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“Are you certain you’re happy with what comes next?” Her fingers tangled in the hair behind my neck.

I pressed a kiss to the side of her head. “Wherever you are, I am happy to be.”

“All those sweet words.” Mira clicked her tongue and let me spin her, although we both stumbled a bit.

Since earning a place at the royal council, we’d spent late nights discussing future days. There was little we could do about Mira’s duty to her kingdom. There was little we could do about my bond with the Ever.

There was nothing to do about the truth that I refused to be parted from the woman who’d claimed me heart and soul.

Erik and Livia offered counsel. In truth, Erik grumbled and Livia provided solutions.

We settled on the idea that I would be drawn in as a part of the glamour fae royal house, a consort, although Mira wrinkled her nose at the title, insisting I was more.

I had plans to ask her to be much more soon enough.

As a lord of the House of Kings, I would be required to still be present in the Ever.

It was decided that for half the turn, during the planting and winter revels, we would reside in the earth fae realms, where I’d already been told by the glamour queen that troll folk were busy ensuring new pools and creeks were carved around the Borough Palace for my sea fae skin.

During harvests and warm months, when trade was at its peak in the Ever, we would take up my chambers here, in the Royal City.

Our lives were to be forever entwined as earth and sea fae.

“I do not care where I wake each morning,” I said, tracing the line of her bottom lip with my thumb. “But I am honored you desire to be there when I do.”

Mira let her cheek fall to my chest, swaying gently in the center of the hall. For a moment we said nothing, until she lifted her chin. “Oh, look. Eeva decided to come.”

The Veri woman stood in the corner of the hall. Her golden hair was covered in woven blooms that matched the coiling gold tattoos on her arms. She’d been dressed in a similar shade of purple. I suspected a gown had been left by a certain glamour princess.

Eeva hugged her middle and smiled as Lady Avaline and a siren with piercing black eyes described something with great enthusiasm.

In the days since she’d been at the palace, the woman had been cautious about leaving her chambers. Only after Livia and Mira insisted she come meet some folk did she explore.

Eeva only dared look me in the eye recently. Swordeater, Nightseer, and Seableeder spent a day showing Eeva around the deck of the Ever Ship. It was more so the men could plead with their new “lass” not to let all the messy business of her unknowingly draining blood from some of our men get in the way of her peace in the Ever.

That was the trouble for Eeva. She had nowhere else to go. Not when she couldn’t recall anything about her clan save a few hazy memories.

And we did not know where Parek had hidden himself away. If he still lived, Djur’s brother would want control over Eeva again.

“She seems unsettled,” I said.

“I imagine it will take time.” Mira studied the woman, a thoughtful gleam in her eyes. “She’s quite pleasant. A little innocent, if I’m speaking true. She spends a great deal of time in the study reading. Seems to make her happy, though. Did I tell you Skadi arranged to ship her an entire trunk of elven tales?”

“Aye.” I nodded toward the opposite corner. “What of the prince?”

Mira sighed. Prince Sander leaned against the corner near his brother and fellow alver folk, a small black book in his hand. He hardly seemed to care about the dancing around him and kept his attention on the pages, slowly sipping from a drinking horn.

“I think Eeva is still horrified she drank from him. And if I’m honest, even Sander has behaved a little strangely. He insists after all this is over”—Mira gestured to the hall—“he plans to smooth the disquiet. Eeva will be part of us now, at least until we find her folk. Sander is not one to let bad blood lie too long.”

I tolerated another two dances before the endless shoving and crowding of bodies left my blood toiling in my veins and the familiar unease of being touched too many times heated my skin.

“I don’t know about you, My Lord,” Mira whispered. “But I, for one, need some air.”

I chuckled and kissed her knuckles. “Looking to be alone with me, Vicious?”

“Always.” Out on the balcony—alone and peaceful—Mira leaned against me, one of her palms on my chest. “Hearttalker? Do you?”

I peered down at her, kissed her slowly, tenderly, then whispered, “Aye.”