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No matter how Erik mocked me, what happened taught me to always be on guard.
Shoulders back, I stepped into the room.
This wasn’t a bedchamber. This room was meant for gathering or sitting. Woven rugs over the floor, a few plush chairs against a round table. A meal had been laid out, but my gaze found Bloodsinger straight away.
Gods, he was horribly captivating. Rough and battered, but beautiful and villainous.
The scar cutting through his lip thickened the top peak. His skin had a rich bronze tint in the dawn, almost as though he might glisten in direct sunlight. I was accustomed to broad men, and Bloodsinger was strong, but strength wasn’t all in his build. He was lithe too. A man who could lash out and cut through another before anyone could stop it.
Erik gestured to his meager feast. “Sit.”
I did a quick scan of the wooden plates and goblets. Raw cuts of pink fish and steamed bitter greens and a tart-smelling jelly sauce were laid out over the top.
“I’m not hungry.” I was ravenous.
“You lie so easily, Songbird. Caught in a sea singer’s trance races the heart as if you’re running great distances. Eat. You’ll need your strength. And don’t tell Sewell I said this, but you might as well enjoy the food here before we make the journey home.”
“You’ve decided to return me to the fort?” I sat in one of the chairs with an arrogant grin. “A wise choice.”
Erik took the seat across from me and picked at the fish without taking his gaze off mine. “You’ll learn to call the royal city home soon enough.”
For how long? I swallowed the question back and took a small, pink berry off a plate. It tasted bitter until the juice dripped down my throat like a sugared glaze. “You always accuse me of lying, but you’ve told your fair share.”
“I’ve told you two lies, and one was part of our game in your chamber—I am not careful with how I use my magic, that was the lie.”
“I’m sure I can think of a few more from when you had your hand under my dress.” All gods. I blinked, a little astonished at my own flyaway tongue.
“The same sweet lies you spoke last night when you choked me with your tongue.” Bloodsinger’s grin spread, wide, white, and menacing. Those sharpened canines were not wolfish like fangs, but vicious all the same. He tossed a piece of the fish into his mouth and slumped back in his chair.
Another glance at the meal and my insides twisted. My mouth grew too wet I had to swallow twice.
“Why do any of this? Feed me, clothe me, bring your boneweaver healer woman?”
“Poppy will curse your tongue for that one.” Erik took a long drink from the goblet. “She’s no one’s boneweaver, a free soul as she likes to tell everyone. Says it keeps those she weaves diverse and interesting.”
I let out a sigh of irritation. “Still, you . . . you could’ve made me suffer last night, as you vowed. I was in such a state—” Gods-awful heat flooded my cheeks, but I forced myself to go on. “If you were to hand me to your crew, I would’ve been pliant and accommodating for anyone. You missed your true opportunity to make me suffer.”
The gleam in his eyes transformed to a deep, heated rage. A shiver lanced down my back; I could practically taste the violence misting off him. “Maybe you’re right. I should’ve.”
His anger didn’t come from a place of regret at missing a cruel opportunity. It was pointed at me. As though Bloodsinger was enraged I’d even suggest such a thing. He threatened me in one breath, then looked at me like he’d tear out the throat of anyone who came close.
I wasn’t certain if it was the effects of the trance still peeling away, but my head spun, and I tired of it.
“What do you want with me?” The words spilled out like a plea. “You keep me safe, yet tell me to anticipate death and suffering and pain. The way you took me, the way you tell me you plan such brutal things with me, makes little sense anymore.”
“Tell me where lies the confusion so I might clarify.”
I crossed my arms over my chest like a shield. Maybe more of a challenge. “If you cared about spilling our blood so much, I would be dead already, and you certainly wouldn’t have thought twice about leaving my brother alive.”
He swirled a finger around the edge of his goblet. “You want the truth, love?”
“Yes.”
Erik’s jaw pulsed once, then twice before he looked at me. “Your people deserve to suffer for what they’ve done time and again to people of the Ever. But you?” The king paused. “I might have different plans for you.”
My stomach tightened. “And will I be . . . privy to these plans?”
“Yes. You asked for honesty, and I will give it to you. No matter how brutal.”
