Page 134 of The Ever King

Murmurs scattered through the crowd. Erik went to Tait and took a bronze dagger from his hand. “I promised blood would spill at your feet,” he said to me, as though no one else watched. “I keep my promises.”

“The king values an enemy more than the Ever!” Snake Eyes shouted.

My fingertips went numb when a gasp filtered through the hall.

The second assassin’s voice was rough and dry, but he followed with, “He was willing to sacrifice himself for the whore, willing to leave you defenseless.”

“The king is no king,” Snake Eyes shouted as the crowd slipped into a tense silence. “He vowed to slaughter our enemies, now he lets them live, brings them to our courts, all to have his bitch suck his cock.”

A few cries of surprise bounced off the walls and voices rose with more vitriol. Panic seized me from behind when more than a few heated glares locked on me, and Celine stepped forward like my own personal shield.

Damn the hells. If she was reaching for the blade, they were going to attack.

Until silence choked off the whispers when Erik shoved his way through the crowd, and in less than five strides had his arms around my waist. I cried out when he lifted me half over his shoulder and stormed to the front of the hall.

I didn’t have time to ask what he was doing before I was tossed back into a wide, wooden seat.

I blinked, pulse racing, and glanced at the finely carved wood under my palms. My lips parted. Erik’s shoulders heaved in rough breaths as he backed away, eyes burning.

He’d tossed me onto his throne.

He . . . made me his equal.

“Thorvald isdead,” Erik roared, wheeling on his people. “For twenty turns you have placed me in the shadow of my father’s crown, the same way you have blamed me for ten turns over the outcome of a war I never wanted. A war brought to the earth fae through my uncle.” He turned slowly, taking in every gaze. “I amErik Bloodsinger,and I will no longer bow to the words and legacies of others.

“Iwear the crown of the Ever,Isail the Ever Ship,Ibear the mark of this kingdom. I. Am. Your. King. And she—” He pointed behind him. “She is mine. She is the Ever Queen.”

My fingernails dug into the wood of his throne. I gaped at the faces looking up at me, confused, uncertain, some with glowers of suspicion. There were pieces of me that hated them for their mistreatment of the king and wanted to scream at them for their lack of trust.

Erik had done everything within his power to defend his kingdom. He’d given up a chance to be accepted among people who’d honor him, all to lead his resentful people through sorrows after a war.

“The first Ever Queen,” he said, a little breathless, and turned back to me. “If it is what she desires. I will not force you to stay, Songbird. The choice is yours.”

Emotion knotted in my throat. He was setting me free.

I scanned the faces, and found Celine. Her eyes were wide, her mouth open, but she grinned. Alek looked at me with a bit of stun much the same. I loved him, I loved everyone I left behind. I missed my family, my land, I missed lazy days with my friends. Even Rorik’s antics, I missed desperately.

I swallowed and found the king’s gaze again. But the way I would miss Erik Bloodsinger would destroy every thread of my heart. I’d wanted passion and mess and a love that caused a delirious kind of need.

I’d found it in my enemy.

“Crown or no crown,” I said softly. “I will always belong to you.”

Erik let out a sharp breath. His lips curved into a villainous grin.

“To attack the king is one thing,” he repeated, a new darkness to his tone. With the blade in hand, he went to Snake Eyes and gripped the rope around his neck, wrenching the man’s head back. Erik dragged his face alongside the assassin’s. “But to attack his queen will send you to the Otherworld in pieces.”

Erik rammed the dagger through Snake Eyes’s ribs, and the great hall filled with anguished cries.

I sat straighter on the throne, crossed one leg, and placed a hand on either armrest, watching. I didn’t look away as Erik slaughtered them—as promised—at my feet. He was wonderfully brutal. The king killed with a finesse I never knew I’d find captivating, but I couldn’t look away.

Erik poisoned them, then sang them back to health, only to poison them again. He took fingers, ears. He blinded each assassin, then when they had little life left inside, he rammed the dagger through the backs of their throats.

When he was finished, he was soaked in blood. Bone and flesh littered the great hall. People were silent, but after a long, drawn pause, one by one his court lowered to their knees.

Erik stood above them, sunset eyes on me.

I took in the carnage at my feet. Flecks of blood had stained the hem of my dress. Perhaps I should be afraid of the look in Bloodsinger’s eyes. Possessive, unhinged, and wild. I wasn’t. I was lost to him.