Page 122 of The Ever Queen

“Violent days.”

“I thought so,” I admitted, “but now I’m not so sure it wasn’talways you. The moment I saw you, my decade-long plan dissolved, Livia. When I took you for our simple pleasure voyage and not after stealing you away—” I laughed and dodged a twig she tossed at me. “You consumed my thoughts like you did when you’d read to me. You gave me reason to see the better parts of the days, to imagine something different.”

Livia crept across the soil until her lips hovered over mine. “Imagine many things, Erik Bloodsinger. We still have a thousand turns to fill.”

Palms coated in soil, I grabbed her face and kissed her. Livia moaned and parted her lips, her tongue swiping over mine. Never, not once in the thousand turns ahead of us, would I tire of this woman’s kiss.

Livia nudged me back. I hissed when my leg caught. Without a pause, almost as though it’d become her own instinct, her palm rubbed over my upper thigh, soothing the ache. She kept her mouth on mine, as I laid back and maneuvered her thighs on either side of me.

Her hands went to the waist of my trousers, tugging on the laces. I slid my palms up her creamy skin, beneath her slip.

The garden door leading back into the bedchamber crashed open.

“Erik, sails on the horizon!” Celine’s voice shattered our solitude.

We fumbled off each other. Livia tripped over her night slip. I caught her under the arm and tugged her to her feet. Celine took the steps into the garden two at a time, sprinting for us.

She drew in a long breath through her nose, pointing to the inky pitch of the fading night. “Black sails . . . Bonekeeper . . . he’s here.”

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

THE SONGBIRD

Erik securedthe scarf over his head, a cutlass on his belt. I hugged the post of our bed, watching. My hair was tied off my face, braided on the sides and down the center of my skull, and I’d slipped into tight, black trousers, with a dark tunic. One dagger made of dark steel, the other the elven blade abandoned by Skadi.

My stomach ached. Bile burned my throat.Breathe. Focus.

It was then I took note of the slight tremble in Erik’s fingers when he tied the knot behind his head. Bold, fearsome, bloodthirsty—those were all the things that made up the Ever King, but rarely did anyone speak of his unease, his unspoken affection for his people, his family.

There was no mistaking I was terrified. Dozens of horrid ways this all might go wrong rattled in my head, but I told Erik once no one lifted him when he stumbled. That needed to change.

I slipped my arms around his waist, pressing my cheek between his shoulders, and spoke softly. “You are Erik Bloodsinger, son of a brave sea witch, challenger of the earth bender, master of the Ever Queen’s body—”

Erik snorted a laugh and turned to face me. He cupped one side of my face. “Your words help, Songbird.”

I rose onto my toes and kissed him. Slow, tender, a lasting kiss I wanted to taste through the rest of what would come.

In the corridor, the others waited for us. Mira went down the line of earth fae, dipping her fingers in fish blood, and dragged the tips over their faces. My father and Stieg had runes on their throats, their palms.

Jonas and Sander had kohl darkened around their eyes, much like Aleksi. When Mira stood in front of me, she smiled through the blood and dark runes down the center of her lips and forehead. “Queen.”

I closed my eyes while she painted hot, sticky tracks of blood down my lashes and cheeks.

“What’s it for? I mean, it’s fearsome, but why?” Celine whispered to Aleksi.

“We bless it, the blood,” he said. “A sacrifice to the gods for protection.”

“Hmm.” Celine shrugged. “Then I want some.”

My heart warmed, seeing a few of the sea fae, some from the Ever Crew, take traditions and prayers of the earth fae. For a moment, we truly were like one united people.

Bells of warning rolled over the outer walls. Erik took my hand and kissed my palm. “A thousand turns, Songbird.”

“Longer.” I held him close, clinging to the rapid beat of his heart for a dozen breaths.

Erik brushed his thumb over my cheek, and a dozen unspoken things gleamed in his eyes. Then he took the lead and barreled down the corridor.

Staff at the palace ran about, frenzied. When the din of the bells worsened, one clang after the other. Avaline, surrounded by a gaggle of courtiers, darted into the hall, eyes wide in a bit of horrified curiosity. The king demanded they take to the royal chambers and barricade themselves behind the doors.

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