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In the next breath, the Night Folk king slammed his palms onto the cobbled walk, and the world bent and snapped.

The battle began.

Chapter37

The Storyteller

The sea faescattered as Valen’s fury carved through the cobbled roads of the fortress.

Davorin shouted a command, and a row of sea fae lined up along the shore. Like they were prepared for the earth bender to act, with a low, eerie hum the fae lifted their arms. The tides thrashed and rose in a fierce wall of water at their backs.

“Walls!” Halvar shouted in the same moment the sea fae tossed their arms forward and the crash of violent waves slammed onto the land. It filled the cracks of Valen’s broken’ earth. It offered new canals for sea singers to poke their heads from beneath the roads. Merfolk and their jagged teeth sneered from the narrow rivers of sea flowing through Raven Row.

Gentle songs from the singers called to our folk. A few staggered forward.

“Inge.” Malin’s thieving companion snatched hold of his wife’s arm. “Stop.”

His woman battled against him, pleading for relief. “Jakoby, don’t you hear them? How beautiful.” She moaned in a wave of pleasure.

“Kari.” Halvar pointed a finger at his wife when she dropped her blade. “Kari, hold there.”

Elise rushed to the woman, but even my Kind Heart was wincing against the lure of the song. I knew the damn feeling. Bleeding sea singers.

“Seal the ears from the tides!” Eryka shouted on the parapet wall beside Gunnar. Her eyes were a foggy white.

“Listen to the star seer!” I shouted back. “Use those plugs for your damn ears! Sirens and sea singers are among us, you sods!”

The trouble with plugging the ears deep enough to avoid the song of the sea was we had to pause. Blades had to be shifted. It gave the sea folk time to move forward. With a trembling roar, more sea fae rushed down the Row.

The bastards could practically walk on the water carving through the streets. They slammed into the shields of the front line of warriors. Sea singers kept their calls, and others brought their blades.

Steel collided. The slice of cutting blades against leather and flesh trembled through my chest. I jabbed at the belly of a man twice my size. He cut at my throat. I dodged, and when I righted again, Silas’s blade had cut through half the man’s neck until I could nearly see bone.

Davorin roared for more sea fae to take the watery canals, then bled into the soil between the cobbles. His dreary shadows overtook sea fae. The battle lord used their bodies to drift closer to Hus Rose. One by one he’d seize control, kill and brutalize our warriors, then slip into the next stupid sod.

Until he came up against my Shadow Queen.

Malin spun around, blade in hand, the glow of her ring bright on her finger. The sea fae chuckled darkly. Davorin’s voice bled from his throat. “A queen of devotion.”

“Malin!” I cried her name when Davorin swung a blade at her.

She was quick on her feet. From somewhere in the fighting, Kase called for his wife. Shadows coiled around sea fae, ripping them away. Still, he was too far.

Malin swung her blade, catching the sea fae in the chest. The moment the point broke the flesh, Davorin spilled from the fae’s mouth and finished the bastard off with a slice to the sea fae’s throat.

With a violent kick, Davorin shoved the body away. Over his shoulder, I caught sight of the narrowed eyes of the boy king. For a pause in his own fighting, the sea king took in the dead fae at the feet of the battle lord, then lifted his hatred toward the back of Davorin’s head.

His lip curled, then Erik Bloodsinger dove back into the fighting.

Malin’s blade slashed against Davorin’s. He laughed, delighted. The battle lord struck, she parried. He kicked at her leg, Malin cut at his throat.

A promise was made long ago to a dying memory queen. I vowed her line would live on, I vowed her sacrifice would be worth the pain and loss. I revealed the faces of Malin Strom and Kase Eriksson.

They brought her peace.

I wasn’t about to break that promise now.

I dodged a strike and tried to get closer to Malin.