Evermore Academy (Evermore Academy #3) - Audrey Grey Page 0,25

so unimaginable that my brain and my body disconnect.

Everything but my mouth. “No.”

“I will toy with them for days. Weeks. Relishing their screams. But your mortal family is just the aperitif to my desires. Your roommate is next. Perhaps I will leave her head on that coffee table your mother loathes. Would that make you happy?”

“No.”

“Or perhaps I will start with my grandson. Yes, I have been meaning to address his betrayal. Every child rebels at some point, but he will come to my side eventually. And if he does not, I will flay every bit of flesh from his body and string him up as an example. I could always make him scream for me . . . eventually.”

The leaves rustle around my head as I shake it. The words lodge in my throat, building, choking so that the air wheezes from my chest.

“You can prevent all of that agony and death with one simple act. Give yourself over to me. Otherwise, by the end of this season they will all be dead.”

The Darken is the world’s most cunning trickster, and yet I know in my heart every single word he uttered was the truth.

Can’t breathe—I can’t breathe. Adrenaline and terror and fury sear my veins in a wild cocktail. I feel light and heavy, dizzy and hyper-focused, time trickling to a slow, syrupy drawl.

And yet, despite the copious amounts of emotion flooding my body, despite the hollow terror threatening to strangle the hope from my being, a hysterical laugh rips from my wide grinning lips.

Somewhere in the deep recesses of my mind, I am aware that I have totally lost it.

Like, tears drowning my face, choking on my own mad laughter lost it.

This is how my world ends.

Not with a whimper but with a hiccupping, gleeful, insane cackle.

When I manage to steal a breath in between my hysteria, I pin the Darken with a furious, albeit suicidal, look. “I’ve survived being hunted from the moment I was born. I’ve survived being sold by my own parents, locked in a cage, and then trapped in a dying land with four wild kids to feed. I thrived in the Everwilde as a mortal despite half the campus wanting me dead and the other half wanting to own me. Orcs and darklings have tried to kill me, students have done their best to break me, and even my own fiancé wants me destroyed.” I don’t even feel like myself as I twist my lips into a hateful grimace, fury blazing in my eyes. “So bring it, you evil asshole, because I promise you, no one fucks with my friends.”

The mist darkens into shadowy serpents and the golden hue of dawn fades into black. It’s as if, for a moment, the Darken’s power breaks through and swallows the sun, the sky, promising to devour everything I love.

“On second thought, why not just kill you now and take your soulstone?”

My lips wrench open as the vines slither around and around my throat, tightening so fast I don’t have time to grab a breath before my airway closes off.

Air. I need air.

Frightening how fast my body panics at the loss of oxygen. Inky darkness swirls around my vision, and what I can see spins and whirls with frightening speed.

I close my eyes against the oncoming darkness, searching for power—any power to use—to free myself. Desperation claws inside my chest, my lungs aching to spread wide and fill with air. In this terrifying moment every part of me aches for my other half. Not because I need Valerian to save me.

He’s the key to unlocking the full extent of my power. I know that suddenly the same way I know I’ll die in less than a minute without oxygen.

Valerian. Where are you?

My essence ripples outward, searching, begging for its mate. My need for Valerian like a silent scream echoing over campus.

Where are you?

There. Beyond the haze of my panic. A . . . snowflake. The cool prickle of power dances near, a lifeline of hope as Valerian whispers, Summer. I’m coming.

My mate’s voice injects into my being like an infusion of air, and it’s as if I can suddenly breathe again.

Use my powers, he urges.

There’s no time to wonder how I can hear his voice. I search for that whisper of icy power dancing around me. So much power. It’s like a living, breathing creature filling every crevice, immense and wild and unfathomably strong. Wrapping my senses around the dark winter energy, I bind it