody in here was wearing jackets. Those shadows I'd seen from the window hadn't been exaggerated—everybody seemed to be moving. Even the people who were seated were dancing, raising their glasses and cheering at the couple playing the pianos on the stage on the other side of the room.

It was the strangest setting I'd ever seen. One piano was green, the other a deep purple, and the players were in the middle of the stage, standing back-to-back. The woman played the green one, the man the purple, and they were both on their feet, dancing and tapping their heeled shoes to the wood of the stage in perfect rhythm. The pianos were taller, too. The boards reached all the way up to their waists, and the players were having the time of their lives if the huge smiles on their flushed faces were anything to go by.

Wow. It was incredible to watch, to hear that sound like I'd never heard it before—a different version of a piano, something new, something like a cross between two things that I couldn't quite name.

It was perfect.

Before I knew it, I was moving deeper into the room. All the tables, about twenty of them in front of the stage, were taken, and more people were hanging out at the edges of the room, and even the bar to the far left was almost full, but there were a couple of stools free. A neon pink sign hung from the ceiling over it—Mina's.

I went for the stool in the corner, feeling like a stranger in this place, but also more at ease the more I focused on that beautiful sound. The more I focused on those incredible performers who were fucking killing it on stage, and you could tell by the way the audience responded.

It was like a spell had been cast upon me. I sat on the stool at the very edge of the bar, my eyes glued to them as they jumped and danced and played so perfectly in tune with one another, that when the song ended with a bang, every person in the room was basically screaming and applauding—myself included.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, you beautiful bunch!" the performers said in unison. The man put his arm around the woman's waist, kissed her cheek deeply as she smiled, then turned and gave him a peck on the lips.

The people cheered harder.

"Oh, you're far too kind," the woman said, her big blue eyes glistening. She wasn't a faerie that I could tell, but she could have been anything else. No witch hat on her head, and she wore a baby blue dress that hugged her waist and flared around her hips all the way down below her knees. Her partner was the same. Dark brown hair, a black vest and black pants. They looked just like I did, and that made me feel even more at ease.

"That sure was fun. But now, it's time for something for the soul," the man said. With another kiss on her cheek, he let go of the woman and went somewhere behind the stage, to come back with two benches in his hands. He put them in front of the pianos, and before the minute was over, they were both sitting down and playing, the melody just as fascinating as the first, but this one slow. This one like a wave that picked you up and carried you to the middle of the ocean where you could float in rhythm with it for the rest of eternity.

I couldn't get enough of the sound—or the sight of the two of them pouring their hearts out on those keys.

"What'll it be for the lady?"

I turned, surprised somebody even knew I was here when everyone in this place had their eyes on the stage.

One of the two bartenders had noticed me sitting at the end, though, and he was smiling ear to ear, moving the big curls of his long hair from in front of his eyes.

"You're new," he told me, then reached out his hand. "I'm Toss. Second drink is on the house."

I was smiling as I shook his head. "I'm Doll," I said without having to even think about it. It was the fake name I'd used in Faeries' Aerie, too.

"Welcome, Doll. What will you have? Some good ole ale or something fancier?" And he showed me the wooden cup in his hand, one that most people here were drinking from.

"Ale sounds great," I said, though I had no clue what the hell ale even tasted like. It couldn't be that bad if all these people were drinking it, right? And that sign on the door said I was supposed to stay for it, too.

Toss filled up the wooden cup from a barrel in the middle of the counter, then put it in front of me. The top of it was full of white foam, just like beer. "Two silvers," he said, opening his palm at me with a smile on his face.

"Oh, right." I reached for the leather bag in my pocket and pulled out one of those gold coins. That surely counted as money. It had to be it.

Swallowing hard, I pretended I knew what I was doing, and I put the gold coin in the palm of his hand with a forced smile.

Toss's brows shot up. "Ooh. Big-girl money. Nice." And he spun around in a dance move and went to the other side, to the cash register, to make the payment.

The relief was instant. I did have money to pay for this ale, and while Toss came back to me with what was probably my change, I took a sip of the dark brown liquid once the foam faded away.

It was awful. Absolutely disgusting. The vilest thing I'd ever tasted—and I was still smiling.

Toss put a handful of coins in front of me. "There ya go," he said, then rested his elbows on the counter and his chin in his palms and looked at me all lovingly while I gathered the coins he'd brought back.

It had to be a mistake, though. Four gold coins, these half in size of the one I gave him, and eight silver ones. He surely gave me back too much, didn't he?

I didn't dare say a single word.

"Okay, so out with it," he finally said. "What are you? Let me look at you." And he came closer and closer until his face was all I saw.

I fucking panicked.

What am I?!

I'm human!

No, no, wait—I was human, and now I'd become an Enchanted, and…and I had no clue what that meant. I had no idea what magic could do for me, other than to give me the ability to sense it in other people.

"Hmm. You don't look like anything in particular. Are you—" Toss said, the suspicion in his warm green eyes growing.

"Succubi." The word slipped from me by accident. I brought the cup to my lips and drank a mouthful, barely noticing the awful taste of the ale.

"Oh!" Toss said, brows raised and narrowed and raised and narrowed as he analyzed me, and I thought that was it. I thought he was going to call bullshit on me and the whole bar would hear it.

And what were they going to do—try to kill me or something?

After all, they all blamed me for Grey's banishment, just like I blamed myself. And if there was no other Evernight here to stop them, would they attack me if they got the chance?

Fuck. I shouldn't have come here. I shouldn't have?—

"Yep—I see it," Toss said.

You've got to be shitting me.

I forced a smile on my face so fast it was kind of pathetic.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I see it. Not very obvious, all those colors, but I see them," said Toss, waving his finger at his own eyes.

The colors. The million colors in the eyes of Mama Si and Mike and Assa—even Hannah. I'd barely noticed them on her, but I'd always seen them on Mama Si. Was that a succubi thing?

"I'm pretty weak, so…" I let my voice trail off and drank another mouthful of the ale—God, it tasted so bad. But I was so damn thankful for the low lights in here or for whatever illusion had made my eyes look a little colorful to Toss.

He snorted. "You're telling me." He touched his fist to the middle of his chest. "Skinwalker. Supposed to shift into this mighty wolf beast that the whole world fears—and what do I get?" He grinned. "I'm really good at howling."

The next second, he raised his head to the ceiling and he howled. He actually howled right there in front of me—and not only that, but a dozen other people from all over the bar raised their heads and joined him in the howl.

I laughed so hard my shoulders were shaking, and others did, too. The howling lasted a good minute, and when they were done, everyone applauded. Toss bowed his head deeply with a proud grin.

"Impressive, huh?" he said when the people turned to the couple playing the strange pianos again, the melody heartbreaking but incredibly beautiful, too.

"Very. I have to say, I didn't see it coming," I said, laughing still.

"I aim to surprise," he said with a wink. "So, I hear you guys are great in bed. I've never been with a succubi before. Wanna teach me a few things? I get off at midnight."

Oh, God.

I almost choked on my own spit before I burst out laughing one more time. He was joking. He had to be joking, or if he wasn't, I'd pretend he was joking so he'd pretend he was joking, too—because what the hell else was I supposed to do?

Toss shook his head, but he was smiling, and his cheeks were a touch red when he said, "I'm kidding, I'm kidding." Which definitely sounded like he hadn't been.

"I'd love to give you tips, Toss, but like I said—I'm weak. And not very experienced," I added that last one in a whisper.

"Pfft, nonsense. With a face like yours you've had plenty of people to feed from," he said, then went to tend to one of the other customers demanding an ale from the bar. I had only a minute to turn to the stage before he returned. "Come on, spill it. Tell me your secrets."

"I swear it, I have none," I said, my mind strangely going back to the Paradise, to that spy room Mama Si had taken me to where we watched Hannah and those two men having sex.

Suddenly I was uncomfortable on the stool. The thought of that scene always made me feel…uneasy. And turned on. And just plain wrong.

"Eh, you're no fun," Toss said, then prepared a glass of wine for another customer.

"Hey—who are those two?" I asked to change the subject before he had the chance to ask me another mortifying question.

"Lenna and Ralf," Toss said, taking the silver coins from the man with the wine in his hand. "They're the best soundmakers in the Isles. They've been here three weeks and they're staying for another four."

"Soundmakers?" What the hell was that?

Toss looked up at me from the middle of the bar still, washing one of those wooden cups in the sink now. "Soundmakers—you know. They play instruments and create their own sounds off them."

The words left his lips and he said them like they weren't that big of a deal, like it was something I should have known all along. But to me, those words meant everything.

The idea of playing an instrument and making my own sound?

My God, was that really possible? To make my own music, my own sounds, my own melodies—different, special, more than anything else the world's ever heard?

Soundmaker. What a beautiful name.

"They are amazing," I ended up saying as I watched them, eyes on each other while they played, clearly in love. You could feel it in the air about them. You could tell by how they smiled at one another.

Like Grey used to smile at me.

My stomach twisted and turned so suddenly that I drank more ale just to drown the feeling. It didn't work.

"The ale does that," Toss said from the other side of the counter. "It steals your joy at first. But you wanna know what the secret is? Because I'm a generous guy and I always share my secrets."

I smiled, shaking my head. "Okay, Generous Toss. What is the secret?"

He leaned closer. "The second cup gives it back tenfold," he whispered, then moved back with a grin, making me laugh. "Especially when it's on the house!" he called as he rushed to the other side to tend to another customer calling for his attention.

I laughed, drinking more of the ale that frankly didn't taste all that bad now that I was halfway done with it. Or maybe I'd just gotten used to it?

Could be, but it wasn't the ale that stole my joy. It was the fact that I missed Grey, and I missed him more than I did the last time I realized I missed him, and I wanted him to be here with me so badly I'd have traded a world for it. What would it be like if he sat with me at one of those tables, and we listened to the couple playing their pianos together, and we held hands and drank those awful ales until the sun came up in the real world?

That.

That was everything I wanted. Even if I never got to do what those people on stage were doing, I'd be happy if Grey was watching this with me. I knew it deep in my bones with as much certainty as I knew that I wasn't going to survive the Evernights for long if I didn't find a way to learn magic, to fight, to protect myself.

And I was tired. So goddamn tired of always being on the run. Always having to conquer new demons. Always having to adapt, make changes, grow. I was tired and I just wanted to drink some goddamn ale in peace.

So, I did, and as pathetic as it sounds now, I pretended Grey was right there at the bar with me. Every time Toss said something that made me laugh, I imagined Grey was laughing with me. And when my ale was done, I told Toss to save me the second one for tomorrow because I had to go. I had to get back to the castle and pick myself up and put myself together, then come back and try another night.

I walked out into the night and breathed in deeply, hoping the colder air would clear my head. I wasn't tipsy, but I wasn't a hundred percent sober, either. The ale had been very light on alcohol, but that cup was really big, so it had gotten me. I was glad for it. It would make falling asleep a little easier, I hoped.

Less people in the wide cobbled street around me when I made my way back. It was late. Most shops were closed, and some lights had gone off, but it was still so much brighter than in the castle.

God, I hated that place. I didn't even want to go back. I wanted to find a corner and sleep right there in the street instead, but I knew that wasn't an option. I knew I needed to keep moving, find ways. Learn.

And I needed to be clear-headed when I came back here to search for people who could help me figure it all out.

Except I'd barely taken the fifth step into the dark woods that separated the town from the castle when I realized something was wrong.

When I realized that whatever I'd just stepped on was different from the soil underneath my feet. Harder.

Too late.

Something moved fast to my side. It grabbed me by the ankle and pulled me up before I had the chance to even blink. I found myself upside down, hanging by my leg on a branch of a big tree with a scream stuck in my throat, already terrified.

They'd found me. One of the Evernights had found me, and they'd trapped me outside the castle where nobody would ever know what happened to me.

My life was as good as over.