Evermore Academy (Evermore Academy #3) - Audrey Grey Page 0,11

rich.”

I can feel my dignity crumbling with every word, but the doubt that flickers across his normally smug face makes up for it. In my periphery I catch Mack and Ruby gloating, and I raise my glass to my lips to hide another grin.

Totally enjoying this more than I should.

How do you tame a monster? Deprive him of the one thing he craves most—his victim’s agony. The hope is he’ll grow bored enough that he’ll move on to other prey, leaving me to roam unchecked.

A spark of cruelty alights in his piercing blue eyes. “Let’s see how pleased you are when you see your gift, dearest.”

“A gift? Is it a puppy?”

“Even better.”

“You should have told me and I would have bought something for you.”

“No need. Your reaction is more than enough.”

Some of my triumph wilts beneath his wicked sneer, the sweet milky thistle wine settling cold and heavy in my belly. I swallow. Manage not to react.

But I suddenly know what he’s done, and my heart skips into a frantic beat as I feel the connection. That tether of belonging centered deep in my core. A jolt of alarm ripples over me as I realize why I didn’t notice it before.

The bond has faded. A distant tug where it was once a near-painful jerk. A hollow ache opens inside me, the gnawing pain growing more insistent with my every ragged breath.

My throat constricts as the emotions I’ve worked so very hard to conceal threaten to overwhelm my cool façade.

Somehow I walk calmly to the balcony overlooking the Olympic-sized pool below. A crowd of Evermore mills over the patio, their laughter and cheers mixing with the lulling crash of the ocean a short walk away.

There must be at least a hundred Fae of every color and kind, and yet . . .

I spot him immediately.

Valerian.

My mate.

5

The moment my gaze locks on Valerian, the internal dam that’s held back my swell of emotions shatters. The violent crack pierces deep within my core. I nearly double over as the primal strength of our bond barrels through me. A rush of warmth and fiery, bone-deep need.

A need to be with him.

To just hear his voice.

Touch his face.

Feel his fingers on my body.

Experience his dark laugh, the sarcastic quips he wields like armor around his heart.

The memory of my name on his lips consumes me. My fingers splay out over the clear glass. I want to smash through this window, leap from the balcony, and close the distance between us. I want to feel my body shiver as he drinks me in, unable to tear his gaze away, as if I’m the most beautiful creature on this planet.

His face the last time I saw him invades my mind. Those broody, haunted ice-blue eyes softened with hope.

With love, for me.

He was willing to risk everything to give me what I wanted. Was that what made him act rashly and risk getting caught? Did my demand for him to love me blind him to the dangers of our plan?

The bond might be fraying between us, but his emotions are amplified somehow now, and they pour into me like the poison scouring his veins. His hurt is my hurt; his agony my agony; his longing my longing.

“Do you like your present?”

I manage to tamp down my tremor of revulsion as Hellebore’s breath tickles my cheek. The psycho is close.

Feeding off my agony.

Leeching every bit of my pain for his own enjoyment.

Someday I’ll make him feel every bit of the torture he’s inflicted on me. Someday he’ll pay for hurting Valerian.

“Look at him.”

Jaw locked, I obey his command. My mate stands alone, rigid and statuesque on the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean. Like Hellebore, he’s dressed beach-bum chic in loose-fitted cotton-white linen pants and no shirt. Even in the grip of the Bloodstar poison, he exudes power and magic.

And fury. That most of all.

I have no doubt that, if not for his friends needing the antidote every week, he would rip Hellebore apart with his bare hands, war be damned.

The corded muscles of his back clench as Inara Winterspell rises from the pool, throws on a sheer ivory cover-up that blows in the soft breeze, and glides toward him. The silvery one-piece bathing suit she wears shimmers under the fading sun, the thin material clinging to her skin like frost. Her royal blue hair rivers between her shoulder blades, the tips slightly frozen.

A surge of violent heat blasts through my core as she slides her arms around