The first in the TikTok sensation Ever Seas series, now with bonus material! They stole his crown. So he stole their daughter.... For years, Erik, the scarred king of the Ever Kingdom, has thought of nothing but vengeance against the man who killed his father and trapped him beneath the waves, making him a prisoner in his own realm. Until his enemy’s daughter unintentionally breaks the chains on the Ever, and Erik makes her the unwitting pawn in his vicious game of revenge. She’s innocent. He’s vicious. But he will take back what he lost, no matter the price. Unless she steals his heart first.

Autorentext

LJ Andrews

Leseprobe
1

The Songbird

Blood was in the air. Pale sunlight had barely clawed through ashy sea mists around the shore, but the hot tang of blood filled my lungs with each breath.

I pulled back the thick woven shades to see if some gory death had taken place at the base of my family's tower. The dirt roads carving through the wood-and-stone fortress we called home for two weeks every summer were filled with loud merchants and courtiers preparing for the festival.

No bones. No flesh. No blood.

I let the shade fall back into place, my thumb tracing the roses and ravens embroidered in the threads-symbols for our Night Folk clans in the kingdom of the North. The kingdoms of the East, South, and West had their own unique markings.

I was losing my damn mind. Brutal nightmares of snakes devouring little birds took up my sleep. Now I was bringing the blood and death from dreams into reality. Maybe it was because the Crimson Festival marked the end of the war. Or maybe it was because this festival was the tenth since our enemies, the sea fae, were locked beneath the tides.

With every fading summer, the haunting dreams grew more vivid, like a waking nightmare. A distant promise from a lanky boy locked in a cell had become a poison in my mind, an endless image of monstrous serpents rising from the sea night after night.

I was a fool. There hadn't been a single whisper of Sea Folk since the Great War ended. This summer would be no different.

To soothe the tension in my blood, I opened a drawer in a table beside my bed. Inside were three lumps of what once was the rune talisman. Since the disk shattered, the pieces had grown more brittle, as though returning to nothing but sand on the shore. They were hardly shapes anymore.

I slammed the drawer closed, climbed back into the wide bed, and pulled the heavy fur quilt over my head. Alone, I could succumb to the race of my uneasy pulse, the damp sweat on my palms, and the nervous tremble in my veins.

The fortress was designed to house all four royal families of the fae realms. To the Sea Folk we were all earth fae, but in truth, we were made of clans with different magics and talents.

All the clans fought together to win peace during the Great War against dark fury-what my clan called magic-and the folk of the Ever Kingdom-the sea fae. His people. The festival was an excuse to celebrate the victory and gave me a reason to see everyone I loved through days of field games, archery, lively balls, and too much sweet ale. I couldn't puzzle through why this summer felt so . . . different.

"Livia!" A heavy pound on the thick oakwood door rattled the rafters overhead. "You're needed and yet are nowhere to be found. I noticed your absence first, in case you ever wondered who cares for you most."

It must be terribly late in the morning if Jonas was the one sent to fetch me this time.

A strategic move. Well played. That vulgar tongue of his was equal parts charm and weapon. He knew how to use it well.

"Woman troubles!" I shouted, muffling my voice into the pillow. "Best to move along."

"I'm up for the challenge." A pause, then a few clicks came from the latch, and the door swung open.

I shot up in the bed, frowning. "Jonas Eriksson, I warned you about picking my locks."

Jonas flashed the roguish grin that won too many hearts in his home court in the East. "I do recall you once said I was forbidden to do so, and I simply forgot to care."

Bastard.

Jonas filled the doorway with his height and width. One of two princes of the Eastern Kingdom, he'd been busy as a child, and even more active as a man. Jonas's body was made for battle while still being lithe enough to slip between shadows like a thief in the night.

His agility around locks and small spaces would be unsettling if he was sinister. The truth was, Jonas and his twin, Sander, couldn't help their proclivity to sneak. They'd been raised by a rather cunning king and queen who'd both thieved themselves a time or two.

Jonas strode to the tall window and tossed open the heavy curtains. I blinked when the sunlight burst through the room, and a gust of wind followed, carrying with it more imagined blood, more hints of the sea.

Jonas spun around to face me, his hands on his hips as he smirked.

"Pleased with yourself?" I scratched my scalp through wild tangles of my dark braids.

"Immensely." As the eldest of the Eastern princes, Jonas's bright verdant eyes and the devious grin beneath the dark scruff on his jaw kept more than one lady slipping into his rooms. If they knew the goodness of his loyal heart under all his schemes and wit, they'd never leave him in peace. "Get up. The coaches are about to leave."

Gods, how late did I sleep?

"Hurry, Liv. I mean this with love. It's going to take some time for you to get presentable. You look like a goat swallowed you, then shat you out."

"Have I told you that you're not charming?"

"Many times. You're still wrong." Jonas dropped one knee on the foot of my bed. "You seem distressed, Livie. Tell me what's troubling you."

"Nothing is troubling me except you."

"You wound me." He pressed a hand to the emblem of a sword encircled in shadows stitched to his dark tunic. His court's seal. Jonas's face sobered a bit as he studied me until I wanted to sink under my quilt from his scrutiny. "No teasing. Are you all right?"

My shoulders slumped. A downside to having friendships built from infancy was knowing every tell and every flinch of each other's faces. We knew the other's weaknesses and strengths. Their fears.

I fell back against my pillows, eyes locked on the rafters. "I had the dream again last night."

"Well, dammit." Jonas tossed aside the three knives sheathed to his belt, kicked off his boots, and crept over my bed. "Why didn't you say so?"

The idiot positioned himself against the wooden headboard, crossed his ankles, and opened an arm, beckoning me to his side.

I didn't move.

Jonas raised his brows and flicked his fingers. "I'll wait all damn morning, Livie. You know I will."

"You're wonderfully wretched."

Jonas chuckled. I gave in and nestled against his side. He kept his arm tight and protective around my shoulders.

For a moment, we were silent. Then, his deep voice rumbled from his chest against my cheek. "I know the festival brings a lot of memories, I know those sea sods left with a lot of threats toward your daj and family, but they're never coming back. And if they did, it'd be my honor to cut old Bloodsinger's head clean off."

I smiled and hugged his waist. Only my friends knew about the dreams I'd had since the end of the war. When the serpent in my dream came for me, when its jaw unhinged and swallowed me whole, somehow even in my dream, I knew it was sent by Erik Bloodsinger.

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 somethi…