Page 66 of The Stolen Crown

“Concerned for me?”

“No. Concerned for my sleep. If you’re thrashing from nightmares from whatever creature you’re imagining, I will not get rest.”

“Then I need a distraction.”

“Like what?” He poked at the meat.

He would detest chatter, but if the man wanted my mind distracted from haunts of a village of death, he would need to tolerate a bit. Conversation always held my focus. This silence between us would only leave my thoughts drifting to death and gore and creatures of the deep.

I cleared my throat. “I’m going to ask you a question.”

“Why announce it?”

“Because I’d sincerely like you to answer. We’re the only company each other has right now, and I don’t see why we can’t pass the time learning a bit more about each other.”

Tait let his head fall back against the stones of the cavern wall. “Doubt I have a choice in whether you ask it or not.”

“True enough. I’m curious about something. You’ve said royal lines of the Ever are not like the earth fae, who typically pass crowns through bloodlines. Since Livia is queen of the Ever, if her brother, for example, refuses the Night Folk crown, it would likely pass to Aleksi.”

“Who is a warrior,” Tait said, “and wouldn’t take it.”

I grinned. “Yes. The last thing Alek wants is to be tied down by a crown.”

Aleksi was a prince of the Night Folk, one of my dearest friends, but I could not think of anything he would despise more than giving up his warrior’s blade.

“You did not ask a question,” Tait said after I did not go on.

“Well, Alek is Livia’s cousin and could potentially take the throne, but you said the crown of the Ever would not pass to you if Bloodsinger or Liv were unable to rule. Yet you are Erik’s cousin.”

“The crown chooses the Ever King. I have attributes of the royal house.” He licked the tip of his tongue over the sharp point of a canine. “But the blood crown chose Thorvald, not Harald. After a king is chosen, the crown will often pass to a king’s heir, like your realms, but only if they’re deemed worthy of it. Which is why Bonekeeper was a true threat to Erik.”

Unbidden, Tait’s palm ran over a spot just above his hip bone. I bit down on the inside of my cheek. I’d seen the scar before, the place where Larsson Bonekeeper rammed a blade into him.

All Tait did was try to save Livia. Instead, he nearly died and Larsson started a war.

Livia and I had spoken a great deal about the horrors that wretch brought to both our lands. Larsson was King Thorvald’s firstborn, an abandoned heir raised by the elven clans.

Good hells, if he’d managed to slaughter Erik in the battles of the Ever, no mistake, the war between realms would still exist. Larsson was a cruel bastard willing to do anything to keep power.

I did not mourn Bonekeeper’s death.

“The differences in the way our cultures pass on lines is interesting,” I said.

Tait rested the stick for a moment and lifted his gaze. “I was told something once about the blood crown. Before the war with your people, Harald drunkenly confessed he believed Thorvald stole his crown.”

“Truly?”

“Harald told me he and my uncle set out to claim the crown together. There was another man who bore the characteristics of the royal house. The eyes, the teeth, the brutality. When things such as that occur, a challenge must be leveled to determine the line of succession.

“It was agreed Harald would be the first to challenge and secure the crown on his head. I don’t know if that’s true, but that’s what he told me. Thorvald supposedly distracted him with a siren at the Tower and challenged the other man for the blood crown himself. Harald never challenged the Ever King after that, knowing the crown selects the leader, and instead positioned himself as a lord and the voice in the ear of the king. He told me to kill Erik during the war.” Tait shook his head. “He told me it was my stolen crown on my cousin’s head.”

I hugged my knees to my chest. “Do you feel a claim to the blood crown? Are you the long-lost heir to a stolen crown, Hearttalker?”

“No.” Tait didn’t hesitate. “The true king wears the crown. Harald was plotting new spells with traitorous witches and the dark fae to force the crown to choose me.”

My eyes went wide. “You’re serious? Why not do it for himself?”

“He’d be doing the dishonor. No doubt, the blood crown would find him unworthy. But me? Harald thought he could place me on the throne and force me to do his bidding.”