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“Did not.” Sander shoved his brother. “You’re the one who said you needed to sleep with me the whole time.”

Jonas shoved back. “Did you cut off his head, Daj?”

“No,” Kase said, pressing a kiss to the boy’s head. Perhaps not an affectionate man to others, but the Nightrender became another person entirely around his family. “Saga was the one who cut him down.”

Jonas groaned. “Mira’s never gonna stop boasting about it then.”

I chuckled and watched as Mira hardly seemed to care that her mother was the one who ended Davorin’s life. She cared more that she had both her parents’ arms wrapped around her, holding her close.

Silas kept close to my side as we helped bandage the wounded. We aided Niklas in passing around his elixirs.

Elise’s cry drew our gazes across the hall. Elise, Herja, honestly most of the Night Folk clan, sprinted toward the doors when Lilianna stepped inside, a little pallid, but grinning and no longer trying to rip out her family’s throats.

Herja’s youngest girl clung to Lilianna’s waist. Livia hugged her grandmother’s arm, and Alek took the other. Through the embraces, Lilianna found my gaze. Once her family released her, she approached, almost cautiously.

“Arvad . . .” She cleared her throat. “He told me the truth.”

I smiled softly. Every moment was clear in my head. Our letters. Our interactions. Our plot against the icy King Eli. I was the one who warned her of a crimson night because my Whisper warned me of the blood moon.

I was the one who told her of the fury sleep, the way to hide her warriors since I knew deep in my heart, through the whispers in my mind, that another army was hidden much the same.

“Strange, isn’t it?” That was the best I could say. What was there to say? It was unbelievable in many ways, but it was true.

She smiled. “No. The more I think of it, the more it makes a great deal of sense. You have always had strength. So did Greta. You have pulled us—everyone—through the most trying ordeals of our lives. Battle after battle, you gave us ways to escape, ways to survive. You are truly a queen of cunning. I could not ask for a more fitting title.” She cupped one of my cheeks. “Nor a truer friend.”

Lilianna pulled me into a tight embrace, and I let a tear fall as I clung to her, much like I’d done before I sent her to sleep all those turns ago.

When the moon perched at its highest point, it was pearly white. Cold, blue light replaced the bloody tone of our nights.

I tilted my head and soaked it up.

Davorin’s head was spiked in the hall of Hus Rose. Some of the littles shrunk from such a sight. The ones who did not were expected. Aleksi and Jonas spent the better part of a clock toll spewing curses at the bastard and fighting invisible battles as though they were there.

When the doors opened to the great hall well after midnight, a hush descended.

Stieg, Frey, and Raum returned with two boys coated in dirt and grime.

“Gods,” I whispered, clinging to Silas’s palm. “It’s the sea king.”

“That’s his cousin with him. The boy I shoved into the water.”

Erik Bloodsinger looked about the hall. He caught sight of Davorin’s head. If I hadn’t been watching the young sea fae, I would’ve missed the flicker of fear in the boy’s eyes.

“Found what’s left of the sea folk,” Raum said, tugging on the cousin’s arm.

“They’re all that’s left?” Kase narrowed his eyes. “Where are the rest?”

“Dead or long gone through the Chasm.”

I scoffed. “They abandoned their king. They abandoned boys to their enemies.”

Stieg offered a look of sympathy to the Ever King. One Erik promptly ignored.

Valen rose from one of the chairs at the table. “Will they dine with enemies? I’m certain they’re hungry.”

Stieg shifted uncomfortably. “I’ve been told countless times that the Ever King will surely poison our ale and food. He assures me we will not see it coming.”

Valen’s jaw ticked. It was clear he did not want to punish a boy who’d saved Tor, but there was more than one life to consider. “Then they’ll be more comfortable in the catacombs. Agreed?”