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CHAPTER48
The Songbird
“Uncle Valen will want his head,” Alek said. He sat in one of the chairs in the front room, a boot propped against the edge of the table.
“I know.” I stared out the window with the painted image of Nightfire and his star lover in the night sky. My fingertips traced the distance between them. Sometimes the myth of the lovers in the sky felt too much like my existence. As though the passion, the love I felt for Erik Bloodsinger was doomed to separate us.
“You’re certain this is what you want, Liv? You have a choice, you know. There is no need to feel like you must stay the way I do.”
I smiled over my shoulder. “Alek, I’ve loved the sea king since I was a girl on the opposite side of a war. We’re bonded.”
“Yes.” Aleksi scoffed. “His mantle. That is what causes me to worry. You both think itmustbe this way, when perhaps, it can just be a means to broker peace.”
“He is my desire, Alek.” I fingered the bone necklace around my throat. My beautiful monster. “He’s myhjärta. Bond or not.”
Aleksi’s face softened. Ahjärtameant one had found a love so deep it was the other beat of your heart, a true harmony between two souls.
“I think you don’t want me to stay because if I am at Erik’s side, I’m not by yours.” I arched a brow in a playful challenge.
“You nor Bloodsinger can be rid of me. I meant what I said and will serve him during this time of his kingdom’s need.”
“You know he views saving Uncle Tor as a payment to Stieg for protecting him as a young boy, right? You’re the one keeping a debt between you.”
“I know.” Alek waved me away. “But the truth of what he did for Daj has weighed on me since that day. It’s why I wanted to be a Rave. I wanted to catch the Ever King when he came through again because I knew he would,godsI knew he would. I was going to expose the truth, force peace talks, a lot of grandeur, hero’s banquets, and honor for my future littles for being the brave warrior to soften the heart of the Ever King.” He leaned back in his chair and propped his boots onto the table. “Thank you, cousin, for robbing me of my heroic fantasy.”
I chuckled and faced the window again. It was still surreal to have my cousin with me, but I was glad. Alek had stepped into the Ever as a balance between worlds. Where I was the daughter of Thorvald’s killer, Aleksi was the son of Erik’s saved.
He’d drawn the interest of many courtiers and had already settled in with Sewell who called him the golden fox. I assumed because of Alek’s eyes. Even Tait smirked when Alek managed to make Celine and Larsson laugh.
He’d joined us as we sailed to the isles about the kingdom, pushing back the darkening. Day by day, Alek was coming to realize the Ever was not the enemy we thought. They were fae folk the same as us, they fought for their realm; they protected their families the way we did.
In the weeks since Erik gave me the title of Ever Queen, I’d spent more than one night talking to my cousin into the early morning hours. Sometimes, Erik would join us in the conversations. A dark, silky presence who only uttered a few words. In vulnerable moments, he’d admit how the anticipation of the fairy tales I read would keep him hopeful in the cells, all those turns ago.
Most often he was silent, or he’d leave Alek and me to talk alone.
In somber moments, Alek recounted the pain of our friends at my capture. Mira had nearly killed one of her own guards when they’d taken her away, trying to fight her way to me. Sander had spent every waking hour beside Mira’s father who had a proclivity for maps and cartography, trying to find a way into the Ever.
Jonas—playful, carefree Jonas—Aleksi said he’d uttered perhaps two words and his eyes had been the inky black of his dreary nightmarish magic since I disappeared.
I needed to put my parents’ hearts at ease. I needed to see my friends.
We were nearing the time when I’d return home and I would meet them. Not as Livia, heir to the Night Folk throne. I would be the Ever Queen. I’d be there to speak for the sea folk. I’d face my father as a queen of his enemy.
Strange to be afraid. My father loved me fiercely, and I’d never doubted it. Perhaps that was the trouble. He loved me enough to kill the man who’d taken me from him. He loved me enough to think Erik had cast some sort of spell on me, and the only way to be free of it was by Erik’s blood.
A thousand scenarios rampaged in my head. Sweat gathered between my fingers, and the familiar flurry of my pulse started to rise.
I closed my eyes.I am Livia Ferus, daughter of warriors, healer of lands, Queen of the Ever.
Nerves still prickled up my arms, but I pictured Erik adding his own touch of vulgarity to the saying likedelicacy of the king’s tongue. He tried to make each one more tantalizing.
“You’re at peace here, Liv.” Alek came to my side and studied the painting. “You don’t seem so . . . burdened.”
“I love our people, Alek. I love our family. But when I came here it felt as though I came home.” I met his stare. “I can’t explain it. Even when I tried to hate Erik for taking me, there was a sense of being right where I needed to be.”
Aleksi hesitated for a long pause before he took hold of my hand. “Then I will stand with you until our people finally make peace with the Ever. Now, I better be off. Celine insists on my input over the final design of your crown, Queen.”
My stomach swirled in delightful heat. Queen of the Ever. Queen of Erik Bloodsinger. I could hardly believe it, and every morning it took at least five long kisses of the man before my mind relented to the truth.
