Page 66 of The Ever King

His jaw went taut. “I do this for your protection. You will be considered my property, and as such, you will not be harmed unless the one who attempts it wishes to suffer.”

“Why does my protection even matter? When you first took me, you promised I’d suffer. You promised I’d watch my family burn. Now, you want to protect me.”

His eyes were distant. I wasn’t even certain he’d heard me until he spoke in a low voice. “I was drawn through the Chasm, drawn to you, but there is something else keeping me drawn to you. Have you felt it? The burn at my touch?”

I shook my head at once—too swiftly—and the king grinned with a touch of venom.

“More sweet lies.”

I let out a long breath. “What do you want from me, Bloodsinger? Yes, there is something that pulls me to you. It was what pulled me to you the night you ruined my life. I’d rather not think of it.”

“Is it so horrid?”

“Gods, you’re arrogant.” I shook my head in irritation. “Yes, it’s horrid. Do you think I’d revel in the idea of indulging some strangeattractionto the man who speaks only of slaughtering people I love? To the man who had no thought for me, my life, or my future when he ripped me away into a world that despises me?”

“Attracted, you say?”

“Through all that, you only picked up that word?”

Erik chuckled softly and dragged his fingers through his hair. “You did not seem to mind all that much last night.”

Wretched heat flooded my cheeks like a thousand pin pricks across my skin. “Mock me all you’d like for succumbing to a damn lust spell, I care little. Know this—in the daylight, I’d rather be doused in hot oil than let your mangled body touch mine.”

Erik’s grin faltered. If I’d not been so close, I would have missed it. “I suppose you wouldn’t be the first.”

The king stood, more distant than before, and a flare of shame clung to my chest. I buried it down.

Erik went to the door. “Come with me, Songbird.”

“Where are we going?”

Erik’s jaw tightened. He scrutinized me for what felt like a thousand heartbeats, until he finally said, “To the purpose for our visit to the Tower. The truth of the Ever.”

CHAPTER23

The Songbird

Bloodsinger left no room for argument and led us to a boathouse near the back of the Tower. Tait, Larsson, and Celine were there. Larsson laughed at something Celine said, a smoke between his teeth as he wrapped ropes. Tait, somber and tense, adjusted a crimson scarf over his dark hair.

On our approach, their levity faded, and Tait’s scowl deepened.

“You’re certain she won’t use all this against us?” Larsson asked.

“Tell me how she might use it against us. Do you suppose it is some great secret?”

How could I ever use anything in this kingdom against any of them?

Celine lifted a satchel to her shoulder, and I drifted beside her, a hazy memory of the night before pounding in my skull. “Celine.”

“Earth fae.”

“I’m not certain if I imagined something.” My gaze flicked to the scar on her throat. “But . . . did that sea singer call you a siren?”

I’d heard such talk of the power of a siren’s song. A lure, a taunt, a power unmatched when sung. No man atop the water’s surface could resist it. If she had such a voice, I’d never seen her use it.

Celine’s mouth pinched in a tight line. “Maybe I was. Maybe I wasn’t. Doesn’t matter much for what we’re about to do now, does it? All you need to know is I can sing a song that causes the water to drag you beneath the depths if I want. Better than lust, don’t you think?”

She stepped around me, cutting off any more questions. I was curious enough to risk asking again, but swallowed my words when Erik insisted we needed to load a boat.