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“Elise was the mind behind it. Someone had to go after you, and she believed Bloodsinger when he said that current would crush her. After sailing through it, I agree. I came since this animosity was built between my house and the Ever King.”
Now Sander laughed softly. “So, we’re all dead when we return, you included, Valen?”
The earth bender cleared his throat and folded his arms over his chest. “I am certain my fellow kings will have strong words about my departure.”
“He’s not worried about the kings,” said Stieg. “It’s the queens.”
Valen tugged an axe off his belt, then the other. He laid them on the table, crossed at the handles, then stepped back. “I call a truce, Bloodsinger. For now. Our ambitions align. I only wish to find my daughter, and since you gave me no choice but to follow you here, I am with you.For now.”
He darkened his tone on the second declaration, proving whatever alliance might be forming in this musty room would be temporary.
I would take temporary.
I dropped my cutlass on the table. “Agreed, Earth Bender.”
Valen kicked the leg of a chair, sliding it out, and sat. He gestured for me to take the seat opposite him. “Then tell me what you’ve learned.”
By the timeI’d finished explaining the betrayal of Larsson, the belief he could be Thorvald’s bastard, and rehashing Pesha’s tale, the others had found places to perch in the room.
Stieg sat beside Celine and Sander on the narrow cot. Jonas and Aleksi had both leveraged onto the windowsill, while Sewell, Mira, and Narza joined us at the table.
“Your son,” Valen asked, glancing at Sewell. “He does not disappear like this?”
There was no reason to keep the truth of Gavyn’s bloodline hidden from Valen. The earth fae would find the destruction of Sewell’s mate and family despicable.
Sewell drummed his fingers on the table. “Boy speaks in the seas. Soothes our hearts.”
“He’s telling you, my brother will usually send word,” Celine said. “Even if it’s just to let us know he’s alive. I’m always with Daj on the ship, but Gavyn is kept apart. We speak through missives or the tides often.”
“Becauseyoucan hear him and speak through the sea?” Valen asked, more like he was repeating words to let it solidify in his mind.
“Aye.” Celine stared at her hands, knee bouncing. “Earth bender, I don’t . . . I don’t want you to take her from us.”
“Tidecaller,” I said through my teeth.
“Let her speak,” Valen said. “What do you mean?”
Celine was bold, rather deadly with a blade, when she was not unsettled. Around anyone beyond her blood, me, and now Livia, she was silent as a whisper in the storm.
Still, she straightened her spine and met Valen’s gaze without falter. “I know you hate what my king did, but it was old magic that brought them together, the kind none of us understood. Not even him. The Ever called to her, and she’s, well, she’s part of us now. She matters to you, but she matters to us, as well. I’ve seen the bond; it’s real, Earth Bender.”
For the first time, the furrow over Valen’s brows faded. He leaned back in his chair, studying Celine. After a moment, a slight grin tugged at the corner of his mouth. “I am glad she was not alone when she was forced here.”
Livia’s father would always despise me for what I’d done. I could not blame him—I would always despise Larsson for doing the same.
“I must set sail,” Narza interrupted. My grandmother remained silent, stoic, a mere spectator during the meet.
“You return to the House of Mists?” I asked.
“No. I return through the Chasm.”
“What?”
“I told you, King Erik, deals were made.”
“That tells me nothing.”
Narza rose and made her way for the door. “With such fierce trust broken, there needed to be something that would leave them assurance I was not there to cause harm, nor was I going to harm a king.”
