Page 139 of The Ever Queen

Ten paces, that was all that remained between us. My movements were stiff and haggard, but I closed the distance and rammed the point of my blade through Larsson’s leg.

He roared his pain, managing to toss his fists at my ribs when I straddled his waist. A wave of violent delight rushed through my veins when the splintered edges of the ship sliced his shoulders and neck, the more I pressed him down.

Larsson groaned and tried to buck me off, the blade shredding his leg.

I scraped my palm over my teeth, placing it against gashes across his chest. He let out a throaty whimper when the poison took hold. Murky veins slithered up the sides of his neck. Blood-tinged foam clotted in his mouth.

I leaned closer, my face hovered over his. “I would tell you that your bones will adorn her neck.”

Slowly, I began to sing, pulling back the poison. A swift death, that wouldn’t do. Larsson shuddered, gasping when the poison leeched from his blood.

“But,” I went on, my voice like the threat of the storm above, “I think you’ll be better suited as her crown. As you said, she’s not been given a proper one yet.”

Blood stained the deck beneath us. Larsson shoved against my face, trying to throw me aside. I bent his body over the ledge, taking note of what was slowly rising beneath us from the sea floor.

His eyes were glassy, hateful, yet there was a heaviness in them, a glimmer of the man I thought was loyal, the one I dared consider a friend even in my loneliest turns.

“You failed,” I said, voice harsh. “Today you’ll die alone, unloved, and despised. I will send your flesh to the Otherworld, cursed and marred, so the gods know what a wretch you are. They will never welcome you into their seas.”

“Blood . . . Bloodsinger,” he grunted hoarsely, pleading.

Another drop of blood burned his veins with poison. I let it flow farther, watching as the sharp point of a cliff slowly grew and grew from the sea, drawing closer and closer.

The shudder was so faint, I doubted anyone could feel Valen moving the earth. It was such a slow ascent, offering time to say thewords, the promises, the threats, I needed Larsson Bonekeeper to hear. As though Valen Ferus had been in this place himself and knew these moments were mine to claim.

When the whites of Larsson’s eyes were smoky gray from the poison, I sang it back. He slumped, weak, fading.

“Tell our father,” I whispered, “I will proudly continue to disappoint him.”

I took hold of Larsson’s face between my palms, aiming over the point of the rising shard of rock. I waited until his eyes fluttered open, until he held my gaze. I wanted to be the last face he saw.

“Go to the hells, you bastard.”

With a fierce shove, I smashed the back of his skull over the tip of the rocky point. Like gliding through the surface of the sea, the stone sliced through his scalp, the bone, and pierced out the front of his brow.

Each breath burned as if torn from my lungs. I couldn’t pull my hands away. Larsson’s lifeless eyes were coated in blood, his mouth parted in stun, his skull mutilated and unrecognizable, and I was frozen.

Only once gentle hands curled around my waist did I lean back.

“Serpent.” Livia wrapped her arms around my shoulders, pressing my back to her chest.

“Songbird. My . . . my blood.” I swallowed, trembling. My body was soaked in poison.

“I promise not to eat your blood but let me . . . let me just touch you.”

One of my palms curled around her wrists, clinging to her—gods—feeling that she was real, alive, that she was warm and with me.

Her lips met the side of my head. She held them there, soft sobs against my skin. “It’s over, Erik. It’s over.”

I swallowed, blinking through blood and rain.

Over.

The Ever was won.

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

THE SONGBIRD

---