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I clung to his neck, desperate to keep in the wet rattle of a sob in my chest.
“Livie,” he whispered against my hair. “Gods, I’ve missed you.”
My ambition to keep my wits cracked. Shattered, more like it.
I clung to my father’s tunic and sobbed. Tears fell for the ache of missing him and my family, the ache they must’ve felt. I cried knowing he’d come after me, for the truth that I would tell him, and how it would break his heart all over again. That I loved them all so fiercely, but the Ever was my home.
All the while, Valen Ferus said nothing, merely let me cry.
I wiped at my eyes. “Daj, you’re here.”
He cupped my face in his palms, a wet smile on his face. “Always.”
“How . . . how am I even alive?” Only hints of fleshy scrapeslined my arms when it had felt as though every bone in my body had shattered.
My father hesitated for a breath. “Seems there is powerful healing blood aboard this ship.”
Erik. To heal so much, it would’ve been dangerous for him. I opened my mouth to press about my king, I needed my eyes, my hands, on him soon, but voices beyond the door cut me off.
“Hello? We’ve waited long enough.”
I pressed a hand to my chest. I knew that glib tone.
A few clicks, a few moments, and the door swung open. A frenzy of bodies stumbled through, all speaking at once, but one boomed over the rest.
“Livia, I will have it known I have fought the hardest to get back to you, first damaging your lover, in your honor, of course. Then pleasuring a lovely Rave to free him—do not tell my mother, Valen—and I expect the fiercest thanks.”
“Jo—” I couldn’t finish his name before Jonas Eriksson descended upon me like a wild storm. He held me, squeezed against his broad chest, and I thought there was a soft shudder in the way he let out a breath.
“Missed you, Liv,” he whispered.
My mouth hung open, stupid and stunned, when Sander took me next, muttering about all he’d been studying of the Ever, thoughts on the fading isle, and where he’d like to research next before Mira shoved through.
She crushed my windpipe against her shoulder. “We are never going to be allowed at a ball again,” she said, snickering through her tears. “Unless you hold one, of course.Queen.”
Gods, they knew it all.
“You . . . all came for me?”
Jonas rolled his eyes. “She says that like she actually thinks we wouldn’t.”
“I’ll likely be named a traitor, or at the very least lose mystanding in the Rave, but it was worth it.” In the doorway, Aleksi smiled, leaning one shoulder against the frame.
My father helped me to my feet. Every joint ached, every muscle protested, but greedy pain burned fiercest in my chest, one I could not sate if I did not findhimsoon.
“I love you all.” I hesitated. “But I need to—”
“Out there.” Mira pointed toward the main deck. “I want to knoweverything.”
I spared a glance at my father; he seemed torn on letting me out of his sight. Perhaps it was selfish of me to desire to be anywhere else, but when he shook his head and waved me away, my feet could not turn me around swiftly enough.
The crew busied about their duties. At the sight of me, they would dip their chins, smile, greet me with a soft, “Welcome back, lovey.”
I did my best to respond, but my pulse was frantic. I scanned bodies, looked to the helm, desperate to find . . .
Crimson eyes lifted over the shoulder of a man I did not know. Hunger lived in those eyes, beautiful, consuming,mine. Erik’s top was unlaced over his chest, revealing his scars and the dark ink of waves on his chest.
“I’m trying to set the spell. Hold still.” The tall man in front of the Ever King barked orders. Erik paid him no mind and shoved past with the strength of a dozen men.
