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“It’s always been a terrible look on me.” Daj cupped one of my cheeks. “I love you, my girl. I need you to hear that before these damn seas attempt to take you again. I can’t describe how it feels to have you back.”

“I love you both. Gods, I’ve missed you.” Each of my hands held firmly to one of theirs. I cast a cautious glance over my shoulder. Tait had shrunk back into a corner, nearly out of sight from where we stood. “I, um, well, I wouldn’t be here if not for Tait.”

My mother caught sight of him first. She did not hesitate and rushed across the room. I did not have time to stop her before she embraced him.

Disquiet carved across his features when her arms clung to his neck, forcing him to bend to match her smaller stature. The poor man did not know what to do with his hands. The tips of his fingers tentatively patted the blades of my mother’s shoulders.

“You’ve been with Harald’s son this whole time?” Daj’s eyes narrowed.

“Daj.” I hesitated. “There is something you must know before you go thank him for risking his damn neck for your only child on multiple occasions. Harald Songtaker does not deserve the title of father to Tait Heartwalker. Ever. Call him Bloodsinger’s cousin if you must, but not Harald’s son.”

My father tilted his head, scrutinizing me in a way that felt a great deal like he might be attempting to read my every thought.

If he took note of something, he did not make it known, merely dipped his chin and said, “As you say.”

My mother released Tait at long last. He’d fallen into the shell of shadowed, stoic sea fae. I bit down on my bottom lip, desperate not to grin. How long I’d thought him to be such an ill-tempered sod; now I recognized it was Tait’s signal he was utterly unsettled by the nearness of others.

“Thank you,” Saga said, voice soft. “Thank you for keeping her safe.”

After a sharp look from me, my father grunted but joined my mother’s side.

One breath, two, then he held out his arm to Tait. “Many thanks, Heartwalker. Good of you to look after our girl, and you ought to know as bloodthirsty and disagreeable as I find the Ever King, he was rather beside himself when we arrived. And when I say, ‘beside himself,’ he continually threatened to slaughter folk if they stepped into his path. I can only assume that is Bloodsinger’s way of showing a great deal of worry.”

Tait waited for a breath to ensure my father had finished speaking, then tentatively clasped forearms with the king.

For a moment it seemed a common greeting, respectful and simple. Until my father jerked on Tait’s arm, tugging him closer like he wanted to inspect him.

Tait’s mouth tightened on instinct. His free hand balled at his side.

“As I was saying,” my father went on, with a sharper edge to his tone. “Thank you for returning my daughter. She is one of two precious souls I hold in greater regard than anyone else, you see. My greatest accomplishment will always be her, and it will always be my duty to see that her heart is kept safe. Do we understand each other?”

Tait’s eyes burned more crimson than gold when he found me over my father’s shoulder. After a heartbeat, he nodded, facing the king. “We have an understanding, Highness. I myself have acquired something I value above everything else, and I would not be so foolish as to break it.”

My mother and I spared a glance at each other, both a little stunned at the two men holding each other in a darkened stare, a challenge of sorts. The man who loved me first and the man who’d taken my heart for himself.

“Delightful.” My father released Tait’s arm and clapped him on the back. The familiar, mischievous grin of Ari Sekundär returned as though it had never left. “Now that we have that all cleared up, I’d like to know where Bloodsinger keeps his damn hospitality. Does he not realize he has visiting royalty? A banquet, perhaps? Good hells, a mere pillow to rest upon? Nothing? Heartwalker, come, let us find this bastard you call a cousin, for my wife is fatigued and likely hungry.”

“Do not blame me, Husband. It was you who insisted you could eat the whole of a hog now that Mira was found,” Maj said.

Daj pressed a palm to my mother’s brow. “You see, Heartwalker. This is what happens when delirium from hunger sets in. Poor woman doesn’t know what she’s saying.”

My mother pinched the back of his arm. They strode ahead, laughing together, and left us in their wake.

I slipped my fingers into Tait’s hand and squeezed his palm.

“He did not call me Harald’s son.”

“No,” I said, “he did not. Are you ready to flee to the Far Seas again?”

He kissed my knuckles. “Another moment and yes.”

“You’ll grow accustomed to them.”

“You saw that, right? I’m not missing what happened here? Your father hated me, then I’m almost certain I told him about us without even telling him, and now…he tolerates me?”

“Very good. You’ve kept up remarkably well.”

Tait’s brow furrowed, and I wasn’t certain if he was more unsettled now or before.