Page 121 of The Ever King

“Livia.” I clasped her face between my palms, silencing her breathless words. She hiccupped and drew in a few more sharp gusts of air through her nose. My thumbs stroked the ridges of her cheeks until her shoulders slumped. “You killed a man who tried to kill you.”

She shook her head, ready to argue the point.

“Yes.” I wrapped an arm around her waist, palm open on her back. The movement, hells even standing, was beginning to unravel the healing skin on my side. I hardly cared. “Taking a life is no small thing, but doing so to save your own does not make you a monster.”

A tear fell onto her cheek. She let her head fall until her brow pressed against my chest. “What if I am?”

For a moment, I hesitated, then placed a hand on the back of her head, holding her against me. “Then you are the most beautiful monster I’ve ever seen.”

Livia’s fingers curled around my shirt. Her cheeks lifted into a hidden smile.

“We all have darkness in us.” I closed my eyes, recalling the words my mother spoke to me before she died. “But there is beauty in the darker pieces as much as there is in the light. We find it by how we use our darkness. What were you thinking when you killed him?”

Livia lifted her head. She used the back of her hand to wipe a trail of tears away. “I was thinking he’d kill me, then . . . he’d kill you. They wanted to use my fury to steal your throne. They wanted credit for saving the Ever. But . . . mostly I knew they would hurt you.”

“You protected folk from a dangerous ruse,” I said, guiding me out of the scenario. “That is darkness well spent.”

Her eyes were red from fatigue and tears. Her body trembled slightly. She needed to sleep. The gentle roll of water over the sand was soothing, and Livia seemed drawn to it.

I tilted my head to the stars. With a bit of reluctance, I released her and lowered to the sand. My leg throbbed. My side burned. No mistake, I likely moved like I’d met my thousandth turn, but once I was seated, I sprawled my legs out and laid back.

“What are you doing?”

“Sit with me,” I said, opening one arm to the side. “Let the worries rest for a moment.”

She paused for a few breaths, then slowly lowered to her knees, then her side, and curled against my body.

“I kicked you at the fort,” Livia whispered. “Does your leg still hurt terribly from it?”

I cradled her head against my chest, chuckling. “Ah, don’t sound so hopeful, love.”

I jolted when she bleedingpinchedme, then snickered into my shirt. “I wasn’t hopeful, you bastard. I was starting to get slightly concerned—hardly worth noting it is such a finite amount.”

No doubt, she’d unravel all of me.

“You kicked—a rather sloppy kick at that—an old injury,” I admitted. “When I was taken captive for my blood, I tried to run, but didn’t realize how high the room was from the ground. Snapped the bones of my leg straight through the skin. Never healed right.”

The truth was the bones were never allowed to heal right. I’d been left to become a symbol of the brutality of our enemies in the hope our people would fight for Harald’s revenge and win him the power of the lands on either side of the Chasm.

Livia nestled closer. “I hate what was done to you.”

“Yes, well.” I was desperate to talk of other things. “There’s nothing to be done about it now.”

Livia gingerly fiddled with the laces of my shirt. “I’m sorry. No one from my clan has likely ever said it to you, but I’m sorry for what my people did.”

Gods, I was a bastard for truths I kept unsaid.

I cleared my throat and raised a hand, pointing at the sky. “Do you see that star, the flickering one, right over the horizon?” Livia tilted her head and nodded. “Good. Follow it to the star on the northern point, then across, and down. Do you see the line of three?”

I lifted her hand in mine, extended her finger, and together we traced the stars.

“What is it?”

“His name is Voidwalker.” The corner of my mouth twisted. “A fearsome warrior who can cross worlds. See his head, then his steady arrow he holds?”

Livia squinted. “Bit of a stretch, but I suppose it might look like a man with an arrow.”

“Watch what you say about his likeness, or he may never lead you straight and you’ll be lost to the tides.” The corner of my mouth curved. “When we sail the Ever Sea, Voidwalker leads us. That point of his arrow remains throughout the seasons, steady and sure. It is the only star that follows us through the Chasm and connects to your sky, Songbird.”