Page 72 of Dance of Kings and Thieves

He hesitated, shaking his head. With another breath, the captain laughed. “You think I will fall under your spell. My mate was a sea witch, woman. Your calls have no impact on me.”

Sofia didn’t falter. “So sure? It is not your lust I am after, but your desire.”

“I do not desire you.”

“It does not matter,” Sofia whispered. For all his protests, the captain did not move when she dragged her fingers over his tangled beard. There was a chance he couldn’t. The man seemed frozen in place whether he wanted it or not. “I’ve raised your true desire in your mind, and now I will take it.”

Elise let out a small shriek with Sofia’s fingernails elongated to points. She dug them into the dirty flesh of the captain’s face. Her small palm hovered over his eyes, and compared to the sea fae she seemed tiny, yet she held him in place.

He roared his discomfort as Sofia’s claws dug deeper into his skin.

Until it ended. In one lithe motion, the sharp points of her fingernails returned to smooth rounded edges. The sea fae crumpled to his knees, gasping. A few beads of blood dripped over his brows, but when he lifted his gaze to Sofia again, his glare was a collision of hatred and respect.

Sofia hummed in the back of her throat and closed her eyes. She reminded me of Eryka, but her odd trance lasted but a moment before her eyes snapped open.

“By the gods. His desire lies with retrieving his son. They’ve taken him.”

Elise’s mouth dropped. “His son?”

The sea fae’s eyes turned a deep red, more frightening than before.

“Explain,” Ari said, voice rough. “Why would the Eastern Kingdom cross bleeding worlds to steal the son of a sea fae? I’d like to know how they even knew you existed.”

Sea creatures were from tales of the gods. There weren’t actual kingdoms beneath the waves. Except there were. Here, before me, stood a supposed king of those worlds.

“There was a call through the chasm. An old incantation that breaks the gates.” The fae looked at each of us with a deep-rooted hatred. “Such a summons has not been done in centuries.”

Ari leaned a shoulder against the wall, one brow lifted. “So, you were summoned. Why step foot on land?”

“When the heir of the Ever was taken, it did not leave much choice.” The sea fae spoke sharply, as if a constant rage was always simmering.

“Any reason they’d want your heir?”

“For his blood.”

Feverish heat prickled the back of my neck. “Why?”

“According to the ugly creature who trapped me here, the woman who used the summons was told by a seer that the boy could cleanse blood.” The sea fae grinned viciously. “It’s true, he can. Or he can poison. Let us hope he is doing the latter.”

“Do you know who the woman was who summoned you?” I had a feeling I knew. Sigurd had mentioned Britta Grym had visited seers. If Ivar was ill, perhaps she’d gone searching for a cure to his approaching death.

“I did not see her,” the sea fae said. “I was brought here by her guards. She has only spoken with me through the dark. Excuses and pleadings that I would join their petty fight here on land. I never responded and soon found myself here.”

“How does your boy heal others?”

“Drops of his blood, combined with his song, can cleanse poisoned blood. But if he holds his tongue, his blood alone will putrefy.” The first show of pride for his child was clear when he spoke of the darker side of his son’s ability.

“Seems strange a king was so easily overpowered,” Ari said, a clear look of distrust on his face.

The fae’s red eyes flashed in a warning. “Some creature in white robes did something to my damn mind.”

My chest squeezed. White robes could mean the Benevolent. “Did you feel hopeful?”

Reluctant as he was to speak, the sea fae nodded. “As if all the powers and treasures of the land would be mine. It is perhaps my grandest failing.”

“It is his power,” I whispered. “He plays on our deepest hopes.”

“It does not change the fact that my heir will be used as a personal healer for some land soul bound for the gods until the boy is dried up.”