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The princess’s eyes were glassy. Her fingertip teased the sharp point of Tait’s ear. My cousin was pale as a winter sky. He let out a hiss when Mira ran her palm down his chest.
“You’re not so horrid, are you, sea fae?” Good hells, she tried tonip at his ear.
Tait seemed ready to slit his own throat.
“Filib, cease your song!” Maelstrom’s booming voice rattled the chandelier overhead.
Bleeding gods, these damn sea singers.
Hardly noticeable to sea fae, the songs of the Ever were like a scratch in the backs of our heads. Sea singers did not have power over even the earth fae who favored women, but place those men or women with a siren, and they would bend much the same as the princess.
The sea singer dropped to his knees. “Forgive me,” he whimpered. “It’s just . . . been a great many turns since one couldappreciatemy tune.”
I crossed the room and gripped the sea singer by his thick, golden hair. “The earth fae are under my protection. Play for her again, and it will be your final song.”
“Yes, Highness.”
The moment I released his hair, the sea singer rushed from the room. Mira’s trance was fading, but Celine still had to peel her off Tait.
The princess narrowed her gaze. “What is it, sea fae? Too mighty for me? Isavedyou.”
“And now I am saving you. Call us square, woman.” Tait clenched his fists at his sides. Almost like he battled keeping his own distance.
“We’ve always teased about sea singers,” Jonas said, “but I never thought they were so powerful.”
“Don’t underestimate them.” At this rate, I’d be claiming every damn royal the way I’d claimed Livia to keep their minds free from the songs of the sea.
“Happened to Livia too,” Celine said, grinning when Mira’s trance bled out in full, leaving the princess with her face flushed and buried in her palms. “Draws out the desire. She couldn’t keep her damn hands off the king.”
“I do not desire him,” Mira insisted, glaring at Tait, who’d goneto stand beside Aleksi.
Celine winked and popped one shoulder. “As you say, earth fae.”
“Enough. Tell me what you know, Maelstrom.” I took my place in a wide chair in front of Gavyn’s desk.
Maelstrom sat on the edge of the desktop, arms folded over his blue doublet. A powerful spell caster in his own right, but in this moment, he appeared like more of a king than me. “Are you well, My King?”
“That is not why we are here.”
“Forgive me, but you went to the earth fae, and we worried . . . the Lady of Witches was concerned.”
“Oh, the Night Folk king still wants his head,” Jonas insisted, tossing another slab of fish into his mouth and speaking around it. “We broke him out.”
Tavish claimed a chair beside the center window. He crossed an ankle over one knee, grinning. “Earth fae betrayed their folk?”
“We share similar motivations,” I said, eyes narrowed. “I’m not here to tell you a tale. Maelstrom, tellmewhy the bone lord is not here.”
“We were summoned. Lord Gavyn was searching but had not had any luck finding even a glimpse of the missing queen. He thought perhaps there was a spell, or something we could use. When Lady Narza heard where you’d gone, she left the bone lord to me, and set sail.”
“Narza went through the Chasm?”
“Last eve, before sunset.” Maelstrom ran a hand over the silver stubble of his jaw, worry carved in the lines on his face. “She sailed undersurface, swiftly. She is surely there by now.”
I wheeled around, facing Tait. “We have left her in a dangerous position.”
“Narza is not easily overcome,” Tavish muttered, but he faced the window, as though lost in his own thoughts.
“Where has Gavyn gone?”
