AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What?”
Maybe I was a monster. For so long, I’d buried the small details beneath anger and the need to restore my own father’s brutality on the throne. “He said I’d shown more bravery than warriors for surviving torture, and they’d keep me if I was unwanted by my own people.”
“Then he meant it, Erik.” Her voice cracked. “My father does not deal in weak threats, not when it comes to littles.”
I scrubbed my hands down my face. “I know because he offered it again.” Shame was potent, sour, and hot on my tongue. “At the end of the great war. He told me after what I’d done for your uncle, I could have a place with your Night Folk.”
“He’s never mentioned that. Nor my uncles.”
“Because I made certain to become a threat to him.” I pulled myself up and leaned against the headboard. At once, Livia tucked against me and draped an arm around my waist. “I vowed to return and kill him. I healed your uncle to repay Stieg, but I told your father there would always be a debt between us for Thorvald.”
“I don’t understand why. There was a chance for peace.”
“My Uncle Harald had a poisonous tongue, love. Understand, I was truly convinced the only way to be a chosen king of the Ever was to gain favor from the previous king. I knew Thorvald cared nothing for me when he lived, so in his death was my only chance.
“Truth be told, if my father hadn’t died, I’m certain he would’ve killed me.” I scoffed bitterly. “Your question about another heir unnerved me for there was already some talk he had a bastard; his spare.”
“Do you think it’s true?”
“I have no doubt Thorvald wanted a different son, but if there was another heir, he’d have challenged me by now.” It wouldn’t make sense to wait. If a blood claim was to be made, it should’ve been made when I was weaker, younger, and less violent.
Livia traced a scar across my chest. “Did you want to stay? With my people, I mean.”
“For you.” I tilted her chin up. “You intrigued me. I knew you were the earth bender’s heir, and I wanted to be nearer . . . to you. But Harald was dead, our armies were weakened, and I couldn’t abandon the Ever. There were too many dependent on promises I’d made.”
We were silent for a long pause until she said, “Thank you for healing Aleksi. He is more brother than cousin to me. I am curious about Gavyn, though.”
“I’m going to need to kill him then.”
She snickered and pinched my ribs. “Not like that, you jealous fiend. What is his ability?”
My jaw tightened. “Livia, if I tell you this, you cannot speak a word to anyone. Gavyn’s voice could get him executed by the house lords.”
Her eyes widened. “I swear, I won’t say a word.”
I hurriedly explained how he could alter his form, and why it was considered too risky of an ability. Why it made him a spy and potential assassin.
“Celine told me they owe you everything,” Livia said. “She . . . she told me she was born with siren blood.”
“Celine has a damn big mouth,” I grumbled. My fingers threaded through her hair. “But they were part of those who were dependent on my promises. Their father was the lord over the House of Bones. He committed several crimes against the crown. One being he kept Gavyn’s voice a secret, but after Gavyn was born, Thorvald commanded their father to kill his mate, a powerful siren.”
Revealing these truths of my father made me hate him more and hate for him a little less. “Thorvald had his son slaughter his mate, after all, he wanted the other lords to show the same devotion to the Ever.
“The difference was Gavyn’s father loved his mother. He hid her away, but never severed their bond. After Thorvald’s death, my uncle discovered the mate was not only alive, but had borne a second child for the House of Bones. A siren daughter.”
“Harald executed the mate and cut out Celine’s song.” I let out a long breath. “My uncle planned to force Gavyn’s father to finish his daughter’s torture, but I ordered something different. I was a young king, but still king.”
“You intervened for Celine’s life?”
“Harald never allowed me friends, even took Tait from me. Believe it or not, we were once close like you and your cousin. Gavyn was as close to a friend as I had because he could slip in and out of the palace grounds with his ability. We got to know each other as heirs with secrets. I knew what it was like to have a mother taken away, and I didn’t want him to lose his father and sister, so I told my uncle I wanted Celine as practice for my poison.”
She pressed a kiss over my heart and hooked a leg over my hips.
“I hid Celine among the servants. Harald never noticed them. After the war, I kept her on my ship and showed her how I call to the sea. Her siren blood helped develop a new, unique voice for the tides. We gave her a new name, and no one knows she’s Gavyn’s sister. Gavyn made me promise to keep her identity hidden, or she could be used against him, or lose her life if anyone who believes as Harald and Thorvald discovers her bloodline.”
Livia sighed. “I still think it’s ridiculous how folk believe that loving anyone beyond themselves is a weakness.”
I studied the soft shape of her face. Livia was my weakness. Use her against me, and I would unravel. Yet in some ways she was my ultimate strength. The notion of her being harmed again drew out the fiercest desire to fight and kill in her damn name.
