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I didn’t meet her gaze, didn’t look away from the sea. I merely dipped my chin and murmured, “Wise choice. Best to keep such thoughts to yourself.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
THE SONGBIRD
“So,where does Bloodsinger sneak off to when he’s not consumed with staring at you?” Mira removed one of Erik’s daggers off two pegs next to the inglenook in our chambers.
“He’s with Gavyn and a surveyor. I’m sure they’re returning now.” I adjusted a bead in the plait over my shoulder. “The surveyor can breathe in spells of the sea and has been scouting for the isle. Tait is with them as well.”
“Not sure why you mentioned Heartwalker,” Mira said, a click of metal on wood gave up that she’d returned the blade to its place.
“Because that’s what you be truly asking, earth fae,” Celine said, chuckling as she stepped from the washroom. “You’ve no interest in the king’s whereabouts, speak true.”
Mira’s eyes flashed. “I absolutely was not. Frankly, Celine, I don’t know how you stomach sailing with such a man as the king’s cousin. He’s terribly surly.”
Celine snorted and snatched one of Erik’s smaller knives off a table and stuffed it into her boot. “You’ll not meet a more loyal sod than Heartwalker. But I must say, earth fae, you like to point out his moods more than, well, anyone.”
A splotch of pink rose over the ridge of Mira’s sun-kissed cheeks. She gave Celine a dark look, like a challenge, then turned. “Livie, did you know a rather handsome, rugged brute on the Ever Crew fancies Celine?”
“What?” I spun around. “Celine Tidecaller, what haven’t you told me?”
“Gods, nothing.” Celine’s fingers shot to the spike through her lone ear. “Never knew all you damn earth fae were so chatty. Let us dress and be off. Fewer words, I beg of you both.”
I looped my arm through Celine’s, staring at her profile, taking a bit of pleasure in the way she strategically avoided my gaze.
“Celine.” I drew out her name. “What happened in my absence? You must tell me.”
“I must do nothing.”
“I’ve been kidnapped twice now, starved, beaten, and threatened by an enemy, so it would be a kindness to tell me something glad.”
She huffed. “You are becoming far too manipulative. I think the king’s wretchedness is rubbing off on you.”
“Oh, I think more than that is rubbing off on her,” Mira said, shrieking when I pinched the back of her arm. “Come now, Livie, your daj isn’t here, nor is your lover, and I’ve beenravenousto know every bawdy detail since I saw you spin away with a masked man.”
“I thought you wanted to kill my king after that night,” Celine said, grinning.
“Oh, only for a few weeks.” Mira waved her away, then propped her chin on my shoulder, fluttering her lashes. “Now I just want to gossip, perhaps get a tad envious you’re being pleasured and I am not.”
“I’ll tell you what I told Alek, Erik is myhjärta, the song of my heart, and I will leave it at that.”
Mira wrinkled her nose. “Hardly satisfactory. At least soothe my worries and tell me he knows his proper way around a woman’s body.”
A rush of sordid heat spread through my belly, down between mylegs where only this morning the king had masterfully tormented with his fingers and body until I’d been unable to draw in a deep breath.
“There is nothing proper about what he does,” I murmured, laughing when Mira offered a lazy applause and a wicked grin. “But I thought we were on about Celine and a crewman.”
Celine coughed, face red as a bloody blade. “We were not.”
“Who is it?”
“I must be off, My Queen.” Celine took a long step toward the door.
I hurriedly adjusted the bone necklace around my throat. A dark sort of grin tugged at the corners of my mouth when the gold-etched runes settled over my heart, a vicious reminder of what befell the enemies of the Ever King and his queen.
“Wait, Celine.” I spun toward the door before she slipped into the corridor. “We’re all going to the study, so don’t think I don’t realize there is plenty of time to tell me a name.”
“I’ll do it,” Mira said, snatching a few tattered scrolls we’d been studying about elven lore for nearly two days. “Stormdrawer, Stormcaller—”
