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“Say it. Say you dreamt of me like I’ve dreamt of you.” “You’ve haunted me, love. Since the end of that war, I’ve never forgotten you.”
“If you think I’m going to let the first time be ass deep in grit and sand, you underestimate me. I will take you, but it will be in my bed.”
“Be sure before doing this, love. Do this, and I don’t go back. You’re mine.”
“I said I’m yours.” I trapped his face in my palms. “I’m waiting for you to become mine.”
By the hells, I wanted to memorize every edge, every curve of her features with my mouth, my hands, everything.
“Livia.” I drew her mouth close to mine. “I have secret corridors.”
I wouldn’t survive the night. No mistake, Livia Ferus was unraveling every thread of my being kiss by kiss.
“I want to see you unravel the way you’ve destroyed me.”
“Dammit. There, right there. Gods.” “If I cry your name,” she whispered against my lips. “Then you better shout mine, you bastard.”
“Livia,” I let her name slide over my tongue like liquid gold. Heat gathered too low. “I’m . . . shit!”
The smallest curl of a grin played at her mouth. I couldn’t catch a breath before Livia lifted her coated fingers to her mouth, then licked what was left of me off her skin.
“I’ll get rid of them. I did warn you this happens the moment I enter the palace.”
“Yes.” She folded her arms over her chest. “And I told you I was willing to get sand up my ass.”
Bring my destruction. Ruin the kingdom from my weakness, but perhaps this was the emotion Livia mentioned—where empires and worlds didn’t matter so long as she lived. Preferably in my arms.
“I’m no one’s bird except the king’s.” If ever it is a choice between your life or another, strangle them with thorns.
more like the bark of a laugh. He winced. “I should’ve . . . filled your . . . ass with sand, love.” I placed a palm on his cheek and forced a smile. “You should’ve, you stupid fool.”
You die, then you take my heart to the Otherworld. Feel that, Serpent.
“Erik’s blood is different, earth fae,” Tait snapped. “His blood is not only poisonous, it thins too quickly. Bleeds too much.” “Tell her all my weak . . . weaknesses, cousin.”
“Don’t die, Serpent,” I whispered. “I’m not finished with you.”
“As I was saying, for the nightmares. Not yours, my arrogant king. For your claimed.”
“Girl hasn’t slept in the two nights you’ve been healing.”
“You shouldn’t be up. You’ll split the skin open.”
“Why are you out here, love?” I asked again, softer than before. She sniffed. “I killed a man.” “And he doesn’t deserve your tears.” “He was still a someone.
She bloodied her hands to save me. Beautiful, reckless woman. If I was not cautious, Livia Ferus would unravel my every dark, wretched belief of what I was to become as king. Of what I deserved.
“Taking a life is no small thing, but doing so to save your own does not make you a monster.”
“What if I am?”
“Then you are the most beautiful monster I’ve ever seen.”
“We all have darkness in us.”
“But there is beauty in the darker pieces as much as there is in the light. We find it by how we use our darkness.
“His name is Voidwalker.” The corner of my mouth twisted. “A fearsome warrior who can cross worlds.
“When we sail the Ever Sea, Voidwalker leads us. That point of his arrow remains throughout the seasons, steady and sure. It is the only star that follows us through the Chasm and connects to your sky, Songbird.”
“She is named Starfall. A lesser goddess who was shunned from her mother, the maker of sea storms. Her mother is a wretched woman who uses the skies to devour sailors and their vessels. Now, to be a constant thorn in her mother’s side, Starfall fades on nights before the sky turns violent, giving ships the chance to make berth or tie back sails.”
“But Nightfire, he is who I wanted you to meet. Cursed to remain in the sky for his acts against the gods.”
“Saved his love from the clutches of arranged vows. He slaughtered the whole of the vow feast and hid his lover away, deep in the skies. For his crime, he was chained in the sky, and the only way he might get free is if his love finds her way back to him by using the stars of his blade as her guide. The trouble is, they never stay as bright as the center star. See that? She can’t find her way.”
“She improvised and made a barter with the goddess of hearts. She would give up her life on the lands and become a beacon for her love to find his way to her instead. She loved him for his darkness, you see. Even after the blood he’d spilled, she wanted to live out her days with him. To her, he was a beautiful monster.”
“Did he find her?”
“I think he did.”
If one more person woke me by striking me or prodding my gaping wounds, I would use their bones to strengthen the hull of my damn ship.
“You better live, you bastard. If you die and she despises me again, I will take back what I did for you during the war.”
“Don’t lie.” I snatched hold of the king’s wrist. “Curse me, hate me, but don’t lie to me.”
“No one can hear now.” “I’m going to murder you,” Erik growled. Tait simply shrugged.
“That’s what you told her?” Alek scoffed. “Our folk didn’t torture him, Livia. They saved him and brought him to his father.”
You let me hate them for you. You let me think horrid things of my own family.
All I’ve had is hate, Songbird. Hate and drive to avenge the last Ever King. You hate long enough, you shadow the truth all to keep anything that makes you feel.
You have more than hate now.
I’m not your broken hero, love.
“You’re not my hero, Bloodsinger. You’re my beautiful monster.”
“Everything has changed, Serpent.” I brought my lips close to his ear, so only he could hear. “You don’t need to hate for him anymore, Erik. You don’t need to please him; you’ve always pleased me.”
“I took you away. Hate me, Songbird, or you will be my undoing.” “You took me,” I whispered. “I should hate you for it, but you showed me your darkness. Turns out I’d cross the skies—or seas, in our case—searching for your kind of darkness, Bloodsinger.”
“You’ve saved more of my people than you’ve killed.” “I wouldn’t say that. I did plenty of killing during the war.”
