Chapter The Ever Queen: CHAPTER 20

Tonight. I would have my queen in my arms tonight.

After the dream, I woke with an aching cock, the taste of her skin on my tongue, and her sweet smile in my mind. I wouldn’t accept less.

The obsession for Livia Ferus had never faded, but now a fire had ignited in my chest. I would not wake to see the dawn, as if the absence of her were the greatest poison, if I did not feel her hair entwined in my fingers, her breath on my skin, and her body pressed to mine.

Sulfur burned in the air. We were on the edges of the House of Blades.

When I woke from the sleeping draught, I shouted endless threats about dousing the king again, which were fiercely ignored, and we spent the early chimes of the morning planning.

Jonas and Sander were rather frightening in their ability to scheme, even in a realm not their own. It was as though a simple sketch of the House of Blades, a primary description, had ignited a dozen detailed strategies in their brains of how we’d get in, destroy, and leave with our way to Livia.

There was a heady gratitude and loyalty taking shape inside—no one hesitated to fight for her. It was no wonder why she loved her folk.

I could admit to myself alone that I was relieved earth fae were aboard the Ever Ship.

Confidence bled through the laths, but there was more. Something feral, something vicious, permeated the air. No matter how short a time Livia had been on this ship or in the Ever, she’d claimed us all. The crew was loyal to me, but part of me wondered if they’d be at the ready to fight simply to avenge the wrongs against my songbird.

Like she’d become part of the crew as much as its king.

Princess Mira painted the faces of her fellow royals. Every earth fae lined their eyes in dark kohl, runes drawn down their throats. Next, Mira dipped her fingers in a wooden bowl filled with silverfish blood and dragged her fingertips over their noses and cheeks.

Celine gawked at Alek when he shoved through the crowd, blood on his nose and lips. “You look like a feral merman, Bloodsummoner.”

Alek ruffled, seeming pleased, until the twin princes stepped forward and Celine let out a squeak of horror.

Blood dripped onto Jonas’s white teeth when he smirked. “Exactly the reaction I wanted.”

“What is wrong with your eyes?” Celine said, nose wrinkled. “They’re damn wretched.”

The whites of their eyes were swallowed in glossy black, like endless night lived in their gazes.

“Sods,” Alek grumbled when Celine went to gawk at the princes and listen to their explanation of their nightmare magic.

“Bloodsinger.”

Valen and Stieg approached, blades sheathed, faces coated in their wild earth fae markings.

I cursed the shock of unease in my blood, a boyish fear rising again from a battle long ago when I watched Valen Ferus defend his lands with a brutality of beasts. He looked much the same now.

Through the whole of the scheming, Valen had observed, as though testing my word, my power aboard my own ship. As though he wanted to prove I had no authority . . . or wanted to prove that I did.

The earth bender unsettled me in many ways, but in these waters, on this ship, I thrived.

Valen leaned onto his elbows on the rail. “You say this noble house will have many warriors?”

I faced the shock of red across the horizon. “Yes. All skilled with the blade.”

Valen rubbed his chin. “Any thoughts about this permanent mark?”

“No, but I plan to give Hesh no option but to tell us. He revels in bloodshed. I will do the same.”

“If he is such a wretch, why not oust him?”

Irritation boiled under my skin. “I took the throne at four turns, Earth Bender, left to submit to a wicked uncle who allowed such men to rule in noble houses. Then, once more, I was left alone to fight for the respect of an entire kingdom in the aftermath of a war at age fourteen. In a world of the power-mad, it has taken a great deal of intricacy to crack through the Ever of Thorvald and every damn king before him.”

I leaned forward, voice low. “Tell me, when you fought for change in your courts, how swiftly did it come?”

Valen’s eyes burned to the color of scorched coals. He said nothing when he faced the sea, jaw so tight I could make out every tendon, every pulsing muscle.

“You keep seeking out my shortcomings as king to make me out as a cruel bastard, undeserving of your daughter. I will never disagree that I am undeserving, nor will I disagree that I am cruel. I am not a good man, Earth Bender. But I am no threat to her.”

“You are the greatest threat to her, Erik.”

It was the first time he’d addressed me by my given name. I turned my focus onto curling white waves against the hull. “If you think I consider anything above her, my kingdom included, you are wrong. I care for nothing but getting her back.”

“That is why you are a threat,” Valen said, less venom in his tone than before. “You have her heart, and that is a priceless treasure I vowed to protect from her first breaths. Now, I am forced to trust that the same man who stole my girl from me will care for her in a way that is worthy of her.”

Perhaps, I did not understand the love of a father to his child, but I had enough sense to recognize the violence in Valen Ferus’s eyes to speak with care. “I will never give you a reason not to trust me with her heart.”

“If that is true”—the earth bender pierced me with a dark glare—“then hear me clearly, Ever King: break it, no matter what the reason, and I will not hesitate as I did at the fort to scatter your bones.”

“I break her heart, then I will offer you my blade.”

Valen’s cheek twitched. “So long as we understand each other.”

Sewell emerged from the hatch. He’d coated his body in black, top to boots, and it looked as though one of the earth fae had gotten to his thick hair—a braid ridged down the center of his skull.

He paused, grinning at Valen. “Sire to sire, Wolf. Little eel lights in his heart with our fox. I would place me Thunderfish in his hands if tides were turned.”

Valen likely did not grasp what Sewell was proclaiming, yet there was a horrid thickening in the back of my throat. A swell of something wretched like whimpering affection for the man who’d been at my side for the whole of my memories.

“You mean that?” Valen said, a smirk on his battle-painted face. “If it were your daughter, you would be at ease after what he did?”

“You knew what he was saying?” I asked before I could think better of interrupting.

Valen eyed me for a breath. “I’ve had many conversations with Sewell since setting sail. I’ll ask again—if he took your girl, you’d be at ease? Is that what you’re telling me?”

“Aye. If I saw what be seen, I’d rest easy.” Sewell barked a laugh. “Not telling that a little eel would not eat a bit of me knuckles on his tongue.”

Valen smiled, a sincere smile that reminded me of his daughter too fiercely. Sewell laughed again, clapped Valen on the shoulder, and gave me a wink before they left my side—together.

“Believe it or not, Valen stands by you because he already trusts you with her heart, Erik,” Stieg whispered.

“He will always despise me, Warrior,” I said. “And I cannot even blame him.”

“What you see as hatred is a father terrified he will not see his girl again. Get her back, let him hear her tale from her mouth, and you will have the fiercest ally in the Night Folk king.”

“I have survived long enough without anyone to call a father. I do not need the support of one now. If we can come to an understanding that he and I both love her, that is enough.”

“You will get more,” Stieg said with a knowing grin. “I’ve known Valen Ferus since the days before he was a king. Never have I met a man who fights for his family so fiercely. Like it or not, boy, you are now part of his house.”

Like the others, Stieg abandoned my side.

I doubted Valen would care for me, but I trusted he would fight to the brutal end until we found Livia, and that was all I truly wanted.

“The House of Blades!” Scar called from the crow’s nest.

Mists firm enough to slice into pieces, rolled over the deck of the ship like ghostly fingers trying to take hold of our ankles. When the bow carved through, the light of a warm dawn brightened the distant, fiery peaks of the House of Blades.

My fingernails dug into the wood of the rail.

“Divide the spear crews,” I shouted, limping up the stairs toward the helm. “At the ready with the cinder stones.”

An echo of my command filtered across the deck. Men split into their pairs and manned their spear. The crew moved around their posts like a brutal waltz, every man at the ready near the sails, the rigging, the ember spears. Every blade at the ready to draw blood.

Near the helm, I snatched the spyglass from Stormbringer’s hands. The main township in the House of Blades was made of simple cottages with moss rooftops, with stone and driftwood walls. They slept on grass mats and had some of the most fertile crops that grew from the dark, fiery soil at the base of their steaming mountains.

With less land than other houses, Hesh made the townships more fortress than village. Boys were gifted their first weapon at two turns, and girls were trained to sharpen them by three.

Along the shoreline of the isle, sea walls were erected and placed atop were towering trebuchets with black iron pots of oil. Blade guards stood at the ready with torches and a pigskin-wrapped stone ready to roll onto the sling.

“They’re readying to meet the wind,” Stormbringer grumbled.

Expected.

To the western side of the isle, Hesh’s smaller wartime ships were stocked, sails at the ready, crewmen stalking up and down gangplanks, all aiming for the Chasm. But the was anchored in the tides, its black sails at full cover, the banner of his crossed swords raised.

“They’re making their move for the earth realms.” I leaned over the rail of the quarterdeck, observing the men below. The bustle ceased when most caught sight of me and faced the helm. “We face a traitor of the Ever today. What do we do with traitors?”

“Brand their bones!”

“Feed them to the seas!”

“Paint the sands with blood!”

Endless jeers and hissing taunts spewed over the deck with a new kind of vitriol. Betrayal, treason, mutiny, the whole of it was a sin of the worst kind to a crew, blood bonded to their captain, their land.

“Pillage where you please, kill what you wish, but leave the women, littles, and the lord of blades.” I scanned the fierce gazes below. “Hesh is mine.”

Tait stood at the helm but mutely stepped aside when I took hold of a handle. “Stormbringer. Get us in the wind.”

Arms open, Stormbringer propped one foot on the rail and sang, a tenebrific sound—soft but powerful, cold but fearsome. Near the bow, Celine’s coo of a voice matched with Stormbringer’s—honey against fire. Alone they were formidable, together they created something unstoppable.

Rigging snapped and whipped against the force. The ship lurched.

We sliced through the currents rapidly. In our wake, the storm followed. Twenty paces in any direction grew violent. Booms of thunder, sharp bolts of lightning, splatters of heavy rain, followed much the same overhead.

When the shore was not more than a length away, I abandoned the helm to Skulleater, then limped to the rail.

Tait, Jonas, Sander, Gavyn, and half a dozen of my crew gathered around me. The earth bender made his way toward the hatch with Sewell, Mira, Aleksi, Stieg, and another half dozen of my crew. Over Tait’s shoulder, I caught Valen’s gaze.

For a moment, before he disappeared belowdecks, we seemed to harbor the same thought—we would get her back, no matter the cost.

With haste, I took hold of a dagger, sheathing it across the small of my back. I clamped a covered knife between my teeth and saw to it my cutlass was properly secured.

Tait shouted a little maniacally. “Let them rue the day they turned against the Ever Ship!”

I slipped one leg over the rail, then fell to the dark water below.