Evermore Academy (Evermore Academy #3) - Audrey Grey Page 0,26
to me, struggling to contain the primal magic.
It recoils from my grasp at first. But I hold it inside, whispering you know me over and over until I feel that ancient power give itself over to me.
Once I know Valerian’s magic is mine, I send it barreling outward in every direction, a thousand spears of blistering winter magic. The immense power cracks the air, an explosion of energy so violent that the earth shudders. The world around me crystallizes in a blink. Frost blankets the trees, the undergrowth, the carpet of once-soggy leaves. If I had any air to exhale it would come out milky white.
The crackle starts like a low whine and grows into a monstrous snarl as my world freezes down to its marrow.
The vines try to recoil from their icy fate—but it’s too late.
An explosive shattering sound rips through the forest. My eyes snap shut.
I peel them open to see, almost in slow motion, hundreds of frozen vines bursting apart. Frosted shards dance through the dawn-flecked air like diamonds.
My chest heaves up as I shovel oxygen into my lungs like Ruby inhales cupcakes.
God, I’ll never take breathing for granted again.
Ruby streaks from a tangle of underbrush, waving the knife back and forth above me. The thing is bigger than she is. “You okay, Kid?”
My fingers gingerly massage the inflamed flesh of my throat, but I nod. “Is he gone?”
Her little head snaps left to right as she spins in circles, spears of sunlight flickering off the blade she carries. “Yep. He must have seen me coming and fled.”
I don’t have the heart to correct her assumption—the arrogant little diva. The Darken didn’t leave because he was afraid; he has nothing but time to find ways to fulfill his promise. And the bruising around my neck proves he can always kill me and take my soulstone, if need be.
I glance down at my very mortal, very breakable body. A body I was, up until like five minutes ago, proud of for its strength and skill.
You might as well be twigs and tissue paper, I accuse.
But before I can berate my poor flesh more—or ponder how sane having a conversation with one’s body is—something sharp and needy jerks taut low in my belly.
Valerian.
12
The forest floor crunches beneath my slingback heels as I pop to my feet, pivoting to face Valerian. Beneath dawn’s amber glow his thick, wavy hair is a vibrant midnight blue, and locks of it fall across his forehead. He wears gray joggers and a black T-shirt, his skin pale like frost.
Our eyes meet, and a violent shudder ripples through me, my reaction to his presence visceral and raw.
I don’t know who moves first, but suddenly his arms envelop me and I’m clinging to his waist, my head plastered to his chest. I devour the strong thump thump of his heartbeat the way I inhaled air a few moments ago—as if I might never experience it again.
Safe in his embrace, the terror from the encounter with the Darken finally catches up to me.
Valerian feels my shivers and tightens his hold on me. “Princess, are you okay?”
I nod, for some reason feeling the need to pretend I didn’t just meet the Darken.
“No.” He leans his head back to assess me, using his fingers to lift my chin so I can’t look away. “You don’t have to pretend to be strong for me, ever.”
Tears smear my vision, but I refuse to fall apart as I hold his worried stare. “The Darken. He was here.”
His concern goes full-fledged homicidal, the air around us crystalizing as his frigid magic whooshes out like a shield. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.” I work to smother the gut-wrenching ball of horror pitting my stomach, but something about Valerian’s beautiful face won’t let me forget the Darken’s deranged features.
Oberon had been handsome, once. Perhaps being confronted with the unnatural allure of the Fae twisted into something so wretched and monstrous is what’s bothering me.
“Did he hurt you?” The ferocity in Valerian’s sharp ice-blue eyes softens.
And then it hits me.
Oh, God. The reason why the Darken’s features looked so familiar was because . . . “You look like him. Your hair. Your eyes and lips and . . .”
My statement finally convinces Valerian that his sociopathic grandfather really was here. I can tell by the way Valerian’s eyes darken. The way he positions his body around me, a growl rumbling deep in his chest as he sweeps his feral gaze over the woods.