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The first line of ships collided with the rough, rocky shore. Here there were no docks, and the scrape of stone against the damp wood sent a shiver down my spine.
“Daj.” Gunnar’s soft voice caught my notice. He reached out for Hagen. Malin’s brother had not blinked since the first glimmer of lanterns were visible on the black Howl.
Hagen tilted his head. “I think . . . gods, I think I see her.”
Not even a heartbeat later, a woman’s voice cried out. “Hagen!Hagen!”
Emotion was heavy each time she screamed his name. From the lead ship, a figure spilled over the edge before the longship was close enough to wade to shore.
She wasswimming. Desperately. Choking on seawater, all while screaming Hagen’s name.
Hagen laughed, a little broken, but laughter all the same, then took off in a sprint for the water. “Herja!”
“Come,” I said, pressing a kiss to Malin’s knuckles. “You’ll need to meet the North.”
Behind Gunnar and Eryka—the fae woman rarely left the princeling’s side—I led Malin down the last twenty paces of the beach.
The Princess Herja Ferus was a force. I’d witnessed her ferociousness in battle, her desperation to protect her family. Small framed as she was, the same ferocity was matched tonight as she cut through the waves toward Hagen Strom.
Times were dreary, but even I fought a smile when the two lovers finally collided.
Herja was more powerful than she looked, and the force of her body against Hagen knocked them backward into the sea.
Small waves tossed them side to side, splashing their faces, but neither seemed to notice. She was sprawled over the top of him, smiling brightly before Hagen crushed her mouth to his.
Gunnar beamed at my side.
Eryka slid her hand into his. “They were a fated love.”
I didn’t understand what the fae woman meant half the time she spoke, but she was right on this. The way Hagen and Herja kept pulling back, touching each other’s faces, then devouring each other again and again, it could be nothing but a deep, fated love.
Bard stepped to the other side of Malin. “Strange, is it not? We did not even know of her.”
“They won’t be separated again,” she said with conviction.
I squeezed her hand. A small agreement. Hagen had risked everything, nearly his life, to keep his family safe, to keep Malin safe. He’d looked after us as children. The least I could do was keep him in the arms of his lover until the Otherworld called.
Malin drew in a sharp breath. When I looked back to the longships, I understood why. A man stepped onto the shore. Broad, dark hair in waves to his shoulders. His skin was a soft brown, and his ears came to a gently tapered point.
The cursed king, Valen Ferus.
We’d fought together; I’d plotted his rescue during his war. I would, no doubt, never admit it out loud, but I admired him a great deal.
He’d managed to secure his crown, but never gave up the one he loved to do it. Perhaps he did things a little villainously at times, but no mistake, that only made me admire him more.
He took a step and the rocky beach cracked and fissured.
“What’s happening?” Malin dug her fingernails into my arm as the ground rumbled.
“The king is showing off.” I pointed toward the shore. “That is Valen Ferus. The earth bender.”
Her eyes went wide. “He truly can break stone?”
“Anything in the earth is at his command.”
“Kase, it sounds like she’s more impressed with my uncle than you,” Gunnar shouted over his shoulder.
“Don’t get bold with your mouth simply because your mother is here,princeling.”
