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“Now, I must ask—where the hells are we?” Gavyn looked about the room, a pulse to his jaw. “I was at the shores in the House of Bones, then it was like an iron hook dug into my spine and dragged me here.”
The darkness. The mist. My heart stilled. It had to have something to do with Skadi.
With hands waving, I stammered and blustered through a tale of Skadi’s strange burst of darkness, how she’d seethed over the violence against me, how when Gavyn appeared it looked as though the same skeins of mist had dragged him through the washroom.
When I finished, Gavyn tilted his head. “You believe anelven womanbrought me here?”
“It seems the only way. Shores are warded, but she can takethrough her ability,” I said. “I know little else other than this isle is called Natthaven, and it can fade should they desire it to. In truth, I don’t fully understand any of the magic here.”
“You truly think they’re elven folk?”
“They are like no fae I’ve met, Gavyn.”
He cursed. “And she said you cannot leave the isle?”
“I tried. She told me there is a spell keeping me near Larsson.”
“Dammit. We can’t stay here. If the woman is truly responsible for somehow finding me of all folk across the Ever, then perhaps she broke the wards. It must be a chance for you to escape.”
Hope, warm like the cloudless summer, burned in my chest. It was possible. Skadi had done something ferocious, no mistake. Perhaps it had shattered more than one ward on the isle.
Breathe. Focus.
I recounted everything I’d learned from Larsson—his magic that borrowed abilities, his involvement with the darkening, his sea witch lover. I told Gavyn of Hesh and how I believed the blade lord to be marked with some spell that welcomed him through the wards around the isle.
By the time I finished, Gavyn was pacing. He ran his hands through his thick, black hair, then sat on the edge of the bed. “My mother believed in elven folk. She always told me they still lived in the deep seas on their grand islands with mountains that reached high enough to the sky, the hall of the gods could be seen. Clearly, they’re powerful, and I’m unsettled that they stand on the side of Bonekeeper.”
Deep in my gut, there was a sharp jab, a noxious, barbed weed spooling around my insides, lining them in hatred for Larsson, for Fione. They played with lives like pawns of no consequence. They took and never gave.
“So, Larsson did all this?” Gavyn sauntered across the room and touched a thumb to the ridge of my cheekbone.
A shudder raced down my spine, thinking of how he’d touched me, how his mouth had been on my skin.
“He threatened to brand me, to claim me with his body and leave a mark for Erik to see if . . . if ever I get free of here.”
“Bastard.” Gavyn crouched in front of me. “Whatever he did, Livia, don’t you dare believe his words. I have known Erik Bloodsinger since boyhood, and never have I seen his soul so free than when he is with you. I never thought I would say it for my king. I did not think he truly knew how, but he loves you.”
“I know.” I swiped at another tear and straightened my spine. “Larsson did not get far. I, well, I bit part of his ear off, so he attacked me.”
The way Gavyn’s mouth dimpled, and he took my face in his hands. “If that is so, never tell my king, but I think you’ve made me fall in love with you too.”
I smirked and shoved him away, reveling, even for a moment, in a bit of light in the dreary.
Gavyn strode to the window, leaning against the edge to avoid catching the eye of any patrols outside the palace.
“There are guards, but I know the way to get outdoors,” I told him.
“I could slip from this room. My voice attracts me to water that is in the vicinity of my aim. I will aim for the corridors and see where it takes me.”
“Can’t you simply take me from this room? I thought you helped Sewell escape a cell once.”
Gavyn kept studying the door frame, as though planning a proper point of attack. “Erik left water in the cell, but I didn’t shift with my father. I laced the guards with a sleeping draught and stole their keys. To safely shift with someone, I will need a great deal of water; I need to get us to the sea.Safelyis the word on which we should focus, Livia. Remember what a blunder it was to shift with your cousin.”
“The Chasm battered him, I thought.”
“Partly, but a poorly arranged shift with me added to it. It was as though my voice sliced him open. Then coupled with the Chasm’sviolence, I’m still not certain how he survived. I’m going to see what’s out there, all right?” He tilted his head toward the door.
I clasped his hand. “Be cautious, Gavyn.”
