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Valen lowered to a crouch again, his voice too low to hear, but I knew what he was saying. He told us he would do it. He’d offer Erik Bloodsinger a place among the Night Folk.

Valen was an enemy to the boy, but my Cursed King was no bitter soul. He knew what it would mean to a boy to avenge his father, cruel as that father was. We’d all witnessed Harald’s rage. If Erik was raised by such an uncle, it was a wonder the boy did not try to bite and lash against us all.

But more than that, he knew his daughter’s open heart had tried to befriend the boy. She wanted peace, and as doting as a father as he was, Valen wanted to grant her that. Even if she didn’t realize it, Valen was trying to keep a peaceful existence for his girl. Even if it meant welcoming an enemy into his clans.

For a moment, Erik studied the Night Folk king, as though confused. He cast a quick look to the dais, then back to the king.

Was he considering it? Would he stay among us? Would he demand peace between our worlds?

The notion of it was so foreign, I almost couldn’t fathom it, but my grip tightened on Silas’s hand in anticipation all the same. Silas chuckled and threaded our fingers together. Peace. We might have it. The Ever King was young, but he still had the title of king.

We could guide him, help him navigate his folk into allies with us, not enemies.

Then, Erik’s sneer returned. He lifted his voice loud enough we could hear. “The Ever will never be at peace with the earth fae. I will never stop, never cease fighting against this realm, until I hold the heart of my father’s killer. Until everything he loves is in the hands of the Ever Kingdom.”

The red in Erik’s eyes burned. Did he bleeding want to get his throat slit?

Valen’s shoulders curled a bit. He shook his head and rose back to standing. He’d done all he could do. The king wanted peace, no mistake, but the boy kept threatening his life, now his family. Everything Valen loved? It was his wife and child.

Valen wouldn’t keep threats near them.

“You leave us no choice. Erik Bloodsinger, you are banished to your kingdom. The wards on the Chasm will be built with your blood. Even if sea folk found a way through in some distant time,youwill never be allowed to cross. You, Ever King, are a prisoner in your own realm. A merciful prison, but a prison all the same.”

“Maj, I don’t think it has to be this way.” Livia whispered. “I don’t think Bloodsinger means it.”

Elise took her daughter’s hand but didn’t falter as Valen leveled his word on the sea fae.

“Livie, sometimes no matter how much we want peace, some folk are not willing to do the same.”

Livia’s chin crinkled. She let go of her mother’s hand and rubbed a spot on her arm below the crook of her elbow. When the guards gathered the two sea fae boys, the Night Folk princess closed her eyes and turned away as the warriors led them to the shore.

I didn’t know how fate would unfold for the Ever King. I didn’t know if the faint song between his heart and a princess of his enemy would die or build. But my Kind Heart was right, he brought this act on himself.

Valen had offered a road to peace, and the Ever King was determined to remain a threat.

“How are we supposed to make certain they’re gone?” Kase asked. “Drop them in the sea and hope they swim away?”

“Look.” Malin gestured to the sea.

Erik and Harald’s son had stepped into the tides to their knees. The waves rose, lapping around them when Erik raised his hands.

“You thought we were alone. The king is never without his ship.” Bloodsinger waved his hand, and a fierce thrashing gathered near the borders of the Chasm’s current.

From below the surface the sharp, jagged bow sliced through the tides like a knife. A fearsome sea serpent made the bowsprit. Crimson sails snapped in a new wind. Crewmen bustled about, pulling on the rigs of the numerous masts, humming their eerie songs. The black laths glistened like onyx in the sunlight and aimed one side of the hull toward the boy king.

My eyes widened when a great side door clanked on chains and opened. Harald’s boy didn’t wait, one flick of Erik’s hand and the boy took his leave, letting the tides pull him under and toward the Ever Ship.

Wind wrapped around us in a fury, as though the vessel had brought with it new storms.

“Until we meet again, earth bender,” Erik shouted into the storm.

“Won’t happen, boy,” Valen fired back. “You’ve seen these realms for the final time.”

All the king did was grin, flashing his teeth, then let the waves pull him under.

In the next breath, Niklas hounded Falkyns and Rave warriors to prepare the shields. They watched in a new kind of tension as the strange side door closed on the Ever Ship, and slowly the massive sails, its decks, its horrid sea serpent bow, sank beneath the waves.

The Chasm barrier awakened in violent tides and white foam. It was our only hint the Ever Ship was being pulled through the current, pulled back from where it came.