Page 70 of The Ever King

With a touch of hesitation, Livia pulled up the sleeve. Narza tightened her painted lips and touched the raised skin of the rune. Livia cried out in surprise when my grandmother dug the point of her fingernail into one straight edge drawing blood.

I stepped between them. “Do not draw her blood without warning again.”

Narza chuckled. “Rather protective of your pawn, darling.”

“I amKingto you.”

“You are a boy whose nose I used to wipe clean.”

“Is that so?” I tilted my head. “I recall my youngest turns much differently, Grandmother.”

“Bleeding hells,” Livia muttered under her breath. “She’s your—”

“Grandmother? Oh, yes.” I bared my teeth at Narza. “You have your drop; get on with it.”

The sea witch watched the drop of Livia’s blood slide off her fingernail onto her palm. She rubbed her hands together, humming a slow, breathless sort of tune. The blood ignited into a white flame in the center of Narza’s hand.

My grandmother closed her eyes, humming, listening. The faint orb of light pulsed against the melody.

When Narza spoke again, her voice was dull, almost as though she spoke through a thick door. “You beautify the land, a lovely gift. Worthless during battle and survival, but how gentle, how sweet and precious you must be to your people.”

Livia flushed and gritted her teeth. “That is not all I can do.”

There was the fiercer side of my songbird.

“No, it isn’t.” Narza chuckled, eyes still closed. She rolled the glowing blood over her palm like a pebble. “Two healers now bear the mark of the House of Kings, both with their own darkness, but I sense if they were to unite as one, it might have wonderous consequences.”

My ability was nothing like Livia’s. I didn’t see how we could unite as one power.

“You heal what is broken, an amplifier of the earth.” For a moment, Narza paused, a furrow to her brow. “Strange.”

“What’s strange?”

Narza opened her eyes and stepped back. “Your magic flows from your heart, from desire.”

Livia cast me a nervous glance. “Fury is in the blood, yes. What does that matter?”

“It means your heart must bond with the land. Naturally, the land of your birth is part of your heart, but the Ever?” Narza’s lip twitched. “This is where your heart lies, or you would not be capable of accomplishing this healing. The land of your enemies holds value? I don’t understand it.”

All at once, the sea witch gripped Livia’s arm above the rune mark. “When did this appear? What were you doing?Tell me.”

I thought Livia might cry out, might tremble. She did nothing but yank her arm away and lift her chin. “It appeared after reading to a boy locked in a cell where his folk—the people who should’ve stood for him—were nowhere to be found.”

Damn. No one spoke harshly to Narza but me. Should folk lash out at the lady of witches they might soon find themselves with misplaced limbs or a tongue that no longer spoke.

I considered stealing Livia away to safety in one breath and tasting that mouth again in the next. Instead, I battled my own stun when Narza seemed more troubled than perturbed an enemy had called out her dismal presence during the war.

“You cared for him?”

Now, Livia faltered. She cracked two knuckles at her sides. “I had compassion.”

“Lie all you wish, it does not change that you do not even realize the danger you are in by giving your heart to the Ever. Tell me, did you come near the Chasm leading up to the return of the Ever King?”

Livia froze.

Narza cursed under her breath. “That is answer enough. You broke the walls between you.” The witch leaned close to Livia’s face, voice low. “He will discover the truth of what happened to give you that mark. Desperate as he is, do you think he will show you the same compassion when he does?”

Livia’s breaths grew sharp, haggard. They sounded damn near painful.