Page 4 of The Ever King

The Ever King.

He blamed Valen Ferus, the Night Folk king, for the death of his father.

It was true, my father had killed King Thorvald of the Ever a turn before I was even born. But he’d had damn good reason to do it.

Erik had been a boy during the wars with nothing but threats and unattainable promises.

I knew all this and still couldn’t shake the heavy weight of something dreadful on the horizon. As if peace were some fragile bit of ice, and it was only a matter of time before it all cracked.

“Now.” Jonas wrapped his other arm around me, sank a little against the headboard, and rested his stubbled cheek against my forehead. “Let’s get your mind off things, shall we? You know Lady Freydis—”

“Jonas, I swear to the gods, if you keep talking—”

“No, listen. Something happened, and I can’t quite wrap my mind around it.”

I sighed. “Fine, what happened?”

“Last night we arrived at the fort, and everything was going as usual. Sander hurried away to be strange and stick his nose in books. I had delightful plans with Freydis arranged from last turn’s festival, so it wasn’t a surprise to find her in my room.”

I rolled my eyes but grinned. Jonas genuinely seemed befuddled by something. If he had any sense, he’d realize Freydis had an interest in his title, much like his interest was in her body, not her heart.

“What happened?” I asked, pinching his side. “Did she demand a crown yet?”

“Not at all,” he said. “You see, she wasn’t alone. There with her was Ingrid Nilsdotter.”

My eyes widened. “You’re not serious.”

“Oh, I’m very serious. Now, my question comes because at one point there was a position where we—”

“Gods. Stop!” I shoved him away, scrambling out of the bed.

“What?” Jonas gaped at me. “I thought you’d want to help. Freydis did this thing with her legs, then Ingrid—”

“Jonas, don’t say another word, or I will cut out your tongue.” I rushed to the corner of my room and ripped open the painted wardrobe door. Frantically, I rummaged through gowns, tunics, trousers, anything to get me away from this fool and his salacious trysts with courtiers. Behind the dressing shade, I hopped on one foot as I slid into a pair of black trousers. “Go speak to Sander about all this. I mean, truly, what possessed you to think I’d ever want to know about . . .”

My words died off when his laughter drew me to peek around the shade.

Jonas, hands laced behind his head, reclined back with a smug kind of grin on his handsome face. “No, don’t stop getting dressed. You’re doing so well.”

Jaw tight, I threw one of my ankle boots at his head. “You said all that to get me out of bed.”

“I deliver on what I say, and I promised you’d be down there with us. Don’t question my methods when they work. Especially on important days like this.” Jonas slid off the bed and picked up my dainty silver circlet shaped like a vine of blossoms. “Did you forget the new Rave officers arrived this morning to see our parents off to council? Meaning, Alek. Remember him? Last I knew, you were beloved cousins, but perhaps it has changed these six months he’s been gone.”

The grin couldn’t be helped. Aleksi was more like a second brother. He’d earned his officer rank in the Rave Army and had been stationed in the frosted peaks of the North for training the last half turn.

“I haven’t forgotten, you snob.” I’d looked forward to this moment where we could all be together again and one dream had tossed me into unease, distracting me from the Rave caravan that arrived to escort the kings and queens to their annual council.

I scrambled to finish dressing, rinse my mouth, and resorted to Jonas’s help in smoothing my braids.

A quarter of a clock toll was all it took before I abandoned my bedchamber, my blacksteel dagger sheathed on my waist, and an arm laced through Jonas’s.

“I bow to you, my friend,” I told him once we reached the winding staircase to the great hall of the fort. “That was one of your better lies to get me moving.”

He pressed a kiss to my knuckles, grinning. “Ah, Livie. Who said it was a lie?”

CHAPTER2

The Songbird