Page 94 of Dance of Kings and Thieves

Her smile faded. “Oh, no. Did I do it again? I am trying to focus and control these empty moments.” She rubbed her forehead. “What did I say?”

“You said . . . we have someone immortal among us. A beast of blood and—”

“Me.” Valen stepped forward, his eyes on the fire. Elise’s brow furrowed, but soon a flush rose on her pale neck as if panic were catching hold. Jaw tight, Valen looked up. “She was speaking of me.”

“Valen,” Tor said. “You misunderstood.”

“Tell me what I misunderstood, Tor.” His eyes narrowed. “A beast of blood, a curse repeated. Was I, or was I not, immortal during the curse?”

“Valen.” Halvar spit his name through his teeth. It was the only time I’d ever seen the playful knight look pale and discomposed. “No.”

Elise covered her mouth, shaking her head.

Valen looked at his silent siblings. “You feel the remains of your curses, yes? Sol, do you feel the darkness that took your mind?”

With a bit of reluctance, the Sun Prince nodded.

“Herja. Your voice, do you ever feel the pressure still? The toll it takes to speak?”

A new tear dripped onto her cheek. Valen nodded when she said nothing. “It is the same with me. The bloodlust, the creature is there.”

“Valen,” Elise said in a gasp. “It ended. Don’t talk like this.”

“Forgive me.” He faced his queen with a look of shame. “You ended my suffering, you brought me life again, Elise, but there are dark pieces of me I have never released. I don’t know if I ever will.”

“You’re not cursed,” Elise said. No, she demanded it.

“No.” He shook his head. “I am not, but I could be again. That’s what it means, isn’t it? The bloodlust is there, the rage. It would not be so hard to fall into the beast I was again.”

“No.” Elise’s voice broke. Her hands wrung the hem of her tunic until her knuckles pulled white. “No.Stop it. You’re not going to ever feel that way again and . . . you can’t anyway. You’d need Calista, and she’s . . . she’s in the West and—”

“The Western side of the land?” Thorvald once more flicked his coin. “Is that all? You need someone to travel there?”

“It would take at least a week,” Kase said, “Then the time it takes to find one girl in an entire kingdom.”

“Land fae are not the only folk who can summon. Give me the girl’s name and anything you know of her.” Thorvald held up the coin in his hand. “Then get me to the sea, and I will show you the power of the Ever King. Isn’t that what I am here for? Be of use until I have my heir?”

By the gods. A new move had been granted to us by the strange fae and a horrid curse I knew nothing about. I spared a glance at Elise. She was green, silent, and frozen as if she’d been robbed of the air in her lungs.

I reached out my hand and took her elbow, giving her a reassuring squeeze. She did not blink. She didn’t move at all.

“Do we do this?” Kase looked at Valen. “Do you wish to see if it is possible?”

The king’s dark eyes were like midnight. He looked at his queen, almost pleading that she give him a twitch of the eye, of the lip, anything.

Elise turned away, jaw tight, her arms hugging her middle.

Valen closed his eyes and let out a long breath. The king said nothing for a stretched pause before facing Thorvald. “Go to the West. Find a girl named Calista, and tell her the cursed king has need of his storyteller.”

CHAPTERTWENTY-NINE

THE NIGHTRENDER

After dousing the fire,I convinced Malin to try to sleep a few tolls in our small shanty. Sleep never came.

I held her to me, one of her legs draped over mine, her arms around my waist, but our eyes were open. Instead of a quiet, albeit reluctant, acceptance of the unnerving steps we’d be taking, we clung to each other and listened to the battle of words in the trees.

I supposed they thought no one would hear, thought they were concealed enough, but we endured every pain-laden word as if we were beside them all along.