Page 151 of The Stolen Crown

“We all saw it, Mir,” Sander whispered. “I swear to you, as fiercely as we fought for Bloodsinger and Skadi, we will fight for Heartwalker.”

“King! Gods, there. King, look!”

Sander and I jumped apart. Celine shrieked from her ship, her voice carrying. Tidecaller pointed at the hull of the Ever Ship, practically readying to leap over the rail of the Fire Storm.

Celine didn’t gesture at Bloodsinger. She shouted at my father.

I raced for the rail where Celine pointed. My heart stuttered. “Daj! Hurry, gods, hurry.”

There, huddled in a space between the rigging and the hull, a soaked black raven weakly clung to the rope. Her feathers ruffled up and she kept cawing softly.

“Saga. Godsdammit.” My father hooked one leg over the rail, a hand on the rigging.

“Hold him,” Bloodsinger shouted at two of his men nearby. “Ease him down.”

“Sander,” I called over my shoulder, “get a cloak, a quilt, anything.”

The alver prince leapt from the quarterdeck for the king’s cabin below. My pulse pounded in my skull. With the help of the men, my father carefully leaned over the rail and reached for the raven.

Once he had her in his arms, sea fae helped ease him over the rail until he sat on the deck, back to the rail.

“Maj.” I lowered to a crouch.

“Gods, Saga.” My father’s voice was rough, breathless. “Bleeding woman, I’m damn furious, I hope you know. Furious. And so godsdamned relieved.”

I rested a palm on my father’s shoulder when he let his head fall back, blinking against the sunlight. Sander returned with a heavy quilt. He helped me hold it as a shield around my parents.

My mother’s shift came in a rustle of flapping wings with the snap of bones. She insisted it was not painful, but it always sounded a bit like torture. Daj tugged the quilt from our hands, securing it around my mother’s restored figure, hiding her bare skin.

Pale and weary, her cheek fell to my father’s chest. She could hardly open her eyes.

“You are the sweetest menace,” Daj whispered against her hair.

The smallest flick of a grin tugged on her mouth. “Would you take me any differently?”

Daj pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “You had nowhere to land, nothing but sea for gods know how far. You went in blind without a damn way for me to stop you.”

“I know.” Maj did not disregard the fear, the desperation in my father’s voice. Merely allowed him to speak it and pressed a kiss to his knuckles. “I hated doing such a thing to you, but it is good that I did. We would’ve lost him for certain. Mira?”

I took hold of her hand. “Maj, that was too…that was stupidly brave of you.”

“It is what we do when our house is threatened. Be stupidly brave. You know that.”

Our house. I promised Tait he would be more than tolerated. This was proof enough. My mother, a damn queen, risked her own life because Tait was already part of our house in her eyes.

“Queen.” Erik staggered to one knee. “You found them?”

“I did. They’ve reached their village. I could see the wall of mists Mira described, the spell cast that hides their lands.”

Erik relayed the information to Tavish.

The spellbreaker shouted back into his shell. “Queen, if you can guide us close enough, I can find the wardings and sense how to break through.”

“We must hurry.” My mother’s pale eyes lifted to meet my gaze. “If we don’t, Heartwalker won’t live long.”

45

The Heartwalker