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Deep in the water, beyond the sandbars and rocky edges, Gavyn’s face broke the surface. He faced the shore, simply staring.
Then, “The Chasm is gone!”
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
THE SERPENT
Earth fae tookany reason to celebrate and feast. Again, we were gathered in the great hall, drinking, eating, and dancing to their strange rawhide drums and odd lutes. Most nights, I would choose to hole away with Livia, alone, far from other souls, but tonight even I found a bit of lightness in the room.
A stark line carved through the seas. Dark waters marking the barrier between the Ever and the earth realms. It remained, but as the elven said—the violence was gone.
Gavyn, Tait, and Aleksi offered to test the new barrier. Gavyn’s ship had been gone half the morning, and when they returned, there’d been a bit of awe written on their faces.
To the sea fae, the Chasm was not horridly uncomfortable, more like a fierce sea storm. But Alek returned to say it was like drifting from the frosts to summer waters. Dark and cold, until they reached the Ever Sea where light and warmth fed into the currents.
“Almost peaceful,” he said, speaking to everyone, but his eyes had been on his aunt. “Nothing more than diving into the sea.”
There was the matter of breathing. Elise would live the length of the fae through spells and magic, but she still had mortal lungs.
One of the earth witches—or Elixists—waved the worry away. “A simple charm you keep with you, Elise. That’s all it’ll take. I’ll have one within days.”
“Days?” Tavish crossed his ankle over his knee. “I’ll have one by sunset tomorrow.”
“Is that a challenge, spell caster?”
Tavish smirked. “That it is, Elixir.”
I’d few doubts the Night Folk queen, and any mortal in the earth realms, would have half a dozen ways to breathe through the journey by week’s end.
Livia leaned into me, smiling at the levity. Women, men, littles; they danced around each other. The earth bender laughed with Elise in the center of the room when Mira’s father and mother muttered something to them.
But beside them, Sander bowed at the waist to a sea witch, taking the woman’s hand in the dance. Gavyn had become the intrigue of more than one earth fae courtier and had danced with no less than four women thus far.
“Hearttalker.” Mira approached Tait two seats from us. “Time for you to dance. Perhaps smile a bit.”
“I would rather dry out on the land before dancing.”
“Gods, you’re the sourest man,” the princess said, striding away with more than one insult murmured over her shoulder.
“She’s not wrong, cousin,” I said through a drink of the honey-thick ale the earth fae drank. I’d never admit it to Alistair, but I almost preferred it to our sweet wines.
Tait huffed but didn’t disagree. My cousin was surly, but there were reasons and they were his to tell. His secrets to reveal.
“What is the matter with Jonas?” I whispered against Livia’s ear.
Her eyes kicked to the prince who sat amongst a few Rave who’d placed themselves around the elven. Her feat with the Chasm, though miraculous, seemed to add a bit more trepidation about the extent of her power.
It was subtle, but the elven was being watched. Closely. No mistake, she always would be.
Jonas did not look to the revelry but studied his drinking horn, lost in his own mind.
Worry grooved over Livia’s brow. “I don’t know. He simply says he has a great deal on his mind with all this.”
“Want Tait to read his heart?”
“No.” Livia sighed. “Jonas deserves his private thoughts. War upset him as a boy. It seems this one has done the same.”
“We can find a way to exchange the bond,” I offered. “It does not mean he’s a prisoner of the Ever—”
