The Ever King

A girl sneaks through snake grass to read a boy a fairy tale through prison bars—a story where the serpent and songbird remain friends instead of enemies.

A girl sneaks through snake grass to read a boy a fairy tale through prison bars—a story where the serpent and songbird remain friends instead of enemies. She passes him a silver swallow charm on twine, and he names her Songbird. He warns that his trial comes with the sun, that he'll be banished or killed. Before she leaves, she shows him a golden disk—his father's talisman—and promises to keep it safe. He promises to return for it. Running back in the dark, she trips. The disk shatters beneath her body into three jagged pieces. A rune brands itself onto her arm where the talisman's symbol pressed into skin—a mark she'll spend years hiding, and years failing to understand.

Livia touches the sea barrier and unknowingly summons what sleeps beneath

Ten years of peace have given Livia nightmares instead of calm. The Night Folk princess wakes each Crimson Festival to dreams of serpents devouring birds—omens she traces to a promise made by the boy she once read stories to through prison bars. Now twenty, she joins her friends at the anniversary celebration while her parents, King Valen and Queen Elise, leave for royal council. Her cousin Aleksi, a newly commissioned Rave officer, takes her swimming near the Chasm—the barrier sealing the sea fae beneath the tides—to prove it's impenetrable. Livia touches the churning wall. The rune scar on her arm ignites. In her mind's eye, a golden city appears and bells ring like a summons. Above them, lightning flashes crimson. She doesn't understand what she's opened.

Erik tastes freedom and races toward the realm of enemies

Beneath the waves, Erik Bloodsinger rules a dying kingdom. The Ever King commands a realm of fae whose magic lives in their voices—his own blood is poison or cure, depending on whether he sings. After raiding a treasonous lord's township and recovering the stolen silver swallow charm he's kept since childhood, Erik dips his fingers into the tide and tastes something impossible: his own blood dissolving in the sea. The Chasm barriers—sealed with his blood after the war—have broken. For ten years he's waited for this chance to reclaim his father's talisman and take vengeance on the earth bender king who killed Thorvald. He summons his crew—Celine his Tidecaller, his cousin Tait, and his second mate Larsson—and sails the Ever Ship through.

Five dances at the masquerade before the silver swallow ends everything Disguised as grain traders, Erik and his crew infiltrate the Crimson Festival. He spots Livia buying ribbons and is seized by a desire that…