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“What? She stabbed Sander.”
“I’ve been thinking about it,” Sander said, the familiar, bemused furrow dug into his brow. “I think she was fighting to protect the chamber with the sleeping man. Don’t you recall?”
“No,” said Jonas. “I don’t recall much of what she said. Only that she could literally steal the blades from our hands with her damn dark magic.”
Mira snorted. “It’s not like you have the loveliest of gifts, Jo.”
“She kept telling us to leave him be,” Sander said. “She kept shouting that she would fight against us if we came closer. Like a warning first.”
Erik limped forward. “We have her, the guards, and the sleeping elven under our watch. Lady Narza is working to wake the man. He was placed in a strange sleep, not one made by Fione, but Narza believes she can still work through it.”
“I hope he wakes soon,” I said. “Skadi is refusing to talk to us.”
“What about that fiery bastard?” Aleksimuttered.
Erik shook his head. “Gone.”
“He is a problem,” I said.
“Aye.” Erik nodded. “And we’ll find a way to deal with him, but our answers will likely need to come from the sleeping elven if he wakes.”
The elven guards had been drained of what Narza calleddark bindings, a sort of dark spell cast that left them mindless, only obedient to those with command over their lives.
Once Fione was gone, the tethers faded.
“What do we do until then?” Sander asked, voice heavy with exhaustion. He looked to Erik.
My skin heated when Erik slid his fingers through mine. He smiled faintly. “We rebuild the Ever Kingdom.”
CHAPTER FIFTY
THE SERPENT
Four days after battles ended,my leg was healed enough I no longer needed Murdock’s damn cane. Still, I looked horrible. Healing wounds, new scars, bruises across my jaw and face from Larsson’s boots.
In truth, my leg had turned a sickly, pulpy color, like rotted pomes, and hardly fit inside my trousers it remained so swollen.
Naturally, I blamed Murdock, told him if he couldn’t even manage to make me kingly, what was the point of a boneweaver in the palace?
Livia took great care in seeing to it pastes and ointments were rubbed across my bare skin. Great care.
I glanced over to where she sat in her throne at my side, recalling just this morning the sort of care she took now that our bodies did not ache and protest with every movement made. Her cheeks flushed, as though she sensed my thoughts and knew why I studied her.
Palace staff rummaged around the back of the hall, draping satin banners and fragrant blossoms across rafters and sconces. By week’send, the palace would be bursting in a revel for all houses to honor the victory and to truly step into a new Ever.
No part of me wanted to participate in a revel. What I wanted to do was hole away in our chambers and memorize every new scar on each other’s bodies until we could not breathe, before our lives were tossed into chaos and interruptions.
But Livia was to be coronated soon, and we had new orders for more than one house that would be made public.
By the fortnight, we would set sail through the Chasm.
Rejection wasn’t a horrid fear, not with the earth bender still in my court, fresh from battle. Still, there were likely a great many emotions and thoughts about what was done to bring us here.
I was not certain how many of the earth fae would truly welcome the sea.
But it was unavoidable. Not only did Livia desperately miss those left behind, but already the protests from the earth fae were felt from their shores through the Chasm. Kings and Queens were at the point of demanding they rest eyes on their missing heirs, lest a new war began.
Queen Elise was the most frightening. The last time Narza arranged for us to speak through the water, the queen had left me with a scathing look that spoke a hundred threats if I did not return her daughter and husband soon.
