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Jonas rose from his chair, all levity washed of his face.
“Jo,” Sander whispered.
“Don’t.” Jonas shook his head. “What did I say? No more. I am the best choice for this. Alek and Stieg are Rave. I won’t take that from them. Valen is a king. Livie is already here as the queen. Mira is a sole heir.”
“But it could be me. You do this since there are two of us.”
Jonas stared at his brother. “I’m the eldest.”
“By moments.”
“Still.” He turned to Narza. “I’ll be the one taking the exchange. I’m much better with a blade than him. I assure you, I’m the best choice.”
Sander glared at his brother, cursed him, but when Mira took hold of his arm, she urged him back to his chair.
“This is Liv we’re talking about. They won’t trap him,” she whispered in a bit of reassurance.
“We need the king and the queen.” Catriona opened her arms, beckoning us forward to the center of the room.
Alistair and Tavish had already arranged seashell ewers filled with clear water and a bowl of tilled, soft soil inside a circle of painted runes.
With Livia’s hand in mine, we stepped inside, kneeling in thecenter at Catriona’s instruction. Narza took one side of the circle beside the ewers. Jonas knelt beside the soil.
“You remember how it is done?” Narza whispered to Catriona. “It’s slightly different than the first, since it is an exchange.”
“Yes. You showed me well.” The other sea witch rested a hand on the lady of the witches.
From inside a pouch made of gleaming scales and fishbone, Catriona removed emerald silk woven in dry threads of sea plants. Next, she removed a thread of slender roots, fine as weaving threads, and crossed them in front of Livia and me.
“One drop of blood from the bonded.” Catriona pricked Narza’s middle finger. “Added upon the heart of the willing.”
Jonas blinked, startled when Catriona paused in front of him. Fingers hurried, he unlaced the threads across his tunic, exposing the skin of his chest.
Catriona hummed. Jonas swallowed a grimace on his face that he buried with a laugh. “It’s getting warmer.”
“It’s growing colder,” Narza whispered.
Catriona paid them little mind and set about lifting one of the ewers and pouring water into the dark soil. “Sea and land, once at odds, now stand as one.”
The sea witch used her fingers to saturate the soil with the seawater until it was a gritty paste. Another gentle hum and a flash of crystalline flames rolled around the rim of the bowl, fading once it was complete.
“It is ready to set,” Catriona told us. “Once the parameters are given, the bond will fasten to the earth prince, releasing Lady Narza.”
I faced the prince. “I simply tell him what we want?”
“Yes.” Catriona nodded. “The bond offers the prince protection of the Ever since his vow will place him in the service of our people by creating a compulsion to defend us. Any other desires or needs are to be spoken by you that will add to his bond. The compulsion to protect is the common thread in every bond made. The rest is rather up to you.”
“Don’t make me sleep at the foot of your bed with my blade or something, Bloodsinger.” Jonas chuckled. “Make it impressive.”
Livia squeezed my hand and smiled. “I only ask that you protect my folk, the Ever King, and the land that comes with him, as fiercely as I will defend you and yours.”
Jonas smiled at her. “Always, Livie.”
“Protect the Ever Queen,” I said. “Above me. If ever we are in a position where it is a choice, always choose her.”
A shadow crossed his features. Jonas held my gaze, blood against moss. After a thick swallow, he dipped his chin. “As you say, Bloodsinger.”
To Catriona, I said, “The earth prince is free to leave the Ever, free to live wherever he may choose. I don’t want him bound in any other way.”
