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Erik flinched, but promptly hid it beneath a sneer. “I saw to it he served a purpose and would not be welcomed in the Otherworld.”
There was a burden in my serpent, one that did not require a heartbond to sense. I turned into him and trapped his face in my palms. “We’ve not had a chance to truly speak about it, not in depth. I . . . I know what he did damned him, but he was your blood.”
“He was nothing.”
“Erik.” I kissed the corner of his mouth. “I see you, sometimes, like you are lost in thought whenever his name is mentioned.” Slowly, I encircled his waist, a grin on my face. “I don’t mind if you stumble, Ever King, so long as you let me be there to catch you.”
The red in Erik’s eyes darkened, but I recognized the moment he gave in. “I’ve no remorse for ridding the Ever of Larsson Bonekeeper.” Erik ground his teeth, hesitating. “But I hate that there are moments when my thoughts wander. When I start to hate him a little more because he never gave us a chance to be brothers. I hate that it even bothers me at all. I hate that because of my ignorance, you were harmed.”
I covered his cheek with my palm and pressed a kiss to his lips. “Scars heal, Erik. These scars I earned from cruel handswillheal. But I would not change our tale, Serpent. What Larsson did only proved there is no line, no sea, no sky I would not cross for you. There is nowhere I belong as much as by your side.”
Erik’s mouth turned up into a sly kind of grin. “So, no regrets, Songbird?”
“Never, Serpent.”
“Pardon, Highnesses.” Alistair approached, nose in the air. “But it is time to dress for the ceremony.”
Erik ghosted a kiss over the center of my palm and stepped back. “See you shortly, love.”
One of my brows arched, and the king laughed as he left.
“He’s planning something, isn’t he, Alistair?”
“I would not know, My Queen.”
“Liar.”
The old steward ruffled, but I’d since learned he blustered and fumbled to conceal his smirks and smiles. “Whether or not the king has a plan in his frightening head is of no matter. What is of a matter to me is insisting my queen dress. Now, let’s be off with you.”
“I don’t bleedingunderstand why I, once again, am forced into one of these gods-awful things.” Celine tugged at the satin neckline of the pale green bodice hugging her curves. It complimented her brown skin and bright eyes and looked rather regal with her silver woven hair draped in long waves over her shoulders.
Mira finished placing a beaded band in Celine’s hair, then stepped back to admire. “I think you are going to stop the entire bleeding room, Tidecaller.”
Celine swallowed, frowning, but like Alistair, I knew enough about Celine to know she did not easily give up her discontent.
“What’s troubling you?”
Celine caught my gaze in the standing mirror as I adjusted my bone necklace. She curled a lock of her hair around her finger. “Everyone knows about Daj. What if folk turn against him?”
“Celine.” I took hold of her hand. “What crime is Sewell truly guilty of committing?”
“Disobeying the Ever King.” She ticked them off her fingers. “Refusing an order from Lord Harald. Falsifying my death, his own. What if they oust Gavyn? Gods, what if they find out about Gavyn’s voice?”
Mira stroked Celine’s arm in reassurance, but spared me a glance, uncertain what to say. How could we understand? The threats against her family were foreign to us and nonsensical.
“Here is what I know,” I told her, placing both hands on her shoulders. “I know that if your father is convicted of crimes, then so is the sitting Ever King. Do not forget, Celine, Erik was complicit in all this. He stands with you, the way you have always stood with him. So do I.”
“Oh, and the lot of us earth fae do,” Mira said, waving a hand like it should’ve been obvious. “I’d gladly toss a few more knives at anyone who’s stupid enough to attack you all because your daj didn’t kill his bleeding mate. I mean, really. Do these archaic sods of the Ever realize that without their women, there is no Ever? Who, I wonder, do they think births the next generation?”
“It is hard after living in shadows for so long to think I can enter a room and actually speak to them. Actually call them brother and father.” Celine took in her reflection, arching her back, spinning the skirt. “Still, I don’t know why I have to wear this horrid thing.”
A knock announced our escorts.
“Daj.” I took his rough hands. “You look like a warrior. Maj will be seething that she missed all this.”
My father opened his arms, pulling me close. Dressed in black, absent of his axes, and his dark hair braided off his face, he looked like the powerful king of my childhood.
With a soft kiss to my forehead, my father cupped my face in his rough palms. “I am at a loss of what to say, Livie, but I want you to know that you are my light, and I am so proud of you.”
