Page 124 of The Ever King

“Erik!”

I clenched my jaw, body trembling. “Take her out of here.”

Poison or healing, it wasn’t pleasant. I couldn’t lose the song, or he would die.

Livia’s face was bloodless when Tait pulled her back into the corridor. Even Sewell abandoned Gavyn’s side to help drag Livia away. She screamed and cursed and promised violent things that cut off when Celine closed the door.

I blew out a breath, painful fatigue taking hold. I lowered to my knees and placed my palms on the sides of her cousin’s face.

“You better live, you bastard. If you die and she despises me again, I will take back what I did for you during the war.” I closed my eyes and sang.

CHAPTER43

The Songbird

Betrayal stung deep in my bones. A molten blade to my heart. More so when Sewell was the one who added a touch of serenroot onto my tongue when I couldn’t seem to get my bearings.

Why was Alek here? He’d—gods—he’d looked as though a dozen blades had cut at him, then two dozen boots had stomped over his bones. Erik offered my cousin blood. Poisoned blood. Maybe in his mind, he thought he’d put Alek out of his misery, until he’d started to sing, more distinct than I had ever heard before. Smooth as satin, haunting as shadows, a sound that dug and clawed beneath the skin until it was etched into the bones.

More than the sea singer, Erik’s song hooked me by the heart and pulled me forward to anywhere Bloodsinger might be.

Then he banished me.

“Sewell.” I crossed the small study where they’d dragged me away. “Take me back. Now.”

The cook looked to Tait, who then looked down at the odd clock he kept in his pocket.

With a nod, Tait tucked the clock back into his trousers. “Danger’s gone.”

Celine took my hand with a bit of hesitation. “We had to take you away. You were straining his song.”

Questions and anger and fear, all of it tangled into silence instead. They led me through the corridor back to the chamber. I didn’t know what to ask first. When Erik sang, it healed, but could it heal such damage? Why was Alek here to begin with?

Gavyn had something to do with it. In my frenzy, I’d noticed the lord was bloodied and bandaged. I wanted to know everything. I couldn’t ask any of it.

The hot tang of blood still soaked the floorboards. Gavyn was absent, and all that was left were two men seated as far as possible from the other.

Erik’s sunset eyes were glazed, and he slumped onto his elbows over his knees. At the sight of me, his lips twitched like he might want to smile, but couldn’t find the strength.

“Livie.” Alek’s soft, broken rasp snapped relief through my heart. Upright, seated on the edge of the bed, he was still coated in blood, but breathing.

“Alek.” I rushed to him and flung my arms around his neck. “What . . . what are you doing here?” My hands padded over his shoulders, the bandages, the shreds of his Rave tunic. “What happened?”

He dropped his head to my shoulder and hugged my waist. “We’ve been trying to get through since you were taken. So many ships have been swallowed up, so many Rave lost. Your daj . . . he tried to bend a damn canyon through the sea. We couldn’t get through.”

I held his face in my hands. His gilded eyes that Jonas always told him looked like a goat’s were red with tears. “You swam through?”

He shook his head. “Rave watched the Chasm night after night. I took every bleeding shift, then it opened again. This fae materialized like he’d been sea mist, then shaped into a man. I didn’t hesitate, and—” Alek glanced at Erik. “I glamoured him.”

Alek’s magic was different than mine. Adopted from the bloodlines of Southern realms into the Night Folk clans, he held trickier magic than earth fury. Any beating heart within my cousin’s sights, if Alek wanted them in his command or grasp, he could summon them to his side as though he caught them in a snare.

“The instant I touched him he turned back into mist again,” Alek said, “but it dragged me through.”

Gavyn. I didn’t know what Celine’s brother could do with his voice, but he had to be the fae who’d turned to mist. He’d been sliced from the rage of the Chasm along with Alek.

“Did you send the House of Bones through the Chasm?” I turned over my shoulder.

Sewell stood beside Erik, forcing the king to finish a drink made of something that smelled of pine and salt. More color tinted his face, and his eyes were the familiar, intoxicating burn of red and gold. He rose without a wince.