Page 132 of The Ever King

I didn’t start wars for Gavyn or Celine or their father. Even if I knew, deep down, I cared for them a great deal. But for Livia, I’d burn the kingdom and start any war if it meant she was safe.

“What happened to their father?” she asked.

“Harald tortured him,” I said. “Planned to do it for days, but after the first night, somehow he disappeared from his cell. No one found him again.”

“Gavyn?”

I shrugged, avoiding her gaze again. “He likely had something to do with it.”

She didn’t press for more and was quiet for a few moments.

Livia stole my breath when she maneuvered over my body, straddling my hips. Her eyes burned. “You, Erik Bloodsinger, are the kind of darkness I would follow across the skies and seas.”

My head cracked against the headboard when Livia reached between us and took hold of my cock.

“Woman . . .” I gripped the bed linens as she stroked and circled her thumb over the sensitive tip.

Livia aligned my length with her dripping center and gave me a vicious grin. “Say you’re mine. Say it.”

My breath slid out in a short rasp when she slid over me, root to tip. I held her waist like a ballast against the rage of a storm on the sea.

“I’m yours.” I buried my face against the slope of her neck. “Gods, I’m yours.”

* * *

I left Livia asleep in my bed. Sewell, Celine, and Larsson were added to the defenses at the door. The Ever Crew wouldn’t betray me. They’d die if they did. Blood ties made it so should they go against their crew. Deeper, almost, than the ties to the houses of their voice. Gavyn’s crew would be the same, even the poor bastards who sailed beneath Lord Joron and Lord Hesh.

When I entered the dining hall, Aleksi was hunched over a bowl of syrupy gruel and honey. Tait was silent and somber, keeping watch on him against the back wall.

I pulled out a chair and sat.

Aleksi narrowed his gaze. “What are you doing with my cousin?”

I chuckled. “You don’t want to know.”

His jaw pulsed as he stirred the honey deeper into his bowl. “She willing?”

“I’m no rapist.” I slumped in the chair and kicked out my legs. “I’m assuming you’ve been told the importance your cousin has for the Ever.”

“Your man there explained about your dying lands, yes. He told me Livia’s fury has been healing it. He also told me you believe she’s somehow bonded to your title as king, which I find ridiculous.”

“I don’t care.” I didn’t. The unwitting bond forged between us meant nothing to me. It was not what fueled my actions, or rushed my heart when it came to Livia Ferus. She owned me by her own doing. She could be powerless, and after the way she kissed me, fought for me, after watching her body ride me until I could not think straight, I’d go to the hells and back for the woman.

“You should care. My uncle will never let you keep her.”

“Not his choice.”

“Oh? Is it hers?” Aleksi lifted his brow. “You’d let her go home if she truly wanted?”

I looked down. In a way, I still held her hostage. I wanted her for myself, but could she ever be entirely mine if she felt forced to be here?

I shook the thought away and glared at her cousin. “I came here to explain those marks you saw on her skin were not from me. Your cousin was a damn warrior when assassins came for me and to take her magic for their own uses.”

His eyes went black with rage. “These assassins are dead, right?”

“There’s the brutality of thepeacefulearth fae.” I grinned and helped myself to a bite of his meager meal. “One is dead, by her hand. There are two more rotting in my cells. It’s impressive the risks you took to save her, so I thought you might want to help me question them. I need to know who sent them, then, if you’d like, help me seal their fate.”

I knew little about the boy I saw clinging to his fathers after a war ended. But what I saw now was a man with hidden viciousness under his skin of honor.